timeEd32

I don't really disagree with a lot of what you're saying other than the fact you seem to be pinning this entirely on Howe. If this summer ticked you off then you should be very annoyed about summer 2023 because you can trace all of the problems back to that. It was somewhere between naive and reckless and we had a DoF in place. I am not, under any circumstances, putting financial and PSR management at the foot of the manager. That blame needs to lie elsewhere. We've also had reports that part of Eddie's preference for PL players is the lack of data available from other leagues. This is probably why we haven't exploited South American talent or smaller leagues in Europe. There's really no reason to think Eddie is opposed to having a DoF in place so that's hurdle one. The next big thing is the level of power each role has and who has final say on certain things. If there's an issue it's likely here and this is where there absolutely has to be concessions on Eddie's part. We genuinely have no idea at the moment where this line is and whether or not he's happy about it. Honestly mostly of your complaints seem like they could be leveled at some combination of PIF, Staveley, Eales, and Ashworth (as well as Howe), but you've just decided that every bad thing is the fault of the manager (ahem, head coach - another sign he knew from the beginning he wouldn't be all-powerful) despite singing his praises for 2+ years.

In fairness you’ve gone from being positive and pro-Eddie to exceedingly pro Mitchell/the structure essentially overnight. It’s pretty jarring.

What you’re saying doesn’t make any sense. Three outlets released their interpretation of the interview at essentially the same time - Douglas, Edwards, and Hope. The DM version, which was decidedly the most negative, was circulating the most on Twitter and Reddit from what I saw. The Athletic version came out the next day. There was no way to react to the interview without reading the articles about it and the slant from each.

Solid fan fiction. GRRM could use some help finishing Game of Thrones.

Poor question, poor thread. The right answer is we’ll see the best version of NUFC if they figure out how to coexist. There are few people in the world better suited to developing talent than Eddie Howe and the only way we can compete within the financial rules is to buy young, undervalued and lesser known players. Whether Mitchell’s ability in his role is equal to Eddie’s in his remains to be seen, but he’s been here five minutes.

There’s really nothing to suggest Howe is opposed to a DoF setup. In fact there are multiple reports that he wanted a larger overhaul of our data capabilities so that we have better information on global players. He does want a certain amount of power, which is where he needs to compromise. We have no idea what the problems are between him and Mitchell. It could be a bit of a power struggle. It could be that Mitchell said he’d go get Guehi and then failed. It could be as simple as Mitchell being a bit of a Billy big bollocks, which can only be tolerated if someone is useful. I’m quite sure it’s not just because there is a Director of Football at the club.

That’s what has confused me in some other games too. As soon as I’m ready to condemn him he runs after something. But then he’ll lose the ball and not even try to win it back.

I was willing to put it down to fitness, but after seeing him put in something resembling effort for England you’d have a hard time convincing me his head wasn’t turned this summer. The one thing Gordon could guarantee on even his worst day was effort and work rate. It’s gone at the moment.

The Blackburn FA Cup goal was like being returned to another era. With no TV coverage word started to spread of that goal. The anticipation of waiting for the highlights. In the hours between tales started to spread of how he had dribbled through four, five, a hundred men.

Douglas (I think): Following up from last week, has there been any contact between you and Paul this week or is it something that you've just kind of forgotten about really? Eddie: (laughing) I'm not gonna go into every week in terms of our contact, but collaboration as I've said last week is what we're looking to do to take the club forward. Hope: Have you spoken to Paul this week? Eddie: (raises eyebrows and nods towards Douglas) I think I've just answered that one, Craig. I'm not gonna go there. Hope: You're not gonna go there. Would it be good, beneficial, if you and others, him, whoever at the club did sit down and have a conversation and address some of the concerns that's been... Eddie: Just so people know I've had conversations with senior members of the board this week, so I'm in regular communication with them. And as I said, trying to collaborate, trying to work together for the benefit of the club. Always. That's always in my heart and always will be while I'm manager of the club. Followed by a very leading question about how Eddie has said he needs to unify the players, staff, and supporters. ---------------------------- It's clearly not all rainbows and sunshine between Eddie and Mitchell, but Hope is really trying to keep this issue front and center. Eddie seems very relaxed IMO.

I thought Bruno was on closer to £200k / wk?

Possibly no Isak… Barnes — Gordon — Miggy would be my preference. But guessing it will be Murphy.

We’re going to have to sell players. Players who are good. My comment has nothing to do with his form.

Because of his age Joelinton has to be on the list of players we'd consider selling for the right price. He feels like enough of a name that Saudi could be an option too. But the problem we have with him (and little Joe) is he offers unique attributes for which we have no alternative. Maybe we wouldn't be after a like replacement for Joelinton as maybe that's part of how we need to evolve, but it would definitely create a big gap.

This thread is annoying when Minteh is good and and when he's bad.

I'm increasingly dying to know the details of summer 2023. It just doesn't make sense at all in hindsight. We were going to buy Pedro in August '22 and then changed course and spent more than double on Isak. Then we bought Gordon in January. We had pushed things to the financial limit and knew we had to make a profit in 2023/24. On the plus side we had SELA starting and Champions League qualification. The unexpected CL money could have been the get out of PSR jail free card, but it almost seems like it became a noose. It's like we felt we had to buy more players and lose no one in order to compete in four competitions and, while I have tremendous sympathy for how the season actually played out, the entire plan seems flawed no matter what is presented as the intended solution. The blame for that has to mostly lie with Eales, Ashworth, and Staveley.

Pretty sure Sturridge wanted to die sitting on the same set as Alexei Lalas all summer.

Could just be the perspective of the player, but this is interesting: "Looking back, I probably should have stayed and fought for my place, but I just knew that Mike (Ashley) didn't want me there. Pardew wasn't big enough to stand up to him and say, 'I want to play Perchy.' So, I just thought I'll leave. Was Ashley a lot more involved in player decisions than we thought?

Longstaff is not good enough to be in the first 11 for where we are and certainly not good enough for where we want to be. He's fine for now as a 5th/6th choice CM, but his limitations are frustrating. He also doesn't deserve anywhere near the amount of stick he gets and his quotes about how it's difficult to hear/see some of the stuff about him is honestly sad. Boyhood dream to nightmare type stuff.

This is what makes the "death of the screamer" even more sad. They are even more enjoyable now because it's the one time you can just celebrate.

I don't disagree, but there's an hour of comments left open to interpretation. I don't even really blame Paul. The biggest failure is with whomever at the club decided that that was the right format to provide answers to how the window went.

If Mitchell was better with words he could and should have said exactly that to begin with.

He'll be 26 when next season starts. Past that is when it becomes increasingly difficult to sell someone. He's definitely in the category of 'needs decision' if he's productive this season. We need to find another version of him too. Both are next summer problems though; hopefully we get to enjoy watching him.

I woke up thinking Tino at LB is our best option. Happy to see some agreement here.

I'd enjoy these kinds of stats a lot more if we had won the league at any point since the Great Depression.