Kanj

If we were to move on from Howe, he was my #1 choice. I really rate him.

the issue is some of those players would happily go to either 3 of those clubs as they will have a clear development an sell-on policy.

Gah damn that is awesome.

This feels like the end of the Howe era and it’s making me sick to my stomach. All those memories last few years, the ferocious fighters on the pitch, the pride of supporting a team that played as passionately as we support the team…this one hurts.

Elanga is so bad

We are so fucking bad from out wide, I know many on here feel the same. Watch any decent football side today and your wide attackers are basically are the key.

I love this “outgrown” narrative players’ camps throw out like he isn’t massively part of our overall issues in general. He turns up in some* big games, can be so bad he can’t control a football or complete a pass, has an inflated goal tally due to penalties, and when you’re level or down in a big match this season rarely has Gordon taken the match by the scruff of the neck and turned 0 or 1 pt to 1 or 3 points. See: Dembele v Liverpool two nights ago. Diaz and Olise last night. If you’re a modern attacking player those are the standards, those are dynamo talisman who change matches just like that. Maybe he was on track to be that player before the Liverpool saga two summers ago, but he’s far from that now. Outgrown? Ha, lots of growing up to do lad.

Ah man, having 2 dynamo wingers like Bayern have is the absolute best. Some of us on here have been saying for ages that is literally our achilles heel when you dont even have Isak. Ineffective wingers are fucking rancid.

this is box office.

this season at least, but our brand of football is vomit compared to this stuff.

we play an entirely different sport to these

Kane, so fucking clincial.

In trying to be as succinct as possible, i think the club's stated aim of being in Europe every year + taking runs at each domestic competition + Howe backing himself to deliver progress YOY slowly pushed us into that direction of "sure things" Re: Guehi i never really rated him as I never felt he was dominant in any particular area of defending but it's clear as day he was courted for his leadership and standards in addition to being a well-rounded football player. Mitchell got taken to the cleaners there and if he would have just figured out a way to get that deal done, i wonder if his relationship with Howe would have changed for the better. Who knows. At this point in football you clearly have your top-end talents who will go to the cartel clubs and the main clubs abroad, but there are clearly supremley talented players who are in the Bruno, Tonali, Isak mould that are there for the taking but you gotta do it 1 year sooner. We should have signed Maghes Akliouche for half of what he'll move for this summer. We should't be looking at Roma's keeper, it should be someone like Risser at Lens or Carnessechi at Atalanta. I saw we were linked with Palestra that fullback in Italy -- Tino should be out the door asap and Palestra should be in. There are 21-23 year old strikers in Spain, Itlay and France that should be immedialtey looked at towards the future. Gambles have to be made.

The funny thing is over the last few years it seems there are no real "secrets" in transfers anymore given the depth in data and plethora of transfer rumors. For years people were saying Cherki (for example) was so brilliant technically that he was destined for bigger and better things. Same was said about Isak. We were smart then and went after him when he had a horrendous season and took that brave gamble on him. We trusted our instincts and scouting. We did that same thing for Tonali, who had a disappointing campaign after his big breakthrough. We did the same for Gordon who was considered the next big thing but nobody knew what he was capable of and many (me included) thought he was overrated and a bad egg. So looking forward -- we stopped taking gambles in exchange for as sure as a thing as you could get and we failed to get them. I agree with you 100% mate, we should have gone after J Pedro the summer after missing out on Europe. We should have began the process of looking for depth in the forward positions with Wilson's health really on the decline. Semenyo was the gamble the we should went after; hell that Rayan was linked that summer too. We muddled about for Guehi and that was the deal that should have happened. We nickel and dimed that one whilst seemingly paying whatever Brentford and Forest wanted for Wissa and Elanga. Maddening business decisions.

Get in Atleti.

Simeone would be a god at SJP, imagine him gee'ng up our crowd at home under the lights in a big match?

I fucking love Simeone and his shithousers.

Why couldn't we have just signed Sorloth this past summer. He's a handful and he's not even fast.

Offisde, nevermind.

Barca level on aggregate.

Always felt Iraola was destined for a top job in Spain

He may have had his own issues but he wasn't going anywhere until mighty Man United came calling. She didn't want to be the CEO, she wanted to be an equity owning force of power in asset management function.

If Howe had Ashworth like structure in place his entire time here + Amanda we wouldn't be in this position we are today where the project is at a crossroads.

PCP may have had the asset management contract but they were also equity owners and their word as owners carried weight. Ideally that should have been passed on to the Reubens and they should really be the ones in that seat. Jamie tried stepping up this summer and likely learned while he may be great in real estate and property, football is the wild west and you need mavericks like Amanda to make shit happen. As I said before, forever grateful and thankful for all PIF have done, but football again, is not about what you did 5 years ago. it moves quickly and you have to keep up or you get left behind.

You didn't have to include Howe into that as I never mentioned him. That's a pretty shite thing to do mate. You can be thankful for what someone/or group did in the past and still hold them accountable for their inaction over the last few years.