Carlito

What's his yelling like when he's chasing the opposition back to his own goal after losing the ball near the halfway line? The compilation didn't show any of that stuff.

He was figured out that day and I stand by that comment, because as I said we slowly became worse over the next 3 seasons. Isak becoming a star striker and Gordon hitting form, plus the signing of Barnes added a lot of goals to our team in 2023-24 but you have to look at the games in isolation as well such as Villa at home, Sheff Utd away, Palace at home, Luton at home, West Ham at home, Spurs at home. That's 29 goals in 6 games. Also look at the amount of times we were caught out pressing too high up the pitch. The midfield was being played through then and it still is now, with more ease than before. Not even Bruno being on the pitch is saving us anymore whereas it got us out of a lot of bad results in prior seasons. Us conceding so many on the break was/is a direct result of us not being able to break down low blocks. Look at our center backs this season, part of the press and caught too high up the pitch (Burn more often than I can count). Bruno has been the only player who will try anything through the middle until we signed Woltemade. The difference with other teams is their manager will often take a more proactive approach to combat the problem. Howe just generally makes like-for-like changes and hopes something happens after we've conceded. Too much reliance on individual brilliance rather than actually adapting to situations.

I said it's slowly gotten worse, which it has. In 22/23 we conceded 33 goals. 62 conceded the following season. For the first half of last season (24/25) we were honking.

So breaking down teams that utilize a low block hasn't been an issue for us in your opinion?

Leeds at home. That was when Howe's system was first found out. Since that game we haven't been able to break down low blocks and teams know to set up that way

Can't remember if it was him or Stuart Pearce last summer said on Talksport we'd win the league this season Hopefully they keep him away from the predictions this summer just to be safe.

Think he's wanted away since he got stick off the fans for liking Isak's post last summer. It's been clear all season, particularly in the league.

How not though? We've been playing like a relegation side since January, that's not an exaggeration. If it wasn't for Woltemade's early form we could easily be in West Ham's shoes right now. It's been clear for months that certain players aren't wanting to play for the manager. There are too many parallels with how things were under Bruce, right down to the league position and painful football. The problems started long before Isak left as well (2022-23 to be exact), which is why I don't like seeing the excuse of Isak leaving being peddled out in Howe's defense.

Lee Ryder is saying we're in talks with Ewen Jaouen's reps and Reims so it looks like those early links were true.

There was news of it a couple of months back all over twitter. It was a certainty.

Considering the players he trusts the most are the main ones who have under-performed the most this season, his judgement has been poor. The thirties club have all been extremely poor and should be moved on this summer. Murphy should have gone last summer while his stock was at its highest. Pope needs to go. Burn is the only one that we might still get anything out of next season as a backup but even then he too often gets caught out too high up the pitch. He should not be starting at left back over Hall given how our team is set up to play.

Probably not with new rules coming into play but I think 80-90 would be a fair range for an England international. I don't think we should be selling him for less than 80.

If Grealish can go for £100m we can demand a lot more than £60-80m for Gordon who will likely be starting at the world cup. £60m would be laughable considering Everton will get a percentage. We need to become better sellers than what we have been on the whole since the takeover.

Literally explained why it's set us back that far. We can't spend without selling thanks to wasting so much money on players he wouldn't even give a consistent run in the team (this would actually be the one difference but that's on Howe), we have a manager that has shown no signs of turning it around because he's too stubborn, we have players wanting out and clearly not playing for the manager and defensively we are a total mess. We ended this season in relegation form. Ironically we got battered by West Ham at their worst earlier this season as well and were lucky to only concede 3 that day. We've gone full-circle under Howe. Do you really think giving him more money to spend on players he wants will turn things around if we keep playing the exact same way? Let's say even if we do perform well next season and somehow get back into Europe after selling a couple of our best players, then what? We'll be right back where we are now the season after next because we'll continue to play the same way, end up with too many injuries and see aging players started when their form doesn't justify it.

His reckless spending last summer (£34m+ per signing) on players he's refused to give a consistent run in the team has set us back five years. We're back to square one. No European football, no star striker, no attacking creative outlet, no ability to spend without selling first and a manager who doesn't look like he's able to stop the downturn in form. It'll be a disaster if he's allowed to spend even more money to fix the problems he caused due to panic buying and tactical stubbornness. Quarter of a billion spent in one window to lose the same number of games as relegation-threatened Spurs and more than relegation-threatened Nottingham Forest, who had 4 different managers this season. This won't just magically fix itself next season, especially with us having to sell to buy. He has to go if we want to grow into a bigger club. Any new manager coming in has their work cut out for them.