Consortium of one

Just looking at this season only: Dubravka Woodman Gillespie sell Darlow Lascelles Schar Dummett sell Fede, Krafth, Clark Manquillo Lewis Ritchie Murphy Longstaff Hayden Willock sell Shelvey, Hendrick ASM Almiron Fraser Big Joe Wilson Gayle Darlow is redundant and even with heath issues Dubravka is far and away our best. Woodman didn't impress but I still think I'd rather him back up Dubravka than Darlow. Fede and Clark are too old and slow. Krafth is redundant at CB and WB/FB. If we play 3 at back keep Fede. We need a PL quality CB badly no matter what and another younger guy to bring along would be helpful. Ritchie and Murphy are serviceable as back up but Ritchie should be gone in June. If we can find someone for RB in January we should go for it. We need two here for sure. This is the biggest problem area for Howe. If he can define roles and play players who fit them then the defense and offense will improve. I think we're OK here for the season. Definitely need another quality striker. Can't rely on Wilson to stay heathy 6 out 6 in

Stockholm Syndrome. Some therapy and he'll be ok.

"How's the bacon do ya say?" Fat cnut.

That was a particularly galling way to not win a game. I hope he gets the max suspension. As has been pointed out, as the game went on we looked the fitter team. Until the window opens it will be every hand on deck. Good on Joelinton. For all his faults he was max effort. And maybe, just maybe with better fitness he can be a contributor.

Steve who?

This is why I said in another thread we'll find out just how a state MA left the club. Who knows how bad it actually got and how demoralizing for the employees who still held on.

There is massive work ahead. How many scouts do we even have? There was skeleton crew before covid hit and who ever came back from furlough? Build a scouting network, build a youth development team, who will over see upgrading/building facilities? Never mind putting teams together for marketing, commercial revenues, etc. Someday we're going to find out just how bad off MA left us.

Backing him 100%

Yeast infection

Well said!

And smart, too. He knows the NUFC business far better than anybody so it makes sense to keep him on. I doubt he's part of any real decision making, he's just a resource. His last official act will likely to be purchasing 10 million paper clips. He'll fill his bathtub with them and spend the day fapping in it.

What @KaKa has been posting re: Howe is spot on. I was very excited about Emery and very disappointed when he bailed. Yeah, I think he bailed. He's at a club he loves, in an area his family is comfortable so I totally understand why he got cold feet. Count me amongst those who will think he'll regret his decision on a professional level. Such is the potential the club has. One guy wants to be here, a bunch of others didn't. Within reason, I'll take the guy who wants to be here. Howe, on a slightly smaller scale, I'll grant you that, has done what the consortium are looking for. He taken a team up through the tiers, punching above it's weight while keeping an eye on building for the future. He's impressed them with his vision and the detail of how to take the club from A to B to C, etc. Does he get to run the whole show? No. Someone like McParland is likely to come on board in some kind of role and a DoF will also be hired. Howe will likely have a say in who comes in but won't be responsible for running that part of the show. He will focus on on the field operations and have a hand in some other processes. He not a sexy continental guy. doesn't have wavy hair and speak with an accent. He's also not a dodgy PFM with narrow vision and lack of imagination. No one coming in right now is guaranteed success, bar Rafa. I don't see Howe as a safety net pick. I see him as one of a few very good choices looked at by the consortium and I think he has some solid credentials from his time at Bournemouth, He has some dynamism and al lot of smarts too.

In five years all the good coaches will fight each other for this job. For 14 years we watched this club spiral down. Now we get to watch it rise

so last week Edwards was a no-nothing knob but today a lot of people are agreeing with him?

I'm at a 4 now. I can't see Emery being a disaster so I think we'll stay up.

I think we'll need a holding MF (Hayden) until the back line gets sorted so 4-3-3 makes the most sense to me. Play Willock and Longstaff in front of them with ASM and Miggy on the wings (have them swap position through out the game). I want to see what Lewis does with a real coach. Dubs Mang Lascelles Schar Lewis Hayden Longstaff Willock Miggy ASM Wilson

I would be scared if Conte had gone to ManU. Spurs, not so much.

I did some research on this. Seems there was a famous fortune teller in the area, an expert on reading sheep entrails. One of his famous readings was even quoted, "We're shit", in so many words...

Fantastic news. I would have been behind anyone the consortium hired because I have total faith in them. Everything I've read about Emery tells me he can get us organized on defense and efficient on the counter. I'm prepared to back Emery with how he wants to set his team up, what players stay, what players go, who comes in. Now it's on to the DoF

Spurs are just a mess. No way Nuno was going to thrive there. The owner's a knob, the board are clueless and the squad needs to be turned over.

IMO, Fonseca is likely signed, sealed and just waiting for delivery. If Everton put up another (semi) stinker, Rafa may get pushed out. I also think the Board are pretty sure that we will not go down, that there will sufficient investment in January and a proper coach in place. But think even beyond that...this deal came together very quickly and was uproarious. Nineteen PL clubs met about it and Charnley was sent to the PL with a very clear message. We stood at a very awkward point in time. Rumors firing fast and furious about DoFs, managers, players so the Board decide to let the dust settle a bit. Maybe it was time to reduce some animosity and take the spotlight off NUFC. Tell the PL you understand their concerns and then show them that your not going to shoot first and ask questions later. Continue your searches but keep them buttoned down to the max. Keep your names out of the headlines. Schmooze the other clubs a bit. And then get back to business.

Harsh, but fair

Darlow Manq Lascelles Schar Lewis Hayden Longstaff Willock Almiron ASM Wilson

This will be an exciting hiring. First off, the team was not organized under Brewce. How many times have we heard him say that "unfortunately the team sat back too much and we conceded." A good coach would coach that out of them. And, if they did sit back they would do so with good positional awareness instead of being rubber banded all over the pitch and giving up soft goals. I love his philosophy even if we aren't prepared to play that way yet. He has to get us physically fitter, first, and then get the front players firing. Just getting the team organized better and holding the ball more will help the defense. If your players play a patient build up game and are well spaced when you do give up the ball your payers are in good position to recover and possibly win the ball right back. Just think back to the Spurs last week: Shelvey floats a long diagonal towards the outside of the box, it gets headed away and Spurs sliced through us leading to Shelvey's 2nd yellow. I always got the sense that the only instructions our players got was "Push up!" or "Stay back!" without any thought into HOW we push up and HOW we stay back. I really hope he is in the stands on Saturday.

Classic Mourinho