The College Dropout

I was going to say Ashworth worked as ying to her and Howe’s Yang. During his tenure we got Minteh, Hall, Tino - longer term highly rated plays that we have rarely targeted since. He also was there for the Bruno release clause and apparently he was heavily considering selling Joelinton. And Staveley gave him the space to hold that ground. Ashworth would always say his job was to look after the club in terms of 3-5 years and a manager needed to focus on the now. I think you need that tension. Can’t have yes men. But also can’t be on different pages entirely. I’m in a minority but I think Isak getting a context in 2024 changes this season drastically.

Always offside that lad. No need.

Probably PIF being ticked off about that and her needing the funds for the shares/not being able to keep up with the investment. Indont think it happens without thr FFP thing at that time.

I’m not entertaining the idea of sacking Howe.

Why do you think Wilson is a bad appointment? Relationship with Howe and lack of elite pedigree ? I just think he needs to be able to challenge Howe and make the right decisions.

Won the Europa league and FA Cup. In not saying he would be an upgrade. But I’ve had this discussion with friends about Howe. Outside of the usual names you can argue those 2 cups put Glasner above and while I wouldn’t say he is better I think that’s a valid argument.

I’ve said this in a lot more words Staveley’s ‘trust me bro’ works with a lot of people. As soon as she left we lost the ability to consistently attract highly regarded players. I think it’s also impacted the dressing room.

We’ll see. No idea. my fear is that we won’t ’appointment’ ourselves to the top. Like Staveley had influence over PIF - she could push them into massive decisions, bigger than they initially planned (NUFC sale, Isak over Pedro for example). She was great at selling the vision to PIF but also football people. We landed big players linked to big clubs. We haven’t really been able to do that since. And she allowed people with different views to have power. But she herself had real gravitas as a part owner. Gravitas with PIF, the coaching team and squad. And the wider footballing community. Is any suit going to have all of those things or be better in other ways? I follow Madrid. Sanchez is second in command to Don Flo. He’s a business strategy guy. Highly competent. But he was at Madrid during the darker period in the 00’s as well. It’s Don Florentino himself who has that personality, drive etc. Hopkinson could be Sanchez, Wilson could be Calafat but I think we need a Florentino.

Didn’t sign anyone of note for a year and then spent £200m without a DOF or a proper transfer committee so that was largely wasted. Howe has made mistakes aye. But this isn’t a situation where we could go and grab another manager and surge up the table. The team is within 3 points of where it should be. It’s not bad coaching that is the root cause of the performances.

It’s the job of the transfer team to identify players and convince them to come. They kind of failed on both counts. Eddie shouldn’t have complete control on whether we keep or sell players. I’m not going to criticism him for having power that he shouldn’t.

Goalie looks weak. And Adingra is toasting the fullback. But aye they’ve played well. Dominated Sunderland for most of this game

Would’ve taken Xhaka over Ramsey. Just another midfielder who can put his foot on the ball and find a forward pass.

Aye won’t forget that. They aren’t good off it mind.

This is a good game. Adingra has the Leeds fullback on toast. Leeds have the Sunderland defence on toast.

He was fucking awful last season tbf. But he’s got his mojo back.

Leeds aren’t bad on the ball at all.

Leeds have split these open time and again. Got Sunderland double up on FPL and no way they were keeping that clean sheet. Fortunate to keep it at half time.

And that was naive by all parties. This is a multi billion pound industry. The big players won’t just let new guys stroll in and take their lunch. BUT Staveley had the vision and the stomach for the fight. I can take naivety if there’s ambition, hustle, drive and ability to mobilise people.

Tacticos are too frequently on overlook the mental side of the game. And the PFMs get ignored when they talk about it. The pundits are right when they say Chelsea lack leadership and experience.

It’s not true though. A team or player can ride a crest of a wave for an entire season or more. Overachieving Xg isn’t luck either. Players like Son regularly over achieve Xg because they are elite finishers. And a team can over achieve Xg for a season or longer due to team spirit, belief, confidence, determination etc. a David Moyes team might have comparable Xgc stats to a Marco Silva team but the Moyes team will get more clean sheets when that’s the case 9 times out of 10. That’s not luck. We’ve become a weak side that under performs Xg in both directions. It’s not bad luck. We’ve rarely had our defensive leaders fit together in Trippier, Burn, Schar and Pope (can include Joelinton too) and we lost a clinical striker in Isak. The players that have replaced them might not be technically or physically inferior but they are inferior mentally which means we lose in the tight margins.

Has nowt to do with anything tbf

I wanted to see us Tonali-lise the squad. Stil have physical monsters but get players technically a level above what we had. Wingers like Mbeumo or Semenyo. Midfielders like he Ederson or Gallagher. A attacker the profile of Etikite. Let’s see what we look like then. I think that squad has us in the chase for 4th-5th. We didn’t do that. We only bought 1 arguable upgrade from 6 signings. Of course we’ll go backwards.

This guy is a dickhead. He quoted his own tweet from March 2024 when we were fighting to finish 7th. Where was he March 2025? Howe has his issues and limitations as a manager - sure. But this team isn’t poorly coached. It’s just not very good or optimal for his style.

Had they won the Europa league he would’ve been sacked by now. They would be sitting with us or lower. Howe has that Man U squad and no Europe up there with points close to Vila and City.

They sold Grealish 6 years ago man. That PSR profit has been written offf for years. I respected their gamble last January. It almost worked. When they were in PSR trouble they got Maatsen in a dodgy deal last season. Ashworth had 2 plans to avoid FFP issues one of which was closed after he left. Staveley and co. weren’t perfect and June 2024 was a shitshow and a mess. But they (along with Ashworth, Howe etc) still built the squad that got us Isak, Tonali, Bruno etc. They wanted Emery then got us Howe. They convinced PIF to buy the club ffs. They got Ashworth. They convinced PIF to open the cheque book and sign Isak - convinced Isak to sign. Tonali, Bruno, Trippier. They extended Tonali and Bruno. Since they left we’ve had 1 major re-signature in Gordon. maybe 1 signing that’s been considered a coup - routinely failing to land high reputation players going back to Marc Guehi 2024. Im not having a bad week. I’ve said this all summer and most of last season too. I’m bringing it up again now because all the attention is on Eddie Howe when it should be on the owners. We aren’t midtable because of an underperforming coach(Eddie has made mistakes). We are midtable because of rudderless leadership since July 2024 at the latest. It’s caught up. It’s not a change of opinion or being emotional. I said in September i would have no issues with this squad finishing 8th. The squad isn’t good enough to compete in CL and be meaningfully better than most teams in this division