As coaches and players, we’ve had to contend with a lot of unique challenges during the last few months. I am proud of how the club has dealt with the impact of Covid-19 and reached out to the community to offer our help through initiatives such as Albion As One.
It’s great that we are able to re-start the season next Saturday against Arsenal, albeit in unusual circumstances with games played in empty stadiums.
Part of our schedule since we returned to full-contact training has been playing games, amongst ourselves and against other clubs, at the Amex to try and get an idea of what to expect in the next few weeks.
We have five very tough home games against some of the best clubs in the world and playing them with 30,000 fans behind us creating an intimidating atmosphere for our opponents would have been ideal. Instead, we are going to have to adapt to the situation and succeed and I have every confidence that we will.
The club’s message about playing games in our own stadium, even without fans, has always been consistent. We are confident that thanks to the excellent relationships we have with the local safety authorities and our supporters that we can stage matches at the Amex without any problem.
We trust our fans will stay away from the Amex on matchdays and lend their support in other ways. And when we are all back together again in a full stadium, hopefully in the not too distant future, it really will be a special occasion for all of us.
On behalf of myself and my backroom staff I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your support and best wishes before the re-start on Saturday 20th June. Please all continue to stay safe.
Graham