The College Dropout

More talented than Karim Benzema. Way worse application.

Despite having prime Wijnaldum & Sissoko available our managers choosing the Anita-Colback pivot is the worst i've ever seen. They didn't have age or injuries as an excuse. They were just bad. Shelvey being an improvement on them both is shocking stuff.

Agreed. A CM is right up there.

Positive news. this administration seem very leaky. So I thought we would hear more about possible CM deals.

He’s terrible. wouldn’t stand out in the championship.

Lack of linked CM's is really worrying. What is this man seeing?

Don’t like that he’s not known for his aerial prowess and gives away a lot of fouls.

We'll get gazumped by Wham.

We had Shearer and what’s his face as manager though. what’s his face era was the reason we went down.

Notice how you are putting words in my mouth? My post wasn’t a compliment to Bruce. It’s gigantic criticism of Howe. We got rid of a dinosaur that everyone despised. And we are no better for it. I don’t think any manager in this league would have amassed less points/wins in the 11 games

That was some of the best midfield play I’ve seen from a NUFC shirt for a long time. some fucking engine, strength and passing ability. I like how he’s happy to get on the ball and can keep it then move again.

A big worry for me is that Howe rates this lad.

I think a Gerrard would’ve helped with a new manager boost at the least. in our situation there’s always the chance players mentally log out because they know they won’t be part of the long-term project. A Gerrard appointment, certainly for the English players would energise them. IMO Bruce would have won more points if not for the toxic crowd.

Brucey was winning those for a couple seasons. Rafa, Pardew too. he doesn’t have the nous or even the jamminess. I’m scared. Such a disappointment.

Also it's dependent on when the player signs a contract. If a player is within the first year or 2 of really breaking out and hasn't renewed his contract, the release clause won't be astronomical vs his value, especially to PL clubs. I assume there's a lot of good young La Liga talents with sub 60m release clauses.

I thought Partey & Rodri from Atleti went to City & Arsenal from activated release clauses. Kepa too. I had assumed release clauses for La Liga players would be a good market for us. Young players that haven't signed 80m+ release clauses.

I was coming into say i'm disappointed that we haven't been linked with any central midfielders. A good CM can have a dramatic effect.

He didn't let the interviewer finish asking his question. The interviewer was clearly extremely flustered. Klopp in the Jose territory.

Krul pre-injury was better than Dubs for sure,

The context of not rating a man called Dan Ashworth, is few English coach or football person has spearheaded major European success. There's few Englishmen that have been at the cutting edge of the game in the last 20 years. You have dude who was at Leicester, Michael Edwards at Liverpool but there are not many. You've focussed in on the name part. But overall, it's not the most exciting appointment. He's not brought in numerous players peanuts and sold them on for £50m+ or sold to big clubs like Southampton a few years ago. Brighton don't have a production line of prospects. No genius managerial appointments. If it's a foreign name there's a possibility they've been involved in some of the massive successes abroad that we don't know in detail e.g. RedBull key people, Sevilla, Benfica production line, Ajax revival and production line, Atalanta, Sassuolo, key people behind THAT Monaco team etc. Thanks for sharing. A lot of this is creating links between FA & Clubs. And as I thought, a lot of this is down to the Clubs improving their youth systems but Ashworth definitely seems intelligent and capable. Fair point. City won their first league title with Brain Marwood as DoF who join the year of the Takeover. He did a good job, brought in Mancini, Silva, Aguero etc. then City hit a cieling and moved him upstairs. It was then they brought in Txiki & co. from Barcelona and they've gone to another level. I think Ashworth could be a great appointment and his CV from a on the field perspective seems to be solid, competenent work in difficult circumstances. But it's not exciting. He's not been closely involved in anything regarding the ELITE in European football that some of us were perhaps hoping for.

Genuine question. How much of that is down to him? And how much of that is down to the Academy's of Chelsea, Man City et al.?

You've seen Brighton for the last 5 years. Small club. Well run from the top. Decent managerial appointments, decent transfers. Established PL team. You've seen the outcome and it's solid.

Yes in comparison Marc Overmars is more exciting than Dan Ashworth. A lot of us remember him as a player and are loosely aware of what he's done at Ajax. You've got the big name players that have been sold for big money and deep European runs. Then you have a man called Dan. Expectations are immediately lower, you expect he's worked with (at best) midtable PL teams. Turns out it's boring Brighton. Their most exciting player is a Chelsea youth fullback.

He's Technical Director at Brighton. So there's that.

A lot of us were expecting a Marc Overmars type appointment (I don't know diff between DoF & TD). To see us go for the man whose club is 13th in the league, is called Dan and never finished in the top half of the PL is underwhelming.