Wallsendmag

I don't remember Keegan or Robson being well proven in the Premier League over multiple seasons either. Away from us I can't remember Mourinho, Wenger, Klopp or Guardiola being well proven in the Premier League either before they took up their respective posts at Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool and Man City. Maybe we should just go for "Premier League ready" managers then.

Watching this cunt completely die on his arse has been the highlight of the season. Would be funny if that reckless Mackem snapped him in half on Sunday and did to him what he did to Van Dijk.

Well of course it isn't. If you're selling to buy (and we weren't awash with transfer spends at the time with the stadium development) it's not the same as getting an open chequebook like other clubs have had. He spent pretty little until that splurge in the summer of 2001. Up until then Carl Cort was his big signing and the others were squad fillers as we were pretty thin on numbers.

We spent £25m and received £25m in sales in 2000. Wasn't until '01 we spent some decent money when we brought in Robert, Bellamy and Jenas which moved us from 11th to 4th. He wasn't well backed at all in that summer that led to us finishing 11th.

1-1. We'll score 1st.

Genuinely can't think of the 2 occasions he's beaten Iraola.

In the 2 seasons we finished 11th he wasn't well backed at all. We spent very little.

Our net spend is over £400m more than theirs since both managers joined the clubs. They were spending around £500,000 per week more than us on wages last season. I don't think that'll be the case for this season though.

He wasn't well backed in those 2 seasons we finished 11th which was my point though.

Those are the figures quoted on the transfermarkt site. It's a pretty accurate site.

Emery's net spend at Villa is £40m. Howe's net spend at Newcastle is £450m. They had a higher wage bill than us last season but that may not be the case tbis season when you take into account last summers transfer business.

By that metric how many times has Howe been able to beat Iraola, despite having far greater resources at his disposal?

Define "good backing". We made a profit of 500k in the transfer market in 99/00 and a net spend of £5m in 00/01 which were the 2 seasons we finished 11th. His "marquee" signing over those 2 seasons would likely have been Carl Cort.

33 starts compared to 28 last season. Currently being used as a rather ineffectual midfielder.

He's played in midfield more than he's played up top recently. Also he played 28 times for Stuttgart last season and 33 this season so if there's bobbins being spoken here it's by you. As a team we've played far more games than Stuttgart played last season for further perspective.

I never said it was.

I've already said I'd take him here in a heartbeat tbf.

He's a rubbish midfielder and that's where Howe plays him, on the rare occasions he does play him.

As much as he may have been "let down" he was still afford £250m last summer. Just a shame the majority was squandered on rubbish.

I'd snap your hands off for Top half this season but there's probably more likelihood of Leeds overtaking us the way we are playing.

Serious question. Have you actually watched any of our games this season?

Think he'll go to Man Utd. Probably already a done deal.

With his current approach, tactics and profile of player he tries to sign he's 100% hit the ceiling of what we can achieve and we go backwards. The poor teams can now defend relatively easily against us simply by getting themselves into a simple low block and then attacking when need be. The better teams can play through us quite easily and at will. The summer needs a different approach. Technical players above athletes is a must. "Runners" only get you so far. Then the question will be can Howe work with this profile of player or is he more comfortable coaching athletes? As has been mentioned, Longstaff who will have had 100s of coaching sessions under Howe, said he was surprised by how much more work they do with the ball in training at Leeds compared to at Newcastle. He left on good terms without an axe to grind so no reason to believe there's any malice in those comments. He simply needs to adapt and evolve. Same as every other coach. My issue is that I'm not sure he can, or is prepared to, and if that's the case it's best for all parties if we all move on. I thought after the last Sunderland disaster he had 7 games to save his job and I still believe that. He's tripped over at the next hurdle. If Bournemouth beat us on Saturday we go Arsenal away on the back of 4 straight losses and I fear things could get really messy.

We've been terrible in and out of possession all season but just talking about in possession aye we've been so sloppy, one paced and have had very little cutting edge. Our ball retention has also been abysmal. You can talk about cartels, tiredness, luck, PSR, FFP or whatever excuses people want to roll out but these are all fundamental basics that we should be working on in training that we've struggled with so badly. Just been so, so poor all round.

Same. We can resume battle tomorrow.