Megson avoids peace talks

9:30am Friday 29th August 2008

GARY Megson talks with warmth and affection about his four years at West Brom, recalling the days in which he brought the Midlands club out of the cold.

He took over a side teetering on the brink of a return to League One and went on to take them into the top flight for the first time in 16 years.

Even relegation the following season failed to dent his popularity with the West Brom faithful and he was again able to take the team into the Premier League as runners-up a season later.

But that is where the fairy story ends. And the atmosphere quickly turns stone cold at Wanderers’ Euxton-training base when the subject of Baggies chairman Jeremy Peace was introduced to the conversation.

Megson had endured a stormy relationship with Peace’s predecessor Chris Thompson – one, in fact, that ended in the chairman’s resignation from the board – but it was with sheer stony-faced derison that the Whites boss talked about the man who stepped into his shoes.

“You will never hear me mention his name,” Megson said. “I don’t even want to sulley this press conference by talking about him.”

When pressed, however, Megson did offer a little by way of explanation about his highly public exit at the Hawthorns in October 2004.

“It affected me big style,” he admitted. “I don’t think I will ever get over how I think he treated me and my family. I wasn’t upset by the way it ended, just by what was going on. I have got absolutely no problem with West Brom as a football club – the supporters, the players, the staff. Just one person and a few people who work for him.”

The mood lightened again when asked whether tomorrow’s tie at the Reebok takes on any more significance because of his close ties with the Baggies.

Still revered by many supporters for the job he did with West Brom, Megson could find himself cheered by both sections of support before kick-off.

“There are a lot of memories but I won’t be emotional from that point of view – a lot of water has passed under the bridge since then,” he said.

“It is a fantastic football club and I had great times when I was there. I got on fantastically with the supporters, they were fantastic to me.

“But from my point of view it is about getting back on track and getting a good result.”

The acrimonious way he left West Brom has somewhat dulled Megson’s achievements in the years since his departure, where he gained two promotions without receiving anything like the financial support offered to his opposite number Tony Mowbray.

“We were second bottom of the Championship and just stayed up, then 92 games later we were in the Premier League for the first time in about 20-odd years,” he recalled. “The football club didn’t have a choice in the first season we went up because there was no finance there, but when we went down and came straight back up again we did have choices. It has been done step by step at West Brom and at some point they are going to have to push on. I’m sure they can do – it is a huge football club.”

That Mowbray has been backed financially by Peace – including the £4.6million club-record signing of Spanish midfielder Borja Valero last week and capture of Abdoulaye Meite for £1.5m which pushed his summer spending close to the £20m mark – does not rankle with Megson, who has been impressed by the current Baggies boss.

“It is an entirely different job than when I was there,” he said. “He has got finances but it doesn’t make it any easier because there is a bit of expectation there now whereas there wasn’t for me – it was just a case of trying to keep a club up that had been treading water for 20 years and move them forward.

“Tony has come in and the club has changed, but it is still a tough job because they expect to be in the Premier League now. He has delivered so far and done really well.”