Yorkie

That's fine, we can debate endlessly the reasons behind the season's outcomes, how shit they are, and Howe's role in that. But Hopkinson opted to put primacy on the Sunderland game in response to the question about Howe's future. My thoughts on him doing that is: hopefully it's an indication that his comments aren't to be taken too seriously; A, because no serious CEO would apply such weight to any one result, and B, because he's read the room and feels the need to be cautious on the topic of the manager. My hope (which others on the other side of the fence will disagree with) is that he's said to Howe privately: "Look, we know it's not been a great season, but you're still our guy; thing is, I need to do some media bits this week and don't want to piss the fans off; just don't read too much into what gets published, areet?" ... Rather than the face value reality, which would be the incredibly reckless decision to publicly pile a shit-ton of weight on the manager, who has been absolutely central to your soaring revenues.

I hate the 'I'm too hip to be bothered about the derby' crowd. Complete lies, plastic fans or absolute goons. WEMag was responding to my post so I'll defend it by saying that, clearly, the derby has more weight than other fixtures. I felt the agony along with everyone else, though I'm fortunate enough not to be surrounded by mackems in my day-to-day. But if you're deciding the fate of your manager off the back of it, that's the point at which you're applying too much weight.

I mean... The revenue argument is all Hopkinson needs to concern himself with. I wouldn't necessarily blame any fan for wanting a change of manager after ending up on the wrong side of a derby double, but I wouldn't expect the CEO to have the same lens.

Yeah, pretty worried by those comments if that's how he goes about his business. Up to now the jury has been out on how he runs a football club, and I've been non-plussed by all his soundbites so far; I wasn't arsed about his 2030 comments - they were just fluff and not worth reading into. But to publicly make comments directly about the manager's position is something which actively impacts the day-to-day and seems incredibly reckless. If he's really applying a make-or-break situation to the final seven games of the season then it's a massive red flag. That's a short-termist approach to managing a club when you should be looking at everything in the round. Don't even get me started on the notion of making any judgement based on losing to the mackems. Hopefully he's just felt the need to pander to those in the fanbase who (tinhat) apply too great a meaning to the derby results, and the reality is that any decision on the manager's future is based on the full context. Brentford, Everton, Sunderland - in terms of revenues every defeat is equal. Hopefully he stays in that lane.

If playing him at CM has helped him improve his understanding of our patterns of play, and of the football itself in this league, he'll be much the better player for it. He barely looked on the same page as the rest of the team towards the latter end of his run at CF.

Everyone cool with that second speech mark?

Do it

There's no need for this caveat btw, it's all good natured debate. You're right that we're probably splitting hairs. Neither or defence or our attack has been good enough. I just take the view that if, for instance, Wissa works out - we're basically fine. Equally if we'd signed Trafford, it's probably a similarly improved outcome.

Because we don't get far enough in front.* We're currently on course to concede fewer goals than we did in 23/24. *Simplified/reductive; clearly we've got defensive issues too

We've scored more than two goals on three occasions in the league this season (Everton, Burnley, Leeds). 22/23: 11 23/24: 14 24/25: 12 25/26: 3 Incomplete sample in the case of this season obviously but you don't picture it increasing a great deal. Being a serious goalscoring threat has always been the key ingredient to our success under Howe, and there's only 22/23 where we've looked rocksteady at the back as well. Look at games like Forest at home last season; we looked like we could concede at any point but fortunately we had enough about us at the top end to still win. Clearly we've got our issues at the back - the key one being goalkeeper - but the seed of all our on-field issues is the dysfunctional attack, accountable mostly to the lack of a good striker.

Assuming the obvious and it's not some mental coincidence that they're all injured, I think you can say fair enough to those players and Arsenal tbh. International friendlies (at any time of year, let alone ahead of the season crunch) are low hanging fruit in terms of opportunities to ease congestion.

Yeah. Up and down till the end is my prediction. Pointless guessing individual results at this point. Have said all along that if we're still within spitting distance in May, something could still happen, and am maintaining that for now. Going back to one game per week will help performances (surely...) but it's not like it gives us an edge; it's the same for basically everyone else.

Left for west ham just after the season started IIRC Yep. I got his name on the sky blue away shirt, hastily getting it changed from 4 to 15 as he gave the 4 up for... David Rozehnal. Then he left. Annoying.

If we beat Palace it'll be sky high.

Two injury time goals for Rochdale for crying out loud

The latest in the famous Solomon Islands/Bulgaria rivalry finished 10-2.

We'd be the favourites to win because we have a PL budget and the Europa League has been horribly undermined by various factors; I don't think that's any real metric of progress sadly. Brentford will at least be among the favourites if they get there, though their lack of meaningful interest in anything beyond PL survival would probably (hopefully) scupper their chances. Nevertheless, being among the top 8 in the PL would still be a great achievement for us this season, given all the challenges we've faced. The progress in the 3.5 seasons following the takeover was remarkable given our starting position and ultimately the neglect under Ashley's ownership still has an affect today. I thought the trajectory was going to continue upwards but unfortunately we got kneecapped in the summer and replaced it with a wooden one because all the metal ones had been taken. Isak's departure; the reasons why he left; and the way it played out, has had a ripple effect which we haven't efficiently dealt with. It's up to you how much ire you think the club deserves for their reaction. It remains to be seen if we can 'go again' - i.e. upset the applecart all over again from a position of relative weakness. I'm not sure who or what we are and I look to the future with neither wild optimism or crushing pessimism. I think it's really difficult to predict what happens from here, and I include the rest of this season. There's as much reason to believe we'll have a barnstorming finale as we will a drab one.

@wacko?

Dipped back into this recently and was surprised to see they've gone independent. Can't put my finger on why but it seemed to be a better listen; might just have been because I hadn't done so for ages. I think what makes theirs a less offensive listen is the forced veil of professionalism which keeps them more objective and balanced, and never hyper critical. As a happy clapper I appreciate that. That's opposed to the reactionary stuff of TF etc, where they have no choice but to be really reactive, over-analyse and make conclusions based on the thing that just happened, because that's the only way to shit-out a pod a day.

Just the 47 appearances for us so far this season.

Before it became abundantly clear that our ceiling was being nefariously set by our competition, I was generally accepting of the fact that we would lose players to bigger and better teams. I was convinced Bruno would be away after 23/24 and made peace with that at the time. That's not 'modern football, tut' that's been football forever, even if it's sad when it happens. What changes the perspective, is the conditions around any departure. And for as long as the rulebook is facilitating a select few clubs to disproportionately load their squad - at the expense of everyone else - it's going to stick in the craw. The other thing is, it's Man Utd. Like I said in the Bruno thread, it's not like they really are that much bigger and better than us these days. Our supposed car crash of a season doesn't even compare to their shit-tip of a 24/25 It's galling that they would be seen as such a step up for the likes of Sandro. As for Tonali himself, I think he's an outstanding player who has generally been really disappointing this season, and the reality is I think we've got an academy lad who could fill his shoes without us losing a huge amount. So the idea of us trading him for big money doesn't feel as agonising, or that it automatically makes us significantly weaker despite the fee, as per Isak. But it would still make me hate the world.

Just host it instead.

He's played 52 games this season for club and country and went down with something in Barcelona. If he's asked the manager for a few additional days to recover ahead of what is clearly a crucial match for his country, personally I think he's just about earned that. He's clearly a very committed player. Also people always underrate the positive to us of maximising our players' international opportunities.

I think the answer to that is 'little of column A, little of column B.' I respect the guy's approach to the whole season and the general vibe that every single match has equal importance, but you can't argue with the results and the fact is (to borrow Rafa's short blanket analogy), Eddie Howe's NUFC bedspread doesn't appear cover four competitions. That's column A. Where column B comes into it is, I think Eddie Howe's MCFC or LFC bedspread probably does cover four competitions. Give him their squads and academies and I think he'd smash it. But he doesn't have their squads and never will so he needs to change something to ensure the league form doesn't crumble if we get into Europe with him again.

The whole premise of my post is that I'm saying people should give a shit. I am comparing us to Chelsea but it's not just a comparison is it? It's all completely relevant to us. Their actions (or rather, the structures which facilitate their actions) have a direct impact on us. Ergo, I feel any judgement of our transfer window should be made through that lens. "Andy Howe is a cunt" just isn't the explanation imo. I'm just parroting what I was saying over and over again in the summer really, but embellishing the point now the data is there in the form of signings' output. You can plug any of the cartel clubs into my post really and make the same point, except maybe Spurs. They all made errors which have been cushioned by their ability to buy and buy and buy; including players we had also identified. I'm not excusing the Sunderland result btw; I'm talking about how I feel the summer transfer window should be judged.