TheBrownBottle

Ashley shrank our commercial revenue from 2008, not even considering escalation. You could have put anyone in after Ashley and the same thing would’ve happened.

The Netherlands doesn’t allow dual nationality - it’s amazing that none of these players were informed, but then has not one of the silly sods applied for a Dutch passport or tried to vote and found that there was a problem? Blocks on dual nationality are mostly done in the ‘developing world’ - only a few ‘western’ nations block it. Further proof - as if it was needed - of what a bunch of shysters and scumbags football agents are; they should be there giving players advice on matters like this

Didn’t the press report that Howe was happy to sell after the Celtic friendly debacle? And it was the owners who fucked about for months. Howe was spot on re that IMHO

He not untalented - I don’t doubt there’s a decent technical player there. But IMO he’s not technical enough to patch over all the other flaws in his game (his lack of pace, strength, anticipation, movement etc).

That moment when the Mail calls you a ‘right-wing grifter’. Fucking hell

Is Gordon a hate figure? Gordon strikes me as a sort of solid winger, a man profoundly lacking in self-awareness with his pretentious statements but ultimately just a good player who on his departure won’t arouse anger but a bit of a shrug. Wissa on the other hand will likely be talked about decades from now when anyone of a black and white persuasion talks about the worst signings in the club’s history, and there’s a good chance he’ll be top of many’s list even then.

I agreed with every word - but some folks will still push the ‘PSR fucked us’ line. PSR constrains, but in five years there’s been no movement on training ground, stadium nor has there been any real commercial push. The bloke is absolutely spot-on

If he starts at the WC, and scores a few goals, that might help get another club to bid daft money for him Though I think the days of clubs overpaying based on WC performance are long gone - the ease of access to viewing football matches from around the globe (and the generally poor standard of sides at a WC) has buried this

I think Howe’s time is up, and I also think he’s been right about Woltemade - I’m more of the view that a football manager should know enough about Germany’s centre forward - who he is paying a club record (or close to a club record) fee for - to know he’s not a good fit. Ironically I think his best game was vs Chelsea, which was also the last game when he was regular CF - but he never looked right to me in the team, and I’m far from convinced that we’ve got a world class centre forward spending matches getting spelks in his arse because Howe can’t see his genius.

All professional PL footballers will be able to show ‘glimpses’ - they’re there for a reason. But if all they ever show is ‘glimpses’ then they’re not good PL footballers Elanga isn’t a good PL footballer. That we’ve chased him for two years and then paid a ridiculous fee for him (and he wasn’t a panic buy) is more damning of the manager and scouting network than any of the other summer signings

Was it worth the wait?

Not sure how to respond mate?

The two Bournemouth fans I know (ie a ridiculously small sample) wouldn’t take him back Bournemouth. Not Man City; Bournemouth

Can’t open the link, but this would this particular gobshite’s minimum requirements: 1) Howe has only a moderate say in transfers 2) Howe’s nephew is sacked. Don’t care what his abilities are; nepotism isn’t a good look 3) Howe’s coaching team receives an overhaul - and a massive one too. Want to keep the silly sod with the Turkey teeth? Fine. But let’s have some proper coaches, too. If replacing your staff every 4-5 years works for Guardiola & Ferguson I reckon it should work for you 4) take some accountability. No more passive-aggressive ‘individual errors’ pish in the press. You’re accountable for performances - so fucking own it. That includes formation and tactics

Honestly, you could well be right mate. I can’t sit here and go ‘nah, you’re totally wrong’. I suspect he’d struggle but it’s just my view 👍

It’s an awful position to be in mate - it’s not even that I entirely disagree with the ‘other sides’ position. There’s no good answer to any of it.

Good footballers are unlikely to be improved technically by training IMHO. Relatively poor players are far more ‘coachable’. I don’t think if Howe inherited a more talented squad he’d have drastically improved them - that doesn’t diminish his achievements in making good players from shite

Ok, happy to break it down - and of course this is just my view, doesn’t make it ‘right’: Man City wouldn’t offer him the job Arsenal might - at a push. But I suspect not Liverpool might - see the same as Arsenal. Chelsea definitely would appoint him - and would sack him at the first hint of poor form. Man Utd - same as Chelsea In short - I don’t think Man City or Arsenal would appoint him; Liverpool probably wouldn’t; Man Utd and Chelsea probably would, but he’d suffer the same fate as every other manager I still think Howe is an excellent PL coach; I also don’t think he’s ’elite’ or anything like that. No issue with others thinking he is - it’s all just opinions - but my view would be that two CL qualifications and a LC win elsewhere would not be considered miraculous nor exceptional if three quarters of a billion in transfer fees had been spent to see that happen - even less so if at the time of writing we’re closer to being in relegation trouble than European qualification. Other opinions exist of course

I’m an old curmudgeon who views that type of player as being a ‘water carrier’. It says more about what is dull about modern football for me For clarity, I don’t doubt I’m wrong and you’re right re this technically - but at heart I don’t care - I still think that if someone like Bruno was tasked with just winning the ball and passing it safely he’d be worth five times what Anderson is ‘worth’.

Probably not a popular opinion around these parts, but I’ve never had any issues with the red side of Liverpool. Actual scousers, that is. It’s a working class northern city which loves its football. It is the tiresome, sad case, tiny-dicked glory seekers who are the problem - the sad fuckers used to just seem to come from the Home Counties and Ireland but now are from all around the world, a bunch of overpaying tourists pushing the club from its actual support base. They’re absolutely right to protest - something we are unbelievably shite at and always have been. I took a personal decision to walk away in 2008, about twenty years after my first ST, after Ashley exposed who and what he was. That’s all any of us could do on Tyneside - any attempt at organising would be met with sneering or fury by some quarters, with their weird ideas about ‘loyalty’, as if we owed the club it rather than the other way around.

If you take a blended average, it’ll all come out ok. But that’s the problem - the signing success hit-rate was phenomenally high in those first 18 months - and so were the performances. Then they tailed off, and now the signings and performances in tandem have fallen off a cliff. The answer would be completely misleading - it would suggest a consistency that isn’t there. The more say Howe has had, and the more the squad has become ‘his’, the worse the performances have become. If there was a ‘transition’ occurring, then personally I’d be far more willing to give time - but I don’t see one. He’s playing the same formation, minus ‘intensity’, and it all just looks very, very flat. Thinking his time is probably up and also thinking that the man should have a statue at SJP is where I’m at, because of the fact I don’t have confidence that he can rebuild with the limitations of PSR (ironically, I also think PSR is why Howe got the job in the first place and is possibly one of the biggest reasons he might keep it - an NUFC not incumbered by PSR is unlikely to have appointed him, and the fact we’d have to pay him about £10m when we’re dropping millions with every position we drop makes it harder to sack him), and also because of his own limitations as a manager. You can’t spend three-quarters of a billion on a squad to sit just above the relegation zone and still say ‘I’m the man to fix it - just give me more money’.

100% - and it’s the big reason why managers shouldn’t be the ones buying the players, and why the vacuum of management above Howe (as well as his own politicking - he wanted more control than a head coach) was so negligent in just giving him what he wants. What is good for Eddie Howe (or any manager) isn’t necessarily aligned with the long-term good of the club. Whenever folks say a manager is trying to do what’s best for the club, they should moderately qualify that in their own head for me. I’m liable to get people misreading this and jumping on this being a criticism of Howe, but it really isn’t meant as one. This would apply to Guardiola, Klopp - any manager. Their interest ultimately is keeping their job - which is usually achieved by being successful in the here-and-now. A manager is incentivised to buy players for the here-and-now.

He definitely wouldn’t have. It’s only because Tuchel plays that insipid formation that the lad is an England regular and is now worth a ridiculous fee - my view is still the same as when he was here, he’s a solid player but nowhere near being a top one. If Man City or whoever pay an insane fee for him it would be the worst outcome for the lad - Man City and Chelsea have been a graveyard for moderate young English talent who aren’t quite at the level.

I think the ‘improving players’ part has long been overstated - Murphy, Almiron, Joelinton would be the obvious ones. Some don’t look any better than they were when we signed them, and some look worse. Which you’d expect, that’s how it works. I’m also not convinced at all that he’s made us better than the sum of the parts he’s had available - you mentioned Chelsea’s midfield; ours hasn’t ever really looked like a unit, but plenty outside of the club have cited it as possibly the best midfield in the PL.

No, because I don’t think any Chelsea manager would get the time to build anything. Howe would be sacked the moment that there is a dip in form - his track record at NUFC would hardly be enough to save him there.