Mole

I am very much in the "Howe deserves at least until Christmas after hopefully a more positive summer" camp. But I haven't hesitated to display my displeasure with how this season has gone from this standpoint and how little signs of improvement there has been. Not sure why some are trying to paint it as you're either all the way in or all the way out, there's context to be had considering how last summer went and how Howe managed the team prior to last summer. You can be concerned about how this season has gone without the need to nail your colours to the mast just yet.

There's many ways to control games, it doesn't have to be done in a super technical manner. But honestly when I watch us play I don't think we particularly excel at anything lmao, from the games I watched from last season we definitely did this part way better but we were also significantly more intense and losing that intensity isn't helping at all.

I would argue the biggest problem has been midfield all year, they don't protect the back 4 (which makes the back 4 look worse than they actually are), they don't control games, they don't create chances and so on. Every time this gets brought up people's retort that we have enough and mentions the individual names, but it hasn't worked as a team all year. Anything a midfield is supposed to do, this team has failed to do at every turn and it's making every facet of the football team worse.

Crying out for a lot of things tbf, midfield has been ass all season and obviously none of the strikers have really covered themselves in glory. The only thing I'm comfortable with going into next season is the back 4 (as it is today) but obviously there need work there too when it comes to depth etc.

Considering I started this I think I'll take one for the team.

Not just that, even though that's a large part of it. But just the huge amounts of responsibility on him, there's a reason most football clubs worth anything have multiple people doing different jobs. In hindsight, that sort of scenario was never going to end well.

I don't think anyone was blameless last summer but I think it's fair to say that no manager should really have to be put in the position he was put in last summer. Which is why he deserves a summer with people actually in roles they should be and part of the season after the fact to see what happens as a result of this summer window before any serious questions are asked. Especially considering what was achieved prior to last summer.

All Lovejoy did was state his opinion not sure why the reaction is what it is tbh Seemed very harmless to me.

What do we have Toulouse?

I think even Eddie himself would admit the results in the league at least have not been good enough. A CEO thinking that too is fine, the issue to me at least came when he said it publicly and put a lot of emphasis on the Sunderland results specifically. When in reality the results haven't been good enough, regardless of what happened in both derby games this year.

Same reason why all these clubs do it and why Liverpool threw a strop in the media last summer, pretty sure it's designed to try and apply pressure. Don't believe for a second they're just going to quietly into the night.

Not saying they're wrong or anything, but they were angry with Elanga being sold and he hasn't panned out here. Just because the guy has performed well for them, doesn't really mean much of anything.

First time I've seen this, The t shirt going past the bottom of the jacket is so bad

Not even just that, he literally said "we are going to watch him" Like guys he didn't say we're going to sign him tomorrow.

All those position sounds like nothing more than educated guesswork. I would be surprised if those positions weren't prioritised.

The new ones in charge weren't in place last summer, we'll see what they do but they haven't really had time to show whether they're good or bad yet. All we have is just words to the press, which is meaningless in both directions.

I do think there's a possibility a change in approach and how the midfield is set up could fix the openness of the midfield. But I wouldn't rule out looking elsewhere either, either way I think sticking with it as is is probably not a good idea. Either something changes from within or they look outside to change it. The balance of the midfield (which has affected how we both attack and defend this year) has been completely off.

With how open the midfield has been this year I disagree. On paper you shouldn't need to no, but there's been gaping holes to exploit right through the middle and it's part of the reason the defenders have been more exposed. If anything I'd argue, for a team in 12th place that nothing should be off the table.

Hell not just that but just if your interested in tech at all. They've completely fucked over the average person with their desire to push AI, making buying new PCs just a non starter for most people.

I will say one thing, the fact most of the links seem to be younger players is probably a good sign. Wages won't be as high and less likely to be blown away by Cartel. Of course they are just links, but like trying to shop in the same market as them was probably never going to end well.

I'm very confident stuff will get done, whether it's good stuff is a different situation entirely.

I know what the CEO said, but genuinely I doubt that's the entire crux of whether the future is in doubt. He's probably just saying that as lip service, if the future is in doubt then I assume because they are not happy with the results overall ( which I think is fair) but I also think the context of how we arrived to this point is important too and why he should get until at least Christmas IMO. If the results are not forthcoming then maybe it's a discussion that can be had.

That shitshow of a summer was likely going to end with this direction, I do feel Howe deserves at the very least until Christmas (after a summer of hopefully not having to do what he had to last summer) but usually when a manager has too much on his plate it doesn't end very well. I have been critical of how we've played this season, we've felt very structureless at times and most weeks you seem the same mistakes with no real sign of improvement or consistency. But despite that I do want the man to be given a chance to see how next year goes while hopefully having a decent window where he can focus on the pitch entirely.

Considering the background of Ross Wilson I'm pretty sure we're going to. Granted I didn't expect the first one to be a 16 year old kid but I think more South American signings is probably a safe bet.

He is, the reaction to him would have been very different 3-4 months ago. People just have tremendously short memories, the team have performed badly overall for the most part so it's not surprising individual performances have degraded.