Adrian Durham mocks West Brom fan after Valerien Ismael defence
Adrian Durham hit back at a West Brom supporter after he attempted to defend Valerien Ismael against the talkSPORT host’s comments.
Ismael was compared to former Albion manager Tony Pulis on talkSPORT’s ‘Drive’ show [18/10/21], which led to a fan messaging in to air his views.
Durham said: “He says ‘We press and dominate every week’. Well done on the pressing. ‘We score goals’. Ooh one-nil against Birmingham, one-nil against Posh [Peterborough United] is going well. ‘Occasionally we have to sit back like every team. We’re doing what we need to, to get back to the Premier League.’
“This is my point. What is the point of West Bromwich Albion getting back to the Premier League playing like that? When you look at Brentford there is a strategy, even the way they played in the Championship they’re trying to carry that through to the Premier League, there’s a strategy going on.
“West Brom, playing like this, is just going back to the Pulis days where you play a certain way to get out of the Championship but it takes you out of the Premier League the wrong way as well.
“So what’s the point, seriously what’s the point? It’s not just about getting back to the Premier League, don’t you want to be established in the Premier League?
“At the same time, what did I get? A tweet from West Brom fan saying ‘the style is atrocious, grim watching, no interest in going to see that’.
“So I told you, the fanbase is divided.”
Get your facts in order, Durham…
Durham is adamant that Ismael reminds him of Pulis.
Fine, he can have his opinion, even if it might be rather lazy and inaccurate. Not all ‘long-ball’ teams are Pulis re-gens.
However, he seems to suggest that Albion always play this way, and that Pulis is the one that led us into the Premier League, when in fact he joined and left us in the top-flight.
It was under Slaven Bilic that we were previously promoted, and we actually turned to the more pragmatic Sam Allardyce in the Premier League last season, which didn’t work.
Perhaps Durham needs to spend more time watching and analysing Albion in order to avoid these sorts of slip-ups.
At this stage of the season, with the club in such a promising position to launch a bid for automatic position, perhaps Durham should adopt a more measured approach to his critiquing.
In other West Brom news, Simon Jordan suggests the Baggies as the next destination for this award-winning manager.
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