There's more to football than just 'existing' - West Brom's fans were right to call for Tony Pulis' dismissal

One of the more engaging questions from Tony Pulis’ sacking is that this is the West Brom owners’ first decision to make in this regard, the first time they have to pick their own candidate. As such, there’s no precedent to go off, no prior evidence as to what they are thinking or what sort of manager they will go for.

There is thereby now an unpredictability around the club, an excitement and even - finally - a sense of hope.

These are feelings that have been missing from the Hawthorns over the last year, and something that cuts to the core of the dilemma at being a mid-table club, as well as the fundamental issue with following such a side. It is about what fans have a right to expect.

Pulis ultimately got sacked because his teams, usually so resilient, had stopped picking up the points. The Welshman has amassed a lot of respect for his management style, which has seemingly led the way in terms of securing mid-table stability and that ability to just dig in and stay in the Premier League.

That stability is something that fans of many struggling clubs would crave, and they might well say that disgruntled West Brom fans should be careful what they wish for.

While acknowledging that Pulis’ general managerial effectiveness deserves huge respect, West Brom’s fans do not deserve criticism for turning their back on him – especially not after a winless run of 11 games. They do not deserve to patronisingly be told that they should get on with it and accept the lay of the land.

In short, the fans are right, especially when the game is more than just a game – regardless of what some may say.

First of all, and even allowing for the very kind of attritional devotion that supporting a club home and away can involve, football is above anything else an escape. It is something we first get interested in because it excites and moves us.

It offers hope, a charge of enjoyment. Think of the very base feelings when your team is starting a counter-attack in a tight game, when space suddenly opens up in the opposition half and anything looks possible.

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This is one of the roots of why we keep supporting teams, though, and why teams have a certain duty here too. They should at the very least play football that offers the impression something else is possible, that they are not just ‘existing’. Football, after all, is about so much more than that.

One of the complicating factors to all of this is the unprecedented economic structure of the game now, and how the resources available to the top clubs has closed off any kind of upward mobility to a greater degree than ever before. The literal other side is the dire economic consequence of getting relegated, effectively locking so many clubs into the middle of the league.

It arguably applies to as many as 11 clubs: West Brom, Stoke City, Swansea City, Watford, Burnley, Newcastle, Bournemouth, Southampton, Stoke City, West Ham United, Swansea City, Crystal Palace and even the club that gave their fans the ultimate hope and deliverance on it: Leicester City.

This disproportionate situation has meant it is ultimately a good business decision to appoint managers as reliable as Pulis, since they further strengthen that locked-in position. But in being locked-in like this, with no real prospect of progress, goes against the very life and spirit of the game.

The very context where clubs can only really ‘exist’ in the Premier League arguably deepens the necessity to offer a more hopeful style of football, to at least apply an approach that creates opportunity - that creates a sense of hope.

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The wonder is also whether this new style of effervescent football is in the ascendancy, because of the altering economic landscape of the game. With the amount of discussion now around broadcasting deals, and how much of football is sold abroad as a spectacle or just entertainment, we will arguably get to a situation where it is financially important for clubs to play a more appealing style, to help “sell” themselves.

There has already been some indication of this with Watford, in the way sources actually outlined that one of the reasons they replaced Walter Mazzarri with Marco Silva was precisely because of media profile.

Could that be the future? That remains to be seen. West Brom’s future now suddenly looks very different, and, perhaps, somewhat exciting as the club turns away from Pulis’ tired formula, which had ultimately reached its natural conclusion, in the pursuit of a new way.

They may well be running a risk - but risk is what makes the game worth watching. Risk is what gives the sport its energy. With this comes the opportunity for hope and excitement.