Geordie Ahmed

4 minutes ago, POOT 2.0 said:

I hope the board really are intelligent and come out with a positive statement, like:

 

"whilst we don't want relegation, no matter what happens, we're all committed to the long term future of NUFC." 

 

Would rest a few nerves. 

 

I'm sure Staveley said something similar when they first came. 

They'll not say anything like that until it's mathematically done

And I fully expect them to say they are disappointed but committed to getting the club back up

2 minutes ago, TheInfiniteOdyssey said:

Patience isn’t limitless though.

 

This is competitive sport and you’ll be judged on results regardless. That’s the reality and the results unfortunately haven’t been good enough.

 

We all want Howe to succeed, but there has to be a point where you question if he’s the right man for the job. All fans will have a different threshold for when that point is for them.

 

People can be happy with his initial appointment and now be unhappy with how things have gone since. That’s not an inherently contradictory stance to adopt.

 

He’s had 10 games, we’ve been inconsistent, there’s been little sustained encouragement against sides of varying calibre and we haven’t got the points we expected to accumulate.

 

Another negative result against Leeds and I’d find it hard to disagree with people who would be open to a change in manager.

Of course it isn't limitless but we've put up with 14 years of Ashley and 3 years of Bruce, I expected it to last a bit more than it has for some 

I'm not going to make a judgement so soon, especially when the issues we have is our squad is not balanced and it's crap

The squad being shite isn't on Howe, that's on Bruce and somewhat on the new owners in giving him some better players 

If we lose to Leeds, sack Howe, who do you honestly expect to come in? Who will suddenly make Lascelles be a competent footballer or give us legs in midfield? No manager/coach is changing that 

Just now, TheInfiniteOdyssey said:

 

Sorry like but there has to be a more nuanced middle-ground than “expecting perfection” to dismiss concerns on recent form such as getting 0 wins from Brentford, Norwich and Watford in the league and being eliminated from the cup at home to league one opposition.

 

The fans have been very patient and supportive, more so than many other clubs I’d expect.

Questions is one thing, talking about sacking the manager and blaming the new owners if we go down is another, that's the issue I have. 

People were largely happy with Eddie Howe (go to his thread and read the comments) and now we have lots of people (it's not isolated) already chucking the towel in on him after 10 games? Is that reasonable?

Where is the patience? They need time, time to implement their plan and structure, they don't need people putting blame on to them for our relegation or even questioning their ability (that may well come but once they've had a fair crack at things, not after 3 months man)

5 minutes ago, Menace said:

I don't understand some of the stuff people are spouting. People have paid serious money to go and watch this shower of shite week in week out, and for their loyalty they have been given what I would describe as 2 decent performances from 20 matches.

 

No one is untouchable to criticism, so what's with this "I wouldn't blame them for walking away" nonsense? To some people this is all they have, so the fact they are constantly being let down week after week, I absolutely do not blame them for being annoyed by the decisions being made and being vocal about it.

People have paid serious money, that is true but the current owners are not responsible for the shite on show week in week out, certainly not yet

Once they've had an opportunity to put a structure in place and employed people across the board and give a reasonable amount of time then I think it's fair to get vocal about it

Getting vocal now is absurd imo, though it is reflective of issues we have in society in general and football is a reflection of that, we want everything and we want it now

Let's recognise we've had 14 years of absolute crap at all levels, expecting perfection from the new owners in 3 months is unfair and unrealistic 

Have some patience man and focus on the bigger picture 

Just now, TRon said:

 

He played yesterday didn't he? Maybe he's delusional enough to think he's resurrected his career at Man U. 

He came off the bench on 89 mins, a bit generous to say he played 

52 minutes ago, Iansuzanne71 said:

What makes me laugh is if Bruce and Ashley had bought wood in the fans would have gone mad but because the Arab and Howe it’s ok.??

You mean to say people will make judgements based on context and react differently, such as Ashley being here for 14 years and Bruce for almost 3, whilst the new owners/Howe have been here for a few months, shocking that ? 

20 minutes ago, Beth said:

Apart from Trippier yes. As someone said, replacing Bruce with Howe was like upgrading from a 40" to a 42" TV.

If we really analyse it we have 3 appointments really

Howe

Trippier 

Wood

I'm prepared to give Howe more time and I'm certainly prepared to give Wood more than 1 game.

You carry on losing your shit though if that's what helps you 

58 minutes ago, worthy said:

We are done. Howe can't save this. He loves his Shelvey and Lacelles too much. If we go down I'm afraid he will have us fucking about middle championship.

There's literally no alternative to Shelvey and Lascelles, unless you regard Hendrick as an alternative 

And that is a huge factor as to why we are in this mess

Howe should have identified that and demanded a new midfield, though we have no idea if he has done that

1 hour ago, duo said:

Why are some convinced he will come good?  At Bournemouth he did 'ok' in the PL before he ultimately got them relegated and he actually had decent money to spend. But I saw nothing to say he's the man to take us forward.

ok is a massive understatement, overall he did a brilliant job and to keep a club like Bournemouth in the PL for as long as he did was a remarkable achievement. 

20 minutes ago, duo said:

Just look at Villa to see the difference a manager makes in attracting players.

I think league position is the bigger draw

Now would Gerrard have had us in a better position? That's a different question but ultimately not worth dwelling on too much

I am surprised at how quickly people have turned on Howe, I understand the frustrations and there have been things which aren't good enough but I do believe he will come good. It might not be this season, the rot in the club was perhaps too much to fix but I think eventually once he has a bulk of his own players we'll see better. And if we don't, then fair enough, serious questions can be asked

2 hours ago, Beth said:

This sums it up for me. I'm sure Stavely and Co's hearts are in the right place but they've fucked up just about everything so far when it comes to incoming personnel.

Just about everyting? Bloody hell, talk about exaggeration 

Midfield is key, ours is shit

You can give Longstaff and Shelvey to Pep, Klopp and they'll not be able to polish them

If Howe had better alternatives and he was persisting with them then I'd give him stick but we literally have no one else, it's a dire situation 

However what Howe should be doing is demanding 2 new CM's because the current lot will relegate us comfortably, if he can't see how crucial that is then I do worry long term

I think some of the comments are mad and very knee jerk, I thought us of all fanbases around would be the most patient, we put up with 14 years of Ashley and I thought resilience is just a given but I'm seeing far too many people slagging Howe off and writing him off, despite the main issues with the side/squad not of his doing 

5 minutes ago, MarkyMark said:

We’re in a position to challenge it as members.  We’re not if we’re not in it.

 

Quite apart from the hammering it would do to our FFP, given the likely losses in the second division, as well as further dents to prestige.

 

I don’t think PIF bought the club thinking relegation was likely irrespective of position at the time.  They bought us less than two months into the season - it’s hardly as if we were sunk.  Our position hasn’t improved since. 

We can challenge all we like, it just requires 14 clubs to vote to change things, as they did with the sponsorship

I agree going down negatively impacts FFP but that's a possibility they will have been well aware of

I'm trying to look at relegation as a set back rather than a disaster, which it would have been under Ashley/Bruce

3 minutes ago, MarkyMark said:

I think they’ll ruthlessly defend their investment - I’m not suggesting that Staveley will be off the board.  But running the club will likely be done in the event of relegation.  She said the same in her interview to the Athletic a while back.

 

As far as I’m concerned, they’ve got two weeks to sort this out.  I think relegation is far, far more disastrous than some people on here are thinking.  ‘We’ll just bounce straight back’ is the attitude; meanwhile, the PL will enjoy rewriting that rule book. 

What rule book would that be? They can make rule changes now when we are in the league?

Fofana had another good game today, we should throw money at him and get him signed before Leeds 

Him instead of Longstaff improves our midfield tenfold 

Just now, Andy said:

 

We're drawing games that we would lose under Bruce, unfortunately that's not enough of an improvement. 

I agree with that, the improvement has not been enough

I'm just not ready to start calling for Howe to go, far too soon for that and I think ultimately he was chosen because when we go down then he has experience of getting promoted from The Championship 

4 minutes ago, Elephant said:

 When you look at our opponents, you realize it’s not good at all. We are not going to have these easy games, because we blew almost every single of them with poor results. 
 

We’ve had opportunity to gain points from the weakest teams and we have not done it.

 

Brentford, Norwich and Watford home, no wins in these games.

 

Stats of 29.55 points looks pretty crap when you think about who we have played against.

 

Only two positive results and honestly winning Burnley home 1-0 is not exactly win of the season.

 

 

I'm not saying 29.55 is great, I'm just pointing out that in comparison to Bruce it's better 

Let's not forget we had a decent set of fixtures under Bruce too but he blew in, that's where the foundation of our problems started 

21 minutes ago, Pilko said:

 

Because we all sat here and said "The squad is terrible but Bruce is the fucking pits, this team would be doing better under someone even halfway competent".

 

And Howe has come in, and made absolutely no impact whatsoever other than stumbling upon Joelinton being a canny CM (which he only discovered by starting Clark, another Howe mistake).

 

The narrative seems to have shifted from "squad shit, Bruce making it worse" to "squad so shit that nobody in the world could fix it" just so people can defend Eddie Howe. He's hoodwinked so many on this forum and it's plain as day he's not up to the job.

No impact whatsoever is a bit harsh imo, I understand the late equaliser hurts and emotions are running high

Bruce had 3 points from 8 games, across a full season that's 14.25 points

Howe has 7 points from 9 games, across a full season that's 29.55 points 

So there is an improvement, unfortunately it's not enough of an improvement 

Plus you add in this isn't his squad, I'm willing to reserve judgement on him 

1 minute ago, Minhosa said:

Not a chance I want him in that dugout if he takes us down tbh.

I mean, I'll look at it as Bruce/Ashley taking us down

The problems started before Howe and have continued with Howe, not his players, I'll happily give him time 

Not his players, they have shown they have an absolute pathetic and weak mentality 

Not going to judge Howe so soon, getting rid of him would be irrelevant.

I don't think anyone saves us and I would trust him to get us promoted 

18 minutes ago, Super Duper Branko Strupar said:

 12 points ahead of Chelsea in January

13 isn't it

If the Gosens links are accurate then it suggests Howe wants to move to a back 5

Grealish should be scoring that, big chance

7 hours ago, Minhosa said:

If you could only have 3 more signings this window, bearing in mind what you feel we need to give us the best shot of survival, which 3 (in order) do you pick?

 

Must be players we've been linked with lately.

 

For me,

 

1) Carlos

2) Botman

3) Kamara

 

I've gone for Carlos slightly ahead of Botman based purely on the fact he's in his prime and should be 'ready' from the off whereas Botman might need a bit more of an adjustment period...

 

Kamara because we absolutely need legs in midfield.

1) Kamara

2) Carlos

3) Fofana

45 minutes ago, xLiaaamx said:

I imagine Umtiti is still leagues ahead of our lot despite his injury issues. 

He really isn't

Up until the World Cup he was brilliant, amongst the top CB's out there but the knee injury he picked up has ruined him

Since then he's always picking up injuries but also always looks out of shape, even injuries aside he's all over the shop when he has played

I would absolutely avoid him at all costs