lovejoy

6 minutes ago, The College Dropout said:

I've never claimed we should be top 4 or anything like that so these are all irrelevant questions.

 

Yes he is unproven as an elite-level coach. His highest achievement in the professional game is finishing 4th and a league cup final. His first season with European football led to a collapse in league form.

 

Where's your proof of the bolded? In terms of position, I don't even think that was true under Ashley. Our wage bill would've been around 11th/12th highest in the league. After January last season, our net spend was top 5 in Europe since the takeover. Read this thread - our expenditure to the 2023 accounts is consistently high across wages, amortisation costs. Squad cost = 7th. Wages = 7th. To finish 4th last season, excellent job. We did very well to finish above Spurs & Liverpool (considering Chelsea weren't competitive). If we finish 9th or lower this season... it's a bad season.

 

https://x.com/KieranMaguire/status/1762492756830888268?s=20

 

I expect us to finish 7th/8th because i think we have good players and a good manager. The fixtures are favourable and we are getting players back. Confidence seems shot and the system broken which makes me anxious.

 

And as I've said repeatedly - I don't hold Eddie solely account for successes or failures. The squad and the leadership are also responsible. We did so well last season because everything went in our favour. The transfers were excellent, the coaching was excellent, lucky with injuries. This year, the transfers have been a mixed bag, unlucky with injuries, the coaching has been exposed at times etc.

 

 

 

How on god's earth do you have so much time to spend on here? Every time i come on there's war and peace from you on another topic.

You make HTT look like a one word wonder.

8 hours ago, Stifler said:

The petition got rejected.

thank fuck for that 😂

8 hours ago, wormy said:

 

He wants to surround himself with pals from Bournemouth? What an idiot with his jobs for the boys!

😂

2 hours ago, SUPERTOON said:

Would imagine he would want the same here if we went for him 

 

 

If he’s going to Liverpool he wants to take Richard Hughes from Bournemouth with him.

7 minutes ago, The College Dropout said:

But it didn't make sense against the team who have scored the most set-piece goals in the Premier League and have half a dozen 6ft+ players that are aerial threats?

 

Not starting Burn against Arsenal was a mistake. I said this prior to the game because of their aerial threat and they caused havoc from set pieces all game.

 

I do know ball a bit.

 

 

 

😂😂😂

3 minutes ago, Stifler said:

I’m trying to start a petition to prevent the government from providing any public funds on a new stadium for Man Utd, or even a redevelopment.

I need some signatures to get it started though.

 

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/657662/sponsors/new?token=JzTj82z3AaDGRk0qMXSn

😂😂

1 minute ago, The Prophet said:

 

Not to say Howe isn't capable of a stinker like, but I'm sure I read he'd recently returned to non-league football after a spell out.

Everyone signs duds to be fair, not sure on Ibe or why he didn't live up to expectations bit Howe has had way more hits than misses so all good.

Just now, The Prophet said:

 

Didn't the lad have mental health issues?

Really not sure tbh mate, if he did, that'll explain that one!

33 minutes ago, TRon said:

 

On a positive note, it does show that Howe has a keen eye for a player. Nathan Ake is another outstanding player he discovered early on.

Jokes aside though, we can trust Howe imo.

trippier, mee, lewis cook all good young signings.

29 minutes ago, TRon said:

 

On a positive note, it does show that Howe has a keen eye for a player. Nathan Ake is another outstanding player he discovered early on.

Jordan Ibe, not so much.

11 minutes ago, jackyboy said:

Does anyone really know how good Ashworth is. A lot of the vibes coming from Brighton fans is that he was just a cog in a big wheel. They say that it was the owners who developed this system that Ashworth worked and seems to take a lot of credit for

Nobody knows how good anyone in this role is mate, imo anyway.

1 minute ago, Menace said:

Phil Giles being linked in "i" newspaper... probably nowt in it

Aye, saw that yesterday.

The local links will mean that one rumbles on for a while i'd imagne.

Just now, reefatoon said:

You sound just like TCD

Need to add 'in my experience of running multi million pound projects.....'

Just now, r0cafella said:

If hughes was a step up why didn’t we appoint him when we appointed Ashworth? 
 

My point is this, Ashworth is gone we need the best possible replacement and someone who is elite/achieved elite things. In this case that for me wouldn’t be Richard Hughes. 
 

But again, this is me spitballing, I’m not the authority or the decision maker, I’m just one guy giving his opinion on an Internet forum. 

Judging by that metric then whoever we get, why didn't we appoint him before Ashworth? Could be a hundred reasons, same for anyone.

If they deem Hughes the best replacement possible, then that'll do for me. Equally, if thats Edwards, all good too.

We're all different though. 👍🏻

3 minutes ago, r0cafella said:

I don’t claim to be, I’m just giving my 2 cents on a forum which is in place to discuss NUFC related matters. 
 

Either way, I’m not sure what you’re actually debating here. 

I'm not debating anything btw, just putting my two cents in the same way.

They'll get it right, they generally do.

1 minute ago, r0cafella said:

I don’t claim to be, I’m just giving my 2 cents on a forum which is in place to discuss NUFC related matters. 
 

Either way, I’m not sure what you’re actually debating here. 

I think it started with you saying Hughes would be a step down, I asked why, and you basically said because he isn't Michael Edwards.

I've no idea what a DOF does, or what the yardstick is to be measured by, but it clearly isn't as simple as 'he's at Bournemouth, step down, he was at Liverpool, step up'.

4 minutes ago, r0cafella said:

Why don’t we? I listed one. 

Because with all due respect, you're not the authority on this 😂

Ashworth is widely considered 'elite level' and he hasn't 'wrestled a title' from anyone.

Paul Mitchell the same.

We've no idea what role they play and/or what role the manager plays.

Do Liverpool win the title with Edwards but not Klopp ? Who knows.

We've genuinely no idea on any of it and it isn't the same as an opinion of a manager based on playing style or trophies won etc.

What we do know is we seem to get appointments right, so all we can do is trust them to do the right thing.

37 minutes ago, Conjo said:

"Best in class" sporting directors and "Oven ready" players mentioned a lot lately. wtf

 

Coulnd't care less who comes in as long as the club is confident the person is good enough to make us better on and off the field.

Precisely.

1 hour ago, r0cafella said:

Which is fine, you move on to the next target, but the consistent theme should be; has this person performed to an elite level in his current/previous role? If our ambition is to the best this has to be the measuring stick. 

We have no idea what elite level means in this role though, none whatsoever.

4 minutes ago, SteV said:

Ashworth is widely considered to be the best, yet until this season didn’t have any experience of European competition.

 

The fact is we know very little of how each individual in this kind of role operates, and it’s very difficult to judge who is ‘better’ than who.

Correct.

Ashworth is widely reported to be the number one as you say, but he’s never been in a role where the team has won anything. Which is usually what it would take to be judged the best, so clearly this is different.

The managerial appointments made while he’s been in jobs are very much a mixed bag (Di Matteo, Hodgson, Allardyce, Southgate, Potter).

Dougie Freedman is another who’s supposed to be well thought of but they’ve been shite for years, so I’ve no idea how this role is judged, nobody does really.

They’ll get it right. They always do.

37 minutes ago, Danh1 said:

Said it before but would be depressed by Richard Hughes.

 

Bournemouth United. 

They’ll appoint the best person for the job as they have with every other appointment they’ve made, simple as that.

If he happens to come from Bournemouth, so be it.

2 minutes ago, GeordieT said:

Douglas in the Independent seems to be suggesting we won’t replace like for like, or at least his successor will have a slightly different remit. Which I’d hope wouldn’t be the case.

Why would you hope it wouldn't be the case?

5 minutes ago, SUPERTOON said:

Personally think most are reading too much into it. He’s good mates with those at Ineos and he gets to join a massive club. Nothing else in it imo.

This, the over analysis is mental.

His big pal wants him at one of the biggest clubs in the world, of course he's going to fancy it.

He could have been unbelievably happy here and still fancied it.

If he was leaving for Everton for example you'd ask the question, but it's Man Utd.

That's all there is to it imo.

2 minutes ago, The College Dropout said:

It will defo stop him from talking about football with rivals. 
 

If they go for multiple targets of ours we could take action. For first teamers we don’t have the same issues though.  

This.

The recriminations for Man Utd would be huge if they breached it. Transfer embargo etc.

Not a chance they’ll be blasé about it, nor will Ashworth. Just as we weren’t (and he wasn’t) when he was on gardening leave at Brighton.

1 minute ago, Gallowgate Toon said:

Is he involved at all at the academy, womens, and sports science levels? 

Stick the high performance episode on with him, it's a good listen.