TheBrownBottle

I think most of them are bought to flip tbh - and they should be.

Just on that Norwich side - from memory, didn’t they not win after NYD? Of course we know the identity of the side that lost to them on NYD …

Chelsea would take him all day long, and I’m sure they wouldn’t sack him after losing 9 of the last 12 league games and being on for a bottom-half finish I don’t doubt Howe would get appointed by one of the sky five (Spurs don’t count). I also doubt that Howe would last a season.

I mean, they aren’t all overpays - transfer fees and salaries have went up with football’s increased income. Wissa has been a massive overpay.

The injury wasn’t unlucky - he acted like an unprofessional wanker and refused to train. And then, despite not having ‘match fitness’, he pisses off to play football on a concrete slab of a pitch rather than attempting to get himself into the condition he should’ve been in in the first place. If I go and do a marathon tomorrow without warming up, if I get a muscle tear after half a mile I’m not unlucky, I’m a fucking idiot.

I think you’re right as a general principle, but Wissa was very much a ‘here and now signing’, which was why the club overpaid - he’s already been a pretty disastrous signing even if he has a decent season next season

He’s on a four year contract, so it’s closer to £14m amortised Thanks to the ridiculousness of PSR, we might actually be better off offering him a two year contract extension for the same money if we can’t unload him - it would take £6m off the books for the year …

If the rest of the signings hadn’t proved to be a range of poor to unbelievably shit there’d be far more critical eyes on Thiaw. Our back line has been shite this season; and he’s really error-prone. He’s not been a bad signing but I also don’t think he’s been a really good one.

Hard to talk when you only open your gob to stuff another pie in it

Haven’t heard wanksplat in donkeys’ years

I agreed with the rest of TCD’s post - but aye, can’t be saying people know nowt; it’s not the case, we’re just looking at stuff from a different perspective

Makes sense - UEFA don’t want to dilute their cash cow!

If we’re getting down to brass tacks, some of us have covered several roles at once including directors and managers who’ve left and had a degree of accountability for it. I also didn’t politic my directors out of the organisation. But the comparisons to everyday life are irrelevant. Football managers are paid to get results - it’s ultimately the way in which they are assessed. There’s four games left and we’re 14th.

When did 1) change? I thought it was still in the gift of the national associations to determine which clubs qualify for Europe - UEFA just determine the number of slots.

No - the FA Cup has been undermined more than enough. It should be the centrepiece of English football. Not all that arsed about the League Cup - maybe that’s worth looking at. But the FA Cup has been buggered around with enough.

Wissa won’t fit through the door, surely

If I’d made a £250m mistake I wouldn’t have to wait for the criticism - I would have resigned before the bullet came. But then I wouldn’t compare myself to a person who is paid millions to be accountable for those decisions - it’s almost as if the standards I’d expect in my working practice aren’t the same as those of a PL football manager.

The summer doesn’t need to be explained - this is entire squad, never mind last summer. Every player at the club is there through Howe’s choice. And it wasn’t ’them or no-one’. That’s frankly absurd. You’re saying that for £55m we simply couldn’t have found another striker in world football? Don’t be daft.

Yes, early Howe at NUFC was just gegenpressing - which needs buy-in from players (which Howe clearly was able to get). But that feels like a long time ago - what has replaced it? I can’t describe our pattern of play at this point. We don’t look particularly well coached.

But who bought those keepers and strikers? This defence only works for a manager new in a job with someone else’s squad. This is 100% Howe’s squad, and he’s not been getting a tune out of it for going on a year now

Yep, it alls feels very wrong. I was saying to a mate the other day that I wish last season was this season, and Howe takes the England job after the WC. Would have felt very right. This is awful.

I’m not saying they were the highest, but a c.£40m loss in a season in the second tier - when you’re not a recently relegated side - is some going. Again, this is not to say he didn’t do an excellent job in getting them up, but it isn’t the same as it being unimaginable

Lucky you Won the title in 92, to 17th in 93 (a CL season), back to 5th the year after - and 5th again the year after that (which meant European qualification) Very different time, though

Howard Kendall from 92-94? Yep, I’m pushing it on that one