The College Dropout

Yep. Deeper squad. More sustainable style of play too. More technical but they have the players for it. There’s an argument they have a top 5/6 academy in the country too. Using them for FFP shithousing. Far better foundations. we have richer owners but I don’t know if ours are as invested as Villa’s. They made mistakes along the way but corrected them.

Without Trippier, Burn, Targett, Wood, Bruno - Howe struggles to keep that team up. That Gerrard team was top 10 quality.

Nah Villa had a better squad and a better academy. The GK Cash Konsa Mings Digne mcGinn Ramsey Coutinho the main striker Bailey was there Douglas Luiz Come on man that’s a talented squad. Way better than the one Howe took over. All of those players are better than Longstaff, Almiron and many others. Like talent wise for their position. Gerrard was a TERRIBLE manager. I keep saying it - Bruce wasn’t. Bruce had over 10 years in the PL and like 3 Champ promotions. Gerrard won’t do that.

Our players are on good money too which is a big issue. And the squad is old. And the players are more valuable to us than the fees we would get.

Murphy struggled in championship loans. Howe’s greatest strength is getting the best out of most our lads. Managers with greater reputations would complain about a few of them. Rafa didn’t really trust Schar in a 2. Few of our lads are genuine top quality that would work on any circumstance.

We were awful at times last season. Worst defence in the league or close at points. Got as low as 10th or close. We recovered well. Last summer we doubled down on pressing with the players we bought and gave new contracts too. If we wanted a more patient style we should’ve got Tielemans over Tonali. We should have got a playmaker wide man that wants the ball to feet rather than Barnes. We gave Joelinton a new contract. We don’t have the players for the possession stuff to really work. It’s a squad built for high press so we need to go and do it. I have my doubts about that style. But it’d Howe’s style and it has largely worked.

Yeh I agree. But ppl are talking about ‘since he’s been here he’s collected the 4th most points’ and my thought is - so what does that mean for us going forward? Nobody expects us to finish 4th this season. I don’t anyway.

Howe’s overall body of work is excellent for us. I don’t think anyone would agree that. But do we think we’ll finish 4th this season? Why? Our performances and form over the last 12 months suggest we won’t be that consistent. We often look vulnerable defensively and incoherent in attack. With repeated issues over the last year.

I’m one of the least knee jerk people on here. I don’t hero worship Eddie in the good times and he’s not a villain to me at the low times.

We were a bad injury/season for Minteh away from having to sell a crown jewel. We were lucky. Risk to reward is out of whack because we won’t attempt to do that again (hopefully).

You realise Villa hired Steven Gerrard during this era? They hired Emery & Monchi and now they are flying. If PIF invest properly and wisely outside the first team. We’ll eventually strike gold. Stadium, academy, hires etc.

I can understand this perspective. Amanda was very Newcastle United. Bold. Confident. She talked big talk. We like that and engage with that. Like as far as a Tory businesswoman can be she was a great figurehead that connected with the base. As a club we have always had characters as leaders in my lifetime. Eales won’t connect with us - he comes across too corporate. I dont agree with that line. But I get it.

Agreed. Eddie has the most credit in the bank out of the 3 we talk about. But I suppprt Newcastle United, not Eddie Howe.

I’d disagree with this premise. We don’t look well coached at all. Players don’t look like they know what they are meant to do. Again I’ll use Spurs. They look well coached in open play. There’s a clear identity. The players look like they know what the coach has asked them to do. But it’s fairly straight forward for opposition managers to attack the weaknesses in their approach. I don’t think Ange makes enough adjustments. We dont have a coherent identity. Players don’t look like they know what to do. Where to be.

It says something that after 1 defeat people are talking about Howe’s job.

Aye but they might not think it’s possible to make it work with each other.

Is that what actually happens in real life? I suspect the vision is imposed by PIF. Eales and everyone else does their best to align. I don’t think any of them have PIF support implicitly. Generally Managers have 3 - 15 months to hit short term goals. Allowed a few bad results, maybe a bad season. DOFs have 1-2.5 years to start hitting medium term goals. Allowed a dud manager if they’re lucky and maybe a couple dud windows which might take time to reveal. Whoever is in charge on the ground (Eales I guess) would have 2-3 years to show meaningful progress. We can speculate as to the contributory factors. But there’s a view that Staveley and co. had one bad year running the ship which facilitated their exit. If I’m Eales, Mitchell or Howe I’m thinking I need short term success in my world to secure my job.

I agree with this. But also we don’t play with thr authority of a top team. A bit opposite to Ange. Spurs get on the ball like a really good side. But they ain’t.

Didn’t Eales start it? Perhaps unintentionally which is poor.

Aye it’s not the end of world. But we’ve been consistently poor for 5 games imo.

That’s something Rafa would do. Rafa wouldn’t mind shaking things up if it meant he got more power at the end. By doing what Howe did - the club then had to come out publicly and state Howe’s position of authority unambiguously. Reaffirming authority and power is important. I don’t think he got 100% what he wanted. Which yes has meant the vibe isn’t at its best.

You need some continuity to do that though. You can’t chop and change leadership and expect to execute a 5-year plan. They will have their own plans. In this new world we don’t know who is really who. At Chelsea it was Roman calling the big shots. Marina, Cech and a few other lieutenants did the day to day stuff. At Spurs you know it’s mostly Levy making key decisions. He’s not even majority shareholder. Edu and one of the owners sons seem to run Arsenal. We don’t know who is who and to what degree with us yet. That Monchi setup with Emery and the other dude seems brilliantly aligned. Man U are now trying to align. And I guess so are we but in a bit by bit way. And not sure who is coordinating it. At Man U it’s deffo Ratcliffe. Don’t know who is our shot caller and who really sets the vision and executes it.

Aye much less scrutiny over there. there’s reasons to join England - granted. Avoiding ppl trying to interfere isn’t one of them.

Howe has a bit of the political nature of Rafa. Doesnt mind playing internal club politics in the media if he thinks the results will be favourable.

Btw a proper DoF should be able to execute a 5-year plan. Has Mitchell done a job for 5 years?