r0cafella

He's got and deserve the credit for those achievments nobody is taking that away from him. And like anything things can come good. I've explained in detail previously why I dislike this set up. It's super high risk once the wheels come off your monumentally fucked.

No surprises why we lose the ball so much on the flanks. Guardiola is choking on his coffee seeing this.

He wasn't like, he had Amanda and Mehdrad and the other crucial factor is the floor of that team was appalling. It didn't take much to improve it did it.

Yeah they have to, it's one of the argument used to justify the dysfunctional set up. Problem is when the wheels come off we are absolutely fucked because we have a squad full of runners who somehow don't want to run at the minute. So if Eddie's time were to be up we are in a fucking hole with a DOF Who doesn't have the CV we need to pull us out of it.

I'm not saying the model they have is good. I'm merely pointing to it as example of what other clubs do. Why does turnover of players matter anyways? Especially for us when we need to be looking to improve consistently. How many players of our current squad do we look at and think these are world heaters? We'd benefit from more turnover imo. It does need a massive overhaul let's be honest about things. I do not want more 55m elanga or 40m spent on 6th choice central midfielders. It's lunacy. We need to be absolutely surgical and have a long term plan. As others clubs do, if we aren't yet elite we need a plan to get there if we have to sell players so be it but let's at least get our succession planning nailed on. If Tino is to be sold his replacement should be in the building and raring to go snapping at his heels to get his place.

Yea because that's the model they have. The manager doesn't get an input. We are the opposite end of that particular spectrum.

He has no say over what's bought and sold. (I'm not advocating for that either) He gets what he better get results because if he doesn't he will be binned.

You think Enzo Maresca has final day? You think slot has it? I can't think of any managers in the league that have the power and control over transfers that Eddie does.

Gordon is rancid on the right.

They say it because they are very much aware of the chatter about them being still interested especially when this amplifies when they drop Liverpool yet another bag for a washed 33 year old. It's meant to be reassuring, but it's your handshake isn't matching your smile shit.

What do I think? Id never give a coach the control Eddie has, not even if he's the second coming it's far too high risk for my taste. Id also never appoint Ross Wilson and the manager would never have a hand in who his boss is. Something I've been consistent and clear about this whole time and often been met with derision and criticism which so perfectly fair we all have our own views. I don't know what will happen, I can't predict the future personally I hope he turns it around as I've got a massive amount of respect for what he's achieved. I've been one of the few to nail my colours to the mast on this. The sporting director situation is a monumental fuck up imo. We've ended up with someone who has no track record or achieving what we want to achieve and who's subordinate has had a hand in hiring. Now people think that leads to good dynamics but it doesn't in my book. Ultimately we've played our hand and it's all in Eddie Howe so like many people in saying my prayers daily that this works out because we've put ourselves into a position where alternative options aren't very appealing. Very on brand for how PIF do things TBF.

We know what our long term ambition is. I'm sure for this season then expectations is European football of somekind which is in like with our squad cost. I think about it in these terms and pardon the analogy. Par is we finish were put squad cost puts us. Under par is anything better, so over achieving. Overpar is underachieverment. You can consider these KPIs. Obviously you would use more metrics to asses performance as well but this is where we can measure at the highest level.

We don't play nothing like Nunos forest though and our ambition shouldn't ever to be play such a brand of football. Not going to pile in on Elanga but I don't see how he ever puts up those numbers for us given his limitations.

The damage has been done, the bed has been made. I think if you own the club you take a step back and ask yourself a couple of questions. Is Eddie the manager to take the next step. Does he have enough to achieve his objectives. And depending on how you feel about those two questions dictates what you do next. To be frank, the one thing we cannot do is throw good money after bad.

The fact he's absolutely terrible at the basics is massively concerning.

I was also under the impression this is why we bought some players who don't immediately improve us. I've harped on in the past about signing players who improve your first team and not dedicated squad players as you put that fire under those old players and keep them hungry. Do you think Bruno goes in to those team announcement meetings thinking he's going to be dropped? It's all very odd honestly, my hunch is the players have a lot of influence over things.

Wilson is a nobody. He will be doing what he's told to do after all, for some bizarre reason Eddie had a hand in his appointment.

Yes but it's a bit of Rafa blanket situation. Training time is obviously limited and when we were playing to our strength we pinned most teams back and negated the need for excessive possession based stuff. Obviously we aren't doing that nowadays and we having more of the ball deep in our own half and that's where the cracks are showing.

Another major concern is we still look absolutely hopeless in possession as well. I know we thought we'd improve with Tino and Hall back but it was rancid again. It's as if we don't do any in possession work at all. It was a bit of a red flag when Long staff mentioned it when he joined Leeds, but it's alarm bells now and it shows. We must spend our time working on the high press we barely use, as a lot of our chance creation came from high turnovers so it's not at all surprising we are struggling to create anything.

In that case he has to improve his coaching methods, weather that means more video sessions or more targetted sessions I don't know but if we want to be successful and achieve those goals this schedule is what we will have to put up with.

To be fair. Last summer was when he was unsupervised and this is what we've ended up. Not a good look imo. Would be a bit mad to let him repeat the trick to be honest. And don't get me wrong what we've got last season may come good but this football. We don't have 6-12 months to wait before a player comes good mind. Expectations scale with investment and all that.

Question for everyone. We obviously know the recruitment structure is Eddie has final say, in reality this means we sign who Eddie wants. With that preamble out of the way, say we have 85m to spend in January are you giving it to him?

We knew he wanted to go before the window opened aye.

It shouldn't wash with anyone, I've got no idea why it's even a thing. We understood when we had that injury crisis last time we were in the CL but this time around that isnt the case ane the CL has far less jeopardy and we've invested in the squad. As I said a week ago, it's yet another unacceptable performance from us, no excuses to serve up that load of shit.

This is true, and it never made any sense to me as a narrative. If he can improve players that's fantastic. Instead of him making average good let's make good world class. It's a pipe dream though as we are reliant on getting him the players he chooses. Anyways I've harped on about the structure of the club since the start so I'll give it a rest but fucking hell what a disaster.