Holmesy

I've thought he'd hit a ceiling a while ago and it comes down to some fundamental things - all of the most dominant teams at both club and international level are possession-based. They look after the ball and in doing so dictate the pace of the game (important when you're managing fatigue) professionally closing out games and tiring out the opposition by retaining the ball. It is the basis on which all teams that win consistently are built. We are not and never have been a possession team under EH and it doesn't look like there are any designs on being one. Couple that with a workload that increases significantly when we get into Europe, causing us to have to abandon training and deal with a raft of injuries, and you have a setup that simply isn't fit for purpose. Eddie's style has got us Champions League twice and won us a domestic cup but it won't take us any further. Sure, we might win another domestic trophy and get back into Europe when we have a lighter workload (the cycle repeating again) but unless our footballing philosophy changes, we won't go any further. He has stabilised us and given us some of the best memories we've ever had but if we do genuinely have aspirations of winning leagues and competing for major honours, it will have to be under someone else, unless Eddie completely rips up his playbook and does away with the kamikaze stuff. I'm not slagging him off or saying he is a shit manager. He's a very good manager for teams with a certain level of ambition but he either needs to evolve significantly (and quickly) or move aside and let someone better build on the foundations he has created.

Why is it my job to name a potential replacement? I’m a Newcastle a United fan not an encyclopaedia of world football managers. FWIW, I don’t want him sacked. I want him to look ant the blatant weaknesses in our gameplan and improve it, but I don’t see any signs of that happening, Do you?

Not my job pal. We have a board for that

Or one that learns from his mistakes. That would be a good place to start.

Another Eddie second half masterclass. What are we giving him this time lads, still fatigue or have you come up with something new?

Nope, it was shite!

Did anything about our summer transfer activities suggest that was our plan?

I largely agree about our transfer activity post-takeover, and maybe it's just all been tainted by one horrific summer followed by a window of tumbleweeds. It's more what that summer highlighted that worried me, and what we're doing in response to ensure it doesn't happen again.

I don't think I called you stupid either but apologies if that's the way it came across. I have had this discussion on here a couple of times though and it is often met with - "so you'd rather be Brentford or Bournemouth than us?" when nothing of that sort has ever been said. The point is they do CERTAIN things better than we do, and I think we would benefit from emulating parts of their recruitment model. Surely that should be a given; look at what every other club does well and try to emulate it - training methods, training facilities, generating commercial revenue, match day experience, playing style and......player recruitment & development. When we're hampered by PSR, we need every edge we can get. Brighton have dropped off from their golden period of blooding players like Enzo Fernandes, Alexis McAllister, Caicedo etc. Maybe because other teams starting using their moneyball model but the point stands that they innovated to find an edge that had them punching well above their weight, and has led to a consolidated PL position. Bournemouth have signed young talent such as Huijsen, Zabarnyi and Rayan off the top of my head, and you could argue all three would improve our squad and/or first team. They're too good for Bournemouth hence why they get snapped up, but they joined a smaller club because they weren't yet established players. Other than Hall, we have signed Ashby, that lad from City, the Korean fella and Osula that I can think of, which suggests we're not exactly tearing up trees when it comes to scouting young talent. We paid £55m for Elanga, the same for Wissa and I personally still believe we overpaid for Ramsey, significantly. That all stemmed from a limited transfer policy and a lack of long-term strategic planning in addition to every team we deal with knowing we've got money to spend. Last summer should have been the catalyst for us changing the way we do things and who knows, maybe we are - we're not privy to what goes on behind the scenes.

The two scenarios are entirely different though - Bournemouth, Brentford, Brighton and the like have more filler players in their squads because of their relative standings and budgets, and i'm sure they accept that. But their average squads are interspersed with some exceptional young talent they unearth through smart scouting. For us, because of our higher standing, those gems would be our squad players, some of whom would break through into the first team and establish themselves. So we've got quality first team acquisitions - the Brunos, Tonalis, Halls - with a conveyor belt of exceptional young talent coming through. If those clubs can find them, there's nothing stopping us from finding them. We just don't have the infrastructure in place or the strategy mindset to do that. Who that is dictated by, i've no idea, could be Eddie, could be PIF.

Exactly, but is there anything stopping us hiring the brightest minds in the game of football to put that system in place? We're the richest club in the world - paying big transfer fees isn't the only way to spend that money. The head-to-head system has been designed to stop us competing in an obvious way with the European Super League teams, and it's working. So, let's do it in a different, smarter way. It's not for you and me to blueprint what that system looks like, it's for the people who run the club - I just question whether they themselves are smart enough to go down that route. Bournemouth alone have had two CBs signed by Real Madrid and PSG - youngsters they unearthed and signed that seemingly weren't on the radar of the cartel, so these players are out there.

And that right there is why you can't have this discussion at a reasonable level on here. No one is saying or has said that they are stella clubs we should be competing with. We are literally talking about the way they operate behind the scenes, and if you're not able to understand the smart thinking and decision making that keeps them punching above THEIR weight, you're missing the whole point. We need a strategy that allows us to punch above OUR weight, not theirs. And our weight is a tier below the cartel unfortunately because the system has been designed that way. Competing head-to-head with them isn't an option because the system is rigged. So how do you get around a rigged system - with seriously smart thinking which we don't have, from the outside looking in. Every club is a selling club to a degree - Man Utd lost Ronaldo to Real Madrid, Spurs lost Bale, Villa lost Grealish, Liverpool lost Trent etc. We should never operate as a selling club but we have to accept that right now, when we unearth and establish talent, bigger teams will come calling. But rather than going out to the market reactively, armed with £100m that everyone knows about, we should have their replacement already at the club or identified, scouted and strong relationship built with their club/agent.

It's a topic that has been covered a number of times on here and people still try to find a way to argue against it, but they're arguing against common sense (which happens a lot on here). We should be thinking 2-3 windows/seasons ahead, significantly improving our scouting network and adopting a higher risk profile - become the best in the PL/world at unearthing top talent and give ourselves an edge - we have the finances to do it. What happened last summer wasn't a one-off, it's the state of play - we will continue to get pipped to the best established talent by the tier of clubs above us. We might land one or two 'purples' and i'm not suggesting we shouldn't try to sign them but putting all our eggs in a few baskets left us desperate last summer, and look where we are. We seem to lack a long-term strategic plan to get where we want to go. It all feels a bit 2004 and at times, reactive. Chelsea built a very successful business model (aside from being owned by a corrupt oligarch and fiddling the books) of loaning out 15-20 quality youngsters per season, and many of them got bought for decent prices. Brighton have consistently punched above their weight using a data-led strategy and excellent managerial succession planning. Bournemouth consistently unearth very good young players who keep them punching above their weight in the league and make them healthy profits. Again, to reiterate, i'm not suggesting we become a selling club or try to compete at the level of Bournemouth and Brighton. But they punch above their weight because they're incredibly smart about what they do. We're not competing in a level playing field, so we have to be incredibly smart about what we do to upset the natural order of the cartel, and I don't think we see a lot of smart thinking and long-term strategic planning from the club. It's all just a bit obvious for the 'richest club in the world'.

I agree with you though dude, but given how strong the partnership is, I can’t see Eddie bringing anyone in to help him. Something clearly needs to change on the defensive side though.

I think it’s too simplistic to just blame JT for the defensive frailties when it’s the system and game management (or lack of) that continually exposes the defence. That said, some of what we saw last night and at times throughout this season does point to a poorly coached unit - the second goal from the set piece was an absolute calamity.

Agreed. It’s always unpopular on here when you criticise Eddie but when you ship 7 goals going toe to toe with one of the best teams in Europe (who, player for player are better than us), on their turf, you’ve played into their hands. After half time they controlled the ball, kept it, drew us in and exploited the absolute chasm we leave behind our midfield, and our knackered legs and minds. It was a thorough, and professionally orchestrated demolition by a team that understands controlling the ball is key to winning big games and competitions. And when you can’t control the ball because the opposition is superior, keep it tight and use your pace on the counter. We were always likely to lose that fixture but shipping 7 goals in any top-level game is embarrassing and points to a poor gameplan, not a poorly executed one.

Enjoyed the game up to that point but bigger picture, we will never compete at this level being so defensively open and so gung-ho offensively, even with better players. It’s great to watch when it goes well but it’s so fucking naive at times.

Defensively shambolic, offensively dangerous. Great game tbf. Ref’s a biased cunt but no surprise there

Any chance Ref, you shady paid-off wanker?!

What the fuck are they playing at?

Elanga is having an absolute Betty Crocker so far!

That was comfortably the best we’ve seen from him - still a lot of fart with no solids yet but hopefully he keeps kicking on

Yeah, it’s a big risk. I think the Burn at LB thing needs to be put to bed though. I’d much rather we gave someone from the academy a chance.

Put Tino at LB and leave Burn where he is. But yeah, wrap Hall In cotton wool

Lewis Hall might have something hung to say about that. Definitely Ramsey’s best performance for us though.