Kid Icarus

Steve Nickson and Andy Howe aren't permanent DoFs and the setup in the summer wasn't how it should have been, as I said. In its proper format, we have a transfer committee and while Howe might have a deciding vote in some situations, that's not the same as final say.

He's getting all the criticism because he was shite and his form over the season has been worse, but in the game itself Gordon was far worse like. At least with Elanga he had a few moments of passing to one of our players or winning a corner, Gordon’s performance had no redeeming features at all.

Everything I've ever read is that in its proper format (ie not the summer just gone where we had no DoF) we have a transfer committee that runs in same way many other clubs have them.

The solution should be simple tbh, he doesn't play at all until he shows something off the bench. Barnes and Murphy can point to tangible things they've done recently and consistently as reasons they should be playing, the others don't and shouldn't be having their failures vindicated with starts over people who have succeeded.

3 pages of chat based on a completely baseless premise of him having final say.

Think it's Sunderland fans that are in denial about them tbh. They're very much in the 'this is unsustainable' category that many other teams have been in before. It'll definitely do the trick for what's needed this season, but they'll need to switch it up next season if they don't want to go the same way the other teams did.

Classic case of a "He gets it" merchant not getting it.

The obvious one is Wissa, but you would hope there'll be others too, possibly with new players in January.

We're often seconds away from wins and that was only our 2nd loss in 7. I dunno if results are as far away as performances feel.

Think it's more our pride than his credit. Albeit I agree they're probably linked because it's Sunderland. Our form's actually not that bad considering. The performance was shit, but they did also score with a fluke, without actually testing us, and they're unbeaten at home. It's shite, but it does feel like a bad timing fixture for us where they're in flow and we're in ebb.

You had any reason to doubt Howe's methods until now?

Sackings aren't as much of a thing anymore really. I think most teams aiming for mid-table would take our very mid-table form and position. No reason we can't turn it around, like I said in the other thread, despite the bad feeling about this position we're nowhere near being in an irredeemable position.

Optimistic in the sense that we're playing poorly, keep having these suicidal last minutes of games, have poor away form, and yet are still very much in contention despite all that. If Eddie turns it around and we finally click in the back end of this season there's barely any point deficit to overcome. We could easily turn it on and finish 4th or 5th. It would take a huge sea change, but it's technically possible and we have a history of doing it.

Could very easily use 90% of 1 for a post about how selling Isak basically fucked everything, mind.

Don't think that's how it works unless you're a club with an itchy trigger finger, or Real Madrid tbh. Being 6 points off 4th in a transition season following a trophy winning and second CL qualifying season isn't some kind of travesty.

He didn't play badly, but if you're someone who wants your 'keeper to be commanding on crosses, he's never going to be the answer.

In the same way selling Anderson was a good deal vs the other players we could have sold. They 100% had to comply with PSR.

And the rest. Delap, Joao Pedro, Ramos etc And in other positions we were publicly in for and lost out on (off the top of my head) Trafford, Hujsen, Scalvini, Leoni.

He was sold due to PSR in the same way Anderson was. Top tier posting as usual.

Getting the players in the end was done, but it was who we got vs the targets that was (very publicly) an issue. With a proper DoF in place I think that at the very least we don't hear about the long list of players we couldn't get over the line. Last summer had a 'the operation was a success bit the patient died' feel about it in the end.

Definitely fair to say that as things stand this would be the ultimate 'Howe was right'

He was right, Mitchell by all accounts was a horrific appointment made above his head by Eales.

Imo it's pretty clear to see that whatever benefit we get from him being better than Pope on the ball just isn't anywhere near worth it. And I don't think that was ever really a big shout to make.

He wanted the keys? Mitchell and Eales left with no contingency plan put in place. Whether he wanted them or not, he had no choice.

It's a copy and paste from a post immediately after Howe arrived.