Armchair Pundit

Ashley must be laughing his cock off at how quickly some fans turn on the new owners, there needs to be patience. Looking at the bigger picture, yes, we might go down, but if we do we're still the richest club in the world. The only reason we're currently in this mess right now is the complete lack of investment by Ashley and the fact Bruce was allowed to stay in his role for so long, neither of which are really the new owner's fault. Could this current situation have been handled better? Probably, but the new owners are still cutting their teeth and to be honest, the potential for us is a million times better under them than it has been for a very, very long time. If there's fans out there seriously giving our new owners stick they really need to have a word with themselves at this point, the club has been in such disarray for such a time that it was always going to be a hell of a task to even start clearing the mess. Is Howe going to be able to keep us up if they bring him in? Nobody knows. To be honest, I don't think he's the calibre of manager/coach that we want but as things stand he's probably all we're going to get until things are sorted out at the club behind the scenes a bit more. There's a lot to do before we're in the position of established teams like Spurs for example who can sack a manager one day and appoint a top replacement the next, we've got masses of baggage in both reputation and facilities to change before then, let alone getting a solid employee structure in place. For now, take a deep breath, take a step back. We're not going to be up there just yet, but we'll get there and when it does, it'll be glorious.

I'm not sure there's hatred for Howe as such, though personally I think we could do better with the new funds and potential status of the club. I don't really see him as someone to start a rebuilding process of the club either, maybe not as experienced on worldwide scale.

Unai seems like a nice chap:

Surprised that Conte has been hoodwinked into going to Spurs, it must be the draw of London and promises from Levy to spend big. He'd have been more suited to Man Utd I think. All these decent managers potentially coming to the Prem isn't going to make our job of staying up any easier either.

Lampard, Terry or even Martinez and I'll not be happy with the appointments, even a tad disappointed in the new owners. I mean, they're not Bruce, but that's about all the enthusiasm they inspire in me I'm afraid. I don't think Gerrard or Howe could save us. Fonseca, Ten Hag or Favre would be pretty interesting. Rafa would be fun and Conte would be amazing - the realist in me thinks we'll end up with Emery though, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, I'd be alright with that I think. ... let's face it, a month or so ago I'd all but given up hope of ever enjoying football with our club ever again, it's still not sunk in that we have the owners that we do with the possibilities it brings, but then I guess that's because we've not seen any real changes so far, it'll all come in good time I'm sure.

Really hoping they don't, they're not big enough for a manager like him, I can see him a Man Utd or Barca perhaps (funding permitting).

'The Snake' Levy hates spending money and there's no way they would give Conte the money he's likely to want to bring players in. I just can't see Conte getting on with Levy for long at all, if he goes there it'd have to be purely to work in London again (god knows why though, it's a shithole).

I don't get that mentality at all, it's blatantly obvious that a decent manager can get a better tune out of the same players as a crap manager. I mean, we've seen it personally with our own squad and there's still bell-ends that put everything on the players.

My bad bud, I don't think I've seen your name before so I'm guessing you've changed it?

There's some right odd buggers turning up on here of late

Exceptionally saddening...

Was thinking that myself, I still don't think there's anything he can do at Everton that would ever endear him to their fans and now that he's had an iffy result it'll be even harder. Everton just need to be sure they can line someone up at short notice that will be good enough for their aspirations, then they could release Rafa to being bought in by us.

Chuff me, I go on holiday for a few days, come back and we're now talking about some bloke I've never heard of! What happened to Fonseca? Or Favre?

ASM will be proper upset with that, probably go 'full French' by the next game.

I'm thinking this thread would be better served as an 'Up the Arse' corner, ala Viz, for this match anyways.

I'm not sure how much weight can be put into transfer rumours prior to a new manager coming in. That aside, what was that I just read about other Prem clubs not wanting to do business with us? Link

Full training week needed next week, none of this day off mularky. Players need to get stuck in, need to see what Jones can do with a full week in charge (unless the new manager comes in ofc)

Think Chelski will take us up the tea towel holder dry next week

Not a bad away result after the recent number of days off and the tomfoolery from last week.

Everton board offering Rafa to us by the end of this evening

Lol, listening to Ando on the commentary, anyone would think he wants us to lose I get the feeling he doesn't like Rafa much from some of his comments too.

We have to go with what's available currently I guess, I'm not going to slate the selection until I see how they do on the pitch, I'll give them a chance - let's be honest, some of these lads came in under Bruce and we all know how different players can be under different managers. Hasn't Krafth done well for his international side while at us? Or am I thinking of a different player?

Always nice to have actual hope in a match, even with the same players, we have that today. Exciting to see if they do anything differently.

Thing is, Rafa certainly wouldn't break his contract, but Everton might. If they agreed then he'd be able to leave with a clear conscience and not having broken his contract. ... still, I think there's more chance of knitting fog on the Tyne, to be honest I was trying to think of a coach, who might have managed in Saudi, someone like Frank Rijkaard, but he's not done much for years.

Out of the recently mooted list of short-listed managers, I think mine would be, in order: Fonseca Favre Howe Gerrard Lampard In fact, to be honest, I'd rather not have Fat Frank anywhere near us at all. I don't rate him in the slightest and his annoying accent winds me up no end. He's just a younger Bruce from London imo.