macphisto

Talk of Martin's age reminds me of Ajax looking at academy players in Ghana that popped up the other day. https://www.instagram.com/reel/DDcB3RmNOCe/?igsh=MXF4ZjR0cGxlYmh6aw==

Donovan Bailey and Denise Lewis rocking our shirts in 1996 on Sports Personality of the Year!

I do think Ashworth is very over rated and his track record is not that great but I do have sympathy for his last two roles. Director of football was never going to work at Newcastle with Staveley and her husband and likewise at Man U where there are so many chiefs.

I agree with @80 about fluffing us with words. I'd also add that I don't think the bid for for Guehi was genuine, a smokescreen to hide we weren't spending money but could say we tried. Are we really to believe money was there but we couldn't find anyone to improve a team that finished 7th last season? If we don't buy anyone in January, the messaging about January isn't sounding great at the moment, then it would confirm the money was never there for me. I say all of this in relation to Howe and where we finish. Who knows internally what our real targets are?

I wonder if they are demanding Europe? Want it, yes but demand it? Their actions certainly don't say they are desperate to finish high up the league.

There is no excuses but there are very valid reasons if we don't. There is no way you can reasonably demand European football if you have not invested in the team for 18 months. Also important to take into account that due to Tonali being an idiot our main signing of that summer is now having to be bedded in a season later than planned. As a thought experiment, if we had all been told after the summer of 2023 that we would not sign another player up to now. Where would most people have predicted we would be? I'd say where we are now. We can all look back and say why did we buy Barnes, not a new RW, etc. but Howe is not the Director of football and whatever his influence in recruitment did he know the taps would be turned off after 2023?

I wonder if Craig Hope's latest article is the club laying the ground to build a new stadium?

If that does happen then the people in charge are completely clueless. What targets should we meet considering where we were and how much has been invested? From an investment point of view we are where we deserve to be.

Maybe we decided to bulk the squad up at the expense of the first team, apart from Tonali, for Champions League football which I fully understand.

No excuse, when money has been there under Howe, it's easily been spent. Take a step back, PIF didn't spend any money in the summer on transfers, refused to exploit loopholes to get more money into the club, no progress at all on the stadium or training ground even though the decision on the stadium was "imminent" and Saudi clubs spent no where near what they did in the previous summer. You can make valid arguments in each point above but when put together you can see a clear pattern that PIF took a step backwards from football. Maybe they're taking time to decide what they want to do in football and have a joined-up strategy as they have Newcastle, Saudi League and now the World Cup.

That's how smokescreens work, they are supposed to be "genuine".

Olise and Guehi were smokescreens to say we tried to buy, we just didn't have the will or capacity to spend money this summer. When we've had money, we've spent it under Howe.

I think he's talking about our opponents, people like Levy, being very proactive in preventing us from growing; in contrast to PIF's slow - slow approach.

Which Global audience? Any one East of Middle East and Champions League is on too late. America and that's people finishing work at best on the East Coast, West Coast would be too early. Is it mainly Basically Africa and Europe who watch the matches?

We'll see and hope you're right. Quality normally always shows in the end and we don't have as much as other teams in my opinion.

Each to their own I guess.

The New Era hats are pretty cool. Picked up a trucker cap and bucket hat at the weekend. The jacket felt quite big, normally a medium in everything and went for a size smash one in the the end.

It's what we'll be come May unless we spend big in January. It is what it is, next summer will tell us all what we need to know about the intentions of the club.

I find it so weird that people make the sound of booing. Sound like an idiot and something children do. Grumble, swear, moan (all natural sounds) but booing is so strange and unnatural.

That's what we are.

Who have they sold? Can we compare to them in terms of quality of players to move on? No idea about Villa but I don't see a lot of clubs lining up for our players. Hindsight is a wonderful thing but selling a few players after we finished 4th was the time to push on. Wilson and Willock would have been prime candidates but were they already injured by the end of that season?

There's plenty who are very average. Howe, nor any other manager, should be under pressure to be higher than we are as our team just isn't strong enough. Momentum has also stalled for two consecutive summers. 1) Tonali's ban at the beginning of last season. 2) This summer's transfer window.

It makes you think about the job Ashworth did for England. A long-term plan should have been in place with coaches embedded within Southgate's set-up and Under 21s.

We don't know the full story there. Maybe they were promised certain sponsorship deals that fell through. Personally, I think it was certain Bruno was going to be sold but at some point that changed. I remember reading an article (maybe a Q&A) in the Athletic, well before the summer, where they seemed certain Bruno would be off.

Hoddle from Chelsea? From memory he was doing a decent job as it was pre-Abramovich.