The Prophet

Most teams will go through good and bad patches of form throughout the season, unless they're competing for the title.

None then?

Any particular Bournemouth games that come to mind?

Depends what we're trying to transition to.

100%, I probably unsuccessfully trird to capture that. Particularly regarding the make up of the crowd. The "working man's sport" has priced out the working man.

I wasn't sure where to put this, but re our support... A few posters have listed our support as part of their creeping apathy towards football and NUFC. Me being one. First off, our away following is incredibly loyal, you can't knock the numbers that travel. Also, Wor Flags are the shit and do a lot of heavy lifting for the home atmosphere. When SJP is on it (few and far between), there's no place like it and WF are the catalyst. However, I'm starting to nod my head more and more at opposing fans critical assessment of us. Unfortunately, I don't get up much these days, largely due to the ballot system in place, but when I have the atmosphere has been as flat as a fart. I do think there's merit to the theory that young, noisy groups are being priced out of football and replaced with a middle class audience. Singing has been replaced by groans and the hurling of abuse. It feels like there's an expectation that we should turn up and win every time and support has been replaced by the idea that we're customers that should be entertained. Entitlement has always been thrown at NUFC fans in particular and it's hard to deny there isn't truth to that. That's before we touch on the hounding of individual players. We're a fan base that love to dog pile our own players when they're down. It's not exclusive to us, but football fans in general are quick to forget these lads are human, with all kinds of stuff going on in their lives. My animosity probably goes a bit further than that though. I remember being younger, getting behind the "Ashley out" campaign only to be told to "fuck off" and insulted by other members of the fan base. Lads and lasses who cared deeply about the club, made sacrifices bigger than I ever could, giving up sesson tickets and switching off that parts of their lives. These fans are still sneered at to this day by folk who turned up week in, week out to bemoan Steve Bruce slop. I do recall the idea that trying to promote change at the club, landed you in "left wing" or "woke" element of the fanbase. It makes all the sense now when you hear large groups of the stadium booing players taking the knee. As though a thirty second pre-game gesture interrupts the viewing experience. It's almost as if "woke" is just a catch-all phrase for stuff that people don't like and keeping politics out of football only applies when it suits. Anyway, a rambling apropos of nothing, but I've seen it mentioned a bit of late and it's frustration that goes beyond the unhinged social media following (which is inevitably creeping onto here). A lot of my gripes are with football fans in general, but the disconnect is definitely contributing in some form to the current apathy.

The net investment is similar to previous windows. We don't drop £125 million on Woltemade and Wissa is we don't sell Isak. Are we talking serious questions?

How so?

Given his vast amount of credit in the bank, I'm sure he'll be given the time and patience to turn it around, as he should be.

It is pretty interesting that a lot of our domestic signings have come at a premium, but have required some form of bed in period (Gordon, Barnes, Hall, Elanga). Whereas almost all of our foreign signings have hit the ground running. You probably need a blend of the two, which we have to be fair.

He has a WhatsApp group if anyone fancies it?

I'm with Jack on this. The game has been dragged to it's knees by corruption, greed and incompetence. The end result is stuff like PSR, VAR and a lack of accessibility for fans. Unfortunately, a lot of my emotional ties to the club have fallen away in recent years, so my interest in football pretty much hangs by a thread. That thread is most likely Howe and the current crop of players. They give everything and have delivered succeed that I never thought I'd see in my lifetime. Howe isn't bigger than the club, but he feels like one of the last people about that gives the club a human and relatable touch. So with him gone, I could easily see me jacking it in. That's before we touch on the fans, but that's a different discussion.

It probably hasn't been, but even going back to last season they were superb. The biggest issue now is that Big Joe seems to be on the decline. I'd also add (regarding another post) that Bruno is one of our best, ever. Tonali probably will be considered similar in another season or two.

Every player is different. They won't all be a hit from the off, or at all.

Yuuuurs. Vintage post-defeat patter.

You're chucking a player who's confidence is shot into an absolute mess of a formation. He didn't stand a chance. Unrelated, but the only other time I can recall Eddie losing tactical control so much was last season v West Ham at SJP.

Knew he'd catch strays today

Fair, you'd imagine that, GK, CM and possibly LW will be looked at next.

Wasn't a dig at anyone as such. More a reminder we've been here before and he's more than capable of turning it around.

We were 12th in December last year.

I don't think there were many folk going into the summer with full back high on the priority list like.

Him and Thiaw have been great this season, the absolute least of our problems.

Deja vu.

Far too early to rule us out, but we need to sort our away form out to sustain any kind of run.

He was blowing out his arse.