GideonShandy

Legendess.

Oh yeah, that ghastly woman who brought the club to its knees.

Not sure there's much actual evidence for the propositions (1) that other clubs were eager to pay significant (or any) money for our ageing and second-string players or (2) that any of those players were willing to move or (3) that Eddie Howe, despite his extraordinary history of successful management, "has no business sense" or "isn't strong enough" to handle the ruthless aspects of the game.

The club just can't win. They bought Bruno, Isak, Tonali, Botman but still get criticized on here for not being "more adventurous in our signings," for only looking at players with "PL experience" and for not spending its money on "a lot more cheaper signings" instead.

So if we'd stuck with the full backs we already had (who now hardly get a game), and bought an expensive right winger who turned out to be a dud, would you have complimented the club on its overall strategy even though in retrospect things didn't work out?

What is "the board" to blame for?

Where's the logic in passing judgment on transfers "without looking at how they worked out in retrospect"? It's only in retrospect that a transfer can be sensibly evaluated.

So, except for the fact that they worked out well and the players turned out to be good, these were stupid transfers?

Who did we "overspend" on? Isak? Tonali? Bruno? Gordon? Hall? Livramento? Botman? Would you swap the contributions that any of those have made for what we might have got out of Minteh or Anderson (no disrespect to either)?

Only 9 goals conceded all season in 34 games probably makes them better than just good, to be fair!

Keeps Karl Darlow out of the team.

https://www.transfermarkt.us/premier-league/punktenachrueckstand/wettbewerb/GB1/plus/?saison_id=2024&spiele=alle We're top of the chart for points won after falling behind in all PL games, and also top if you consider away games only. (4 wins 1 draw is correct.) Not sure whether that's attributable to our resilience and fighting spirit or to carelessness early in games. Or just a meaningless statistical anomaly. For home games only, we're a mediocre 11th -- one win (yesterday) and 2 draws (City and Liverpool.)

16 conceded in the last 7 games -- not great.

And they've hated that scoreline since 1974.

Pretty good prediction from Billy Warthog on the pre-match thread: "Posted 6 hours ago Think they'll score first. Then it just depends on which NUFC turn up. Hope the atmosphere doesn't go flat for long periods. I'm still reasonably confident of a positive result, but it'll probably be nervy and maybe a hard watch. NB - I'm shite at predictions, so there's always that."