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Over a short period of time, many injuries at once can be bad luck. But consistenly getting a bunch of injuries every month throughout the entire season, the manager will have some responsibility (look at Bielsas last season at Leeds, Howes last season at Bournemouth). Wouldn't be surprised if we break a Premier League record with the injuries. The first ones last year involved some freak ones, but in 2024 most of the injuries are of a different kind. The manager runs the training sessions, decides who will play and when to bring someone off etc.

 

 

Edited by Erikse

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Just now, vexred said:

 

I hope this is true. The club need to be ruthless, because I don't feel Howe is. Longstaff has to go, he isn't good enough. Miley at 17 is already a better player and can be the squad player we need atm. 

 

Hopefully we'll have a director of football in place soon. It feels like this will be a pivotal transfer window. 

As per the Athletic the club expect to go in to this window without a DOF. 

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Just now, Erikse said:

Over a short period of time, many injuries at once can be bad luck. But consistenly getting a bunch of injuries every month throughout the entire season, the manager will have some responsibility (look at Bielsas last season at Leeds, Howes last season at Bournemouth). Wouldn't be surprised if we break a Premier League record with the injuries. The first ones last year involved some freak ones, but in 2024 most of the injuries are of a different kind.

 

Yep, there will be a lot of fatigue related soft tissue injuries due to a lack of rotation during the initial injury crisis.

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11 hours ago, Paullow said:

4W 2D 8L is the last 14 games is absolutely shocking like, 14 points from 14 games, relegation form over what is more than a third of a season.

 

I've said it a few times, but the season has felt like a write off to me since throughout December when we lost 5 out of 6 in the league, out of Europe completely, and the League Cup in the space of 4 weeks.

 

I just can't ever see us stringing 3 or 4 results together, I'm expecting us to lose most away games, and when we do, I'm just like 'ah well, next season'. 

Exactly, 2 weeks ago I got insulted here for pointing out the fact that Howe got only 11 points in 12 games, now it becomes 14 in 14.

 

The only win that looked convincing was against Wolves last week. To a lesser extent vs Aston Villa, but we were a bit lucky on set piece in that game, and they always looked threatening in the second half. Against Fulham we were lucky with the early red card, and even with a one-man advantage they looked dangerous on the counter until we scored the first goal. Against Nottingham (A) the game could really go either way. Against Luton (H) and Bournemouth both looked more like a point rescued than 2 points lost. Of the 8 games that we lost, we were soundly beaten in most games. Maybe we could have rescued a point against Everton if Trippier didn’t make that mistake.

 

If you look at our performance, I can’t help but have a sense that this pattern will remain largely the same until the end of this season. If my prediction becomes a reality, we will get ~25 points in our last 24 league games.

 

IMO this season had demonstrated that Howe is a decent but limited manager. He is a great motivator, the players were willing to run their lives for him, that’s why that “intensity is our identity” style worked initially. Unfortunately, after 2 years, the freshness and excitement of having a new manager becomes a distance memory. I don’t mean the players are now lazy or unprofessional or anti-Howe, but the desire to run that extra mile and challenge for every ball is gone, for a legitimate reason. Who wants to work hard in order to be punished by getting injuries that could risk their own career? We might have entered the point that we need something new and fresh to bring back the players' desire to work very hard.

 

Howe is also good for nurturing players, whether you like Howe or not, you can’t deny the likes of Longstaff, Almiron, Gordon, Murphy etc had improved a lot under Howe. But it has been 2 years and this growth is inevitably slowing down. If you compare the likes of Longstaff and Almiron in 23/24 vs 22/23, you can’t help but think that their performance declined a bit. Unless we change our squad significantly, I don’t think we could see significant improvement in abilities in our existing players under the same manager again.

 

That being said, I don’t mean I am anti-Howe, I think he should be given the chance at least until the end of this season. After all, what I said is just a hypothesis which might not be true. But what if what I predicted becomes a reality? We need to have a plan. IMO with a decent but limited manager, we should make an educated gamble in the summer. If it is possible to lure the likes of Tuchel or Nagelsmann, I would be seriously tempted. If all we could get is the likes of Mourinho or De Zerbi, then I would wait for maybe 10 more games to see how Howe does next season. If we get anything less than say 40 points in the last 24 league games this season and the first 10 league games next season combined, that’s 34 games which is almost a full season, I think we should look for the best available manager anyway.

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Mourinho feels inevitable. 

 

And after catastrophic defensive failures I can see the board seeing him a nice fix.

 

Til they get bored and sack him for someone playing more exciting football and the cycle shall repeat. 

 

 

 

 

Edited by La Parka

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2 minutes ago, vexred said:

 

I hope this is true. The club need to be ruthless, because I don't feel Howe is. Longstaff has to go, he isn't good enough. Miley at 17 is already a better player and can be the squad player we need atm. 

 

Hopefully we'll have a director of football in place soon. It feels like this will be a pivotal transfer window. 

 

Unless we get a huge fee, I'm not sure how beneficial flogging him him would be in this particular window.

 

We're far more likely to shift the likes of Lascalles, Almiron and Wilson.

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49 minutes ago, Donut said:

I feel bad for him and I hope he's getting a chance but let's not kid ourselves... He's in deep shit as it is. Miracle season, injuries, bad luck... none of that matters when Chelsea smash Burnley in their next game we are in 11th in the league, looking clueless and disinterested on the pitch with a massive spend of around 468 million €.

11th.. that's Pardew territory.

Clown

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4 minutes ago, La Parka said:

Mourinho feels inevitable. 

 

And after catastrophic defensive failures I can see the board seeing him a nice fix.

 

Til they get bored and sack him for someone playing more exciting football and the cycle shall repeat. 

 

 

 

 

 

Mourinho feels inevitable? What the fuck is this nonsense 

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3 minutes ago, The Prophet said:

Unless we get a huge fee

 

No chance.

 

Also, the Longstaff bros were hailed as being brilliant early doors. Wrong as it turned out, bang average even championship level at best.  It's too be hoped Miley will not turn out to be over hyped too.

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The fact is he hasn't adapted well to the injury crisis and weaker teams are above us, some with their own injury crisis.

 

There was a clear break down between Howe and recruitment this summer too, how much of that is on him I don't know. Changes are needed though.

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3 minutes ago, TRC said:

The fact is he hasn't adapted well to the injury crisis and weaker teams are above us, some with their own injury crisis.

 

There was a clear break down between Howe and recruitment this summer too, how much of that is on him I don't know. Changes are needed though.

 

Was there?

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57 minutes ago, Donut said:

I feel bad for him and I hope he's getting a chance but let's not kid ourselves... He's in deep shit as it is. Miracle season, injuries, bad luck... none of that matters when Chelsea smash Burnley in their next game we are in 11th in the league, looking clueless and disinterested on the pitch with a massive spend of around 468 million €.

11th.. that's Pardew territory.


I don’t think a username as ever been more apt for a post…

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14 minutes ago, La Parka said:

Mourinho feels inevitable. 

 

And after catastrophic defensive failures I can see the board seeing him a nice fix.

 

Til they get bored and sack him for someone playing more exciting football and the cycle shall repeat. 

 

 

 

 

 

I can't see them going anywhere near Mourinho. I think the team we have in place are too intelligent and considered for that.

I don't see them being knee-jerk at all tbh. I think Eddie will get the rest of this season, the summer and at least half of next season (if things still don't improve). And it will be the right call. 

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3 minutes ago, TRC said:

The fact is he hasn't adapted well to the injury crisis and weaker teams are above us, some with their own injury crisis.

 

There was a clear break down between Howe and recruitment this summer too, how much of that is on him I don't know. Changes are needed though.

Recruitment has been a disaster, to be honest. We needed immediate upgrades for the here and now, and we landed 2 youth players worth 50 million, a redundant squad-player winger for 40 and a genuine upgrade who can't play until next season (hopefully).

 

All in all, that was around 150 million pound without a single upgrade in the squad. Some of that is down to poor luck, sure. But in any case, it was a misstep to not take that 150 million and pour it into assets for the here-and-now. PIF/Howe thought the squad was good enough as-is after a purple patch of a season last year, and it's come back to bite us.

 

With all of that said, though, Howe deserves another bite at the apple this summer and next season. Some portion, large or small, of our struggles has to be attributed to a shocking run of injuries, and Howe deserves a crack with a fully fit and upgraded squad.

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3 minutes ago, Upthemags said:

Recruitment has been a disaster, to be honest. We needed immediate upgrades for the here and now, and we landed 2 youth players worth 50 million, a redundant squad-player winger for 40 and a genuine upgrade who can't play until next season (hopefully).

 

All in all, that was around 150 million pound without a single upgrade in the squad. Some of that is down to poor luck, sure. But in any case, it was a misstep to not take that 150 million and pour it into assets for the here-and-now. PIF/Howe thought the squad was good enough as-is after a purple patch of a season last year, and it's come back to bite us.

 

With all of that said, though, Howe deserves another bite at the apple this summer and next season. Some portion, large or small, of our struggles has to be attributed to a shocking run of injuries, and Howe deserves a crack with a fully fit and upgraded squad.

 

We spent circa £100 million on the here and now and invested around £35 million for the future.

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4 minutes ago, The Prophet said:

 

We spent circa £100 million on the here and now and invested around £35 million for the future.

Barnes was not a buy for the here and now - was never going to start. That brings it to around 100 million.

 

We needed starters.

 

 

Edited by Upthemags

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Barnes and Hall is 75m. One is backup/rotation and one is for the future apparently. Should have used this money to strengthen the 1st team properly. For me Gordon starts every time when fit and rested (on the left)

 

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1 minute ago, Upthemags said:

Barnes was not a buy for the here and now - was never going to start. That brings it to around 150 million.

 

We needed starters.

 

I reckon he was signed as the starting LW to be honest, but Gordon's summer and start to the season earned him the shirt. 

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2 minutes ago, Upthemags said:

Barnes was not a buy for the here and now - was never going to start. That brings it to around 150 million.

 

We needed starters.

Barnes is starting caliber, but we bought a LW 6 months after buying a LW while we have 2 champo level RWs.

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9 minutes ago, Upthemags said:

Barnes was not a buy for the here and now - was never going to start. That brings it to around 150 million.

 

We needed starters.

 

He's an 26 year old Premier League starter. How was he not for the here and now?

 

 

Edited by The Prophet

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Can we blame Harvey Barnes for not starting in place of our player of the season?

Someone who many fans themselves thought was a "waste of money" or "not a priority" when we bought him?

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Just now, Optimistic Nut said:

 

I reckon he was signed as the starting LW to be honest, but Gordon's summer and start to the season earned him the shirt. 

He was redundant, is the point. We had 3-4 other spots that needed immediate upgrading. Almiron, Burn, Longstaff were never going to cut it.

 

100 million pound without an upgrade on any of extant squad is a massive miscalculation, and it's showing this season.

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