West Bromwich Albion

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West Bromwich Albion
Template: Infobox Football Club / Maintenance / No picture
Basic data
Surname West Bromwich Albion Football Club
Seat West Bromwich , England
founding 1878
Colours White blue
owner Lai Guochuan
president Li Piyue
Website wba.co.uk
First soccer team
Head coach Slaven Bilic
Venue The Hawthorns
Places 26,500
league Premier League
2019/20   2nd place ( EFL Championship )
home
Away
Alternatively

West Bromwich Albion (officially: West Bromwich Albion Football Club ) - also known as West Brom , The Baggies or The Throstles - is a football club from West Bromwich in the metropolitan borough of Sandwell in the West Midlands , England . It was founded in 1878 by spring factory workers and is one of the most famous football clubs in the greater Birmingham area (West Midlands).

history

In 1878, workers at Salter's Spring Works founded the West Bromwich Strollers Association. Today's club developed from this. On November 23rd of the same year the team played their first game against a selection of workers from the local soap factory. The game ended in a 0-0 draw. Both teams started with 12 players each. At the end of 1879 or not until 1880 it was renamed to the club name that is still valid today. In 1888 West Bromwich Albion was one of the founding members of the English Football League .

The Albion team in 1883. Probably the first team picture of the team.

The club was the first British team to win a game in the Soviet Union in 1957 and the first British team to play in the People's Republic of China in 1978 . During the trip through China a player (presumably John Trewick ) was asked what he thought of the Great Wall of China . His famous answer was, "If you've seen a wall, you've seen everyone."

At the end of the 2001/02 season, WBA rose to the Premier League for the first time since the mid-1980s , but rose again directly in the following 2002/03 season. Relegation was followed by re-promotion to the Premier League in the 2003/04 season.

In the 2004/05 season, the club and the fans were to experience one of the football wonders that had become rare: Before the last matchday, WBA was bottom of the table with 31 points, and the team was hopelessly in last place during the winter break. In front of that were Southampton FC (32 points), Crystal Palace (32 points) and Norwich City on the saving 17th place in the table with 33 points. On the final day of the match, Norwich lost 6-0 at Fulham , Southampton lost their home game to Manchester United 2-1 and Crystal Palace did n’t get past 2-2 at Charlton Athletic despite a 2-1 lead 8 minutes from time. Since West Bromwich Albion won 2-0 against Portsmouth FC , the team improved by three places in the table and was able to secure relegation. Never before has a team that was so hopelessly bottom of the table at the turn of the year could still prevent relegation. May 15, 2005 went down in the history of the club, the city and English football as "The Wonder of West Bromwich" (or: "The Great Escape", based on the film of the same name).

In the 2005/06 season, West Bromwich Albion rose to the second division. WBA aimed for a direct resurgence in the 2006/07 season, but a weak period in March prevented this. The longed-for comeback came in the 2007/08 season: a 2-0 away win at Queens Park Rangers on the last day of the game secured promotion and at the same time the championship of the second-highest division (" Championship "). However, the stay lasted only a year; after the end of the 2008/09 season , the club had to return to the second division as bottom of the table. There the team, which was only slightly changed after relegation, managed to occupy a top position from the start. In the end, they reached 91 points and thus second place behind Newcastle United and thus again the direct rise.

On August 5, 2016, West Brom announced an agreement to sell the club to Yunyi Guokai (Shanghai) Sports Development Limited, a Chinese investor group controlled by entrepreneur Guochuan Lai.

Under coach Slaven Bilic , the team made their promotion back to the Premier League with a 2-2 win against Queens Park Rangers on the final day of the 2019/20 Championship .

Surname

The name refers to the ancient name for England, Albion . The original nickname The Throstles (the thrushes) came about because they wore a thrush on their jerseys. There are various explanatory models for the commonly used nickname The Baggies and may go for somewhat oversized ("baggy") trousers that you may have wore in the 1930s.

Venues

The first few years of the club were characterized by numerous changes to the venues. Cooper's Hill was the venue for the first two years of 1878/79. In the following two seasons, they switched back and forth between Cooper's Hill and Dartmouth Park. In the 1881/82 season, in turn, they played at Bunn's Field, which could seat between 1500 and 2000 spectators. From 1885 on they played at Stoney Lane. In this phase, the club experienced the most successful time with winning the FA Cup.

At the beginning of the 20th century, however, the club needed a larger stadium. In contrast to the previous venues, the stadium should be outside the city. The acquired property first had to be cleared of hawthorn . Because of this, the stadium is still called "The Hawthorns" today. The fans say that the visiting away team must literally play in the hawthorn bushes. On September 3, 1900, the first game took place in the new stadium. The game against Derby County ended in a 1-1 draw. The stadium was gradually expanded over the next few decades. In 1920, the first grandstands were built on the edge of the field and in 1949 electric turnstiles followed at the entrances in order to be able to determine the exact number of spectators. The FA Cup quarter-final win (3: 1) on March 6, 1937 against Arsenal FC was watched live by 64,815 spectators in the stadium, which is still the highest number of spectators at "The Hawthorns". In 1957, floodlight masts were finally installed. In the 1990s, the last standing room was finally converted into seating, which also came at the expense of capacity. Today the stadium can accommodate 26,500 spectators. The last innovation at the stadium was the installation of a video screen in 2002. Incidentally, the Hawthorns is the highest stadium of all 92 Premier League and Football League clubs (168 m above sea level).

Rivalries

The relationship with the Wolves from neighboring Wolverhampton is legendary and characterized by hatred . Further rivalries exist due to the local proximity to the two clubs from Birmingham, Aston Villa and Birmingham City , especially in the context of the so-called " West Midland " derbies.

successes

Statistics and records

Player with the most goals

Note: only official competitions (incl. Substitutions) - The information in brackets represents the total number of games played. Other games means the Community Shield, World Cup, European Supercup

# Surname league FA Cup League Cup Others total
1 Tony Brown 218 (574) 27 (54) 17 (47) 17 (45) 279 (720)
2 Ronnie Allen 208 (415) 42 (23) 0 (0) 3 (1) 234 (458)
3 Richardson flat share 202 (320) 26 (34) 0 (0) 0 (0) 228 (354)
4th Jeff Astle 137 (292) 14 (23) 19 (28) 4 (18) 174 (361)
5 Derek Kevan 157 (262) 16 (29) 0 (0) 0 (0) 173 (291)
6th Joe Carter 145 (414) 10 (37) 0 (0) 0 (0) 155 (451)
7th Tommy Glidden 135 (445) 5 (33) 0 (0) 0 (1) 140 (479)
8th Bob Taylor 113 (324) 4 (10) 6 (22) 8 (21) 131 (377)
9 Fred Morris 112 (263) 4 (20) 0 (0) 2 (4) 118 (287)
10 Cyrille Regis 82 (237) 10 (25) 16 (28) 4 (12) 112 (302)

Web links

Commons : West Bromwich Albion  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ West Brom rise, Nottingham loses everything: The decisions in the championship. July 22, 2020, accessed July 22, 2020 .