Former Rangers star Kyle Bartley is leading West Brom’s Premier League great escape as he looks out the shovel and helps dig Big Sam out of a hole.
Allardyce has never been relegated as a manager and the go-to man to avoid the drop was drafted in at the Hawthorns in December as the West Midlands side looked to retain their Premier League status.
Bartley – now 29 – is the Baggies’ vice-captain and a stalwart defender for the side as they dig their heels in and refuse to tumble to the Championship without a fight.
Allardyce has changed the momentum at West Brom and an impressive 5-2 victory over 10-man Chelsea was proceeded this week by a 3-0 hammering of Southampton.
Those six points have hauled Albion back into a relegation dogfight and with seven games remaining, Allardyce is very much in with a shout of retaining his incredible managerial record.
Not that it won’t be a big ask.
West Brom are now eight points from safety with 21 to play for and ex-Rangers defender Bartley and his teammates will need to dig deep to engineer the Great Escape.
Survival is reportedly worth over £100m to West Brom [Planet Football] and the club will be putting everything into retain their status as a top tier English club.
Bartley remains fondly thought of in Glasgow, the ex-Arsenal kid joining for an 18-month loan spell at the club between January 2011 and the summer of 2012.
In that time the defender voiced his enjoyment at being a Rangers player and since then he’s gone on to carve out a solid career south of the border.
Keeping West Brom up would rank amongst the defender’s greatest achievements and Rangers fans everywhere will be cheering on Bartley as the season begins to bottleneck.
We spoke last summer about the pivotal role Bartley played in securing Premier League promotion for West Brom and let’s hope he can keep the Baggies up this season.