The College Dropout

Where they were unlucky is that they did really well and fell just short at the last. CL top 8, CL Quarter Final, 66 points. 6th. That was a great effort. I don't expect we'll get close to any of those. But we might win a cup though. Let's be honest - we barely have any cover for him. We. have 3 first-team fullbacks. We never play the kids. We were always going to run Tino into the ground. I love Big Joe and we wouldn't be in the CL or have won the League Cup. But we should've sold him that summer as Ashworth planned. We either have Anderson at the club or we don't sign Elanga for £55m + keep Minteh.

Slightly smaller budget but similar size of teams and issues. People forget thought that Villa's transformation pre-dates ours by 4-5 years. So they've built better infrastructure. We are fundamentally different though. We had a good leadership team early that led to big quick success. That has been disbanded and we are facing problems from that (our issues all stem from Ashworth and then Staveley leaving, it's been a mess since Ashworth left and worse since Staveley left). Villa are the opposite, been getting better on and off the pitch. Key difference is Villa leveraged the workarounds way better than we did. Trading valuable kids with Everton and Chelsea. We waited until the last minute and got the worst deals out of everyone. They sold Ramsey for next June not the one just gone. Sold the womens team - that loophole has closed. I've said it for over a year. Their ownership and structure is working far better than ours. We got the league cup and 5th from the fumes of the Staveley era. We've not built on that foundation. 3 windows, £250m, we've signed 1 player that improves on the best Staveley era team. That's piss poor. These are the chickens coming home to roost I warned about for the last year. Poor leadership is why we have such a bang average squad. He's not blameless for the squad but it shouldn't be his responsibility so I can't blame him too much. No functional transfer committee signs Elanga for £55m. That is a baby-Antony Man U type signing. And even they have fixed that issue now. It's almost identical when you think about it. A manager-driven signing and the price is crazy. Obvious from day one - this is a terrible signing. Literally worth half the money max. No functioning club let's that happen.

That squad (they ended with, not from the start of the season) is stronger than the squad they have now which has them on 33 points after 16 games. -Guessand -Sancho +Rashford +Asensio The club haven't given Howe the squad. We had an opportunity to build and we squandered it.

Worst of all. I don’t think we even try to play possession based. It’s just a slower version of what we were doing before with the same profile of player.

But do you want him gone? Me - I don't think the squad is good enough. So he could finish 10th and I would want to keep him. Maybe even lower midtable.

This is where i'm at. But I expect PIF to fire him if we don't qualify and we'll go back to also rans for awhile.

If we miss out on Europe - do people want him gone? And do you expect him gone if we don't get Europe?

Water under the bridge for me

Shearer very candid on his pod and accurate.

Agreed. When I say he’s not a good footballer. I mean generally. Including football IQ. He’s a poor footballer at this level with a few great attributes. You can blame systems for good players with some weaknesses not playing well. We do need to support him but it is genuinely galling how bad he is fundamentally.

I do agree that it is too early to tell. But there are grounds for major concern.

Yes i think it's worse at the top level. Its an issue at Real Madrid and England. It's harder to drop certain players. Harder to sub them. Xabi's problems really escalated when he subbed Vini (when winning) and purposely not subbing him at the next similar opportunity (and starting him even) compounded his issue. But Xabi felt compelled to do it. It's easy to sub or not start Guler in comparison.

We signed Kelly & Osula. And not signing players is a choice. Failing to land targets is on us. And i've just clocked, we started swinging and missing on a lot more targets after Ashworth left (publicly at least). Everything has it's pros and cons too.

Agree with all this.

Some of us fans are very very dumb. It's life. We won the league cup this year as in 2025, 7 months ago look at them

Agreed. This was needed though. We needed Ramsdale to get a run of games and prove that he's inferior to a section of the fans. If you've watched Ramsdale and looked at the data, it was obvious and as you say - not a hot take. But some needed to see it play out. When Pope gets back in the team just support him. Hopefully next summer we upgrade. Conceding possesion from long kicks does add pressure to a team for sure. But you know what causes more pressure? Having to do more defending or concede shots on goal because your goalie can't command his box.

Agreed. Gordon is only ever 1 good game away from starting the next in his favoured position. Barnes can play well one game and sit the bench the next or move around.

We'll continue to be up and down all season. Maybe with a rise at some point towards the end when we are out of cups. 7th-9th finish is my guess. Most of NO will turn on him. Including those who swore undying loyalty.

The Howe'd thing we need to move beyond. We need to sign actually good/great footballers. That Howe unlocks their top levels. We know all the names. The Jacob Murphy, even Joelinton thing. That should be by exception. We shouldn't buy players to be "Howe'd". Saying that - I don't think Ramsey fits in that profile. Ramsey we were buying the dip in a highly talented player, supposedly. We just haven't seen it. I would say Elanga is an example of a player that needs to be "Howe'd" and should be avoided.

How many teenagers are first choice for their teams, start regularly and play well in the Premier League? How many in the top 8? There's literally maybe half a dozen in the entire division at any point in time. As of now... Josh King, Bergvall, Estevao (doesn't even consistently start), Yoro? That's 4. Only really Lewis-Skelly of last season or Mainoo the year before fit the description from the top of my head. So yeh anyone expecting a teenager to start and perform consistently well in the PL is dumb. It's not reasonable or a standard.

No offence but to dumb fans - aye. A 24 yo player with 137 PL appearances being behind Joe Willock at CM is a genuine concern. That's valid. It's not kneejerk. It's right that big questions are posed. It was clear to most sensible fans that Hall just wasn't Howe-ready when he signed. Which is fine because he was 19 and had barely played mens football. Howe was probably a little too hesitant to throw him back in but the age and experience gap was the relevant factor. There's not an age or experience gap here. A more relevant comparison is Tonali. But with Tonali we could see Howe wanted to introduce him to the team - he just wasn't fitting into the system and maybe had not accustomed to the league.

I don't think he has. We just play slower and press less. We don't do anything different in approach. Most of the players we've signed suit the high press high transition approach on paper.

The reaction to signing a 19yo with less than 25 career senior appearances can't be similar to that of signing a 24yo with 150+ games under his belt. Like that doesn't make any sense.

From memory both were seen as exciting signings. I think a decent portion didn't realise Hall would need some development time in that first season but that's it. I can't prove it but I know Hall wasn't Eddie's preference. That's a DoF style transfer. Edit: I'm saying preference here. If given free reign, I don't think Howe goes for 19-yo Hall first. I think Hall is brought to Eddie and pushed for - and Eddie agrees because Hall is a massive talent.

But he was still heavily involved. With Ashworth around we don't sign all of Wissa, Ramsey, Ramsdale & Elanga. There's been a clear change in transfer approach since he left. We've not signed the Minteh, Tino or Hall profiles since he left.