TheBrownBottle

That reads like a haiku or something. There's something poetic about it.

I remember getting a wee bit of criticism on here when I suggested the same when he was here. Personally I always felt he was a snake oil salesman. This has made my day.

Tbf TCD I'm not absolute on these things - it was more a general point. I actually think that 6th-8th/9th is more like par, but this is 'angels dancing on the head of a pin' stuff. Results aren't in that space, and performances are well below it.

Honestly mate, I think both positions are likely to be true - Radcliffe is a basket case, and Ashworth is simply a competent (and over-glorified) administrator

How did I miss this? Sorry, but my cock is in danger of being laughed off. Fuck the amateur gardening cunt. 'Spokes in the wheel' my arse - an absolute chancer who managed to snake oil his way into various positions.

I think this is the key to whether or not Howe deserves criticism. Expecting CL qualification etc is unreasonable levels of expectations - that should be more hope than expectation. Par based upon our squad (both talent and cost) should be around 7th. 8th-9th would be underperformance (in the same way anything above 7th is overperformance). Form has us comfortably below par - performances as well as results. That doesn't necessarily mean Howe should be sacked, nor that he can't turn it around. But he isn't being criticised unreasonably at the moment, in the same way that the effusive praise in 22/23 was well-deserved. We're still in both cups, and I want him to have the chance to break our duck, even if he isn't the long-term manager. I really like him as a gadgie, and it would be great if he was the man to do it. He'd forever be a legend here. But if we're out of both cups by the time the 4th round of the FA Cup concludes in late January and our league form hasn't improved drastically then for me he probably needs to go.

Yep. It is their ownership's miserly running of the club which appears to keep them within reach. They're miles ahead of us - I honestly don't really see how we get near them, never mind catch them. If I was a Spurs fan I'd be spitting blood about the way the club is managed.

This is true. It is easy to forget, but Spurs have an income which is bigger than Chelsea, Arsenal or Liverpool. In fact, it is not just above Arsenal's - it is above Arsenal's to the roughly the same amount as our last year of Ashley-era income(!). Spurs massively punch under their weight, financially speaking.

Bruno's here for the pay cheque too - he didn't grow up dreaming of playing for NUFC and wouldn't likely have signed for us a transfer window earlier than he did. I don't mean that as a criticism of him (he's not 'mercenary' in that he is passionate), he clearly enjoys it both at the club and in the region generally. He's a hard person to dislike, and I don't doubt that he'll have an affection for the club and fans. He'd be difficult to replace as a character as much as his talent. But pretty much all footballers are replacable.

I meant Robocop

If the stories are true that Howe has refused to allow sales of players, then he's at fault on that front too. The squad is definitely not mostly made up of players who were bottom of the league - Pope, Vlachodimas; Trippier, Livramento, Burn, Botman, Hall, Targett, Kelly, Murphy; Bruno, Tonali, Miley; Isak, Gordon, Barnes, Osula, all were bought by Howe (other than Miley, who came through the youth set up). That's the majority of the squad, comfortably. We're three years in - this is the manager's squad.

Fucking hell, if I need to get the Alan Pardew Excuse Bingo cards out then we’re more fucked than I thought. Ever blame the weather, king? @Alan Pardew

Yeah, it was disastrous. There was a bloke I knew who kept banging on about how he’d ’sort out dressing room discipline’. We played Blackburn straight after his appointment and thumped them - Shepherd should’ve torn up his contract there and then; that should’ve been proof of what he’d hired.

It wouldn’t be fun at all. Did you ever watch a Mourinho side? ‘Fun’ isn’t how I’d describe it.

Would anyone have been able to predict who the current Man Utd, Liverpool and Chelsea managers would be about six months ago? There is a narrative of ‘there’s no-one out there’, but clearly that isn’t the case.

That wouldn’t be defendable if you were bottom three …

The performances had taken a massive dive, and he was managing a club which had a turnover level with Liverpool. It was underperformance and looking like a decline. Souness being utterly incompetent was the issue with his replacement.

Robson was also managing one of the world’s richest clubs - our turnover was a long way ahead of two of the current ‘big six’ and was comparable to Liverpool’s.

It wasn’t luck to finish 4th, we were a good side and Howe provided some exceptional management and coaching. We’re a long way short at the moment including Howe but we can’t be rewriting history.

Our shocking away form cost Robson his job - two wins in his final full season was fucking woeful. As was his continued rigid selection of the same players again and again regardless of performance or form.

Not a great analogy, given that Robson should’ve been sacked a lot earlier than he eventually was, and the failure to sack him when we should have damaged us badly.

Likewise. Maybe I’m mellowing with age but my piss isn’t boiling. Perhaps slightly above normal temperature. Just feels like we’re watching a team not playing for Howe, who I think is a decent man. But the outcome when that starts happening is usually the same each time.

I said at the end of last season that if we were in the bottom half and struggling halfway through this season I’d be looking to push Howe out. This has come to pass, but he still should have a bit of time offered. If we’re out of both cups by the end of January and if league performances don’t improve is likely when I’ll join the cacophony. We haven’t looked like a well-managed side for quite some time now - performances against the big boys at home are meaningless, as the players self-motivate for them.

If we’re out of both cups by the end of January then the pressure will start to build I think. We can’t keep playing like this - not helped by what felt like a really odd team selection.

That second half felt like the majority of halves this season. Not good enough, unfortunately.