Minhosa

100% agree. Personally would have wanted more than £75m for him. Established international. Can play two positions well. Years left in him and a long contract here.

Where I think things get very interesting is around the consequences of changing Howe now. The summer window doesnt just happen over that period it’s the months of work that goes into lining up deals. Speaking with agents, schmoozing the prospective players, working on the financials. Now, if you think we’re possibly going to need to sign up to 9 new faces, Wilson and Co. will have been working overtime to get things in place. Particularly so with it being a World Cup year. I’m fairly sure Howe will have been engaged during this whole period of time and have had a major input into what he wants, what he doesn’t want (in terms of player profile) and, importantly, which players he needs to fit into his starting 11 next season. The big thing there being, they’ll have been selected as he feels they’ll work in his system and his, fairly rigid, approach. Changing him undoes all of that work and, at 9 new faces, that’s a huge problem. Anybody coming in, would almost certainly want to play their own system and barely any of Howe’s targets would probably appeal. We could be looking at another clusterfuck of a summer if Howe leaves in respect of our transfer business. Last summer set us back years, another one with the same magnitude of mistakes, could finish the project altogether. In my mind, this is a huge reason to stick with Eddie if the club feel he still has the hunger. This isn’t a ‘be careful what you wish for’ style post or suggesting we stick with him forever but in terms of timing, now isn’t it from a transfer/squad building perspective.

Anthony Gordon being in the Anthony Gordon business SHOCK. He’s our best forward player imho but he’s also a rat. Could easily see him pulling an Isak this summer.

Shite again today.

He's a downgrade on Miggy.

Legs have completely gone. Anybody see the poor little bastard trying to sprint when he came on? Like he was running through treacle. Completely and utterly FINISHED.

Nah. He’s fucking dreadful. His inability to trap a ball, cross a ball or be of any use without the ball means there is ZERO chance he can ever be useful on any sustainable level and that’s not on Howe. The scouting is but this is like we’ve signed his retarded twin brother. He’s a fucking embarrassment. Woeful.

He has ZERO footballing fundamentals on any technical level. There will never be a good player in there. He’s utterly woeful.

Must be leaving. Surely?

Can’t beat a man. Utter shite today. Cannot be a starter next season.

Didn’t even bother his fat Congolese arse with a warm up. Lazy bastard.

HATE this cunt. Fucking disgusting excuse for a footballer.

Matfen Hall.

Biggest question mark for me is whether he can cope with the volume of games that top level European competition brings with it. Howe has struggled to manage our league form in both CL seasons and Emery has had similar challenges too. One game per week Iraola will succeed pretty much anywhere I’d imagine. Ideally, he’d probably suit a club not in Europe so he can build his squad and embed his playing style/patterns without the pressures of game load. Then attack Europe the following year with ‘his’ squad and ‘his’ systems fully implemented.

Njoy the rest Hugo.

Aye. With the benefit of hindsight, there’s about 90% of last summers decisions you wouldn’t make again. They have to learn from it this year. Given the volume of changes that will happen, perhaps up to 8 or 9 imho, some of them have to be players with spines unlike last summer. Bernardo Silva on a free is going to be an unbelievable pick up for someone.

Totally agree. He’ll struggle next year and beyond imho.

Never a truer word spoken. In leadership qualities alone, forgetting experience/ability, if you look at the back four yesterday vs the final, there’s none of the three changes (Thiaw, Botman and Hall) that are more of a leader. Not one. Thats not to question their ability. I love Hall for example but it does reinforce the point that we’re perhaps overlooking this massive element when signing players. Not one of last summers signings has character. None. 5 softcocks.

Could have been salvaged with good summer business.

The home derby is what’s killed him. Win that and all is ok tbh. Takes a lot to turn things around when you lose your home crowd.

I’m certain that’s why Howe wanted Guehi. His leadership. PL captain at 23/24 years old. Leader.

Agreed. It’s the main reason my number one target this summer, whilst probably wholly unrealistic, would be Bernardo Silva. A nasty winner who’s played every occasion and would lead kids like Miley through the next 3 years brilliantly. He’d be our new Trippier but better.

There was nothing right about the targeting of Elanga either. He was never what we needed and he never will be btw. At least Wissa has the excuse of a serious injury. Elanga plays like he’s suffered a serious brain injury. He’s fucking useless.

Just reflecting on this apparent mentality problem we have and it absolutely should inform some of our summer transfer business. We need to sign some players with character, backbone and balls. Who are up for a fight. We’re now a squad full of softcocks. There’s barely any you’d want alongside you when the going gets tough. Off the top of my head; Tino Botman Thiaw Miley Ramsay Willock Elanga Murphy Wissa Woltemade Osula Barnes Not one of them are you taking into a battle with you. Not one. None of the above have a nasty edge…… The derbies are a great example of this. Mentally weak, spineless and not a pair of balls amongst that lot. Whoever the manager is this summer, they need the support of players with character and a willingness to take accountability. We could’ve done a lot worse than signing Xhaka last summer and we should target one or two players of that profile imho. As exciting as it is being linked with the next big thing out of Europe or South America, you need a certain type of manager to install character into a squad. The club will have a real challenge on that front if they part ways with Howe imho because, take someone like Jose for example, he’ll have no interest in developing kids which is now essentially what the club need. Hopkinson hinted at it in his spiel a fortnight ago. There’s going to be a big challenge for Wilson etc in his next appointment because, when we’re crying out for ‘men’ on the pitch, the model will be geared more towards ‘boys with high ceilings’. That has to inform the next managerial appointment or the decision to stick with Howe. If we want a competitive mentality, we’ve got to give him the tools to do that job. You can’t flood the squad with kids and say ‘develop them so they can be sold for huge profit’ without realising you’re probably sacrificing short term results…

Shite.