The College Dropout

FFP might cause transfer market deflation. But last summers money, current Gordon is worth £50m easily. Brennan Johnson went for that amount to Spurs. Gordon is tracking towards a 12+ goal season. 20 G/A contribution season, all from open play.

Depends on the money we get for Joe and what that means for the overall transfer plans. Would rather sell Longstaff. Ederson, Willock, Joelinton, Tonali is a super fit, quick, strong bunch. But my own personal preference for midfielders would have a more technical blend. I have my little desktop scouting process. First I watch a couple compilations: Then I check a few stat and profile pages: https://fbref.com/en/players/a9202def/Ederson https://www.whoscored.com/Players/362556/Show/Éderson https://www.sofascore.com/player/ederson/946888 I find I get a decent flavour of a player looking at this. He's a tough box-to-box player, a dribbling CM, who likes a good long pass and has an eye for goal. Statistically, not a great or progressive passer. Joelinton, Willock & Tonali have most of those strengths and weaknesses. I like him from what I see. But it's more of the same which is underwhelming.

Just his profile is very similar to what we have. A great athlete but a limited passer. We are not evolving the style we are doubling down. Hard.

Not loving the Ederson links.

He’s gone down in my estimation with that. Totally unnecessary. He’s had previous as well. I don’t think players should have loyalty to clubs. But at least have some respect and class.

If we paid 50% more than you, you reckon he would turn us down?

IMO you try to rotate in 3 scenarios: (1) where you think you will win comfortably - Crystal Palace (H) for example. But for us.. these games are rare. Didn't take those few occasions. (2) when you are up by a wide margin early - this is the least beneficial type of resting IMO but Howe doesn't do this much either - Sheff U away for example. (3) On a congested fixture list, you just pick 1 to rotate - 4 games in 14 days, pick 1 to rotate players. We didn't do that either. All the teams that compete in the CL group stages need to rotate. The elite teams can rest players in 1 or 2 CL games. The rest have to rest players in domestic cup competitions and the league IMO. When it was easier to do it, Howe didn't. When it was harder to do it, Howe didn't do it. If not for Burn's injury - we probably don't see much of Livra. The entire approach to rotation is wrong IMO. And there's history - here and at Bournemouth. So I can't cut Eddie as much slack as others are willing. There's too much evidence that he's a co-conspirator in this crisis. And tbh - I think Klopp is similar (but more willing to rotate still). Hence why Liverpool have feast seasons and some really ropey ones. I hope this is a ropey one for Howe. But the rotation, fatigue thing is an area of weakness. Not just something that has happened through bad luck alone. Yes finally we acknowledge he is a fallible human being who can make bad decisions. You are right - he is not perfect. Nobody else in this conversation is suggesting he's replaced though.

Stop with this "small windows" stuff. The man doesn't like to rotate. There are plenty of examples of other managers rotating players in the league, away from home. Someone gave you the DeZerbi example against us. You don't want to engage with ideas genuinely.

I would've rotated more. And kept the lads out the squad or on the bench for 90 minutes. I would've done the same against City & Chelsea (as I also showed). I simply didn't/don't see how we could attack the League Cup, the Champions League, the league and FA Cup with our squad successfully. That's always been my opinion. Now I admit - had we not conceded a fluke goal against Chelsea, I would have taken our current predicament gladly. But my overall thought is right - we have too little quality to compete on 4 fronts. As @80 said - you have to prioritise.

Multiple games Isak has barely been able to move and offered nothing on the counter. He stayed on. Literally anyone capable of running would've been better. Happens again and again. Gordon seemed to play for an age semi-injured against Chelsea. I believe Schar started a game carrying an injury that initially ruled him out and was brought off after 15 minutes anyway.

Yes - he does. He did it at Bournemouth and he's doing it here. That's his style. Top post. I think me and @Erikse were saying if we were too tired to compete against Everton, we would lose pretty much every game thereafter until the fixture congestion eased up because there was zero indication that Eddie would rotate and recover players. A lack of rotation is a feature of Eddie's management. Doing Plan A better is a feature of Eddie's management. I've said as such for a long time. Eddie doesn't like to rotate. Even with low expectations, he's rested players even less than I thought he would. And as more comes out... he does seem to also play players' through injuries and knocks and returns them early. He's done it with an injury-prone player in their 30s he'll do it with anyone. That's his style. Momentum. Heart. 100% effort and commitment. Don't take a backwards step.

I've BEEN suggested Howe needs to rotate significantly - play any kid if necessary. The same people who liked my posts then - are making the same argument now. No revisionism.

Me and others have been saying he should do this for months. I said it regarding the Man U league cup game and thought he should've rotated before that as well. This reality - has been months in the making. It didn't start in December or November, it started from day dot. At the least - we would have a less fatigued first-team. That much is a scientific fact no? Literally, any player that is eligible. The purpose is to save legs. Yes I agree, we should've rotated earlier in the season too. I thought it was strange at the time that Tonali didn't start any games when the investigation started. If to only save others' legs later in the season - he was worth starting. People on here said this at the time too - this isn't hindsight.

What happens when there's barely any money to be raised from selling them? Personally, I don't think you raise any more than £20-25m combined for Almiron & Longstaff. Eales used selling the £50m player for a reason. I do think they are soft-launching the idea of selling one of our better players eventually. I don't think that guarantees a sale in the summer. I do think qualifying for Europe is massive though.

London's heaving and relatively young, affluent population is a massive saving grace for them. Edit: And every London-based club.

Great post @80 Any fixture at any point of the season (besides the CL fixtures) he could've used injuries, fatigue, overload, thin squad, fixture congestion as a reason to field youngsters that he knows aren't at the level. Yes, that would almost be conceding a match before a ball has been kicked. But as you say - he's earned enough credit to be trusted in his judgement to protect players. He's dug himself a hole. There's never a good time to rotate, you just have to bite the bullet. This started from August btw - it requires management to be proactive. I've just discovered this article and it is so relevant it's crazy. It's about Rafa's rotation policy here and it uses Eddie Howe's Bournemouth as an example of a successful team/manager that doesn't rotate. It's further proof that the lack of rotation is at least partly designed rather than simply caused by injuries. https://www.themag.co.uk/2016/09/science-thinking-behind-rotation-rafa-benitez-newcastle-united/ "So far so good for the “rotationists”, yet when I looked at the stats for Matt Ritchie, (NUFC’s stand out player this season) in his previous Championship campaign with Bournemouth, I was surprised to find that not only did Matt play 46 games in the promotion winning side of 2014/15 but that a large number of his colleagues featured heavily in the high end 30+ games column as well. In fact no fewer than 10 players started in 38 games or more during Eddie Howe’s promotion winning campaign Ritchie, Matt MF Right-midfield 46 Cook, S DF Centre-back 46 Elphick DF Centre-back 46 Wilson, C FW Striker 45 Arter MF Box2Box MFr 43 Daniels, C DF Left-back 42 Francis, S DF Right-back 42 Pugh, M MF Left-midfield 42 Surman, A MF Midfield 41 Kermorgant MF Attacking MF/St 38 That represents almost an entire team except for a keeper and Boruc arrived in September 2014 and still managed 37 games in the whole season." Callum Wilson started 45 league games that season (checked this on whoscored, Ritchie started 44, came off the bench twice) - the idea of that seems crazy atp.

Agreed. That's why i'm not enthused by the Ederson links. He's another big, physical midfielder, great athlete, not technically superior.

No it doesn't. The ethos should come from people likely to be in position 5+ years. Like Ownership and Technical Directors. You then hire managers who will buy into that approach. That's increasingly the model in the Premier League and across Europe.

It's fucking stupid. Tonali & Barnes have barely kicked a ball but their value has increased. I'm finding increasing good NUFC content on Twitter. I like The Athletic but there are a lot of forced articles. The long-pieces with insider info or conversations with people within the leadership are great but most of the rest of it is filler.

Aye - they would be dragging PSR & FFP every week for the last 2 months. I don't think the club want to take that approach publicly. But they would have put it on the agenda in the media. Likewise they would've been vocal about the PL purposely trying to implement laws to specifically halt Newcastle's progress. That might not be the best approach. It probably isn't. But it would be on the media agenda more. I'm hearing more outlets talk about FFP drawing up the bridge to success though so our approach is working.. it's just a long-term approach.

Google search suggests he earns over £100k p/w. It's a lot for a back-up midfielder for us. Spurs wage bill is considerably larger than ours which is probably why we didn't sign Maddison.

This a million times. Brentford are similar although less successful. It's the Owner's approach and data company behind it.

Similar issue to Phillips no? Fairly big fee, fairly big wages, low resale value. Not as bad.

100% agreed. I'm sure some managers would've done the same as Howe and with a little bit of luck (Chelsea QF, getting a result against Milan) it may have been worth it anyway. but I reckon a lot of top managers would've done exactly as you've suggested. Dare I say, Howe with a bit more experience or nous at this elite level may have tinkered his approach slightly.

Not rush players back from injury. Take a short term poor team to ensure we have a decent team now. I don’t buy this idea that he’s had to risk players fitness again and again. It’s been a poor and continued choice.