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Not vehemently against Howe being appointed but I just don't see a manager that will be able to give us the edge and steel we desperately need for a relegation battle. What he did at Bournemouth was genuinely impressive irrespective of net outlay and their eventual relegation, but what can't be ignored is the fact that when he was managing, he was up against a closed shop top 6 and 14 others all capable of beating each other, you look at the league now and it's a far more settled top 10/11, with most of those teams having settled squads with plenty of quality throughout them, a top manager or in most cases both. Outside of those top 10/11 you then have 3-4 teams with some real top quality players in their side. Getting us out this predicament is not gonna be an easy task and I just can't see how Howe would bring us to the performance level we'd need to compete against these teams.

I don't think it is though. Favre in particular has a good track record at most clubs he's managed and Fonseca has also shown the ability to raise the performance of a team beyond their expected standard, whereas Martinez had Wigan pretty much where they'd expect to be (battling relegation) and would often spend large parts of the season in relegation places until a sporadic 5 games blitz of form. OK, he won an FA Cup but I wouldn't judge a manager's career solely on one cup tournament. Then by all accounts he benefitted greatly from a defence that was well set by his predecessor at Everton and undid that in the following season. The final point is that you can't judge a managers ability on their international record due to the vast difference in quality of opposition teams play. His biggest achievement with that squad is a Semi final with one of the best squads in international football.

Oh aye, yeh! My bad, should probably have read the full conversation, but yeh, Martinez would be a massive disappointment, if he can't do it with the golden generation of Belgium, I don't know what makes anyone think he could do it with a similar standard of player here.

My personal timeliness of managers is: Keegan Dalglish Gullit SBR Souness Roeder Allardyce Keegan Kinnear Hughton Pardew McClaren Rafa Bruce Keegan and SBR aside, no other appointment had the consideration these guys seem to be making. I've waited 20+ for this to happen, I can afford to wait a little longer.

Unwinnable games being the top 6 or whatever, we'd be naive to assume we can bridge that gap quickly.

I have faith the they're doing the right thing, but my concern is we could feasibly be a 1/3rd of the way through the season without a win, with about 8-10 unwinnable games after that. Its easy to look at the league and say we're only 2 wins away but that doesn't take into account that other teams have better runs and more stability. Having said that, the January window is gonna be mental and I am here for the ride.

There's a convenience to this for all parties concerned, Everton can save face with it being an unpopular appointment, Rafa can say the club made it clear the option was on the table and would be happy for him to go and we get our man

Much prefer it when we just had 2 threads of the same posters calling each other cunts tbh

It's mad ain't it? Still have to pinch myself that our future is affectively secured.

Just as a side note, how mint is it to actually have an active forum with multiple threads getting contributed to?

Rafa would still be my first choice. 0% chance of it happening but he ticks every single box. Whilst his style of play was more functional than anything else, I found it cathartic having a manager who was actually able to implement a clear identity on the team and have us defensively organised. Furthermore, that period after Almiron signed was one of the best spells we'd seen at the club since 2008 when Keegan had Owen playing as a number 10. I choose to beleive that period would be more indicative of what he'd achieve with some funds rather than the prior 18 months when he was managing uphill. Not to mention he's been the only manager to engage football at a grassroot level since Keegan himself, he just gets it.

His spell at Roma suggests his attacking play came at the expense of defensive solidarity, and our defense is literally our weakest area which to me doesn't bode well in a league where there's high quality players distributed throughout the league and where any team can beat anyone. There's been plenty of well coached sides (albeit smaller sides) who played with attacking intent but haven't had the quality nor the defensive stability that's required to survive in the league and I see us in a similar position where we don't really have a dearth of outstanding attacking quality that makes us stand out from our rivals, couple that with the fact we're still a long way from the Jan window and we could find ourselves in a difficult spot if we don't get this right. Our Dec fixtures are horrific - do I fancy going into those games playing nice stuff but leaving ourselves defensively vulnerable? Nah.

I guess we'll see.

We've still got 10.games to play against the traditional top 6 (except Leicester) and then there's alot of handy and settled teams outside of that, so not sure we're gonna blow teams away with like of ASM, Almiron, Willock and Wilson like we think we might.

How many times have we had over 50% possession in the last 4 years? I think we're in for a rude awakening if we think someone's gonna come in and turn that round with a squad that's geared towards playing on the counter.

The Guardian has it down as the clubs voting to "temporarily ban commercial arrangements that involve pre-existing business relationships". As for the point about senior managers having directorship over a number of companies, well I assume the ban would include them too, but not preexisting commercial arrangements, conveniently enough. Suppose the bottom line is though that this won't stand up to any sort of scrutiny anyway.

Al-Rumayyan is the chairman though.

Fuck it. Hope we get sponsored by beoutQ now.

Aye, but Souness was a shit manager.

Gonna take the new manager 2 months to get these fat fucks fit for a game ffs

This must surely be the final nail in the coffin?!! Surely.

Not sacking Bruce feels like a decision that makes perfect sense in the business world but not in the football one. I think this is pure naivety from the owners unfortunately.

I reckon Mourihno would still be class at a club with no egos to clash with (like ours), but his non existent record of developing youth or developing a club is a big no for me.

It's a visual representation of the affect of sportswashing. I don't know what more there is to say on the matter.

This Sunday has got PR nightmare written all over it. Tea towels, Saudi flags, Steve Bruce getting booed and not to mention the result. Could be a fucking disaster.