Wallsendmag

Flip flips on (your words), downed tools. Pretty much same thing really.

Well isn't that a damning indictment of Howe and his squad if they downed tools with 2 months and 8 games of the season still to play whilst sat in 9th position. Plenty of other PL teams have more players at the World Cup than we have, including those 12 miles down the road, and didn't seem to suffer with the same lack of effort.

The next mistake you've made is taking the utter cesspit that is Twitter seriously It's full attention seekers farming for interaction.

It's easy enough to go back 2 years on this very thread (I've done it) and see for yourself that there wasn't "loads" of people on his back at all for the 7th place finish so yet again you're talking shite I'm afraid.

I lost all faith in the possession stat having much meaning when we battered Brendan Rodgers' Swansea team 2-0 with 25% or so of it.

That's just an assumption from yourself as we didn't get an extra 4 points and finish 8th, we finished 12th. So it's basically irrelevant. What we do know as fact is that when we finished 7th 2 seasons ago (level on points with 8th) there wasn't really any whinging or Howe out noises at all. Certainly anyone with that view was massively in the minority. I'll be honest I can't even think of anyone who wanted him sacked after that and why would they? Last season was nowhere near good enough. The football was poor and loads of other flaws in our game, mentally (throwing away leads, conceding last minute goals and technically (awful ball retention) I don't think you'd get much argument against that. The debate is whether Howe can turn it around or not. The signs haven't been promising in my opinion. A lot of his backers said we'd see a big improvement when we reverted to 1 game per week after going out of Europe with 2 months of the season to play. Some even thought it would help us push for European qualification again. Didn't happen.

Real. Seen the interview.

I was in there for the Liverpool game last season. Atmosphere was excellent.

We finished 7th 2 seasons ago (same amount of points as 8th place) and people were genuinely satisfied. As it happens we didn't finish 8th this season so I'm unsure as to what his point was, if there was one.

Correct decision. Nowhere near good enough.

You were making a point?

You can't use the "too many games excuse" for a shit season and then fail to include all the defeats in those extra cup games though

We also finished 5 points off 16th. We lost 23 games, spent obscene money on rubbish, let Sunderland walk over us twice, and lost more points from winning positions than any other team. Finishing 4 points behind 8th in 12th position isn't anything to crow about but you carry on polishing that turd of yours.

Because regardless of who comes in, without Europe and after a big splurge last season, our pull (and budget) may not be great and I also don't envisage much of a difference in style of play either. Our recruitment methods and the aforementioned style of play needs a shift, I'm not confident that is going to happen with the present personnel in place. Probably just a hangover from last season tbf. After the Barcelona debacle, although I said on here that I didn't really expect a strong end to the season, I did hope for one and to finish with a continuation of the malaise that was setting in was really disappointing.

We were pretty poor from August though. We won 1 of our first games (an undeserved 1-0 at home to Wolves).

That's me. At present I can only see next season being more of the same as what we've watched last season which doesn't really fill me with many reasons to be excited.

Ours have disappeared from my account as well but I've cancelled them so expected that.

I used to be above the 2nd "T" of the Potterton Myson advertising board 3 rows from the front so easy to spot myself on the TV highlights as well.

George Graham built his Arsenal success on winning 1-0. To a lesser extent Allardyce did similar at Bolton. Is it good to watch? No not really. Is it effective? Yes definitely. A solid defence and GK are the fundamentals to build a successful football team. Sunderland have just proven that. Qualified for Europe when their top scorer had 7 goals. If they were to throw money at a striker who could get 15-20 goals next season they may really well be onto something. On the other hand not being able to see games out and win 1-0 had cost us massively this season.

Sadly that ship has long sailed in the £1000 season tickets and £60 just to go behind the goals in the "cheap seats" to support the team era. In saying that even the way it's been going I still never thought I'd see the day when your average supporter was priced out of a pre season kickabout 120 miles up the road. Ultimately when you price a product aimed at attracting customers rather than your average working class supporter, then you shouldn't be surprised when they act like a customer who is spending a lot of money to watch your product. Can't have it all ways.

Ah good luck to him. Dream move which playing for NUFC helped him realise. He wouldn't have got that if he'd stayed at Everton steeped in mediocrity season after season. Seems we are happy enough with the fee. Let's just hope it isn't wasted on shite this time.

Unfortunately I don't think they are. People said that all last season. Their possession isn't high enough, they don't score enough goals, they have a shit Xg etc etc. None of that mattered. From what I seen of them, and admittedly it wasn't a great deal, their gameplan was built on outworking and unsettling the opposition (not to dissimilar to us in 22/23), and with a bit of quality in a couple of key positions that could turn tight games in their favour. They scouted and bought very well last summer. With an increased budget, and with them now being a more attractive proposition, they could well do the same again.

Don't think we'll go down like regardless, but speaking to those Bournemouth fans the other week they both said the signs at NUFC are eerily similar to the job he did at Bournemouth. Massive highs, comparatively speaking, followed by the decline that he looked clueless how to stop before relegation. Both said they wouldn't take him back there. Stating the obvious here but we need a fast start next season. 1 extremely unconvincing win in the first 6 like this season won't do and will have the alarm bells ringing that it's more of the same and he hasn't been able to arrest the decline. Sacking or a manager resigning pretty early in the season can pay dividends (Robson for Gullit, Howe for Bruce) but it's not a move you want to be having to make if you can help it. He'll be under massive pressure from August through to the October International break to prove he's found the answers and is on course to get us going in the right direction again.

You're a walking contradiction.

1 to 1. No capacity gain.