Cf

Excellent news and good to put any speculation to bed. Suggests the club are all aligned in how they want to approach the summer too.

That's an awful decision In real time I can see it but on review no chance. Bournemouth player kicks the goal keeper. It's just a coming together. We can't be giving penalties for that.

Can't be overstated how much pressure Pope is putting us under this game. Routine situations he just can't handle.

Have to sign a keeper day 1 of the window.

He looked onside on the replay.

Struggling to defend that like. A front three of Willock, Osula, Murphy is grim when you have Gordon, Barnes, Wissa, Woltemade on the bench. And that's not even getting into the Burn/Hall debacle.

Had a dream that Eddie put out an entirely different XI and we were 3-1 up at half time with Neave scoring 2 of them. Checked the score towards full time and it was 5-8. So let's hope that's not a real premonition then.

"The club failed to secure any of our first choice targets and failed to keep hold of Isak so we were scrambling at the last minute" is a pretty straightforward defence.

Can say this about a lot of things but can't help but wonder how different our season would have been of we had this lad in. You're on a hiding to nothing trying to pick the least worst of two backup options all season as we have been doing. Obviously there's limits to how much we spend but this needs to get done.

Update to my above post: Chelsea: lololol

I'm in favour of keeping Howe because I think he's the right man for the job but I'm surprised there's as many Howe outs as there are when you look at the other "big" clubs and their managers: Arsenal / City - Stuck with their managers and enjoying success (though Arsenal do need to win the league you feel) Liverpool - Slot is shit Chelsea - lol Man Utd - lol Spurs - lololol I'd want to be really sure we needed to make a change before we risk becoming part of that.

I'm in the not really rating Barnes camp as well. He's great as an impact sub in a stretched game but I'm not a fan of him starting. But then Gordon rarely has any end product. Between them we have a good winger.

Just seems such a negative take for the manager who saved us from relegation, got us to the CL twice, and delivered a major trophy. You'd think you were talking about Bruce or something there. There's more nuance to "more plan A" than you present there but even if Howe said "more Plan A next season, but better" then I'd trust him.

I'm not trying to downplay the fact we have been poor, especially in the league, this season. But performances and recurring issues etc result in "a below par season". The amount of money spent I think is something of a red herring. We had to spend so much money due to years and years of neglect under the Ashley era. We had a squad on paper worth basically fuck all. This necessitated spending lots of money just to get us back to par. I think most would accept that during his time here Howe has overachieved with what he has had. Just picking the headline figure of what we've spent does a disservice to it imo and lets Ashley off the hook.

And on the subject of PSR the more I think on it the more I can't help but think the reason we're struggling so much is because we dared to want to move onto the next level and PSR said no. Obviously the complete shambles of the board last couple of years hasn't helped. But if anything we aimed too high with our targets last season. It struct me last night watching the City game that we were previously linked with Khusanov and obviously there was the Guehi saga. Both now in the back line for City. Mbeumo, Pedro, Ekitike, Trafford, Isak. All went to more "prestigious" clubs/clubs who could pay more. In hindsight we'd have been better staying in our lane and shopping in the cheaper market hoping to uncover the next gems or players Eddie can train. But bear in mind of course that due to CL we've had minimal training time. But this approach just turns us into Brighton and the like. We've done this to death but PSR is still a major factor of our problems here.

Last season after the dust settled after the cup win if someone told you that next season people would be baying for blood after a below par season where: - we reached the semi final of the league cup - we made the last 16 of the CL - we were 6 points off 6th (a generous way to look at it I know but shows the strength of the league this year) You'd think people were mad surely? The man saved the team from relegation, rebuilt us into challenging for the CL spaces, won us our first major trophy in years, and 12 months after said trophy win people want him gone. I understand there are issues and the squad needs a bit of a refresh but Howe has more than shown his credentials for this task.

That's Trafford's price going up then.

He's still the man for me.

Loved this quote from a Liverpool forum to sum this guy up

I do understand a lot of the criticism. The PL especially has been poor this season. But he's still a top top manager. He hasn't become bad overnight. We're having a poor season. It happens. It's not all on Howe either. The shit show of last summer, the increasingly clear fact he's having to pick from two seconds choice goal keepers, the fixture congestion, injuries (all teams suffer this to an extent but this for us also ties into the previous point), individual errors on the pitch at key times, the PL being as strong as it has ever been, and generally I still argue not having the rub of the green all that often. Call them excuses if you like. For me they're more reasons as to why this season has been so inconsistent. It's clear at this point the squad needs a bit of an overhaul. Howe has already turned a relegation fodder team into CL place contenders and cup winners. He's more than shown us his quality and imo we're lucky to have him and should be backing him.

Have I really just seen multiple people suggest we replace the manager who saved us from relegation and just recently won our first trophy in years with Enzo Mareaca? Jesus wept.

Wasn't a great performance by any means but again we weren't bad. Took what I think was a deserved lead and until Mateta came on thought we controlled it well enough away from home. Their first was a combination of individual errors. Murphy giving it away under no pressure in an awful position. Ramsdale not smothering the ball. Livramneto doing whatever the fuck he was doing. Then the penalty. I mean what do you say to that except there'd be 10 penalties a game if we are giving those. Frustrating and the story of our season so far.

In a similar bracket in a sense to Slot for me. Took over a team in its ascendency. Did a good job riding that wave. Things unravelled afterwards. Jury well and truly still out for me.

Benitez I think was a special case. He joined us at a certain time in his career and looking back I still can't really believe it happened. Would Emery want it now? I'm not sure. What has materially changed since last time is it's clear the financial regs have put us in our place. More so perhaps than people might have thought back then. Obviously no relegation to worry about this time. There'll also likely be free roles at other teams. Man Utd, Liverpool, Chelsea, City could all be up for grabs. Hell if Arsenal bottle it again maybe even them.

Parachute Guardiola or Arteta (the only 2 teams in the league firing in all competitions, and even then their PL form isn't what we've seen from similar levels in the past) and you think we're in a materially different spot than we are now? It's the squad. Howe can get this team to beat anyone on a good day but it's not a challenging for the league/CL level squad.