thomas

Roy Keane being miserable in the studio gives me strength.

i would wait until he's entered the ring to play the Undertaker's theme song and then hit him with a folding chair when the lights go down

nah, it's got to be to annoy the fans, surely

i think he's safer hands than his last season would indicate and i assume he'll be extremely well backed in January. If he was a summer hire it would be massively underwhelming but considering the circumstances this appointment is closer to copacetic than catastrophe.

it certainly never takes this long in FM so something's definitely wrong

maybe the takeover has softened my view, but he now strikes me as something of a pitiable, almost tragilarious figure, no different than countless clueless middle-management dweebs in the business world who would jump at being offered a position above their station, with their performance never scrutinized by a boss whose indifference bordered on hostile.

Say what you want about the tenets of Ashleyism, Dude, at least it's an ethos.

Winless on the season. 19th in the table. Squad of mostly no-hopers. "I can't believe we're not getting in a CL calibre manager off the bat" If it's a stabilizing year so be it. I was already prepared to write this motherfucker off in August

All the money in the world couldn't get me to jump into a viper pit given our current squad and position. I actually understand elite managers balking at the idea, especially if January turns out to be lean. Howe is definitely not as good as Fonseca, Emery, etc, but still miles above the likes of Lampard and Martinez and would be enough to see us through the season. We'll see in the summer how attractive a project it is with guaranteed survival and time to plan.

So, as much as I hate to agree with any of the completely OTT "this is a complete 3-ring shitshow circus" criticisms .... if it transpires that they were set to say yes to all his demands and get him in and somehow he was the last person to be informed of that, that is a bad look. Putting the media cart before the manager horse. Er. Yeah. We'll go with that. Need to not count their chickens before they're hatched. Still probably not the apocalypse being reported but I guess we'll see.

*lightly coughs once* welp better start planning the funeral, looks like it's terminal, i had a good run i suppose

i'll flip my lid if it's frank fucking lampard

That said, would it really take more than watching 5 minutes of any recent game to tell him all he needs to know?

If the sum total of his interm managership is a point away to Palace and a home draw against Chelsea (i'm pessimistic about those chances though tbh), I'd consider it a raging success even if the performances looked like lokimeals brought to life.

everyone had "chelsea making newcastle look like schoolboys" on their bingo cards, surely? I can't rouse more than mild annoyance at what felt as inevitable as the tide or the sunrise

this is just insecurity in the face of the raw, un-tethered American machismo the sport of baseball projects. Like prime Tom Sellek shirtless in a hall of mirrors.

it's just baseball (a proper sport) for weirdos imo

Did no one learn the lesson of the positivity thread? W A I T

i think a few committed to trollfully backing Bruce so hard they actually poisoned their own brains and now think he's not garbage

They're in 8th after 9 games. Rafa has his work cut out getting them to play like he wants and there have been some surprise/disappointing results but this is an acceptable position in a transition period. I don't think anyone with real decision making powers is anywhere close to thinking about pulling the plug this early on.

I can't. There's no chance they walked into this expecting returns within even 5 years. This is either a long haul investment or there's no point. Scouting, academy, facilities, first team, it all needs work and they'll all take a good while before rewards are reaped.

the ex-girlfriend is married now, guys. i know it hurts but you gotta let go