The Hawthorns is not a very happy place these days.
With West Bromwich Albion as good as relegated, it must be difficult for Alan Pardew to motivate his players for the remaining eight games of the Premier League season.
While a combination of professionalism and determination is required for those teams in danger of dropping into the Championship, West Brom’s players have displayed anything but in recent months.
The warm weather training camp in Spain was supposed to galvanise the squad ahead of the run-in but all it did was provide further question-marks after four senior players – namely Jonny Evans, Gareth Barry, Jake Livermore and Boaz Myhill – admitted to stealing a taxi on a night out.
The dressing room schism was laid bare a couple of weeks later when Chris Brunt ripped into his teammates and Pardew over a disagreement on tactics.
And the latest piece of insubordination arrived last weekend, when the Baggies threw away a 1-0 lead and were thrashed 4-1 by Leicester.
Polish midfielder Grzegorz Krychowiak was none too pleased with his manager’s decision to replace him before the hour-mark in that game.
Krychowiak reacted furiously and is alleged to have sworn at Pardew in the dugout.
The 28-year-old has since apologised for his actions but that wasn’t enough to spare him a hefty fine, believed to be £108,000.
“Greg has come and apologised to me on Tuesday and to my staff, which is unusual if I’m honest,” Pardew said.
“I said to him sometimes an apology isn’t enough, so I fined him and also said I don’t ever want to see it again.”
West Brom have only three Premier League wins to their name all season and even if there’s no more than pride to play for, Pardew will require a significant change from his players.
He will also need his most experienced players to step up and he has therefore decided against punishing Krychowiak by dropping him for West Brom’s trip to Bournemouth on Saturday.
“The selection of the player won’t be influenced after that,” Pardew insisted.
“I told him how disappointed I was, I fined him and we move on.
“I actually really like him, as a person and as a footballer, so I was surprised at his action.
“I said to him ‘you need to watch the start of the second half, and if you see yourself you might have subbed yourself’.
“He had a little chuckle.”
