TheBrownBottle

Which is what happens when you stand still in the transfer market - teams absolutely know how to play against us, and so far Howe hasn’t found the answer to it.

It never looked like a particularly good midfield to me - it’s far too slow for a start; Joelinton isn’t technically good enough to play there, and Tonali is very much ‘jury’s out’. I haven’t seen anything to convince me that any other manager would be able to make that work as a three man midfield.

He’s not playing the same position(s) that he did that season. He’s clearly much better further forward, but he’s a middling (at best) midfielder.

We’re three years in and hundreds of millions spent. Howe does have some responsibility for the current squad if it isn’t good enough. Failure to buy a right winger or a centre half with pace in those three years can’t just be blamed on PSR - the money was available to spend.

Cheers mate ‎

It does indeed ‎ - the FA screwed the Football League over many years ago with the creation of the PL, but they haven’t ruined them by taking a European place away from the League Cup

League Cup win = European qualification 😉

The burning question remains though: who’s dad is hardest?

I’d take a League Cup trophy and finishing 17th over finishing second in the PL tbh.

Based on what I’ve seen so far, I’m not at all sure we would have. I’m yet to see our midfield look much cope with Tonali in there.

Haha yep. Have to say that I’d still be unprofessional enough to try it if I thought it was likely to be worth it - but I’m just not feeling that at the moment. Hope to buggery I regret it

I’m not arsing myself to stay up for this one; it’s a school night, we’ve got a shite record there and we’ve been poor most of the season so far so I reckon we’ve no chance. Which means of course we’ll probably win - make sure you all thank me later when we do

The handsomest knacker in the knacker’s yard. It is a bloody shame really, but he needs to be out of the door and replaced.

Apart from the bit when we were winning more

That isn’t as impressive a feat as it would have been in, say 1994 or 2004. Being one of Italy’s best players in 2024 … Jury is very much out on Tonali for me. Longstaff is a solid but bog standard PL midfielder. Tonali is a very, very expensive midfielder who is really owes us a top season.

Likewise. All this is liable to do is see ticket price hikes - which usually follows from inflated wages. Like the PL, the PFA does little for the good of the game.

I honestly think the hardest part is knowing who might take the job? Instinctively I don’t think any big hitter takes it in the present moment - but I don’t know how the ownership might approach them or what they might offer? It says everything about the job that Howe has done that we wouldn’t be looking at another Eddie Howe for the job (should he leave). The man has done a cracking job for the most part.

That was during the Worst Injury Crisis in the History of the World mind

Honestly I agree with everything you’ve said - and I’m part of the same hypocrisy. I just stop dead at defences of the owners. They’re rank human beings, and they haven’t bought the club for altruistic reasons. We get to be beneficiaries; but I can’t abide folks thinking they need to defend the indefensible

They have, but Christ we don’t need to pretend that MBS hasn’t been convicted of anything therefore he’s guilty

Burden of proof wouldn’t sit with the PL, but with PIF. You’d struggle to argue that as de facto ruler of KSA and the head of PIF he has no say at all in the direction of the club. It is his club, effectively. That doesn’t matter - KSA doesn’t have the rule of law for a start, and he’s unlikely to be convicted of anything ever there. The PL FPPT would also be failed if you’d done something which could lead to criminal conviction under another jurisdiction - ie state sponsored piracy of PL football (the PL were never bothered about war crimes in Yemen, human rights abuses in KSA, nor in the murder of journalists) In all honesty seeing NUFC supporters offering any type of supportive statements to one of the most vicious regimes on the planet because they think they’ll buy us some canny footballers is one of the most depressing things about it all. It was Staveley saying that, tbf. And she doesn’t exactly have a perfect record of telling the full truth in court cases.

Arsenal were already doing what they were doing pre-Arteta - finishing in the top few spots and winning cups. Ferguson had a remarkable track record at Aberdeen to hang some confidence on - including winning a European final vs Real Madrid. On the flip, Chelsea are the most successful English club this century, and have had eighteen permanent managers in that twenty-three year period. I’m not saying that Howe should go at all, but I don’t at all think that just keeping someone in a job means that at some point it’ll all work out. I still hope this all works out and he’s a success, but the confidence is being really battered around the edges on that front. I still think he’s got every chance of turning it round, though.

PSR is definitely a factor, though on the flip of that we’re three years into Howe’s reign, and we’ve spent well over half a billion quid on transfers, and Jacob Murphy and Miguel Almiron are still our right wing options. That’s not the fault of PSR. Yes, the Ashley-era dross is difficult to get shot of - but I can’t take seriously the idea that 1) we couldn’t offload those two and 2) there literally isn’t anyone who we could have bought for a small share of the spend to date better than those options. Three years is usually enough time to suggest that this is a manager’s squad.

Jury's out / hasn't kicked on as expected / jury's out, not at the level yet / effective but not as good as the first choice in his position would be my take - in that order

Sort of - but the Tonali / Livramento / Hall / Barnes summer does raise the question of whether or not we'd actually bring in the right players.