Eddie Howe

[AyeDubbleYoo]

4 hours ago, Holmesy said:

Isak wasn't a ready made guaranteed to get you goals. He was a very good striker but a calculated risk who came from another league, but I would say he's worked out ok.

Other teams seem to be able to identify talent from overseas and make them work as well. It's a fucking nonsense!

The PL is far more like other continental leagues now than it ever was and players are protected from the physicality that originally defined the PL - that was often the make or break. 

 

 

 

Almost no PL clubs buy strikers proven to score goals here. Proven to score goals somewhere else, maybe. 

[KaKa]

36 minutes ago, Erikse said:

 

 

Their net spent over the past 5 years is lower than ours, when we're talking about transfer fees. The thing is they have sold players for a good fee aswell (Mane and Fabinho for instance). Going back further, to 2017 when they bought Salah, they also sold Coutinho for 135 mill euros. That's less than the price they paid for van Dijk and Salah combined in that very same window.

 

I look at that Liverpool team of players and what they're achieving, and it doesn't look completely impossible for us to achieve.

 

The massive call they made to hand over the keys to Michael Edwards, which apparently came at the cost of losing Klopp, looks like it's going to pay off big time for them.

 

We need to get our recruitment in order. Both selling and buying at the right time, and adequately filling out the squad so it is much better balanced.

 

I think Howe has the potential as a manager too, but that will all depend on how open minded he is to the changes we need to make in recruitment, and also if he can continue to develop tactically.

[Ronaldo]

1 hour ago, AyeDubbleYoo said:

Almost no PL clubs buy strikers proven to score goals here. Proven to score goals somewhere else, maybe. 

Can’t even remember the last time it happened to be fair. 

[Lotus]

Callum Wilson?

[KaKa]

Solanke this past summer.

[Erikse]

36 minutes ago, Ronaldo said:

Can’t even remember the last time it happened to be fair. 

 

If we're talking any club, then Solanke. Could mention a couple of older players like Wood and Ings aswell. Ings obviously didn't work out, though.

[The College Dropout]

TBF Wilson and Wood were proven PL strikers.

[Zero]

The last top quality one might be Van Persie

[nufcjmc]

10 hours ago, AyeDubbleYoo said:

Almost no PL clubs buy strikers proven to score goals here. Proven to score goals somewhere else, maybe. 

 

Solanke? Although to be fair it was alot of championship and not consistently season after season so maybe not. 

[Holmesy]

10 hours ago, AyeDubbleYoo said:

Almost no PL clubs buy strikers proven to score goals here. Proven to score goals somewhere else, maybe. 

And the problem is when you do, you end up looking at trash like Calvert-Lewin 

[Dokko]

19 hours ago, PauloGeordio said:

Live a little, throw Big Willie on. How bad can he be. Seeing him in training and vid clips the lad doesn’t lack self confidence.

 

That a Bruce quote?

[TRon]

14 hours ago, hakka said:

 

Actually that definitely would - but even we are lucky to even be in that position because of our owners. Majority in the league don't have an owner ready to throw few billion at a new stadium just to get about 10% more close revenue wise to the cartel cunts.

 

I'm not even sure ours will at this point. I think if they thought they could spend their way to trophies, they would chuck whatever was needed at it. But invest in a new stadium just to finish 6th? If it makes sense from a financial POV maybe.

[Erikse]

43 minutes ago, TRon said:

 

I'm not even sure ours will at this point. I think if they thought they could spend their way to trophies, they would chuck whatever was needed at it. But invest in a new stadium just to finish 6th? If it makes sense from a financial POV maybe.

 

Never really thought they were too concerned about the financial side of things. Not sure they bought us to earn money from it. I think the price of a new stadium is peanuts to them, as crazy as it is.

 

 

Edited Tuesday at 09:40 by Erikse

[Cronky]

On 01/12/2024 at 16:10, TRon said:

 

Did you see our bench yesterday? There was over £100m worth of talent sat there. I know we don't have Chelsea levels of reserves, but there's enough players to switch things around, I don't think we can use lack of options for looking stale.

 

I think that's a very optimistic view of the state of our bench. Barnes is potentially a game changer, though very hit and miss. Trippier and Wilson can offer something different, but they're past their best. The rest are pretty ordinary, by Premiership standards.

 

There's a chasm rather than a gap between the quality of our bench and that of the likes of Chelsea, Liverpool, Man City, Arsenal - even Man U.

[The College Dropout]

12 minutes ago, Cronky said:

 

I think that's a very optimistic view of the state of our bench. Barnes is potentially a game changer, though very hit and miss. Trippier and Wilson can offer something different, but they're past their best. The rest are pretty ordinary, by Premiership standards.

 

There's a chasm rather than a gap between the quality of our bench and that of the likes of Chelsea, Liverpool, Man City, Arsenal - even Man U.

Which is by design. Only 6 clubs are allowed to have a wage and transfer budget that can sustain a squad to be competitive in the CL and PL. 

 

Imagine Villa could keep Diaby and Luiz but still sign the players they did like Onana.  

[TRon]

22 minutes ago, Cronky said:

 

I think that's a very optimistic view of the state of our bench. Barnes is potentially a game changer, though very hit and miss. Trippier and Wilson can offer something different, but they're past their best. The rest are pretty ordinary, by Premiership standards.

 

There's a chasm rather than a gap between the quality of our bench and that of the likes of Chelsea, Liverpool, Man City, Arsenal - even Man U.

 

That would fly if we were playing Chelsea, Liverpool, Man City or Arsenal. But we weren't we were playing Crystal Palace.

[Kanj]

Does Havertz not count?

[JEToon]

1 hour ago, Cronky said:

 

I think that's a very optimistic view of the state of our bench. Barnes is potentially a game changer, though very hit and miss. Trippier and Wilson can offer something different, but they're past their best. The rest are pretty ordinary, by Premiership standards.

 

There's a chasm rather than a gap between the quality of our bench and that of the likes of Chelsea, Liverpool, Man City, Arsenal - even Man U.

 

There is, and to tie in to what is being spoken about slightly. 

 

Even Palace who aren't a spending super power by any means had an "EPL forward" on the bench who they could throw on who will end up costing them 30 million

 

Our spend has allowed us to catch up to a lot teams, over take a few but still left a limit on us, that isn't to say our squad is poor by any means, but it isn't some kind of wrecking ball squad, a lot of sides in the league can bring a lot of players off the bench who cost a lot of money, it's not that exclusive an asset to us 

 

 

 

 

Edited Tuesday at 13:02 by JEToon

[80]

Thought experiment: Eddie is locked in here until at least Summer 2028.

 

Despite any friction, the board and Mitchell genuinely respect what he does, they're content with what he offers in terms of player development, being a steady hand and such, while the club gradually progresses off the pitch. So long as we're not in a relegation fight, at least. CL is a sincere hope and investment within PSR is fully available, but 11th is fine enough if we're consistently uprating the Isaks and Halls who can be traded with a view to the future.

 

What do you want to have happen in the coming year? Spend in January? Hang on to our purples in the summer for another push next season? Squad car boot sale and rebuild? Are you gutted with this news or delighted with the certainty and absence of urgency? 

 

Personally, I think it's crucial we go into this June debt free, and if that means no signings in January, so be it. Then, a full rebuild in the summer. I don't think we'd have the luxury of being too picky about exactly which players leave. One way or another though, the spine of Howe's squad has always been players he inherited or got in that first rushed transfer window - Schar, Burn, Trippier, Longstaff, Joelinton, Bruno, Murphy/Almiron etc. And we know most of them have pretty severe limitations, which must constrain his tactical options.

 

My hope is Eddie privately thinks there are key flaws in what we have that are preventing him getting us to the next level, and he has firm ideas of what he'd change if we lost - say - Bruno, Joelinton, Gordon and Livramento, along with the Almirons, Trippiers and Targetts, in return for a boatload of cash to spread around the squad and Mitchell's assistance in picking up players who might be stars of the future but are also at least viable in a PL first team. Then it would be a case of going again with a new model, probably from a lower base but hopefully with a surer footing in terms of technical ability, squad consistency and trading potential.

[LFEE]

 

[The College Dropout]

As someone that finds Jordan entertaining - why would Eddie sit down and chat with him? 

[mouldy_uk]

Just now, The College Dropout said:

As someone that finds Jordan entertaining - why would Eddie sit down and chat with him? 

 

Very surprised, but from those limited clips we might actually get some interesting responses

[Myleftboot]

1 hour ago, LFEE said:

 

Proper Bo a tell thee.

[Lush Vlad]

22 minutes ago, Myleftboot said:

Proper Bo a tell thee.

Ha. He does talk a bit like the Jonathan Ross off Bo Selecta. 

“wibble wobble wibble *shoehorn in a long word for no reason* wibbly wobble woblov.”

[Ben]

Looking forward to that