TheBrownBottle

Tone deaf

He’ll end up in the Greek or Turkish top flight in a couple of years’ time

Howe would have even more serious questions to answer if that was the case

Tbf I’d say the same thing despite knowing the law re this

Not even when he thinks he’s Confucius and starts handing out bite-sized chunks of his philosophy?

We can’t string a couple of passes together, we’re easy to play through, and we create very little. I keep reading that Howe needs time on the training pitch between games, but I don’t understand how international midfielders can’t pass a fucking football more than five yards without losing it.

Tonali has been shite for some time. I’m sure he performs better in people’s heads than he does on the pitch. The midfield is a massive problem

It sounds terrible I know, but I’ve been disinterested in the CL this season. The new format is dull.

It’s a sad indictment of lots of things if the 2025 version of Willock repeatedly gets put on ahead of you

Yep, I thought he was trying to grab the game by the scruff of the neck

Agreed, it can be turned around - and Howe has done that before. Today just took a massive hit on his credit though.

I don’t think the away performances and record would be acceptable at most midtable PL clubs. The biggest concern now is if the home performances start looking more like the away performances - which looks more likely to happen than the reverse. I don’t think we need CL football nor should we expect it - but European qualification should be the target.

He spent a smaller amount because of PSR - which should be a reminder that you don’t get to spend it every summer to fix it, hence there are no ‘transition seasons’ - and I’m sorry, but £250m to come out of it looking worse isn’t buttons. They’re his signings, if they’d worked he’d rightly be getting praise.

It’s all relative - the world record fee stands at over £200m, and the British record is £125m (or £130m). When Beasant was signed the British record was £2m. When Marcelino signed for just under £6m it was £15m.

In terms of players who went for decent money? Beasant, Luque, Thauvin, Marcelino to name a few from my time. Elanga is on course to be right up there.

It absolutely does, and the money spunked in the summer makes not only European competition but league placement vital. I don’t think those who think he gets unlimited time get just how bad all of this is for the club - this could spiral quickly.

That’s true enough. It’s hard to argue that Elanga doesn’t look like he’s on the way to being one of the worst signings in our history though.

I’d keep him in place until the end of the season too - but I don’t get the impression that the players give a shite about him at the moment. They’re not exactly giving their all for him. In terms of transfers, he was (correctly) informed last season by his DoF that the transfer policy wasn’t fit for purpose, which resulted in a public dummy spit.

Agreed, and I don’t get the impression they make more than a cursory glance at us every once in a while

I was at Derby away Boxing Day 97 when Hamilton was put through on goal and managed to trip over his own feet Elanga wouldn’t have even anticipated the through ball

It’s hardly a stellar list, and I suspect we’d be able to attract some decent names. I don’t think Howe should be sitting comfortably at all at the moment - but he probably will, because I don’t think there’s anyone at the club who’ll have that difficult conversation with him.

Not before Xmas anyway. Imagine the family Xmas dinner if he’s been sacked by his uncle?

I mean - yes, that’s how it works tbf. You can’t write off half of your games after this kind of outlay.

Yeah, that’s where I am too. Unless it goes drastically wrong, I’m perfectly comfortable with Howe seeing out the season and us evaluating his position at the end of it.

For me, Eddie’s out of runway now. We need to start showing real signs of improvement in the coming weeks.