Cf

I think GK is one of those pressing areas and the sooner addressed the better.

Exactly this. Say we got 100m for him. We've just lost a young world class English LB/RB that could play for us for 10 years and if anything is only going to go up in value over the next few years. That 100m starts to look a bit shit. I get selling players is a thing. But sign a new CB and we potentially have our entire back 4 sorted for many many years. Selling Tino just doesn't make sense. And for those saying he's been better at LB and we have Hall there... Yes he's looked good there. But it could easily just be a mixture of form and not having Jacob Murphy in front of him (sorry Jacob).

I dunno like. One wrong transfer and he's back to square one for me.

"The Project" Doesn't Guardiola only have 1 year left on his contract?

0.

You've misspelt Amorim here.

Oh, conference league? New rule: if Chelsea lose this they're disqualified form CL.

Just spotted this on TV at the pub. What even is it?

Agree - I suspect the term power struggle overblows what has happened, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's a more nuanced case of the job wasn't what he was expecting given the amount of power Howe has. Or it's because Eales is going.

This is more like what you want. A board, the manager, different departments, all on the same page so that if anyone leaves the rest are aligned on what replacements to bring in.

This is generally overblown to me. What is Howe doing that means we can't find a successor when the time comes? Different managers obviously have different styles - hire one that suits your current squad. Only a few managers (your Ruben Amorims of the world) are going to build a squad that is so specialised that they limit their options. Also setups and systems evolve - the person best placed to see and address this is the manager. Don't get me wrong - overall direction is good. And one man can only do so much. Howe absolutely needs advisors, scouts, coaches, etc. But the concept of a DoF dictating to a manager/head coach the players they have and the system they should play just doesn't sit right.

This just sounds healthy to me. You want professionals who challenge each other with a certain amount of alignment and respect for each other.

This is where I'm at too. I can see the reason for such a role as we do want Eddie to be able to focus on the training pitch but it should be a collaborative role. A DoF is seen as above the manager and that just creates the wrong dynamic.

You just know he does though

We've got Eddie Howe for that.