Megson sacked

[Jack]

West Brom manager Gary Megson has been relieved of his duties at The Hawthorns with immediate effect.
The announcement comes after Megson said earlier on Tuesday he would be leaving at the end of the season.

"I won't sign a new contract," he had said. "I've a contract until 30 June and I intend to carry on until then."

Now, however, it seems the Baggies have decided to let Megson go ahead of that time, and have installed assistant boss Frank Burrows as caretaker manager.

The club have issued instructions to the Albion squad not to speak to the media over Megson's dismissal.

Megson has had a roller-coaster reign at West Brom, guiding the club to promotion twice but appearing to be constantly on the verge of leaving.

He reportedly was close to parting company with the club at the start of their first season in the Premiership, 2002-2003.

That dispute was resolved but relations with the Baggies board seemed not to improve and on Tuesday Megson wrote to the directors informing them he would not be signing an extension to his current contract which expired this summer.

A statement released later on Tuesday by the club read: "Gary Megson today informed the Board of West Bromwich Albion by letter that he wishes to leave the club at the end of his current contract in approximately eight months' time on 30th June 2005.

"The club accepts this letter as a resignation and the board believes it is now in the best interests of West Bromwich Albion that Gary Megson no longer remains in charge of team affairs.

Have Your Say
Is Megson right to leave?

"As such, he has been relieved of his duties while contractual matters are resolved.

"This is a crucial period for the club and the board regards the timing and manner of Gary Megson's announcement as extremely unhelpful, particularly following the team's disappointing performance at Crystal Palace on Saturday.

"Nevertheless, the board intends to move swiftly to appoint a new manager who will be fully focused on the job of taking the club forward in the Premiership. Until such time, Frank Burrows will act as caretaker manager.

"The board would like to acknowledge Gary Megson's major contribution during his term as manager and wishes him well in the future."

From BBC.co.uk

[The Crippler]

This is a wise move by West Brom. As soon as I read Megson saying he was leaving at the end of the season I thought "now they are really doomed.". It rarely works out when a manager says he is leaving at the end of the year. At Rangers, Walter Smith did the same in the season we were going for our 10th championship in a row. He said he was retiring at the end of the season with about 6 or 7 months left and guess what? Celtic won the league.

I might be wrong but I'm pretty sure Manchester United didn't win the championship the year Alex Ferguson said he was retiring at the end of the year as well.

[Nicole]

Megsons taken them as far as possible. Its probably good that he's moved on, plus the fact he has been known to treat his players like crap would mean it would be better for club and players.

I'm kind of torn about this....Megson's done some sterling work for us, yet he can appear to be tactically out of his depth when it comes to the Premier league - saying he can't play 2 creative players together or reverting to the division 1 favourite, 3-5-2...
HOWEVER, we can't forget how he dragged us from near relagation and promoted us twice. Some quality buys/transfers in Koumas, Kanu, Greening and of course Gera show him to be pretty good when it comes to getting decent players.
If we get a replacement such as Strachan, fine, I'm happy for him to replace Megson. But if we go for a Bobby/Bryan Robson as I fear, we're almost certainly doomed - and our chances are already slim...
Thanks for the memories Gary, you'll be remembered fondly - you shouty little ginger chimp, you!!!

[Fletch]

bwahahaha Your gonna get some stick for this danny boy. Cant say it shocked me they got rid of him after he said he was leaving.

[Boyo]

Old Meggers has done about as much as he could there, and it didn't help that stories about him being sacked but four games into the season started to circulate.

I wouldn't stand for that rubbish. What do Baggies really expect? A UEFA Cup place?

Seriously...

Cheers!