Comment: West Brom bring an end to their uneasy marriage with Tony Pulis

When Tony Pulis arrived at the start of 2015, he was without doubt the right appointment for a struggling side and he made an immediate difference.

He only lost one of his first 11 games in charge, alleviating the fear of relegation and taking the Baggies to an FA Cup quarter-final.

In May, a 1-0 win at Old Trafford and a 3-0 drubbing of champions-elect Chelsea at home rounded off five successful months.

But then came Pulis’s first full season in charge, and it wasn’t pretty. Albion scored just 34 goals in 38 league games as they ground their way to 14th.

They were dumped out of both cups by lower-league opposition and there were ugly scenes at Reading when modern-day legend Chris Brunt was struck with a coin thrown by one of his own ‘fans’.

Not Pulis’s fault at all, but it was indicative of the fractious relationship he – and by association his team - had with supporters.

A nine-game winless streak at the end of the season once 40 points had been reached – an all-too predictable Pulis habit which would be replicated the following year – infuriated a bored fanbase and meant that just three games into the following season, supporters were growing restless.

The first calls for his head came away at Northampton Town, when the League Two side dumped them out of the League Cup on penalties.

Fans had started to leave The Hawthorns in their droves and as each game passed there was more and more blue plastic visible at every home game.

But then, all of a sudden, something clicked. Albion put four past a hapless West Ham team at home in mid-September, sparking a remarkable run that lasted until March when nobody from outside the top seven could beat them.

Out of 16 games against their mid and lower-table competitors, they won 10 and drew six.

The Baggies spent the majority of the season in eighth place as ‘the best of the rest’ and supporters were gleefully calling up radio phone-ins to announce they were eating humble pie.

Pulis had built a clinical counter-attacking team coupled with the best aerial threat in the country and for a few special months, everything was rosy at The Hawthorns.

But that good will started to ebb away towards the end of last season when seven defeats, two draws, and just four goals from their last nine games brought up the same 40-point fury.

It was telling that Williams mentioned that run in his short statement yesterday – that lack of ambition and acceptance with survival obviously irked him just as much as the fans.

Pulis finished in the top half that season, earning himself a 12-month contract extension, but that tail-off in the last few games would prove to be damaging.

What followed was a fruitful summer in the transfer market, when six new faces were brought in for roughly £40m, and the club’s business was widely regarded as a success.

However, Darren Fletcher’s departure left a huge gap in the dressing room and a few prescient supporters predicted trouble ahead.

Pulis has always been adept at getting limited squads to huff and puff to a level greater than the sum of its parts by bundling in set-pieces and giving no quarter in defence.

But he has often looked lost with better players at his disposal capable of doing a bit more than that.

To give him his dues, he did attempt to evolve the style this season. During the early games of this 11-match winless streak which proved fatal, Albion were trying to play the ball on the deck more.

Inside forwards like Jay Rodriguez and Nacer Chadli were picked on the wings instead of out-and-out fliers.

But that new approach was abandoned once the wins dried up. Defenders quickly resorted to clipping long balls up to an isolated striker as a team low on confidence retreated into their shells.

What’s more, Pulis’s tactical shift removed exactly what had made Albion successful last season.

Without Matt Phillips or James McClean on the flanks, the team lacked pace and with that went the counter-attacking threat.

Without Phillips or Chris Brunt in the team, corners lacked venom, and the aerial threat disappeared.

But Pulis remained stubborn, and in the end it proved to be the death of him.

He complained about injuries to key players, but it was hardly a crisis.

There were plenty of options on the bench that hadn’t been exhausted and plenty of players on the pitch being misused.

In the end, the anger that had been bubbling away for weeks on social media was vocalised by the away fans at Huddersfield and the home fans on Saturday.

It’s fair to say his relationship with fans has always been a turbulent one.

Even though he was at The Hawthorns for nearly three years, and moulded the club in his image with his own backroom staff and scouts, it never felt like Pulis was completely entrenched in the Albion.

He often spoke of being a ‘custodian’ at the club, hinting that he never felt he was going to last that long, and in fact, it wouldn’t be the end of the world if he didn’t.

Part of that is probably because age has mellowed him, becoming a grandfather has given him another purpose in life.

That is not a crime, but at times, it felt like nothing more than a job to him and supporters, rightly or wrongly, sometimes want more.

He mentioned Stoke chairman Peter Coates a tad too often and there was never the same warmth in his words when he spoke about the Albion hierarchy.

That’s unsurprising, considering what he did with the Potters and the fact Jeremy Peace sold the Baggies to Guochuan Lai during his tenure.

But Pulis didn’t bleed blue and white. And one of the reasons for that is that he, and in particular his football, was never fully embraced by the fans.

Although supporters are grateful for what he achieved, respected him, and supported him, it’s fair to say few adored him in the way they have some past managers.

He divided opinion for most of his time in charge, apart from four months last season when things were going well, and the past three months of this season when it all fell apart.

It was a rocky relationship that turned sour towards the end, when Pulis decided to hit back at critics with his record at the club and ‘remind’ supporters what he’d done for them.

His back-handed compliment after the Chelsea game felt like a parting shot that questioned their passion.

“I actually thought the supporters were really good today,” he said. “I’ve been at clubs where the whole place would have taken off.”

On top of that, Pulis’s constant reminders that Albion were the best team in the West Midlands misjudged the room and hit the wrong note.

Aston Villa being woeful and Wolves being in the Championship doesn’t have any bearings on Albion’s performances.

Those who do put any store in such frivolities can throw back at him the two defeats to Villa in 2015 and the goalless draw at The Hawthorns against them in the season they went down.

Of course, Pulis deserves recognition for what he did at the club.

The squad is undoubtedly stronger than it was when he arrived, and recruitment under him has, on the whole, been shrewd and successful.

Relegation was never on the cards until this season, and he leaves a strong base for someone to build an exciting team with.

But sitting here with the twenty-twenty vision of hindsight, it now seems obvious that was never going to be him.