St. Maximin

Each to their own but I’m not really a fan of putting managers in this ‘PFM’. Not like they’re all the same. Tactically the likes of Pardew and Bruce aren’t fit to be spoken about in the same sentence as Pulis, Allardyce, Dyche etc. Their football may be ugly to watch but there is a plan and the tactics have been effective, even if outdated. In fact maybe I wouldn’t put Dyche in with them anyway. I think the ugly football and being associated with an unfashionable club with a high proportion of Brexit voters doesn’t help his cause, but he’s an intelligent and witty man I feel and you can’t knock the job he’s done there.

Based on the league table he didn’t fail miserably to be fair. 13th and 12th were decent returns on paper given our squad. The start of this season was a different matter of course. Obviously we know it goes far deeper than just looking at the league table. However, if you’re not prepared to research, it’s pretty reasonable to look at the table and then wonder where all the fuss is coming from. Saying that Willock massively dug us out of a hole and we were getting all the usual patronising rubbish from the pundits even when it looked like we were heading for relegation a year ago.

Yeah good point. I remember Sunderland fans slated him, but I did notice the team declined a lot since he left so it seemed more respectable. However, the run of form looks pretty familiar and they did have some decent players around then as you say. I think Hull worked out reasonably well though, whatever it was he got right. Villa sounded shocking though - real elephant in the room last year that Smith was getting so much praise from pundits for how they picked up after his appointment, when Bruce was the reason. Shame we just happened to have unrealistic expectations though.

I think it was only really Villa when things really turned pear-shaped for him as a manager. He was clearly never a tactician, but whether it was due to luck or ‘good man management’, he did well in the Championship and had some reasonable top flight years too. His win record may be terrible, but you can’t leave the standard of the teams out of that. I think the game has progressed in recent years while he hasn’t, but I don’t want to be too kind to him - I also think he got to the point where he couldn’t be bothered to take the jobs more seriously and was just happy to pick up a nice salary followed by a nice payoff. No manager who is really dedicated to his job would give the players so many days off training and apparently have sessions where his coaching amounted to saying “let’s play”.

What is the issue with ‘sportswashing’ anyway? The cynicism people have over the takeover isn’t matched by reality. If it’s a real thing it’s not hiding human rights abuses and making Saudi Arabia falsely appear to be a progressive state. If it changes opinions it’s clearly at a pretty small scale. We make up a very small minority of football fans in England alone the world, so I really doubt the opinions of such a small group really mean that much to them or has the power to creative a grossly false misrepresentation of what the country is like. They are diversifying their economy and investing in sport like the other gulf states do to create economic development in the long run. The human rights abuses are sadly still there and are a problem irrespective of the takeover. I don’t feel overly comfortable with the takeover, but despite a small minority of fans now defending KSA and dancing around with tea towels on their hands, it’s not really the ‘sportswashing’ that concerns me.

Most West Brom fans didn’t follow us too closely so not surprised if they’re at least willing to give him a chance after solid finishes for us. My housemate is a Baggie though who follows Newcastle a bit too and he’s firmly in the view Bruce is terrible.

I don’t really think it’s right to say he’s been Bruce’d. He only started scoring and assisting under him and was very good at it around 2020. I really like him but he needs to be in the right position to have impact, which doesn’t seem to be out wide. His work rate is terrific and he’s quick, but not brilliant technically or reliable enough in front of goal imo.

Pressure alleviated by yesterday’s win but I still wouldn’t be comfortable with a draw. We only have 7 home games left and I don’t see our final two months being a nice run-in, so we need plenty in the next month. I think we’ll pull through, but will be fighting relegation nearly all the way.

His Prem goal record wasn’t bad the first two seasons. Can’t really expect him to be prolific in those teams. He was terrible last year, but Fulham fans I know say Parker’s tactics were a lot to blame there. In the right tactics where he’s the main man he gets goals (Serbia also shows this). He was also young when with us, whereas he’s clearly matured since and doesn’t appear to be the red card risk. I still want to see him back as felt he has unfinished business and I have a perhaps irrational fondness for him, but guess I’d take Mbappe or Haaland over him.

Good shout. I think he looks even more like a mini Shaqiri, which is quite impressive really

Yeah but that’s the silly thing. Before that he was just crap but inoffensive. He made one stupid decision in the heat of the moment (not the first or last person to in this team) and all of a sudden people have used that as an excuse to give him loads of abuse. Yeah we dropped points, but that wouldn’t have mattered if the team in general hadn’t been crap for most of the season.

The abuse this guy has got recently is bloody ridiculous. He is crap and was rightly de-registered. He is only still here thanks to Ashley though and has always seemed like a good pro. No need to read into small things and look to find issues. That Norwich defending was brainless too but some fans reacted like it was something far more insulting to us, when it was simply rash and impulsive as he had very little time to think. No need trying to justify the abuse.

Bruce has a decent promotion record so it makes sense. We might have been able to see through it but 13th and 12th with us looks good too if you miss out the start of this season, so not that shocking really.

Good points mate and while I agree the takeover has caused a change in attitude from certain fans, this did seem like a cheap dig at us given he specifically made a reference to Newcastle rather than just saying Saudi Arabia. If he did the latter I doubt it would have had quite the reaction. Newcastle fans have also become used to media attacks relating to the takeover, so understandable why they’re more sensitive. The main issue though I’m concerned about is he’s using a very recent and disturbing news story to make such a joke. My scepticism over the sportswashing concerns isn’t so much that it doesn’t exist, but the extent and impacts of it all. There are indeed a small minority of Newcastle fans that will now defend the Saudi state to irrational lengths or jump around with tea towels on their head, but ultimately they are a small minority of fans of a football club whose fans only make a small minority of football fans in England let alone the world. Conversely it’s possibly made other fans more resentful of KSA and the media coverage certainly hasn’t helped them hide the human rights abuses. Sportswashing is supposed to be something calculated and immoral the way it’s talked about and has become a political issue, but I’m not seeing it that way. In the grand scheme of things these things we’ve seen shouldn’t be having dangerous impacts on a large scale. ‘Sportswashing’ to me is a term used to legitimise saying a state isn’t fit enough to invest in sport. Of course I’m happy to be proven wrong in all this. If a country does go some way to improve their reputation that shouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing, if their abuses don’t get hidden through it and perhaps it even encourages change. I also think it’s pretty reasonable for people to visit places and come back with very positive views on it (e.g. Russia World Cup) while also acknowledging major moral issues.

I’m always a sceptic of these things but I don’t get your point mate. Sportswashing according to Wikipedia is ‘practice of an individual, group, corporation, or nation-state using a major or prestigious international sport to improve its reputation, through hosting a sporting event, the purchase or sponsorship of sporting teams, or by participation in the sport itself.’ In this case you have people unhappy he’s making a cheap shot at our owners in a very insensitive manner. I don’t condone the abuse he’s got but it’s a very classless thing to say and that’s not from any allegiance to the Saudi state I have. If it’s stuff like that or a small minority of whoppers in tea towels that Amnesty International, journalists and that SNP melt are so concerned about then I think they’re wasting their time. Their human rights issues aren’t going to be concealed so even if they become a more favourable country to visit or do business with, I’m not sure what the issues really are until there are great swathes of our population who believe the human rights abuses are all lies or something like that.

This Simon Gwynn bloke is obviously a moron but rightly or wrongly I’m a sympathetic guy and don’t want to justify abuse on Twitter in response to something people obviously regret. A lot of morons post on Twitter for attention, but if they really knew what the consequences of their actions would be they’d take them back. I know it’s a pretty extreme comparison but it all seems acceptable until you have a Caroline Flack situation. Wouldn’t be surprised if people had condemned the abuse to her after her tragic suicide but not in other situations where you don’t hear of any terrible consequences. As for the vile footballer, I’m still a bit disturbed and that’s just from listening to a short audio clip. Footballers having rape and domestic abuse arrests is (sadly) nothing new, but we understandably feel so distant from it all just by reading or hearing about it rather than potentially hearing it happen. Absolutely horrible stuff and can only praise the poor victim for speaking up and hope she gets the support needed.

Still don’t think it should be as simple as VAR needing to stay or go. The concept and technology are obviously good and other sports have equivalents, so I’m not sure why the most popular one should be different. It just seems to be ran by complete idiots and doesn’t look like they’re doing a good job of evaluating scenarios properly to avoid recurring issues and clear inconsistencies. Also the ref going to the monitor to always overturn is weird - they take several minutes to review it, then the ref takes a quick look and decides in seconds when it clearly can’t be that ‘clear and obvious’, plus it’s so weird they’re so happy to overrule themselves. Not sure why they don’t want to be confident in their initial decisions. I like to think the farce we’ve seen this season should be a positive if it can encourage a more thorough assessment of VAR.

I still don’t get why we have to cynically bring ‘sportswashing’ into everything? if they want to improve their reputation that’s fine surely? They’re hardly going to hide their human rights abuses through becoming more relevant to us. It’s always a commercial move anyway rather than trying to please westerners.

Find it hard to accept a player with 65 in 81 in the Championship and 44 in 69 for his country couldn’t be a PL striker when used right. Had a bad last season but Fulham fans I know blame Parker a lot for that. In any half-decent side he’ll get goals because his movement is excellent and he helps create as well.

I know he’s a big lad but I get the impression he’s a poacher mainly. Leeds fans tell me he didn’t offer much in general play, but at least knew where the goal was.

Crazy post for questioning bringing in a manager who didn’t keep us up, for the sole purpose of keeping us up Yes, with a much better team that still needed some time to gel. The belief here is our squad is crap so not sure why he’d change this so quickly. However, he did indeed almost keep us up in a short time. Why are people so confident he’d be better than Howe though? He’s had an absolute stinker at Everton so it just seems odd people are assuming he’d turn it around based on previous form, when that’s the sole reason Howe is questioned over.

I’m not going to support the lunatic claim. However… - He didn’t keep us up when he joined. He had less time of course, but a far better squad. - Bruce also kept us up comfortably and nobody would argue keeping him would have been a lunatic move. - He’s going to be sacked from having an absolute stinker at his latest club. As I’ve said before I get the logic for the Championship but getting a man in who failed to keep us up for the purpose of keeping us up just seems silly and desperate.

He takes a while to implement his style, whether it works or not. He might even do a great job long-term if he returns, but I still think this would be too soon to keep us up and that’s the priority now. And I wouldn’t be too confident if Everton is anything to go by.

It’s not worked out for him. No surprises if he gets sacked. It clearly doesn’t sound like just a case of bad luck and there’s only so much blaming the ‘scouse mackems’ you can keep doing. I understand the long-term thinking in getting him back but why do people think he’s ideal to keeping us up? His last two appointments were shocking and he didn’t keep us up last time, albeit in less time but with a much better squad.

Not sure how you can guarantee that given we’ve only been relegated under one of those managers and it wasn’t Howe.