Yorkie

Ramsey was a squad signing and an upgrade on Longstaff. I assumed we were on about the failed chases for the likes of Mbeumo and Pedro et al.

Because the next step for us was the title race, so we chased 'title race players,' along with the other 'title race teams.' Unfortunately the ESL clubs were allowed to hoard that calibre of player (extending to ones we already owned). You can debate the choice to have that policy but the logic is uncomplicated imo.

But what's your evidence of this? He's young but he was Head of Scouting at Bournemouth for five years before taking a step down to join Newcastle as a scout a couple of months after Eddie arrived. Therefore he's been in the building (again, in who knows what capacity really) for the manager's whole tenure. There's nothing at all to suggest it's "insane" that he's involved in our recruitment. Basically, in my opinion, it boils down to wanting to find reasons to slate the manager, and leaning into the nepotism thing.

I assume you can see what I'm getting at, like. It's all conjecture, there's no evidence of anything either way really. All we know about the summer is that the people left to deal with it was a scratch team of Howe, Howe, Nickson and presumably a variety of other people who are much less well known. The specifics of how we arrived there are unknown. Meanwhile poor old Andy Howe is this lightning rod and, by extension, it's a stick to beat Howe with. The Andy stuff has always seemed very:

Source?

No one's saying Andy Howe doesn't have any responsibility for signings. This started cos you intimidated that Howe insisted on the removal of Mitchell and replaced him with his nephew. I'm sure I'll appear in most people's 'Defenders of Eddie Howe' XI, but I honestly don't feel like I go disproportionately into bat for him all that much. What always tends to trigger me is the arguments that either don't make sense and/or ignore crucial context.

I'm not cherry picking, at least I didn't think I was. He's not responsible for every single transfer is he? The Andy Howe stuff is just pure conjecture to fuel the disdain of the manager. No one even knows what he really does tbh.

This is the thing with the current discourse. The framing of some of the criticism is so stupid. Andy Howe has been here for years and even this summer, by all accounts, was instrumental in the singing of our best transfer in Thiaw. People really need to get over that guy. It's all totally made up rage.

I was surprised to see him returned to left-wing at the weekend. Assumed he'd keep the striker role after doing a good job there on the whole. I've always liked Gordon but I do wonder if he's reaching a natural end to his time here. Firstly, there's our need to sell and he's a candidate for that because we'd get a good fee. But in terms of his own NUFC career; he's inconsistent and - where previously he was clearly a LW who could cover CF - I think it's now unclear where he's best deployed. That's not ideal for anyone really. There's also the fact that the fanbase feels generally a bit cold on him. He's often a bit of a lightning rod and seems to get people's backs up for a variety of reasons. He'll know this and it'll accelerate his own decision to move if a tempting offer came along. Tbh I was quite prepared for him to be our starting striker for the foreseeable, potentially even into next season. He does have potential there imo, and it could save us a job in the summer. But if we still see him as a LW first and foremost, I think I could live with him being the sacrificial lamb, hopefully giving us the leverage to retain Tonali or - heaven forbid - Bruno. Especially if it's abroad. I'd hate to see any of Howe's boys tearing it up for someone else in the PL.

Not implausible that two or three results go our way and we're right back in the mix. Please. Fucking please God. Just get a result to go with the benefits of the relaxed schedule, and let's give the run-in a proper go.

I jolly well hope this is the beginning of a tumbling down the league/s for Bournemouth but I'm badly burned by the Brentford case study. Potentially interesting timing for us given the next fixture though one assumes the players have probably long been aware that he's leaving.

Chelsea

That's what I meant. Or were you just confirming that you were off for a shite?

Hang on. It's coffee, fag and shit time where @TheBrownBottle is in the world. Time to go again.

PSR hasn't just prevented us from building on last season's return. It's influence has completely derailed the project. Perhaps we've fallen further than we ought to have, and there's some self-inflicted wounds for sure, but people continue to underestimate its impact. It's the root of it all.

Obscenely harsh decision in the ManU/Leeds game imo. Crazy that there can't be a bit of a sliding scale for an incident like that, rather than simply boom, you've done it, you're off. It's a microsecond and it's not harmed the player at all. If there has to be a hard line, give him a booking and just get on with the game. Only saw the highlights but I gather it was a VAR intervention? Surely had to be. I am actually in favour of VAR on the specific matter of dishing out red cards if the ref has missed something truly heinous but howay. That's just proper hall monitor shit from the guy in the booth. Sir! Sir! He pulled his hair look!

We're closer to a Champions League place than a relegation place.

Assume this isn't a response to my posts but I'll reply anyway. My argument would be that those two are the first really big examples of us being cornered into making a signing that we didn't really want to; and there should at least be some recognition of the context, rather than just an outright black mark. It doesn't absolve all blame, but you cut him and that heinous CUNT Andy Howe some slack.

On the matter of improving players, I hold some hope that regular training time will bear some fruit, but it's crucial we get a result to accompany that or it'll all be futile cos their heads will go. But back to the transfers, I really feel like there's a lot of pretty unfair criticism aimed at him over that. We got absolutely fucked with the striker situation and all he tried to do was sign the most established and available strikers on the market. The only signing he deserves any real pelters for is Elanga, but we're not 14th because we signed Anthony Elanga.

On the spending and wasting a fortune argument, are we really just done with factoring in the conditions of last summer? I.e. PSR and the Isak saga? Three of the summer signings were his first choices: Ramsey, Thiaw and Elanga. One of those is improving with every game and tends to be one of our better performers; another has been literally immovable from the team; and one has been bad. I'm not going to sit here and pretend he isn't accountable to okay-ing the three he didn't really want, but surely there's a bit of grace when making a judgement on his judgement?

Absolutely. Of the 45 times since the beginning of 22/23 that we've gone two goals to the good, our record is W43 D2 L0.

I agree with that as well. However, results (and, by extension, league position) dictate the mood and my central point is that, despite everything, we're only a couple of results away from totally different vibes. If Wissa has like six or seven PL goals - literally if he's just anything other than utterly useless - the whole conversation is different imo.

Why are defaulting to missed Wissa? I don't understand it given he's been absolutely shit and looked totally disinterested. Do ya mean missed a proper striker? It's a tricky one for me, I do understand your logic but it's just a bit ifs buts and maybes. Yes, exactly. I was just shorthanding that to Wissa.

I think the current failings are the result of a domino effect, basically. If the first stages of the season go better; hanging on against Liverpool, hanging on against arsenal, hanging on against Spurs, pinching a win at Villa Park or Leeds... doesn't even have to be all of them, just two or three, and we're playing with a lot more confidence and having a better season. We missed Wissa tremendously in the first knockings of the season.

Yeah, I really believe so; I have done all season. I expect there'll probably be a post from me in like October or something to the effect of: if Wissa comes in and hits the ground running, we'll be sound; if he doesn't, we'll be fucked. (That's not meant as an 'I told you so;' just a demonstration of my belief in this specific point.) If we're not underperforming our xG so badly in the first half of the season - thereby leading to late collapses and setting the psychological tone for the whole season - then it's a different picture. It's not even a lot. Literally just a few goals and the whole season looks different. Regarding your last paragraph - of course, and I did say that the matter doesn't absolve Howe. Wissa was a choice and it turned out to be a bad one.