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According to that article, we're one of the clubs voting to keep VAR. Considering Howe has been pretty explicit that he doesn't like it, I'd be interested to know who is pushing that line.

Yeah I tend to agree with this. The idea of SSN flashing up the headline "Howe sacked at Newcastle" feels very wrong as things stand. My only concern on that side is if we need to progress at a certain speed to actually make the whole thing work e.g. to attract the sponsors to pay for the wages to cover the FFP to keep PIF interested etc etc. But otherwise I'm relatively happy on the organic slowboat as long as it looks like we're going in the right direction.

I agree with you, but next season is a 'season in', so we ought to have relatively high hopes. We've got no distractions, all our main competitors have extra European commitments. We've got managerial stability, many of our competitors are in flux etc. We aren't guaranteed anything - not least as it's a long summer ahead - but we ought to be rattling cages next season.

How do you mean? Like winning no games or winning no competitions?

I think it's pretty much his private aim every season. These words could easily look very silly in a few months, but next season looks like a good year to go and do it, as well.

I'm in no hurry to sell, not least as his value's probably never been lower. Big year for him next season though, and hopefully a fantastic one.

I've got mixed feelings. I wouldn't be too concerned to be honest. Overall we've done well against the big clubs this season. Can see an argument for wanting to get hard into the season and make a statement. Meanwhile, lower teams will still see us as a scalp to take with a soft underbelly. Would hope we get after them like a tornado too...

Same.

Huge setback for the club today. Very bad luck that 7th didn't get Europe. Gutted, it felt like we were halfway to a trophy next year. Probably mainly sorry as I was looking forward to Eddie having his second go at European football. It even has implications for the likes of Miley. On the upside, we're well and truly back in his wheelhouse. If the players keep their heads straight, which they ought to, there's a solid chance we'll be absolutely exterminating teams next season. Big summer ahead, bigger than I expected this morning. Rationally, today shouldn't affect how the board - or we - see Eddie's position. But the consequences will probably ripple across the next 24 months one way or another, re: Bruno, youth development, importance of league performance etc.

Sunday name would be someone's full, proper name i.e. Stephen instead of Steve. In this context I took it to be ironic i.e. calling them a pack of bastards and cunts etc.

I sure hope so. And I choose to believe so.

Comfortably the best of our 3 RWs in Eddie's first season. Someone mentioned it the other day and it had never occurred to me - we could have really done with him during our injury crisis this season. Real shame. Daft sod.

These are cool, thanks.

Or not

Yeah I was just being finickity, I realised you personally wouldn't have meant that It's just that other people can have very different ideas of what qualified means, so you can think you're having a mutually understood conversation with someone when you're actually not at all. Mix that in with motivation to avoid being exposed and criticised and it can lead to very 'safe', bad choices. Recommend Ashworth 3 years ago? No one would blame you if it went wrong. He went to all the best schools, who could've known. Recommend Howe 3 years ago? Unorthodox, he got his last team relegated, expect to be excoriated if it doesn't work out.

Oh, I'm not losing any sleep over it. I'm pretty confident all will turn out fine Just a bugbear of mine, your use of the word qualified. That's kind of my point (which I know you understand based on your other posts elsewhere about potential signings). You can end up with a credentialism, with people being assessed on where they've worked previously or what UEFA licenses they've attained rather than their actual talent and knowledge. Potentially generating a shortlist of qualified people with all the capable, suitable people excluded.

I don't really see anybody being happy about it, though? That's the bit I think we're confused by. It's more a sense of relief after a drunk driver hits you, and while you've got a damaged car, they're in a coma. There's no part of you that's glad you've been crashed into. Unless you're willing to put your body on the line to hurt drunk drivers I suppose.

We've been doing pretty well overall, although I don't think it's been clear he was integral to what's been going well. It's not clear what he's been involved with, which has made it harder to assess. Signings? Going well before he got here and going well since, on first sight. Became more wobbly while he was here, if anything. Involved in getting Gordon, but we know Eddie had tracked him for years already and the documentary suggests Amanda handled the negotiations. And we can't totally ignore Tonali. Training ground? Initial reforms seemingly based on Eddie's preferences, and began before Ashworth arrived. Developments on entirely new site sluggish. Fitness? Using his physio hires, we've had the worst injury crisis in decades. Player relations? Tasked with new contracts for Bruno and Joelinton, both became unsettled and ended up being escalated out of his hands and resolved quickly and satisfactorily by others. Youth? Quite impressive overall. Things like our loans under Ameobi are questionable, but seemingly we've massively improved our recruitment and scouting. Happy to give credit here. Women? All I've heard is he's been invisible here. As I said, it's not a slamdunk that he's useless at all. There are certainly possible excuses or justifications for most of the above. But nevertheless, before it all kicked off there were certainly already grounds to question what he was actually bringing to the party.

As I say, I really don't know. But one or two articles have basically made it sound as though the agency, after conducting it's own assessments and such, weeded out the majority and presented around half a dozen profiles to our board, before the final two or three went to Yasir. So depending on our attitude to the search - and I fully respect we're probably still time-poor - it's possible we wouldn't even know who the other applicants were. Even with your points system, it's essentially the equivalent of filtering Amazon products by 4 stars and above. But with the stars being awarded by bots and accountability-allergic bureaucrats. "No one's ever been fired for buying IBM". I'm also a bit surprised at the suggestion Spors would make it to the final two before his references were checked... At this level I would've thought that would've been nailed by the agency a while back.

From my perspective, I think we're just already pricing in that it's a big shame we ever hired the guy. It was a bad move and a big misstep. But not one which wasn't very well justified at the time we made the decision in early '22, so no blame attached. Since then we've found good reasons to question his quality as an operator - not slamdunks, but still. And now it's been revealed conclusively that he's poisonous, so we're well out of it. So yes, it would definitely have been better if either we'd never met him or if he was a higher quality man. But allowing for that, we've found out relatively quickly before he was in even deeper, our club's still standing, backroom functions seem to be carrying on just as well if not better, the evidence is we have one of the most ambitious and competent ownerships in the world, they're not letting us be pushed around, and one of our major rivals is publicly embarrassing itself and heavily suggesting they don't know how to conduct an effective operation. There are plenty of positives to take from it once you accept that yes, it's a shame we ever met the guy. Edit: And yes, as Kaka said, we will still have extracted value from having him in the for the first 12 months or so, just down to the weakness of our previous club structures if nothing else.

It'd be interesting to find out on what basis our recruiters are screening out applications. Whether Giles is one of them or not - again, we can't make too many assumptions at the minute. I have to say, I'm not entirely comfortable with us (apparently?) outsourcing the search to an external agency again. It made more sense to me the first time around with Ashworth, when we'd just been taken over and had much less internal infrastructure. I realise that the exact way in which we're using them could vary a lot, and therefore affect my opinion. But if we're quite reliant on them cutting out 95% of the field, as portrayed in the media, there's scope for it to hold us back a lot. The worst case scenario is assessments being carried out by miniature versions of that Eghbali guy at Chelsea.

Yep, I'm firmly in the no rush camp.

Interesting...

Imaging having him AND Tonali... Got to admit I'm praying Bruno's never been attached to all this given Paqueta is his best friend. Woodgate was shattered by it, but Bowyer had the form of his life.

SLUTTY SEAHORSE KLAXON!!! @Kid Icarus INCOMING!!!