Armchair Pundit

I can totally see why Ritchie was having bust ups with Bruce if he was used to training properly under Howe previously and then Rafa, I wouldn't be surprised if Howe can get a tune out of several players who went backwards under Bruce if this first session is anything to go by!

You can spot the players who are taking it onboard, smiling, looking keen. Then there's the ones that have probably had it too easy who appear to be blowing out their arses, struggling to stand straight. I can't see Shelvey lasting five minutes under Howe unless he bucks his ideas up, worryingly though I thought St Maxi was looking a bit half-arsed at times too.

Err... boat... bed, I knew what I meant, either would be an upgrade for them

Lol, to be fair, it must be difficult after this amount of time in the lower leagues for the players to not feel crazy pressure from fans who still think they're a Premiership side. All that guff about every other team in their league treating them like a cup final, they've made their boat tbh.

True, I've never forgiven them for that. We've been the club that the rest of the Prem clubs like to laugh at, all that bollocks about us being deluded and having over-the-top expectations.

See, while I agree with this, it's another thing I don't understand. I don't recall getting that sort of nonsense from the press during the 90s and early 2000s while Keegan and Robson were in charge.

Manager aside, I can't see why we've still got Charnley and not appointed someone with much more club running experience with successful clubs. Thumbheed just doesn't strike me with confidence in working to bring in staff and players, plus he's too 'Ashley'. I see this morning one of the papers is saying if Howe falls through we'll look to Dyche, Gerrard or Haise. What happened with Fonseca though?

He was something like 12th or 15th choice wasn't he? On Norwich though, I've given up trying to understand why Newcastle and it's fans were given so much grief for wanting and then eventually sacking Bruce. Compared to the complete lack of adverse coverage ANY other club is getting when they sack their managers since our Bruce ordeal ended, even those, like Farke, who won their last match and still went. The hypocrisy from the media/pundits is utterly unfathomable, I can't even get angry about it anymore

So, something that's bothering me, how did we win that block of games after Christmas last season, after Jones was brought in, if it wasn't Bruce and it wasn't Jones? Did Bruce pass the shit baton to him when he left? Was it pure luck last season? I'm kind of at a loss at how it's possible for Bruce to have made the team shit, but then when he's left Jones is now suddenly shit as well? Confusing times.

You just know Rafa's going to lose his next match and get the sack...

I'd still prefer Fonseca, he's attack minded and wear's Zorro outfits to press conferences, what's not to like? If it has to be Howe though then so be it, as has been said, he's an improvement on Bruce, just hope he's enough of an improvement to keep the crowd happy and hopefully save us from relegation.

I'll never accept that was on purpose

I think it'll be close, like 50/50 at this point in time (and that's being generous) - not blaming the new owner though, the damage was already done before they got here, to both reputation, state of the club, et all. If the club itself was viable to a good, top end manager then fair enough, I just think we're in such a state that it was always going to be difficult. If we go down, it won't be the end of the world, it'll just postpone out world domination for a season or two.

Amazed he hasn't suggested we bring Bruce back tbh!

That's the only thing that bothers me to some degree about Howe, he seems to be a 'decent' manager that also-ran teams consider. He's not really a name that generates interest from clubs that are looking at mid-table upwards... though I guess, funds aside, we're probably firmly in the 'also-ran' clutch of teams with how badly we've been neglected for so long.

With a decent DoF we might and at least the new owners have a bit longer to resolve that role.

Looking for positives if it does end up being Howe - he's got experience with working under similar facilities as we currently own, he's got experience of the league, he already knows some of the players. I mean, maybe we've all just got a bit carried away with thinking that money could instantly solve everything and bring in the best non-playing and playing staff. To be honest, there's so much work to be done, our current infrastructure, our club, is in such a mess, we're so behind that it's going to take more time that we'd tricked ourselves into thinking. The new owners aren't Ashley, they've got lots of money and they want to win in the long run, I think some people need to cut them some slack, they're very new to owning a football club and it'll take some learning through mistakes on their part most likely. I think the key is that we concentrate on their long-term vision, this season was always a right off and if next season is as well then so what, some of the games I enjoyed most in recent years were when we were actually winning most games in our attempt to come back up from the championship anyways. We'll get it right, we just need to be patient.

They should, but I bet they don't, at least not those that come off the back of a massive reputation, I bet Conte wouldn't (I kind of see him as laid back in a chair, with a fag on, looking like he's sitting outside a continental bistro )

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).