Mark Brailsford imagines The Albion dream team
Where did that come from? You go away for a few days and The Albion sign four first class signings seemingly out of nowhere. One with Premier League goalscoring experience (Stephen Dobbie), his former team mate in Swansea’s tiki-taka brigade (Andrea Orlandi) and a classy La Liga midfielder (David Lopez). Oh, and Dean Hammond. Let us first address that surprising return.
Those of us who witnessed his, shall we say, enthusiastic display in front of the south stand at Withdean as a Southampton player, are astonished to see him back. This has to be the most surprising signing since Richard Tiltman rolled off the local park and onto the Goldstone pitch, seemingly by accident.
“A local boy made good, no wonder Albion fans took umbrage”
However, let us look at the logic. At the time of Hammond’s departure he was Albion’s rather impressive captain. The club perhaps looked at the money and took a business decision. When Dean moved on though, it was clear there was a Hammond sized hole in the midfield until Crofts arrived for his first stint. A local boy made good, no wonder Albion fans took umbrage. But here he is, with a few people to win over to say the least, but most Albion fans will wish him well. After all, he dreamed of playing for The Albion at Falmer, and if he bangs in a few screamers on the way to the Premier League he will be forgiven. No pressure then. I’d settle for the winner against our friends in the north.
Comings & goings
What of the other signings? The set-pieces have been pretty dire when Vicente hasn’t been playing, Ryan Harley aside. Orlandi and Lopez are known for their dead ball skills so this may be a significant upgrade in a league so tight that set-pieces could be the difference between the play-offs and finishing tenth. Dobbie is an excellent signing too. His experience will be invaluable. However, none of these are the elusive ‘target’ man sought by Gus Poyet. The loan system is now in play and awareness of how disruptive a one month wonder can be, Poyet will resist signing just any old beanpole. Who knows, it could be one big bluff to lull the rest of the league into thinking The Albion are not as frightening as Barnsley found them to be, and look what happened there.
Finally, we come to the departure of crowd favourite Craig Noone. That a much loved player can be moved on without an outcry from the fans speaks volumes for the quality coming into the club these days. But with the way things are going with these returnees (e.g. Crofts and Hammond) who would bet against other former Albion stars returning to the club? Imagine it: Elliot Bennett, Noone re-signed, a strike partnership of Glenn Murray and Bobby Zamora backed up by CMS (if he isn’t a Norwich player by then) and Vicente supplying the ammunition. Stranger things have happened, like re-signing Dean Hammond perhaps? I’d draw the line at Richard Tiltman though.
Photo: Copyright Paul Hazlewood
