Dr Jinx

Club being ruthless here but that’s exactly how they should in situations like this.

If we don’t get a ridiculous amount for him, it’s probably worth more to us to have him on the gardening leave for 2 years.

Why strengthen a rival?

3 minutes ago, SUPERTOON said:

Hopefully, will stop the silly talk of him coming here.

I think he’s do a great job here. Short term appointment but if Ashworth is leaving before he’s started, it would make sense to back a manager who will just win trophies. Before they start another long term plan.

Mourinho is good for 2/3 seasons and then it goes south.

With the players we have out there we are underperforming. Can't lay that at anyone other than Howe and his staff. We’re back to playing 1 game a week so fatigue shouldn’t be a factor anymore.

Our failings are purely tactical and in his choosing of personnel. It’s a huge concern going forward.

7 minutes ago, Shearergol said:

Why?

Just reading into comments and the bits leaked to the press.

If Man Utd was a done deal why bother mentioning that he didn’t have the amount of control that he expected. And then why would Howe mention the transfer policy remaining under his control.

It’s not to say that they don’t get on, but am guessing Amanda Staveley was the reason behind Howe’s new contract and she probably doesn’t have the same emotional connection with Ashworth.

Howe hasn’t included him in his “inner circle” and although they get on professionally maybe Ashworth doesn’t feel Howe is the man to move things forward according to his blueprint.

Howe has shown to be quite stubborn this season regarding things that aren’t working well.

Also, if Man Utd was a done deal, why bother attending the game today? Doesn’t make sense.. I saw it more of a sitting over Howe’s shoulder and as far as the game went.. he didn’t exactly impress today.

Not saying this is what’s happening but I wouldn’t be shocked if Howe is gone before Ashworth.

Putting the injuries to one side, I don’t see progression at all. The back line is still largely unscathed and we’re all over the shop. Even when Pope was fit we were still shipping goals.. perhaps not as many but we were far from the solid side we were last year.

These games were bread and butter for us last year.

Im not going to overreact to today. At least we got a point but I reckon we’ll have another few stinkers and then we’ll win 2 or 3 and this will just continue on like this.

Aside from the Burn weak link, we’ve been fairly shit today.

When they’ve had the ball they have hurt us repeatedly. Been poor.

Us signing Toney for any sort of big money would be such a Man Utd thing to do. No ta..

He’s been very disrespectful to Brentford, comes across as a right knacker

Howe is correct though. He’s not been here long enough to make a massive impact.

Ashworth may well be one of the best at what he does from the UK.. but globally, how does he rank? I’m sure there’s plenty of operators across Europe who could come in and do an equally good job.

There’s always been corruption, always been a fixed deck in terms of keeping certain clubs in the picture. Always decisions that always seem to go for certain clubs too.

Despite all this, it’s still the best game in the world.

VAR could be changed though. Looking for an excuse not to award a goal is bullshit.

Linesmen need to step up and make those calls. Allowing play to continue well after an obvious offside is bullshit.. there’s going to be a bad injury some day that could/should have been prevented.

Have certain situations where VAR is to be used. Foul play to be precise.

It wouldn’t be used to check every little thing though.. a team getting 3 challenges to use VAR each match. If they feel like the wrong call was made they can request a review based on what they think happened.. that way a question being asked would focus the VAR to review something specific and would eliminate any confusion between the ref and the VAR in looking at the wrong thing and deciding “nothing to see here” etc

Rob Lee was superb, up there with Bruno in terms of impacting a game.

Bruno very cool under pressure and just keeps everything ticking over and he does get goals occasionally.

Lee was a great goal scorer though, I think he’d find his way into the starting 11 if any era since he did play for us.

Batty was a tough bastard.. good footballer and overall likeable character, especially given how elusive he’s been since retirement.

They were saying something similar about an imminent approach a couple of months back.

NUFC were not approached but Ashworth was and the answer was no. Unless something dramatic has happened to change his mind, I can’t see him leaving.

But all the media speculation is going to become a distraction so now is the time for him to make a statement about it, either way.

I’m not worried about this at all. He was approached already and gave no indication he wanted to leave here.

Man Utd may well be interested but nothing has changed. I think they have fuck all to write about so it’s a free hit.

Burn ?

Games like these are going to have his confidence shot. Poor from the manager to include him today.

Who decides what’s fair value?

4 minutes ago, Vinny Green Balls said:

 i still hope you are kidding. That is ridiculous.

 

 

 

Why? It’s fairly well documented at this point that managers are getting totally burnt out by how intense a job like that is.. how many seasons can a manager give 100% like that before standards start to slip?

18 minutes ago, Vinny Green Balls said:

How about a co-manager?

Ha! No that doesn’t work as Liverpool found out way back when, but if I was running the club, I’d seriously look at having 2 elite managers on the books with a similar ethos in how a team should play, with some differences that would keep things fresh..

Say give 1 manager 2/3 seasons in the hot seat and have them go all out for success. Then change things up.. have the other man and his staff come in and take over for him to do 2/3.

While this is happening, manager 1 stays on the payroll and takes a different role with the club.. essentially doing what Eddie Howe did while he was unemployed.. become a student of the game again.. visit places and see new methods, maybe scout players. But ultimately having a rest and reversing that burn out that happens while you’re giving a job like that everything you have.

I don’t want him sacked or anything like that but maybe a slight reshuffle in the back room team might pay off. Someone just to freshen things up.

We're all over the shop currently and can’t even blame it on the energy levels now as we were still in it right up to the end.

I think Eddie Howe is as burnt out as the players were over Christmas. What the remedy is to that is unclear, it’s not as if he can be given a holiday in the middle of a season.

She did not look impressed which made it all the better ?

BDB getting a lot of hate tonight ?

He had a shit game but he’s never been the quickest.. the issue is that overall the team is not defending as well as we did last year. The midfield isn’t as good, we don’t have Pope and our forwards are like broken glass.

It’s a combination of events that’s leaving certain players totally exposed to look poor. Yes he did have an exceptionally bad game but cut him some slack, he’s been brilliant for us since signing.

Midfield fucking up again, shite tackle, sloppy pass, another shite tackle.. then boom.

Team needs a rollicking at half time 

We’ll murder this lot if we can tighten up the loose passing.

1 minute ago, r0cafella said:

Yeah, people have mentioned this but I just don’t view it that way. SSN isn’t a money spinner imo, it’s the ridiculously priced subscriptions which are, a quiet window won’t change that i think. 
 

Also, this is temporary, once the rolling period ends we will see the market move again. 
 

Even if your right, and Sky are upset ultimately they don’t get a vote regarding the rules of the league so they will have to suck thumb. 

No but they hold the purse strings. I think you’ll find that the next bid won’t be anywhere near as much.

Subs have to be down massively on a few years ago with how easy it is to get an IPTV account?

Ad revenue is huge for them.

5 hours ago, r0cafella said:

People are going to be properly disappointed when they tighten FFP further

Like it or loathe it, the Sky money makes the premier league what it is.

What should be one of their busiest months in terms of reporters everywhere and people tuning in.. (which feeds back into their ad revenue) is essentially tumbleweed this month, aside from Klopp. There’s been no reason for anyone to tune in.

That conversation may not happen straight away but when they see their own revenue reports and wonder what happened, someone will point this out.. they pay enough money to the PL to have a voice in someone’s ear.