Tony Pulis does not expect much change following West Brom takeover
Tony Pulis does not expect much change at West Brom following the takeover of the club.
There had been speculation that Pulis might leave The Hawthorns in the build-up to Thursday's completion of a takeover by Chinese group Yunyi Guokai Sports Development Limited - led by Guochuan Lai.
But Pulis on Friday declared himself "pleased" the deal was done and said he had no problems working under foreign ownership.
It is understood that former chairman Jeremy Peace will remain available in a consultancy role while chief executive John Williams was announced as the new chairman last month.
On the pitch, Pulis, who is in the final year of his contract, expects an air of familiarity to remain there too.
"I don't think the new owners will change too much from the way Jeremy has run the football club," Pulis said at his pre-match press conference ahead of Saturday's home game against West Ham.
"They've bought into Jeremy's model so I don't think there's going to be a great change in the way the club's run. I think they are going to try to run it on similar lines.
"I'm pleased, the chairman and the new owner are pleased to get the deal done. It's been going on for a while so they'll be pleased that it's all sorted and done.
"The way it drifted and moved, you get involved in it, no question of a doubt. So it's pleasing for everybody that we now know and we can move on from here.
"I still think Jeremy is going to be involved a little bit. John Williams now has moved in as chairman so there will still be that continuity but obviously now the Chinese own the football club and are the shareholders so it will be interesting to see how it works.
"I've worked under foreign owners before so I have a good understanding of how it works, both with Icelandic owners and Milan (Mandaric) at Portsmouth."
Asked if he had the chance to speak with the new owners yet, Pulis said: "That will come, I think. What Mr Lai has done more than anything, and the people around him, is just concentrate on getting the deal done and getting it through.
"John (Williams) is in today so I will sit down and have a chat with him later."
West Ham manager Slaven Bilic has dismissed Troy Deeney's claims that Dimitri Payet's rabona cross was intended to embarrass Watford during the Hammers' 4-2 defeat at the London Stadium last weekend.
Earlier this week, the Hornets striker claimed that the Frenchman's moment of trickery to set up West Ham's second goal was an attempt to "mug us off" and said it inspired Watford to come from two goals down for a remarkable comeback victory.
But the Croatian insisted that Deeney's statement was "clever" and the timing of his claim made for a good story as Walter Mazzarri's side secured their first win of the Premier League campaign.
"(Deeney)'s a great player and a very clever player and it was smart to say that," Bilic said.
"I didn't see it that way to be fair. It might look like that for some people but I think he said that because they turned the game around. It's a good story, like they woke up from 2-0 to make it 4-2.
"I've been here more than a year and I haven't seen my players underestimate any team that we have played so far, especially Watford because before the game we knew we were expecting a tough game. It's just a clever statement from Troy."
Ahead of their trip to the Hawthorns on Saturday, Bilic remained optimistic about his side's defensive qualities, despite seeing his side knocked out of the Europa League and sitting just one point above the relegation zone.
The 48-year-old said: "(The defending) wasn't good of course. It was a bit different than the game against Bournemouth at the same stage last season. Against Bournemouth it was more individual mistakes. The conclusion was the same, you lose confidence as a team. Now, the confidence is okay.
"We are a team, we defend together and I'm happy with that. We will work with that. It is very important to talk about it. We spoke about it before the Watford game. We've had a good meeting and now I'm waiting for the reaction tomorrow.
"Mistakes will happen but we have to defend better and defend like we did last season."
Source: PAR
