Gary Megson: West Bromwich Albion players can do better, says interim boss

Tony Pulis (left) took former Albion boss Gary Megson back to The Hawthorns as his assistant head coach in August

West Bromwich Albion interim boss Gary Megson says the Baggies' players have to take some responsibility for the sacking of head coach Tony Pulis.

Pulis was dismissed on Monday with Albion 17th in the Premier League and without a win in 10 league games.

"I don't think you need to be Sir Alf Ramsey to suss out that we've got some players here that can play better than they have been," Megson told BBC WM.

"They need to pitch up and start playing like we know they can play."

The 58-year-old is set to take charge of the team for Saturday's game at Tottenham.

"The first thing you do is the easiest thing," he said, after being asked by the board to become interim boss. "You just roll your sleeves up and have a real good go."

The football manager's three-year factor

Former Albion manager Megson, who won promotion twice in his four and a half seasons in charge at The Hawthorns, was appointed as Pulis' assistant in August when Pulis' long-time number two Dave Kemp retired.

Having witnessed a section of Albion fans turn on Pulis just short of his third anniversary at the club, Megson says he shares the theory that three years is long enough in any job for any manager before players start to question things.

It was an angle he was first fed by his old Sheffield Wednesday and Newcastle United manager Jack Charlton - and since remarketed by Jose Mourinho, who said he may not finish his career at Manchester United having never spent more than four years in one spell at any of his seven clubs.

"Jack was a terrific manager and a great guy," said Megson. "He once gave me a terrific piece of advice. He said 'If you get into management, three years, then move on'.

"The first year, you tell them to jump, they jump. The second year, you tell them to jump and they say 'how high do we jump?'

"In the third year, when you tell them to jump, they turn round and say we've been jumping for the past two years."

Gary Megson twice won promotion in his time as Albion boss from March 2000 to October 2004

Megson the interim man

One thing Megson has made clear is that he does not want to be called "acting" or "caretaker" boss.

"Assistant head coach currently in charge of first-team affairs" is what was agreed at Tuesday's news conference.

"I don't know what short-term is," Megson said. "The chairman told me what had happened and I was just asked to do the job interim. Who knows how long interim is?

"You won't hear me saying 'I think this, I think that'. It's my job just to keep things moving along and give the board the time they need to make the right decisions for the club. We'll get to the Tottenham game and see what happens after that.

"We got the players in and it was like the elephant in the room. Nobody wants to talk about it. We just told them the position and that there won't be wholesale changes in terms of what we do."

Gary Megson was talking to BBC WM's Rob Gurney.