‘Screwed up’ – Adrian Chiles reflects on ‘unbearable’ West Brom promotion push
Adrian Chiles has opened up on the stress and anxiety of being a West Brom supporter during the Championship run-in.
The Baggies slowly squandered a comfortable cushion over the play-off places to take their bid for a top flight return down to the final day, and had to rely on results elsewhere to wrap up promotion after drawing 2-2 with QPR last week.
Of course, Albion did go up automatically, but not before causing a huge amount of worry for nervous fans.
And Chiles has really emphasised his own struggles as a spectator.
Writing in a column for The Guardian, he said: “As a kid, it caused me so much pain when we lost that I vividly recall looking forward to growing up, when it surely would not feel as bad.
“To my shame and discredit, it has got worse, reaching some kind of psychological nadir last week when we were promoted to the Premier League.
“That is how screwed up the whole thing has become in my head.
“The tension became so unbearable that I entered a dead-eyed, near-catatonic state, to the extent that my girlfriend occasionally prodded me to check that I was alive.”
It’s safe to say that we were all in exactly the same position as Chiles last week.
Nothing’s ever simple with the Baggies, and so it proved again, with the club taking it just about as close to the wire as the possibly could before finally tying up promotion.
The relief was immense, but so was the anxiety that preceded it.
And while it was stressful to say the least, we’re just eternally grateful that we don’t have to compete in the lottery of a play-off campaign.
In other West Brom news, Daryl Burgess has urged the club to sign this 32-year-old striker.
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