KaKa

3 minutes ago, Nucasol said:

Exact opposite, Captain, Leader, Legend.

Barkley is so good in that deep midfield role. So press resistant.

9 minutes ago, joeyt said:

 

Why would you not have him?

Trying to catch some folks ahead of me and our teams were all looking too similar, so had swapped in some different players to try and catch them. He was one I've been hoping would go cold for a bit.

20 minutes ago, Fezzle said:

If you don't understand what you call someone that writes stories in the media then I really can't help you here. 

Perfect. Thanks.

Anyone else suffering through not having Ollie Watkins in their fantasy team?

This guy's numbers this season man. Wow.

Just now, Mikky said:

Yep - all you said is that there were some rumours.

 

He’s a quality player - there’s plenty of RWs to chose from - I personally think Kubo is the best of the lot 

 

Kubo - Bakayoko - Cherki - Neto - Olise - (Guy from Lille)

Kubo is not one of the guys I have really watched that much, but he seems to always be spoken highly of and is highly rated, and commercially it would be a big move for sure, like @Whitley mag mentioned.

There's definitely some really interesting players for that right side and so hopefully we get it right.

9 hours ago, Fezzle said:

no offence mate but you don't half believe any old garbage the media feed you. There's zero chance in the world a random journalist knows that man 

I said we were linked, which we were. And I have no idea what journalist you are talking about.

https://www.fichajes.net/noticias/doble-oferta-top-sacar-kubo-real-sociedad-20240226.html

Let's go Eddie! Get in!

9 hours ago, Whitley mag said:

He’s just signed a new contract where was this link from ?

https://www.fichajes.net/noticias/doble-oferta-top-sacar-kubo-real-sociedad-20240226.html

2 hours ago, Mikky said:

Nico is fantastic 

Whilst we are talking about La Liga wingers - Kubo is another I would love to sign

We've been linked with Kubo the past week. Apparently we are happy to pay his release clause of £50 million or so.

2 hours ago, Myleftboot said:

Eddie?

Yeah, apparently he was also mentioned in discussions prior to Pochettino, as he is admired from a number of their football people in house.

Apparently been mentioned within Chelsea, as a possible option once Pochettino gets the boot.

1 minute ago, leffe186 said:

 

Gave you a thumbs-up without thinking what it might mean to reach a mutual understanding with Kaka

Hey, how about you see yourself out of here immediately.

5 minutes ago, leffe186 said:

 

Just popped in and it seems to be Kaka arguing with TCD, is that right? I mean... .

No, you are completely wrong.

10 minutes ago, Holmesy said:

I was genuinely shocked he went for so little. Proven PL door openers with end product are not easy to come by, and all of his best years should be ahead of him. And we sold him to a country that was chucking money about for fun. Feels like we had our pants pulled down

Think it would have been somewhat easy to negotiate his price down due to the injuries and the pretty ordinary ga numbers over his time here.

7 minutes ago, The College Dropout said:

I also need to see him in another European campaign to see if he's learnt lessons. You can't replicate the intensity of the CL but we'll get an idea with any Euro competition.

 

He's had the harshest introduction to European football of any manager I can remember. Straight into the big leagues and a group of death. And a style least compatible with competing in CL, league etc. 

Some form of European football would be great, to see some progression in managing the demands on the squad and competing more effectively on all fronts for sure.

Hope we can manage it, but the way Longstaff and Willock looked against Blackburn, I'm not feeling too confident. They seem miles off the levels required and there isn't much time now, and most of our issues are stemming from that midfield area.

5 minutes ago, The College Dropout said:

For me btw.. Howe's achievements last season has given him enough credit to get the whole of this season. I think I need to see green shoots of recovery by the end of the season for me to be convinced he's the right man for next season. Liverpool went 8 wins in 9 towards the end of last season for example. I don't need to see that but I need to see something.

For me it really starts this summer. Has to target and upgrade the right areas and ensure more quality is added to improve the first team. The overall quality of the squad cannot be as much of an issue or topic of discussion next season. If it is it will be on him.

I think if he gets that right everything else will start to fall back into place, and what we did last season will be more of what we see consistently.

12 minutes ago, The College Dropout said:

Fair enough. You didn't quote any of those people in your recent run of posts. The discussion is about our manager's pedigree and where people have him ranked vs other managers. But fair enough we are talking about different things and people.

 

I agree - a lot of notable people on Twitter are Howe-out and that doesn't make sense to me at all. I don't even really believe it.  I think it's engagement baiting. That Rob M is one of them.

 

 

 

Yeah, too early to discuss ranking him against some of the managers that are being spoken of, however, I can understand people saying it's still early enough and open enough for him to stake a claim. A good summer and a chance to go again next season and everything will start to look a lot clearer regarding what direction he's heading in.

1 minute ago, SUPERTOON said:

Personally don’t think what Howe did in his first 18 months or so here can be compared to anyone else tbh. It genuinely was a miracle from him to take us from were we where to the top 4 in that time period.

Not just in terms of league position either, but he pretty much implemented a complete change of style of play in on pre season. Genuinely don’t think any other manager would have done the same.

The change in style definitely doesn't get spoken about as much nowadays, especially considering the abject state of things when he took over.

Some of the electrifying performances we've had during his tenure man.

If we can just build this squad up a bit more in the right areas and make those performances more of the norm, man we are on our way.

Just now, The College Dropout said:

Who doesn't want to give Howe time?

 

Not anyone in the last few pages. 

Dr. jinx and a few of his mates that were cosigning after the Blackburn game.

Apparently on what was formerly twitter, this sentiment is even more widespread and common.

It's unfortunate really.

3 minutes ago, The College Dropout said:

You can't. His achievements at Aberdeen were akin to what Klopp achieved at Dortmund, what Mourinho did at Porto, what Rafa dad Valencia. Maybe greater. It marked him as likely the best British manager of his generation and all the top clubs in England wanted him.

 

Without the proven and sustained track record of success at the elite level at Aberdeen, Ferguson gets sacked at Man Utd. But he had pedigree at the highest level.

 

And this is a 40-year-old example. No manager will be given that time again and Howe certainly won't. But managers with proven track-records will continue to get more leeway than those that don't. For obvious reasons.

Ultimately, for Ferguson to achieve what he did at Man Utd, a level of patience was needed as even back then he was lucky to survive despite his achievements at Aberdeen. Three seasons in the bottom half of the league out of his first six at Man Utd, even back then was a lot to overlook. Kudos to them.

Eddie Howe's work here has been exemplary so far, and three or so poor months and enough is enough for some folks. That is an incredible level of impatience and short sightedness. I just don't get it.

3 minutes ago, STM said:

I think the biggest mistake is assuming he has to be like anyone.

Yeah, exactly, and so can we at least see how he responds next season to get a much clearer idea? Why anyone is nitpicking over every little thing and coming with these suggestions he's not up to it is really beyond me.

Even 'elite' Klopp, as good as he is and as proven, was still making similar mistakes just last season.

3 minutes ago, TheBrownBottle said:

Famously saved by winning the FA Cup when they finished 13th, of course - no small feat, to which he added English football’s first European trophy post-Heysel the season after, again an impressive feat for an English club at the time.

 

Ferguson also had an extraordinary track record at Aberdeen, so he did have something to point to in terms of quantifiable success - no-one outside the Old Firm has come close since in Scotland, and no Scottish club has won a European trophy post-Ferguson (and Aberdeen beating Real Madrid in a European final was a genuinely impressive achievement). 

Regardless of his achievements at Aberdeen, finishing bottom half three times in those early years at Man Utd who were spending money at the time and were nowhere near anything like what we had become under Mike Ashley, would not have been tolerated nowadays. No chance. 

He would have been deemed 'not elite' and sent back to Scotland.

18 minutes ago, Gallowgate Toon said:

I think Klopp is one of the best but he finished below us with some genuinely elite players at his disposal, like, and he's had plenty of of troughs in his managerial career. Not a given that he'd have replicated it. 

 

TAA was getting routinely rinsed last season until he was moved into his wanky midfield hybrid role for the last quarter of the campaign. Would've been interesting to see the outcry about that on here had it been us.

 

Actually, Liverpool last year are a good comparison to us now. Dodgy defensive performances, slow as midfield, many comments that they'd lost their energy,

Some great points here man.

The Trent getting rinsed defensively was such a major topic of discussion in football every week and he never changed it, even though it kept costing them.

In the market he also kept over looking the midfield area to the chagrin of Liverpool supporters, and spending on more and more attacking players where they were pretty well stocked.

People would absolutely have been completely losing their heads over these things.