Minhosa

As has been said previously with Barnes, if he's not scoring, he offers very little. Commercially, I'd be getting shot of him all day long for a sensible offer but do take the point that there's plenty of far bigger issues in this squad at the moment.

Aye, I've thought for a long time it needs to be a minimum of 9 in depending on outgoings tbh. Massive job for Wilson. In a WC year.

There's been a good few players come up from that league and do well over the last few years tbf. Alex Scott, Morgan Rogers and Wharton would all start for us every week for example. I presume, if we are actually in for him, we'd be expecting Sandro to go, Ramsay/Miley to step up and Hackney to be in and around the starting spots over the course of the season... Beyond Bruno, if Tonali does go, we're looking light imho across the middle; - Joelinton - as much as I love him, has been poor at times this season and is starting to pick up injuries on the regular. - Ramsay - is yet to grab a game by the scruff of the neck whilst otherwise looking neat and tidy in possession. Also has a history of injuries. - Miley - will likely have to cover at RB at times next season and now has a sizable injury to recover from. - Willock - Will hopefully leave. It's a good job we won't have europe next season because that looks a very light midfield in terms of depth, quality and character imho AND it's not even close to being our number 1 problem area with GK, wingers, strikers and full backs arguably all ahead of it...If anything, it just shows the sheer scale of the job Ross Wilson has on his hands.

Mate who's a Boro fan reckons he's head and shoulders above anything else in that league.

No surprise that sap has graded it generously.

Say what?

Not going to lie, 5/10 seems very generous to me.

Elanga’s ‘up’ being he’s not a mass murderer on top of being a godawful footballer.

FFS. Cheers Villa. Cunts.

He’d be right up there on my ideal signings for us list.

Gordon was played there for his pressing qualities. Barnes doesn’t have any.

Agreed other than I’d keep Bruno before anyone else. We’re fucked without him as has been demonstrated time and time again this year.

No chance.

I was thinking that exact thing. Hopefully any new signings are Wilson buys and not strictly Howe targets meaning Wilson can have one eye on Howe’s future replacement and whether they’ll be able to work with the new signings too if Howe doesn’t turn things around. We’d not be in the mess we are if we’d had a competent DOF last summer. Thats for sure.

You and me both. Didn’t do himself any favours with that media snippet.

A massive risk. As is replacing him now imho. It’s all a judgement call eh? I’ve made my peace with Howe having the start of next season and can see the business logic in it from the ownerships standpoint. Just. His credit limit is all but gone back to zero now in terms of current performance and, whilst he’s answered many of the questions this role has put to him so comprehensively, he now needs to answer another few; 1) Does he have the energy to go again? 2) Can he kill poor performers after one poor year (Wissa/Elanga etc)? 3) Can be manage a massive overhaul? Integrate them and have them ready for GW1? AND if he does answer all of those challenges in the affirmative, how will he cope with 2 games a week again the following year? I’m clear that anything less than CL next year would be unacceptable imho. One game per week. Get it done.

Totally see this point of view. There is always the issue of ‘what if he gets it wrong?’. The alternative being ‘what if he gets it right? Again’. And therein lies the rub. Ultimately it’s all about the clubs hierarchy assessing that risk making a judgement on it. That's before we even consider, what if we replace him and the new guy doesn’t work. There are no certainties, either way. It’s all a judgement call. I presume they’re choosing to stick with what they know because there is some actual evidence of proven past performance. Conversely, if they announced today he was finished, I’d say they’d crunched the numbers, made their judgement and you’d have to back them in trying someone else new.

Aye, I’m sceptical about it too tbh…

Some rare good news….

I’m not sure it’s defensiveness. For me it’s more gratitude. Either way, he’ll either sort things out or he won’t and you’ll have your wish. He won’t stay forever and they won’t keep him forever. You’ll be happy inside 6 months imho. He’ll either have turned it around or he’ll have been replaced.

Last summers business fucking us over now in shifting someone along for sound commercial reasons too. The impact feels never ending.

I think that’s a fair question but we’re not just talking about one cup win in isolation. We’re talking about turning around a team destined for relegation. We’re talking about 2 x CL qualifications in 4 years. We’re talking about uniting a fucked up inheritance into a very effective team and we’re talking about a bloke who’s never represented us with anything less than class and dignity. The club want to give him next season. He obviously wants that too. We’ll all know for sure by November whether that’s the right call and there’ll be very little debate I should think. It’s not like he has an unlimited amount of ‘free passes’ or time. It’s just, for now, there is still belief in him from some quarters and that’s probably about right. As is having doubts tbf.

A ‘free pass’ which was then vindicated by his actual performance? I think it’s very fair to have concerns about his ability to manage a heavier calendar. I also think it’s fair for people to want a change. I’m not sure there’s a right or wrong in that debate. What’s not fair is personal shit like calling him ‘beige’ or intentionally overlooking his overall record here or viewing him without the wider context of his time here rather than just off the back of one shite season. We’re all disappointed mate. You may well be proven right that he should go this summer. We’ll only know that in six months. Even then though, it would be unfair to dig out people for wanting to support and show faith in the most successful manager of our lifetimes.

I don’t think he is at all tbh. Just a media report of potential interest.

Totally agree 👍