Milburn

The benchmark for me is Aston Villa under Unai Emery. They’ve managed to combine Europe and the Premier League brilliantly, stayed tactically flexible, kept evolving, coped with injuries and still looked like a coherent, well-drilled side during most parts of this season. That’s what a top manager looks like. Eddie Howe is on a completely different planet to Emery tactically and in-game. And honestly, I’m baffled by how many supporters seem perfectly willing to just shrug and say “give him another season” after a campaign like this. Which fanbases in the top six wouldn’t be screaming for the manager’s head after finishing in the bottom half, collapsing repeatedly and sleepwalking through huge parts of the season?

Zero trust left in Howe. Absolutely none. It honestly feels pointless going into another summer window with him still in charge when the entire trajectory of the team has been heading the wrong way for over a year. This wasn’t some unlucky blip or “fine margins” season. It was a dreadful Premier League campaign full of passive performances, collapses, stale football and a team that looked mentally gone half the time. And history is brutal on managers in this situation. Almost nobody in Premier League history has followed up a genuinely awful season with a sudden renaissance the year after. Usually the club just delays the inevitable and wastes another transfer window before pulling the trigger around November. I’m honestly extremely downbeat about the whole thing right now. Normally I’m already looking forward to next season the moment the final whistle goes on the current one, but not this time.

- Spurs escaping relegation - Sunderland heading for the Europa League - We are finishing 12th. What a time to be alive. How on earth Eddie Howe is surviving this I will never understand. He is a dead man walking. Get out!

That half was genuinely pathetic, Eddie.

Strongly disagree with that. Once the free kick hits the post and stays alive, our reactions are absolutely dreadful. Fulham react first, attack the second ball quicker and want it more.

That’s one way of looking at it. Another is how fascinating it’s been watching Manchester City completely suffocate and grind teams into dust through control and positioning. At their peak it often felt less like a football match and more like watching a machine slowly crush the opposition.

Whatever people think of the finances around City, there’s no denying Pep Guardiola completely changed modern football. Positional play, building from the back, inverted full backs, total control through possession… half the football world has spent the last decade trying to copy him. The Premier League is losing, by an absolute distance, its biggest, best and most high-profile manager.

I genuinely wasn’t aware Ross Wilson had such a punchable face.

He is probably on his way out yes. He’s been a consistently good player for us overall, but I do think he rates himself slightly higher than he actually is. Personally, he’s never really given me that same excitement down the left that David Ginola or Laurent Robert did back in the day. Not even close. And ultimately, if he does leave for FC Bayern, we can’t really complain. They’re several levels above us.

It’s criminal business. It is exactly the kind of transfer window that can set a club back financially for years under PSR.

Excellent first 20 minutes. After that it was a bit of a mixed bag again. Some good moments, some very nervy ones, and far too much loss of control for periods. Anyway, unbeaten in three

Time to stick Simon & Garfunkel - Sound of Silence on Spotify again. Feels like we’ve entered the weekly “sit back, panic and invite pressure for 30 minutes” phase of the match.

Harsh to blame anyone for that goal.

Where did this come from? Wow!

Would be mad to even consider it now

Will Osula really looks like he’s taking that striker spot by storm now. Still raw and unpolished, but the tools are obvious. Pace, power, aggression and unpredictability. We might genuinely have a star in the making here. So excited for him.

Howe also answers very well, to be fair. He always comes across brilliantly in these situations. In terms of representing the club, conducting himself publicly and handling the media, he’s second to none and we’re genuinely lucky to have someone like that fronting the club. I honestly think his communication skills and personality are a big reason why the owners still believe in him and are prepared to give him another season. But now the words have to translate into action as well. This Premier League season has been genuinely dreadful and Howe has to take a huge amount of responsibility for that.

Much better coached team then us.

I think this is where we probably just view football differently. To me, evolution isn’t just about replacing players more easily. It’s about adapting tactically, finding new solutions, changing structures, tweaking roles and still remaining difficult to play against even when injuries hit or confidence drops. Just look at Iraola at Bournemouth. They lost several key players and still managed to evolve and stay competitive in the race for Champions League places. Of course Howe has had some good results against top managers. Most decent managers do across a season. But isolated results against City, Arsenal or Villa don’t really change the overall trend for me, which is that over the last 12-13 months we’ve become increasingly predictable and easier to nullify. And yes, all managers make mistakes. The concern for me is that Howe keeps making the same ones. And I honestly don’t think my expectations are unrealistic at all. I’m not demanding title challenges or anything absurd. But finishing in the bottom half and only really securing safety a few rounds before the end is miles below where this club should be after the money spent and the trajectory we looked to be on a couple of years ago.

I understand the PSR point, but that still doesn’t really explain why the football itself has become so stale and predictable. Tactical flexibility, in-game management, adapting to opponents, using technical players properly, changing shape when things clearly aren’t working… those things don’t require another £200m. I think that’s probably where we fundamentally disagree. You mainly see the limitations in the squad, while I increasingly see the manager as the main limitation. I’m absolutely convinced that Guardiola, Arteta, Klopp and, for that matter, Emery would all have got far more out of this squad this season than Howe has managed.

Not really. The point only stands if Howe is still operating with some massive resource disadvantage relative to the level we expect to compete at. After close to £800m spent, that argument becomes a lot less convincing. Just look at Unai Emery at Aston Villa. They’re in a Europa League final, still fighting for a Champions League place, and they’ve also had to deal with playing twice a week, which many people have used as a major excuse for Howe. At some point the conversation has to move from “he needs more” to “what is he actually doing with what he already has?”

I’d maybe understand that argument if Howe had spent £80m, not close to £800m. Obviously he doesn’t have Pep-level resources, but let’s not pretend he’s operating on crumbs either. And after spending that kind of money, ending the season with Dan Burn at left back and Joelinton on the wing while teams comfortably figure us out every week is exactly why people are questioning the “evolution”.

Give me a break. Howe has spent close to £800m since the takeover and people still act like he’s performing miracles with a Championship budget. At some point the manager has to evolve too. He has failed big time this season.

And that’s exactly what separates him from the very best managers. The elite coaches don’t just “try to evolve”; you can actually see the evolution. There’s a clear direction, clear ideas, and clear adaptations when things stop working. With Howe it increasingly feels like small tweaks around the edges of the same old 4-3-3 rather than genuine evolution. And in many ways the circle is now complete with the season ending once again with Dan Burn at left back and Joelinton on the left wing. After years of the “project”, we’ve somehow ended up right back almost where we started.