Exclusive: Kevin Phillips urges West Brom to keep group together if they don’t go up
We’re delighted to welcome former West Brom striker Kevin Phillips as our exclusive columnist. Each week he’ll be giving his views on the biggest talking points at The Hawthorns…
Kevin Phillips has urged West Brom to try and keep the current squad of players together if they fail to win promotion to the Premier League this season.
As it stands, Albion are second in the Championship table and six points clear of third-placed Fulham.
Slaven Bilic’s side has occupied the automatic promotion spots for almost the entire campaign but there has been talk of voiding the season due to the coronavirus pandemic and, if football does resume, then, of course, the Baggies could slip out of the top-two on the pitch.
If that does happen then Phillips believes that consistency could be key for West Brom as they have their third attempt of returning to the top-flight.
“Yes, I would say that,” Phillips told West Brom News when asked if keeping the squad togeher would be important
“It happened to us at Sunderland when we lost in the play-off final, we kept the group together and the season after we went on to romp the league because we had that huge experience of playing alongside each other that hadn’t been disrupted too much.
“That could be an option.”
Phillips is clearly talking from experience as he has seen firsthand how much consistency can play a role in a team doing so well in the Championship.
In the 1997/98 season, Sunderland lost the play-off final against Charlton but in the next season, they went on to win the league by bagging 105 points and scoring 91 goals.
Although this is West Brom’s second season in the Championship, Bilic’s squad is quite a bit different to the one that Darren Moore had – especially in the attack – so there isn’t a lot of consistency between then and now.
In other West Brom news, Albion’s turnover plunged by £54million after relegation.