Eddie Howe - Granted Freedom of Newcastle

[Kid Icarus]

The criticism of the Barnes signing is mental imo like. Really weird.

[AyeDubbleYoo]

6 minutes ago, Jagten said:

Spunking >100mm on Tonali and Barnes who, whatever you think of them, don’t really solve any problems, is inexcusable. Both are running at pretty substantial paper losses right now. 

Tonali was desperately needed, Longstaff was starting games for us. Sadly he got banned for a year. 

[SUPERTOON]

Just now, Kid Icarus said:

The criticism of the Barnes signing is mental imo like. Really weird.

I find the defence of it weird tbh. I think it’s clear it was the wrong signing given the needs of the team and our PSR issues.

[Collage]

10 minutes ago, LFEE said:

 He wanted Tosin and Guehi and got neither and settled for Kelly. That’s not what I’d call backing your manager. Especially in a window he had to sell two players he didn’t want to.

 

Backing a manager is different to simply agreeing with his targets. You got to secure them.

We could have strengthened the squad by using the funds made available in a sensible way, rather than making a crazy bid for Guehi.

[Jagten]

2 minutes ago, AyeDubbleYoo said:

Tonali was desperately needed, Longstaff was starting games for us. Sadly he got banned for a year. 

Tonali is not the midfielder we needed. A James Maddison would have been much more interesting given how we struggle against low blocks. 

[Jagten]

3 minutes ago, Kid Icarus said:

The criticism of the Barnes signing is mental imo like. Really weird.

Because he has an extremely specific function that doesn’t appear to fit in our first XI. He’s good and I like him but it was a poor allocation of resources, given Jacob Murphy started today. 

[Kid Icarus]

1 minute ago, SUPERTOON said:

I find the defence of it weird tbh. I think it’s clear it was the wrong signing given the needs of the team and our PSR issues.

 

I don't think it needs defending tbh, his record and his impact speaks for itself.  Or it should anyway.

[AyeDubbleYoo]

1 minute ago, Jagten said:

Tonali is not the midfielder we needed. A James Maddison would have been much more interesting given how we struggle against low blocks. 

Well we need both. Maddison paired with Bruno and Longstaff would be suicide. 
 

We signed one of the highest rated young midfielders in Europe, it was a great signing. The annoyance is that the betting thing happened and he couldn’t establish himself straight away. 

 

 

Edited December 7, 2024 by AyeDubbleYoo

[SUPERTOON]

3 minutes ago, AyeDubbleYoo said:

Tonali was desperately needed, Longstaff was starting games for us. Sadly he got banned for a year. 

A midfielder was desperately needed, not sure it was Tonali costing 55 million mind. Aware a lot of hindsight in that, but when you are up against PSR it may have been more prudent to get a cheaper option.

[BennyBlanco]

At this point, he’s in trouble. Should have been backed in summer for sure but some of his selections have been baffling. Tonali would have offered a lot more than longstaff today - we all know that. Whatever metrics he’s using to pick that midfield - he needs to try again. 

[SUPERTOON]

Just now, Kid Icarus said:

 

I don't think it needs defending tbh, his record and his impact speaks for itself.  Or it should anyway.

Defence may have been the wrong term, but no one can convince me the 40 odd million we spent on him wouldn’t have been better spent on a RW.

[Nine]

People need to realise how big the implications are with replacing the manager mid season especially under our current circumstances.

 

A lot of moving around happened during the summer in terms of management, a lot of change. A shitshow of FFP calculation led to forced sales and then even worse - no serious incomings. No refreshing of the squad led us away from the high press as it’s not sustainable without consistent and intelligent recruitment and this is where we find ourselves. 
 

We are heading for a reset next summer with the new set up, personally I’d give Howe that IF he can co exist with less power than he had that contributed to Staveley getting the boot. I’d like to see how Howe functions under a serious recruitment team, because no real club aiming to establish themselves as part of the elite lets the coach 100% build the team. We have to be more fluid in terms of incomings and outgoings and that includes management to.

 

 Oh and people put far too much weight into league position finishes. 

 

 

Edited December 7, 2024 by Nine

[AyeDubbleYoo]

1 minute ago, SUPERTOON said:

A midfielder was desperately needed, not sure it was Tonali costing 55 million mind. Aware a lot of hindsight in that, but when you are up against PSR it may have been more prudent to get a cheaper option.

I mean, it’s always better to sign a cheaper better player. 

[LFEE]

9 minutes ago, Ronaldo said:

But you acknowledge we’ve gone backwards since spending a lot of money from that summer onwards?

Nope. I believe our 4th season was Leicester’s league winning season. Liverpool, Chelsea and Spurs returned to their norm. Aston Villa capitalised on fixture free season with early domestic cup failures. We were the next best team without going backwards.

 

The balance of the team you could argue wasn’t as good with us not looking as defensively solid. We did lose our two big defensive signings in Botman and Trippier that season. Tino did well but Hall has shown this is the first full season he’s been ready for.

 

7th was a great achievement and we probably deserved 6th TBH.

 

 

Edited December 7, 2024 by LFEE

[KaKa]

1 hour ago, The College Dropout said:

Then they are dickheads. We have the 7th/8th biggest spend on squad cost and wages.  That’s where we should finish.   

 

Honestly, that's all well and good, but we haven't even made the best use of the talent we have available to us right now.

 

If we were doing that and coming up short then fair enough.

 

The confusion of how to integrate Tonali, and how best to utilise Barnes and Gordon to overcome the issues on the right has been a disaster.

 

There are teams with less costs that are performing better than us right now and are on track to finish ahead of us.

[SUPERTOON]

1 minute ago, AyeDubbleYoo said:

I mean, it’s always better to sign a cheaper better player. 

Yeah of course, im more saying when we don’t have that much to spend we need to spend it more wisely.

[Dr.Spaceman]

People would criticise the Shearer signing these days man 

 

"Should of signed a gerlie, man"

[nufcjmc]

The regression is crazy only masked by a few teams being just as inconsistent. 

 

Bad bad bad summer and the Howe comments about it being very hard to improve what we have is starting to bite him in the arse as nearly the full team is here other than botman and we look shit.

 

So disappointed with the lads and their effort and application and on the manager for doubling down and hoping something will click its not working. 

[The College Dropout]

4 minutes ago, SUPERTOON said:

I find the defence of it weird tbh. I think it’s clear it was the wrong signing given the needs of the team and our PSR issues.

Agreed. He’s a good player no doubt.  
 

But he was the wrong age, position, fee, wages. Even his style of play doesn’t suit the team.  
 

Our transfer approach was a bit ‘kid in a sweets shop’ getting players that were available rather than what we needed. And getting carried away and overspending.  That has some successes - Isak, Hall, Tino - we only get them due to excitement and opportunity.  At least their age profile and position was a priority. 

[Jagten]

5 minutes ago, AyeDubbleYoo said:

Well we need both. Maddison paired with Bruno and Longstaff would be suicide. 
 

We signed one of the highest rated young midfielders in Europe, it was a great signing. The annoyance is that the betting thing happened and he couldn’t establish himself straight away. 

 

 

 

This is an extremely optimistic perspective that was and is not unanimous. Milan opinion is that Reijnders was an upgrade. I did not, and do not, like the transfer.

[The College Dropout]

3 minutes ago, KaKa said:

 

Honestly, that's all well and good, but we haven't even made the best use of the talent we have available to us right now.

 

If we were doing that and coming up short then fair enough.

 

The confusion of how to integrate Tonali, and how best to utilise Barnes and Gordon to overcome the issues on the right has been a disaster.

 

There are teams with less costs that are performing better than us right now and are on track to finish ahead of us.

Agreed but their leadership has been better than ours for the last 2 years.  Most of them have built better profiled squads and the atmosphere around their clubs are better.  
Brighton have so many RWs that the one on loan at Leicester would probably start for us.  
 

You have a squad. Some players won’t be maximised.  Slot is doing better than Klopp with the same squad.  Was Klopp doing a bad job?

 

 

I don’t think Howe is getting every decision right.  Didn’t understand why Tonali didn’t start.  I think the deficiencies  in the atmosphere and the squad is highlighting his own deficiencies.  Since we’ve started shipping goals we’ve not been able to stop that or when we have, not been able to score.  For loads of spells I don’t think we look a well coached team.   
 

But I don’t think Howe is the biggest problem. And if he had a balanced squad - I think he would do better. 
 

Uktimateky I think he’ll carry the can eventually and pay for it with his job. Mitchell will hope that bides him some time to get a better squad together and that we can spend more. 

[The College Dropout]

Tonali signing was a marquee statement.  
 

Way too much money. 

[TRon]

1 hour ago, The College Dropout said:

Their leadership has been ace.  
 

 

Im more concerned about our leadership than Eddie Howe (who is not doing a stellar job.  Don’t think he’s doing a bad job given the circumstances). 
 

Leadership has fumbled the squad and the finances.  Sometimes indulging Eddie when they shouldn’t have. 

 

When you say you are concerned, what is the point of that? If you don't like a player, you replace that player. If you don't like a manager, you replace that manager. I suppose if you don't like the leadership then...you guess where this is going. Who would you want instead?

 

 

[Weezertron]

Where's the post-match presser. FFS

[LFEE]

Ultimately football is about moments and this season we’ve been on the wrong side of them. 22/23 we were on the right side of most. 23/24 it felt an even split at best. 24/25 we aren’t getting the rub of the green it feels.

 

NONE of them are anything to do with EH. The owners. PM. The transfer strategy. Injuries and so on and so on.

 

This week alone we hang on against Palace, Gordon slots his 1v1 and Isak rounds the keeper and puts us 1-2 ahead. You could be talking at a great week and 9 points instead of 2. This is the story of this season. Teams have them. The fundamentals however don’t need to be ripped up because they didn’t.