'Big bonuses' cost West Brom a higher finish says Tony Pulis

But less than a year before Albion did drop back into the Championship, Tony Pulis was on the brink of potentially guiding them to their highest ever Premier League finish.

A win over Arsenal in March took Albion to 43 points and well clear of any relegation worries.

They had one eye on a lofty finish, but a run of nine games without a win in which they were beaten in seven of them, saw Albion eventually finish 10th.

Up until the last 20 minutes of the season at Swansea they were heading for another eighth-placed finish – only to concede two late goals. The previous campaign had also ended with a rotten run, and Pulis believes the fact players had large bonuses for fighting off relegation in their contracts played a part in the two poor run ins under his management.

Speaking on part two of his interview on the Baggies Broadcast, Pulis said: “The players were on a big bonus for staying in the Premier League, they weren’t on a big bonus for finishing seventh or eighth.

“I thought, and this was only my personal view, I thought it was a factor at the end of the season.

“That last season we went to Swansea and we were 1-0 up with 10 minutes to go and we could have finished eighth, but we lost 2-1.

“David (Kemp, Pulis’s assistant) left after that game because he thought we had hit a ceiling with the group and there needed to be a change.

“There were some changes that had gone on and he pulled me aside after that game and said he’d had enough and he was going back to California, which you can’t blame him for.”

Check out part two of Pulis’ interview on the Baggies Broadcast which is available on Soundcloud, Apple and Spotify.