The Diary

07 November 2003: Gary, The AGM, And Me!

Just back from our club?s AGM, which, I?m given to understand, is our 113th. Having attended most of them ever since I became a shareholder about ten years ago, I suppose I?ve become long-accustomed to the more recent ones being a pretty streamlined affair, a rubber-stamping of various club-related procedural issues, the re-election of various club functionaries, and as a result, I?d become somewhat stuffed full of ennui by them. The fare more usually on offer? An express-delivery of resolutions, a pep-talk by the current managerial incumbent, and, roughly speaking, that was that. Finis, adios, siyonara, arrivederci: call it what you will, until next term. This time round, though, there was a subtle change in the mood of those present. None of the acrimony that pervaded AGMs during the dark days of Fred The Shed and his immediate successors, ?tis true, more a sense of unease that made itself felt especially when our current team manager addressed the audience - but of that, more later.

As usual, the whole thing was conducted in the East Stand, or, to be more precise, the Platinum Suite. As expected, there was quite a turnout of shareholders; I could only assume that the ramifications of Resolution 8 ? see my offering of the previous day ? had something to do with that. All the usual suspects were there, quite a few of them GD readers, and a sizeable proportion personally known to us. As we hob-nobbed our way amongst the faithful ? nice of Albion to lay on some non-alcoholic refreshments for those not wishing to make use of the bar, by the way ? it was clear that the rubber-stamping exercise of previous years wasn?t going to be repeated. Finally selecting our seats, we didn?t have to wait long for the whole thing to get under way, and, significantly, perhaps, the elegant, the lovely and talented Mt. Megson didn?t take his seat until the very last minute.

The meeting kicked off in remarkably non-contentious fashion with Chairman Jeremy Peace blitzing through the initial resolutions, which were to re-elect Jeremy and Mark Jenkins to the board, to re-appoint Clement Keys as accountants, to authorise the share-capital of ?the company? (I really hate that phrase when used in connection with our favourite football club! Or is it just me showing a marked reluctance to move with the times? If it is, then shoot me!), and to authorise the directors to allocate sums of money. We then turned to what might have been a bone of contention with some Baggies, Resolution 8, of which I made mention yesterday. Bryn Jones, a shareholder I?ve known for ages, put forward an eloquent argument for not doing this, to which Jeremy responded by saying that basically (and briefly), the club wanted to get a mandate to be able to buy back 10% of shares, and their argument was that this was in line with practice at other clubs, e.g. Man United and Southampton, and would prevent a possible run on shares. When finally put to the vote, the motion was seemingly narrowly carried; well, judging from the show of hands from the floor, but because of proxy-votes, the motion was as good as carried anyway.

We now turn to that part of the meeting, which, in recent seasons, has borne something of a resemblance to a Nuremburg Rally-type occasion. Or, if you want to invoke the example set by Communist Russia, party meetings in the time of Josef Stalin. I refer, of course, to the usual ?state-of-the-union? type speech made by our current manager, Gary Megson. Interesting, this one, not least because of the fact that in his gold-rimmed specs, our leader bore more than a passing (and somewhat vulpine!) resemblance to former Conservative bovver-boy Norman Tebbit! It didn?t take long to realise that this time round, this part of the proceedings was going to differ substantially from previous occasions in both content and style. For starters, resident Albion hack John Simpson was the man with the roving mike, and the whole session was allotted a strict 45 minutes-only slot from start to finish. One other touch differentiating the occasion from previous AGMs was the division of the room, for question and answer purposes, into two distinct halves. One half would have their chance to put questions to Gary first, then, for the rest of the time remaining, the other half would get their say. As I said, different!

On to the first question, then, during the course of which, the microphone threw a dicky-fit! This necessitated the speaker having to shout his query. Essentially, the question revolved around a request to play more adventurous football. Gary responded by saying that no-one had told the current team to play in a defensive manner, and, in fact, he reckoned we?d won more games than anyone else in the Football League, ten times in all. We weren?t just there to get a 1-0 scoreline, then grimly hang on to it; Gary then cited other occasions this term when we?d notched up more than a single strike; Burnley, and Ipswich were examples of this. Our manager then departed somewhat from the parameters drawn by the original question by reminding his audience that he was the longest-serving Albion manager for around 32 years. He?d been the incumbent for around 44 months, and then went on to emphasise the off-the-pitch improvements in our status as a football club that had happened in tandem with his managerial reign. These were the new East Stand, the new training ground, also that our gates had increased by some 66% since his arrival. Income from season-ticket sales had increased by 148%, the sale of club merchandise had gone up by 131%, and turnover had also gone up by 316%.

Gary then reminded the audience it had to be remembered that all our on-the-pitch achievements had taken place in the absence of a ?sugar-daddy? type figure, such as held sway over Blues and Wolves. As far as tactics were concerned, of those sides that gained promotion in recent years, four of them played in a similar way to ours. Others went up because they were financially well-blessed and could chuck money at the problem. Of the rest ? Man City, Sunderland, Bolton, Leicester ? they were now heavily in debt as a result of their financial outlay to ensure success. We, on the other hand, had none of these advantages, and similarly, had no debt either. Returning to the subject of tactics once more, he reckoned he didn?t want to play 5-3-2, but wanted to win. When he first came to the club, he played 4-4-2, but after the initial games, decided 5-3-2 fitted the bill far better. When we got to the Premiership last season, he did try 4-4-2 ? the Blackburn and Liverpool games were examples ? but he argued it had clearly made matters worse. He?d also tried it against Wimbledon and Sheffield United this season, but it didn?t work.

The next question from the floor proved interesting, mainly because of the fact that it was basically the same question put by The Fart to Gary during the Capital Gold Forum around a month ago! Essentially, the query was, what did Gary think he would do differently next season should he succeed in getting us back to The Prem this time round? No attempt to turn the question on its head this time, though; the answer was to start planning for the new season literally the day after we finally made it there. He then went on to say, we had the benefit of hindsight, and armed with that, we should aim to get better players than the ones we had.

The next one came from Bryn Jones, who, being a lecturer, was no stranger to addressing groups of people en-masse. He pointed out that when at home, over the last few games, we had surrendered possession to such an extent that the crowd became somewhat anxious and lost heart. Also, Bryn questioned our tactics, whereby the defenders seemed inclined to just hack the ball away. We now had better players than before ? Bryn cited Jason Koumas and Sakiri as examples ? but we were still losing possession, which in its turn, increased the pressure on the players, and this, of course, had an effect on the crowd, whose anxiety was increased as a result.

Gary replied by stating he didn?t disagree with Bryn?s statement. He agreed about the crowd becoming nervous; players caught the mood and then went ?into hiding? as a result. He also admitted our passing wasn?t good enough. Apparently, in an effort to remedy the problem, Albion had turned to modern computer technology, ?Pro-zone?, in an attempt to improve matters. When subjected to analysis by this method, the Wimbledon game turned out to be the best in terms of possession (47%). Gary agreed we didn?t keep the ball well enough, although we were trying to improve on it.

So far so good, then. But then the mask slipped, and the cause of this was the next query from the floor. The shareholder in question pointed out that one of the things Gary had not mentioned was the ?18.6 million pounds spent on players over the last two years. That was more money than was spent by Sunderland in getting to the Premiership, so how much more did we have to spend in getting this side there? Sunderland had lost a lot of key players and yet they?d run rings around us last Saturday.

Oh dear. The testy reply? The enquirer was the one who had asked him about 4-4-2 type tactics last season; he?d had his say, and he (Gary) hadn?t got a great deal of time for him. Next question?

An uneasy, softly-murmuring, tension-ridden pause, then on to the next query. Well, two, in fact. The first centred around the reason why we always started off by booting the ball down the pitch. The second? That concerned the reason why Sakiri was played out of position. Gary dealt with the second one first: the reason why revolved around him being brought with a view towards playing 4-4-2, but during the Denmark tour, it rapidly became apparent it wouldn?t work, so the decision was made to revert back to 5-3-2 instead. Artim accepted this, apparently, and the managerial and coaching staff have tried to play him differently, but it had to be realised they played to win games. As for the first query, the idea was to try to get the ball into the opposition?s half as quickly as possible.

On to the next query, then, which concerned a topic touched upon by myself at various times both during this season and the previous one, the reasons behind the ban on supporters attending our training ground. As far as the person asking the question was aware, we were the only Midlands club to bar supporters from attending training sessions. Gary responded by saying it wasn?t a ban as such, but it had come about as a result of criticism being levelled at him from various sources. He then moved swiftly onto the next question, which came from our very own Old Fart, bless his little war-wounds. Two things from him, then: the first was to ask as to whether the likes of Lloyd Dyer and Simon Brown had been frozen out of first-team contention, and the second concerned Geoff Horsefield; was he ?the one that got away??

Gary replied by asserting that Lloyd Dyer wasn?t out of the picture at all, and neither was Simon Brown. As far as Lloyd was concerned, he?d done very well, and Gary was pleased with him. He?d been in the squad three times to date, and now trained with the first-team squad. He would have travelled to West Ham tomorrow (Friday) had it not been for the fact he was suffering from a heavy cold, or flu. As far as Simon Brown was concerned, the above applied to a lesser degree, because he was at a different stage in his career-development. As far as Geoff Horsefield was concerned, Gary admitted we hadn?t made a bid for him, and described him as ?the one that got away?.

The final topic coming from the floor concerned poor Michael Appleton; in short, what was happening about him? Gary said that surgery hadn?t worked, and there were complications. He felt sorry for him because he?d worked very hard to get fit. ?It would make you weep to see the effort he?s making to get fit again,? was his poignant comment about the whole affair. Departing from the AGM for the moment, we?re given to understand that Albion have said that there will be an announcement made about his future by the end of the year. Personally I?d be very surprised if he does continue as a player; a shame, that, as he has a smashing personality, and deserves better fortune than he?s had in recent months.

And that was it. The whole thing was then abruptly truncated by Gary with around 10 minutes of the allotted 45 still to go, and no sooner had our leader announced an end to the proceedings, and been given the obligatory amount of applause from the floor, he was off, and at a rate of knots as well. Quite a departure from the storm of clapping, almost frenetic, fanatical, even, our manager had received from his audience on similar occasions in years gone by. Looking back on his performance tonight, I got the overwhelming impression that Mr. Megson had, inadvertently or otherwise, allowed the mask to slip; only slightly, it?s true, but enough to reveal our leader in his true colours, for once ? arrogant, and brooking of no dissent whatsoever. Certainly, he was in a very edgy mood tonight, and the atmosphere in that room made it abundantly clear that his audience had sensed this also. After the meeting formally finished, there was many a comment made by shareholders about his demeanour during that question and answer session, and not a few were distinctly uncomplimentary about our manager?s handling of some supporters? legitimate queries. I would imagine it?s come as quite a shock to the sensitivities of some, but those who?ve been reading this diary on a regular basis would probably have wondered what the fuss was all about.

And finally?. That?s me lot for tonight, then. I think we?ve now got all the problems I was having with both email and the internet finally sorted. Even the one concerning some people getting my stuff with bits missing out of the middle; the answer, apparently, is just to make my paragraphs that smidgeon smaller! Anybody still experiencing trouble in that department, simply let me know, and I?ll have meaningful words with my IT gurus once more. I?ll be back tomorrow with a look at our forthcoming tryst with The Hammers; as the late Timothy Leary once put it in the sixties, all of you feel free to tune in, turn on, and drop out!

 - Glynis Wright

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