Dr Jinx

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.

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..

Sounds like a bit of a drama Queen this lad. Sure, the leak was poorly timed but who was reporting the Howe thing? British journalists? He trusts that? Quite disrespectful to another manager to use that as a reason why you’d be having doubts. I wonder if Man Utd made contact, it’s only a matter of time before Ole gets binned.. we might have been played here.

I’d say he was pissed off he had to answer questions about the nufc job on the day of a CL match. Someone leaked this story well before it was ready to be. Sounds like Ballague has been on the wine, of course we don’t have a structure like Man City in place, it took them several years to do that. If anyone had an issue like that this wouldn’t have even gotten to interview stage.

Correct, I’m not sure what the protocol is though, he’s got a release clause so perhaps the club have to make the offer to Villarreal before formally offering a contract to Emery? All minor details though at this stage.

They don’t seem that flippant though. Ancelotti had bad spells last season too which they let go.. I think their supporters were sort of indifferent to him and he was the same with them. He couldn’t wait to get out of there. Can’t see Rafa being sacked.

Surely that’s just circumstance though. He wanted to stay in his last role but the board broke promises. He’s high maintenance for sure but there’s no doubt the intelligence he has in setting up his teams to the strength of his players. I’m really annoyed he’s going to Spurs, such a waste.

Slight question mark about Dutch managers in the premier league, none have ever had sustained success. Although Overmars has the experience as a player. So maybe that DoF combo would work, still a gamble though. Emery at Arsenal was not good if anyone can remember, they were a soft touch and he looked like a rabbit in the headlights when things weren’t going well. Fonseca could be anything. Total gamble. Martinez, well his Everton side were frail at the back, something Koeman sorted out while he was there. Rafa hasn’t exactly pulled up trees in his last two appointments. Had the platform in China, should have easily been the best coach there. Everton was always going to be tough but they could be doing better, is he hitting a rut? The Mike Ashley effect? The PFM’s in training also don’t inspire confidence. Conte is the standout candidate and it looks like we didn’t even try.

Its the usual suspects. Basically the middle of the park and the defence is just one soft gooey mess. It’s so easy to play against us when there’s no pace, physicality or intelligence in those areas. Like a hot knife through butter

Not sure if mentioned before but perhaps a reason in the hold up, Yasir Al-Rumayyan tested positive for covid. He was supposed to attend the climate conference but couldn’t because of it.

I think it’s important to note that it’s not like this squad downed tools for Steve Bruce, they genuinely liked him and of course, all the days off each week. That’s 2 and a bit years of a culture of laziness instilled into them. So the idea that they were somehow going to find motivation, fitness and organisational skills within 2 weeks is absolutely mental. Some of these lot will be genuinely bummed out that Bruce is gone, the lifestyle they were living soon to be over. It took Arteta a season and a bit to get Arsenal playing decent football (and they were calling for him to be sacked 5 games ago), fuck knows how long it would take any decent coach to get a tune out of this bunch of fuckwits. Anyway, just a thought. I felt peeved towards Jones after the match but when you reflect on things and consider the attitudes of certain players.. well you know what am getting at.

They’ve got a very good balance to their team and from what I’ve seen of Rice this season, he always seems to have time on the ball, it’s as if players know they’ll come out second best in a tussle so they don’t even bother. If we’re going to start assembling an expensive squad, that’s who we should be after. 22 years old, probably a future England captain.

Fonseca would be done by now if that’s who we wanted imho. Available, it’s straight forward. Our current league position has to be the issue, not that we can’t get our targets, but more a case of a two part appointment maybe. I can see a scenario where we have an agreement for a top class manager and DoF to come in during the summer and then we’ll just hire a manager similar to how Chelsea brought in Rafa for half a season.

Smart finish. Remember when Longstaff was being talked up as being better than Rice? ? That’s how good Rafa is.

I can see them going for Graham Potter this time. He’d be mad to leave his job though at this stage. Brighton are going to have a better season than us or Spurs can dream of. It all comes down to stability and harmony from up above. It’s why I think we’ll be alright in the end. Instilling a healthy work culture etc.. it trickles down. Any manager taking the Spurs job right now are on a hiding to nothing, club massively in debt, a basket case chairman, star players who don’t want to be there. Fixing our problems is more straight forward in my opinion.

Yes, back in the day. Remember one of the other forums (ToTT?) having to censor posts where it was mentioned. Which in itself added more weight to the rumours. He missed games through illness so he must have had other symptoms bubbling away over the years, which makes sense as that illness is an autoimmune disorder which covers a rainbow of other things.

Oh I’m not saying they’d cut their losses, it’s just a matter of the here and now, if they have a stake in Inter and they have a chance to win a title and play in the champions league, that’s where I’d be ploughing my money for the moment.

Some are saying a relegation wouldn’t be so bad, I disagree. We know they are in for other clubs too, say for example they buy Inter as well, suddenly we could be the “B” team. A year can be a long time when you consider how quickly things have moved in just one month. Personally I think it’s vital we remain in the top league to maintain the focus on us. Staveley is emotionally invested in this but that’s not to say that PIF are. They will back the best horse they have.

The bookies odds are nothing to do with talk sport. The bookies bet more than the punters do. It’s all an algorithm to balance every eventuality out so whatever happens they somehow come out ahead. It’s only really one off events like Cheltenham where non gamblers get involved when they take a hammering from time to time.

90% of the balls we played toward Wilson today were goal kicks. Total shambles. You could tell the first 5 times we tried it that it wasn’t working, yet we persisted doing it all game. I think Jones played his part in us staying up last season, but other teams have improved, adapted etc.. he could well have run out of ideas. We just look totally devoid of anything worth building on.