Dr Jinx

1 hour ago, GeordieDazzler said:

Hard to gauge the seriousness of any rumour at the moment. I think, obviously, will depend on how the table is looking in Jan. 

 

There used to be a realistic target thread didn't there? I'd quite like us to go for Hickey from Bologna, has looked great this season and wouldn't cost the world. 

Its going to take us a while to adjust to it but literally every transfer is realistic now if the club want to do it.

I see us spending 100m+ in January. Perhaps on just 3 or 4 key players.

4 minutes ago, Shearergol said:

 

Dwight Yorke was the fittest player at Man United at the time. If anyone got close it would be him.

Maybe not now but I’d say Cristiano Ronaldo must have aced that consistently for a while.

I don’t get the hate for him, he’s been excellent overall since he came here.
 

The problem with the team this season is that Steve Bruce deliberately sabotaged every aspect of pre season and all of the games he’s managed this season.

He was trying to get sacked. Clear as day now.

He confirmed he’s going to be joint no.2 with Jason Tindall.

1 hour ago, 54 said:

 

Just now, gjohnson said:

attitude or not even at his worst he's still a million miles better than Shelvey

That's not a measure of success. We need to get away from that way of thinking.

Shelvey is terrible, bad attitude, thick as two planks, poor work ethic, bad decision making, looks for a way out when things aren't going his way etc..

We need to replace all of those bad traits, not just some of them.

How much was the club spending to operate on each year under Mike Ashley? 

And how much extra is 35m? Seems a lot as we're not leaking money.. perhaps to cover a covid deficit?

We've always been a club used to flush out interest in players who are looking for a move.

We should be avoiding any player with question marks over injuries or attitude, Coutinho being a prime example, I couldn't care less if he's unhappy at Barca, he's been very unprofessional.

Why would we expect any different, even when he left Liverpool it wasn't all that amicable. No thanks, let someone else take that risk.

We need players of good character. Sule is an interesting link, it's not that he's causing trouble or wants out, it's a contract dispute. He wants a certain amount a year and Bayern won't pay it.

Not easy but try and patch the team up and improve fitness levels. Scrape as many points as we can until January.

Then literally have deals lined up. Either announced before or on 1st January. A competent leader at the back. A good left back and right back and a transformative player to come into the midfield. Like a Cabaye. And a forward as if Wilson gets injured we have fuck all there.

30 minutes ago, Cort said:

 

This has turned me right on. You heard anything about the timeframe - might it be done this week?

I think it’ll be started this week but that’s just my own hunch based on things I’ve heard from those working on the inside.

They have their first big event this week for the foundation with loads of former players being flown in. It wouldn’t surprise me if they announce a few things to go along with it.

Also, when it comes down, they’ll make a big deal out of it. Photos, video etc. It’ll be a thing.

Apparently the Sports Direct tat is soon to be down. They are or have negotiated a cessation of the deal.

It’s obvious our squad isn’t properly fit. I think he can find an extra yard of pace if that can be improved on, is it enough? If you can teach him positional anticipation, I think he has the footwork and size to be a force in the middle (until January anyway..)

I think he needs some proper time off once this debacle ends. China and this job, plus the tail end of his time here have not been kind to him.

If he’s interested, offer him a technical director role. Let him implement all the structure at the club he dreamed of and let him do it while he doesn’t have to worry about coaching the first team. Then when the time comes, if he has the appetite to take the reigns give him the opportunity.

Imagine what he could do in a couple of years.

A manager is only as good as the players he has and the players will only be as good as how they are managed.

It’s hard to be objective with a list like that without counting current squads.

On trophies won, it’s clear Pep is by far the best of the current crop.

Rafa has had about as much success as Klopp so far in his career, so who do you count in that sense?

Would someone like Graham Potter or Eddie Howe be successful if they had squads similar to what Man City or Liverpool have right now?

If Rafa was here, this guy would be Diame mkII. His place is obviously much deeper.

That pass for Wilson last night was exquisite too btw.

At this point I wouldn’t be surprised if everything isn’t formally announced until midweek, the team are off for 2 days and there’s talk of some big announcements regarding the corporate side of things.

There’s talk of all the Sports Direct tat being removed from tomorrow. Maybe they have another sponsor lined up and want all that in the background for manager photos

1 hour ago, TheGuv said:

Still furious with that free kick at the end of the game.

He’s an absolute dimwit. Yeah probably offers more in general play than Longstaff but that’s really saying what an absolute pile of dogshit that chap is.

The fact the club still has to try and utilise this wanker until January just highlights how poorly stocked we are in the midfield.

Is there nobody from the reserves we could promote?

Deserves his own thread at this stage!

Welcome to the madhouse ☺️
 

His to do list:

Help Lascelles remember he’s a footballer and that he’s also supposed to be club captain.

Bin Longstaff and Shelvey forever.

Make the squad fitter.

Try and improve individual players who can do better. Almiron, Joelinton, Willock, Lewis etc.

Change the style of play and mentality of the whole club. Easy.

As much effort and running Almiron did while he was on, Joelinton did more in the few minutes he was on.

Hopefully Howe can get more from him as he can be effective.

Has a new manager ever sat with a director in a match before officially being appointed?

I think Jones has been around the squad to such an extent that he’s lost any objectivity he had when he first came in. He’s probably formed personal relationships with much of the senior squad and sees counting on his mates as a better option than picking a team to win.

This is where Rafa had it nailed, nobody ever got close to him. He kept it professional so that it was easier to drop players who weren’t doing the business, as opposed to someone like Jose who was close to his players and would need to publicly fall out with a player to drop them.

2 minutes ago, ianovthetoon said:

Maybe the back room issue is he doesn’t want Jones? ??‍♂️??‍♂️

No not the case, Jones did work with them before and they get on well. The structure of the back room might be an issue, as Jones said, he’s not going to stay just to be putting the cones out.

They will have to come up with something that’s obviously a demotion, without it looking like one.

The whole thing of a DoF coming in though might complicate things, this person is going to have to have faith in the ethos Eddie Howe brings and set up that structure accordingly. Think for this reason it’s going to be someone like the guy at City who’s running their youth setup as opposed to an Overmars or a Campos etc.

You never really know with either players or a manager if they’re going to be a good fit.

There’s a whole heap of managers with top cv’s who would have failed miserably in this role, even with the financial backing.

Firstly, Eddie Howe is likeable, he’s intelligent and wants to improve so that his teams will also do so. He’s progressive in his ethos. And most importantly he’s humble, if he fucks up he’ll own up to it.

Absolute night and day compared to what we’ve been used to.

This could well be a temporary fix, we just don’t know how things will work out. What we can all agree on is that given a bit of time and patience, this whole afraid of the ball, can’t string two passes together team that we’ve been watching will be a thing of the past.

Let’s get behind him and most importantly, give him that patience he deserves. It shouldn’t take too long for change to happen.

I’m concerned at the way all this has played out but I’m not overly upset about Emery. Good coach for sure but just something about him I can’t warm to. I don’t ever want any player or manager who doesn’t want to be here.

To me, it sounded like he didn’t have total faith in himself to turn this situation around, worried about a sack clause if relegated? If he’s all that, that shouldn’t have even been an issue.

Staveley and co, good people used to dealing in certain circles. I think they’ll learn massively from this, they have to. The egos in football are unlike anything they’ve ever dealt with. This is why they urgently need a strong CEO to be front line for dealing with this stuff.

It’s an absolute embarrassment how all of this has come about, there should be some soul searching going on whether certain people just in the door need to concentrate on bringing a CEO into the club to be doing all this sort of work.

I like fixing odd bits on my car from time to time but if anything big needs to be done I bring it to a mechanic, it’s not rocket science..