STM

If Botman is missing, he's not being rested. Which only leaves injury. If he was rested, I'm sure he'd be on the bench.

Totally agree, you can also add Trippier in there (because it the argument wasnt about nationality apparently).... and more over, our domestic signings have been pretty solid too. Gordon is our player of the season. Livramento looks an unbelievable talent. I do take people arguments about saying we could have prioritised other positions, that's a fair one.

That too.

Disagree entirely. Klopp and Guardiola are better. There's zero evidence that Arteta, De Zerbi, Emery or anyone else would have been capable of what Howe has done here and there's plenty of reasons why someone like Arteta is doing so well... when you can cherry pick the likes of Declan Rice. People wax lyrical about Emery (rightly so) but he ain't finishing 4th this year IMO. Howe certainly isn't middle of the pack.

It's like Howe not being absolutely perfect is some sort of "gotcha". Yeah, good luck finding perfect. We've got an amazing manager, who only wants to be better at everything he does. Even if I'm frustrated with current form, in general, I'm in dreamland.

You do realise why 50m for Bournemouth isn't 50m for say Liverpool? Liverpool got Alexis MacAllister for 30 odd million, that's because players like MacAllister, for example, don't want to join Bournemouth. In essence, it's far easier for bigger clubs to spend wisely, when players are throwing themselves at you. For a club like Bournemouth, you can end up paying massive money on average players.

You are missing an important concept... context. This is Bournemouth, they were literally searching the bargain bin and they survived 5 years.

He got Bournemouth from league 2 to 9th in the PL? If ever there was a "took them as far as they could go" moment, that was it. The fact that they got relegated was irrelevant since he was the reason they were there in the first place. His two biggest recruitment mistakes were Ibe and Solanke... Solanke is currently one of the highest scorers in the league.

Botman has been poor since he come back... our defensive felt better when Trippier Lascelles Schar Livramento were the back four..... However Botman is a grade A player, possibly brought back from injury a tad soon and is being chronically exposed by our midfield. Look at Van Dijk, he was "past it". Players can come in and out of form and it tends to happen to centre backs when the team isn't playing so well. That's now Trippier, Burn and Botman who've had terrible spells this season. Its not the individuals, or at least not solely the individuals to blame.

Fucking belter too.

What's worst, its not the clubs that struggle with the patience, its the fans.

What's worse is that part of me would absolutely love Mourinho, for romantic reasons. That's a Freddy Shepherd move... or even a wild Mike Ashley move. Its not a smart strategical move.

Just looked and it wasn't until Artetas 4th season at Arsenal that they even got into the CL, they finished 8th, 8th and then 5th. Look at them now. Klopp finished 8th in his first season too. People were baying for blood with the former, but I'm sure the "top managers don't make these mistakes" crew won't acknowledge this. Also something absolutely fundamental to the above. Liverpool and Arsenal had/have way more in terms of funding and player draw... as well as an array of talent at their clubs to begin with... and two of the best youth sides in the world. I also doubt they had anywhere near the injury crisis we have had. The season we are having is absolutely par for the course.

There's a certain irony that we got spanked off Arsenal yesterday, by a manager who had two midtable finishes before finding some rhythm after weeding out the players he didn't want and building something over time. The only difference is that Arteta put an FA Cup on the board early doors but Howe has at least got us in the CL and a cup final. Why don't people learn? Don't be reactionary. Be calm. Be patient. We will back and we will be better.

We could just stick with Eddie Howe, a fantastic manager going through a rough patch.... which virtually everyone with a brain new was coming.

We should dig up Brian Clough.

Midfield just allowing Arsenal possession.

Don't forget he's a brexit loving, foreign football hating wanker, who's secretly trying to destroy the club from the inside. His enormous 4th place finish last year was a fiendish plan to sucker us in.

You wot

Karius confirmed.

Dubravka has made several errors recently. When your own team mates are hammering you, something is wrong.

Lick them Man United tears.

I watched Eddie's press conference and IMO he kind of implied that Halls transfer was a mistake.

To an extent, I do agree with @The College Dropouton this and have backed his view on not needing 3 strikers. Given where we are now and the fact that Wilson MUST be replaced. I'd be happy with either scenario suggested. Either we sign another quality signing, which has the benefit of giving Isak some rest and allowing us to be more flexible with Isak or we sign someone younger who's willing to play second fiddle/learn. If we were to sign, let's say Solanke, I don't see many down sides. Either he and Isak play plenty of games and dovetail (like Isak and Wilson were supposed to) or one of them plays the majority of the games and has an outstanding season. I take the wider point about whether 50m would be a wise use of funds but I suppose that discussion can only happen with knowledge of budgets etc. One thing is for certain, I have full confidence that we will have signed a quality replacement for Wilson come the end of the summer.