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It's unfair to relegate the fact we started from a lower base to nothing more than just a sidenote. People are forgetting just how dominant the top 6 were and how far ahead they were (and still are!) in every single element required to run a successful football club and therefore ignoring just how far we have come to not only break that monotony, but also comfortably establish ourselves within a new top 8 ourselves. Many clubs had invested heavily during that era or domination and became shells of themselves when they ultimately failed to hit the jackpot and its down to Howe and some smart investment to be 1 of only 2 clubs in the best part of a decade to actually break that monopoly on leagues and trophies. We go through this same cycle of "objective" reflection every single year and up to date, the people that do, have been wrong every single time. I look forward to making a similar post next year.

We've had this exact same discussion every year under Howe.

Christ

Fucking hell. Given was getting peppered every 10 minutes

Think it just boils down to 1 thing and that's a squad of player who are capable of giving out 8/10 performances every game by virtue of how good they are. We're still a couple of seasons away from that, despite how much we've upgraded this summer.

That was a definite red like Although tbf, it looked worse on replay than it did real time

I think my only gripe with him is he's very much a creative striker and not really an instinctive one. Not his best game today but his ability to bring others into the game and switch the momentum of a phase of play with a single touch is superb.

Takes our creative play up a notch with some of his passing.

You can tell when he's more confident because he went on the outside far more than I've seen him do over the last 12 months. Long may it continue.

If we're to accept he's probably not a natural goalscorer, then it becomes imperative we sign players - particuarly wingers, who are equally adept at intricate link up play. His greatest strength is his speed of thought and we need players who are technically good enough to create space in the tightest of areas he seems to operate in. That's a bit of a shift from he who shall not be named who's main strength was running the channels and trying to get in behind.

Brilliant player. Bit frustrating he didnt get as much of the ball as he should have but he's so efficient with it when he does.

Running out of superlatives for this guy. He sees the game a second earlier than everyone else.

There's a few goals in Thiaw as well, I think.

Then we might need another LW as well then. But in all seriousness, Murphy still doesnt fit the bill so one we might look to upgrade in pursuit of getting the best out of Big Nick

The issue with this view is that it places Woltemade as the creator and the wingers as the beneficiaries when for the most part it needs to be the other way round. The question is how do we get Woltemade scoring more goals? Alot of his goal from intricate one touch passing in and around the box, which is a difficult skill that not all players have in their locker and I think Murphy and Elanga dont quite fit that bill as more traditional wingers, although Im not saying Elanga isnt capable of that, just that I dont think its his strength. Gordon and especially Barnes certainly have it.

I think we'll be in for another RW. He's talked alot about the players needing to learn about how to get the best out of Woltemade and I'm not sure either Elanga or Murphy quite hit that profile. Seems clear Elanga was bought with Isak in mind.

Yeh think this is why ive posted it. I'd always had this notion that constant noise was the signature of a good atmosphere but from the players perspective, they can probably shut out a constant stream of noise but it must be impossible to disengage when the crowd roars when youve lost a duel or been absolutely crunched and equally must be a buzz when youre the one doing the crunching.

This quote makes me realise how perfect Howe's brand of football is for us as fans because it provides more of those 'moments of engagement' more than say a Pep style possession based game. Lovely quotes there. Apologies if already posted.

Think that goal was more important for us as fans than it was him as a debutant. Great way to ease the anxiety we'll all have been feeling.

It's a 7 now Osula deal has collapsed.

Yeh I dont think you'd be wrong for thinking that way, but my view is I've absolutely no precedent of failure within our recruitment, barring maybe Wood to call these as poor signing, so for me it's safe to assume we've signed some fantastic players. Couple that with Howe's ability to get the best out of almost every player then, there's plenty to be optimistic about. Inspirational signings? Not especially. Potentially fantastic ones? Yes imo. As for the top 4, On paper, they have moved away from us, but they've had 15 years of moving away from us, and yet we're still in that conversation with them

With the caveat that we were inevitably going to lose a star player, and that everyone performs to their full potential, then yes, probably. If you take a step back and look at it from a different perspective - a financial one - then this is a fantastic position to be in. We will have the finances to really compete for individual players without having to consider the squad as a whole meaning investing heavily in 1 or 2 positions a year is perfectly feasible, not something we've ever had the freedom to do until now, nor would we had we kept Isak.

On paper this is a 9.5/10. At full strength and assuming everyone's as good as they can be, then we've effectively built a squad who can beat any team in the PL thus putting us in the title conversation - which is our ultimate goal. On top of that we've made some excellent sales as well. In reality, the manner of the Isak situation coupled with the Wissa price probably moves it down to an 8 for me, but - and I dont know the maths behind this - we've seemingly built a title squad with a £60m net spend which puts us is an incredibly strong position for the next few years. It was inevitable that a key players was gonna be sold so I can take thst into account however, it leaves a bitter taste in the way it was conducted and the way we capitulated.

I don't think we'll sell for less than 150. We are run by the greediest people in the world who themselves walk away from deals for the odd £5m here and there.

I'd love another right winger. Just a development signing to bed in for a year or 2.