‘Ominous’ – Exclusive: Phillips gutted as he makes ‘Massive’ West Brom admission
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 admits “it’s looking ominous” for West Brom at the foot of the Premier League table as their survival hopes took another huge blow this weekend.
Burnley and Brighton drew with each other while Newcastle beat Southampton on Saturday before Sam Allardyce’s men travelled to North London to lose 2-0 to Tottenham on Sunday afternoon.
Albion now have 15 matches left to play and are in need of a massive 11-point swing as well as a huge improvement to their goal difference in order to avoid returning to the Championship.
Phillips refuses to admit that it’s definitely all over for West Brom but he claims that even Big Sam will be feeling as though the odds are firmly stacked against his side.
“I’m an ex-Baggie and no one would love it more to see them stay in the Premier League than me,” Phillips told West Brom News. “I think everyone in the country and probably even Big Sam, deep down, [knows it’s over] but he would never come out and say that.
“Everyone knew those two matches [versus Fulham and Sheffield United] were season-defining matches and to not pick up at least four points is a massive blow.
“To be cut 11 points adrift at this stage of the season, when confidence is low and you can’t keep a clean sheet, it’s looking ominous.
“I would never say never because we did it at Leicester when we were eight points adrift and then we found something and it just happened for us. But West Brom are now relying on other teams to drop points and that’s a big ask.
“I would say there’s an 85 per cent chance of them being relegated but you can never say never.”
We’ve been saying for weeks that West Brom’s season is effectively already over.
Not only are all the teams above the relegation zone picking up results, but the Baggies are also losing match after match and conceding goal after goal in the process.
Sheffield United, who’ve been 20th for almost the entire season, are now just one point behind us and it does seem as though we’re nailed on for a bottom-placed finish again.
It would take more than a miracle for this bunch of sub-par players to avoid relegation.
At this point, we’d be absolutely delighted with an 18th-placed finish because it will at least show the players have tried between now and their 38th and final game of the season.
In other West Brom news, this Albion player is set to be offered a £15,000-a-week contract by a manager who loves him.
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