| by Fat Stat Never can a season which went so well leave such a bitter taste of disappointment. I know its a cliche, but at the start of the season who wouldn't have accepted going into the final game of the season with a chance of automatic promotion? Or third spot? Despite the air of gloom, I think we need to put a few things into perspective and dispel a few myths. Myth number 1 needs to be about money. If you listened to the Ginger Whinger Moaning *megson you'd think that their team cost nothing. Far from it. I have just took the stats from www.soccerbase.com and the total cost of the 23 W*** Brom players was £7.5 million. Not quite the picture that the whinger painted is it? Admittedly, we have spent more than this, but not that much more. And what about other teams that have splashed out like Coventry or Watford? How disappointed must they be? And lets not forget that this team haven't had a whole season together yet. Only five of the players who appeared in the first game of the season started the last game of the season. Although the new players seemed to gel very quickly, obviously they hadn't bedded down together too well when the wheels came of at the end of the season (if you excuse the mixed metaphor). So exactly how well did we do this season? Well last season we scored 45 goals, had a goal difference of -3 and finished twelfth with 55 points. This season, excluding the play-offs, we scored 76 goals, had a goal difference of +33 and finished third with 86 points. So there's no comparison - we've made massive improvements. In fact since the Premiership was formed, this has been our best season in loads of ways. We have : equaled our highest ever position (third as in the 1996-97 season)beaten our previous highest points total by 10 points (previous highest 76 in the 1996-97 season)had the best goal difference (previous best +21 in 1998-99)had the second highest number of goals scored (season 1994-95 is the best with 77)So what went wrong? Well I think the run-in was always going to be tough, and wasn't too surprised to be pipped by the Scum-bion. W*** Brom's very good run of form was much more surprising than our dip. Having said that, there's no doubt that certain player's form nose-dived at just the wrong time. Kennedy (even taking into account his injury), Blake, Sturridge and Newton - in fact our most potent attacking options all season - suddenly lost form. Personally I think that this is because we lost the psychological/PR war to the Ginger Whinger. Although disappointing, I don't think that we should be too harsh on Dave Jones as I think its difficult to psych out a psychopath. I think the Ginger Whinger has the look of someone who was continually bullied at school. He certainly has enough hate to go round. And I think that the worst mistakes on the PR front were all made by Moxey (what was he thinking with the £1 million bonus statement?). Regardless, Dave Jones needs to learn from this and do whatever he can to make sure it doesn't happen again. I think that a lot could be learnt from the Norwich team who didn't give up when 1-0 down with half an hour to go in the first leg. I think that this could well be due to the use of a sports psychologist. What about next season? Well all the talk coming out of Molineux is about Sir Jack withdrawing his money. I think that this would be a mistake. Firstly, as my mum says, what can he do with his spare millions? Buy another twenty Yachts? I am grateful to Sir Jack, but lets face it he's had plenty of free publicity out of his money. The margin between success and failure is very small, and we failed by a very small amount. I think where we have gone wrong in the past is that we (or more precisely Sir Jack) have not had the courage of our convictions. Dave Jones has done well and needs to have another season with some money to spend. So, difficult as it is, can we allow ourselves a small amount of optimism for next season? As long as we don't sell Lescott I think so. | 
