The Prophet

Reuben too I think, but you can't imagine he'd be there from a target perspective.

Howe doesn't select our targets by the way. It's been covered by the Athletic, but we look for unanimous approval across the recruitment team. Howe gets the final "OK" as per most major clubs in England. With that in mind, you could see how a senior voice in that team could offer fresh ideas. It sounds like Mitchell failed because it was his way or the highway.

Having a link between the board and recruitment team may have enabled decisions to be made quicker. A senior voice may have offered different perspectives and fresh targets. He may have vetoed certain deals. We may have sold differently. We may have managed the Isak situation differently.

Sounds like there was a bit of discontent in the away end?

Howe is reliant on training ground coaching, player relationships and ingrained patterns of play to get the very best out the attack. It was another summer of chaos caused by a lack of executive structure. The issue of Isak and his replacement dragged on until the eleventh hour, when the season had begun. It's then been three games a week, almost every week. He's had no time on the training ground with a new look attack. Problem solving in a packed schedule is something that Howe will need to develop, but even Pep struggled with it last season and Klopp the season before that , before they were able to dip into the transfer market. I think when the schedule reduced we'll see a marked improvement in our attacking play though. At the moment it's all a bit messy.

I had no issues with signing players to improve our "Plan A" but we're not really playing that plan very often. Chelsea is the first time we've seen it in a while.

For context... 22/23 - 3rd in the away table 23/24 - 11th in the away table 24/26 - 10th in the away table (but 6th to 10th all finished level on points)

Who's happy with the away form? It's dreadful.

It's possible to say he isn't playing well at the moment without all the sensationalism like.

Also spent next to nothing in the three transfer windows beforehand.

I disagree. He's not had a brilliant game yet, but he's had a couple of decent ones. I'd like to see him impose himself more, but you can tell he's still listening the position, particularly defensively.

Why even mention Steve Bruce at all?

Yuuurs, first iffy performance and we can finally get stuck in. What a fan base.

That's very reductive thinking. There were a few reasons why they went down.

There was clearly no issue with the application, we just looked utterly toothless.

He did and other than Ibe, who I believe was struggling with his mental health, he had a pretty good hit rate.

Nah.

One season outside of Europe isn't going to trigger a mass exodus. We're at risk of losing Tino and Tonali regardless.

I agree on the ownership, but harsh on Hopkinson and Wilson.

He's definitely struggling to find a way to get his patters and game plans across with the lack of training ground time. It's something he's going to need to learn to overcome, granted a semi-normal pre-season would help.

Played pretty well second half, but ultimately it's another toothless showing on the road. The attacking patterns are absolutely non-existent at the moment.

They've been improving for a while.

Absolutely nothing in that. Both sides had spells with us looking rattled after the goal. Ultimately we just don't look coherent or threatening enough going forward though. I'd like to see Wissa on at half time.

He isn't, but he sees it late because Cunha is blocking his view.

Is it not just that we're looking at circa a decade before we're in any new stadium or training ground build?