Eddie Howe

[PauloGeordio]

4 minutes ago, The Butcher said:

Negative? We don't have a striker atm of PL quality (ruling Isak out).  With the added CL games I don't think bottom half is unrealistic right now.

 

We'll see come September, but things aren't exactly looking great, are they?

 

 

It's like getting upset because the cupboards are a bit bare and you're a tad hungry, yet the misses has gone out with a full purse to do the shopping and just isn't back yet with the goodies.

 

 

Edited July 26, 2025 by PauloGeordio

[PauloGeordio]

2 minutes ago, Heron said:

But we do have Isak...

Think he'll be here for this season.

[KaKa]

1 hour ago, Optimistic Nut said:

Thought the forum would be fun again after the Cup win. *Les Dennis* * pluhh pluhhhhhh* I was wrong..

 

Are football fans even capable of having fun supporting a club, warts and all?!

 

I think those fans are very few and far between, unfortunately.

 

Very much seems to be just another outlet for anger and complaining.

 

[Kid Icarus]

1 hour ago, Optimistic Nut said:

Thought the forum would be fun again after the Cup win. *Les Dennis* * pluhh pluhhhhhh* I was wrong..

It's a natural low ebb right now. It would be utterly bizarre for everyone to be all sunshine and rainbows when we've missed out on like 10 transfer targets, signed 1 player, and our star striker has downed tools, with everyone shitting themselves that the club's going to choose to sell him to Liverpool 

 

 

Edited July 26, 2025 by Kid Icarus

[Pata]

2 hours ago, SUPERTOON said:

I genuinely didn’t know what he was meant by fans being our own worst enemy. Was a genuine question.

 

If the fans had a say Howe could've easily been sacked in the midst of the best season we've had in over half a century.

 

 

Edited July 26, 2025 by Pata

[Weezertron]

You high horse fans are tiresome as fuck.

[Pata]

1 minute ago, Weezertron said:

You high horse fans are tiresome as fuck.

Should ask more questions?

[Kid Icarus]

32 minutes ago, Pata said:

 

If the fans had a say Howe could've easily been sacked in the midst of the best season we've had in over half a century.

 

 

 

I don't think 10% would win a vote so not really.  As I mentioned earlier, those fans stuck out like a sore thumb.

[Pata]

6 minutes ago, Kid Icarus said:

I don't think 10% would win a vote so not really.  As I mentioned earlier, those fans stuck out like a sore thumb.

 

10% seems a bit low but must admit I was mostly staying away during those weeks.

[Teslact]

3 hours ago, PauloGeordio said:

It's like getting upset because the cupboards are a bit bare and you're a tad hungry, yet the misses has gone out with a full purse to do the shopping and just isn't back yet with the goodies.

 

The list was 4 ribeyes, but we only have the money for 3 of those or 4 sirloins. Instead of buying 3 ribeyes or 4 sirloins and spending time basting them to improve them, we're just arguing with the butcher, leaving, then trying the same at another shop. /s

[Zero]

To be honest after the cup win I expect NO to be more “relaxed” and people should have more composure re situation like this.

 

I mean, no matter what, Isak is just a player. He is just a player. On the other hand, we got

1. PIF as our owner that never has financial problems, even if the level of commitment is questionable

2. Close to PSR limit investment (compare with none or even negative investment during Ashley era)

3. Eddie Howe who performed miracles multiple times, and he is fully committed to us. We even going to hire a DOF that is fully on his side.

4. A very solid starting eleven, except ST

 

why and what are we afraid of letting Isak go? In the past, letting a player go means a total loss because Ashley won’t bring an adequate replacement in. What we would see, if still under Ashley, is DCL, the cheapest available option. Now, it is just a matter of which prospect in the world that we can agree a fee with. Yes we have a historically bad transfer window but the money is still there right? Why panic? The club ultimately would bring in a replacement, that’s for sure. Guaranteed. Even if it’s not this summer, it will arrive next summer. The club won’t just get a rubbish in and say good luck to the fans.

 

I understand that we might not make a good run in ECL this season, but a top 6-7 finish is still highly likely. Even if we can’t make it, so what? We have passed the first PSR limit suffering period and we have the Isak money.

 

in the past, we have an owner that would never reinvest the money, and we have tons of fucking shit manager like Bruce.

 

now we got an owner that always willing to spend to the PSR limit, and we got arguably the best manager since the EPL was established.

 

come on. It shouldn’t be me who post this.

[r0cafella]

7 minutes ago, Zero said:

To be honest after the cup win I expect NO to be more “relaxed” and people should have more composure re situation like this.

 

I mean, no matter what, Isak is just a player. He is just a player. On the other hand, we got

1. PIF as our owner that never has financial problems, even if the level of commitment is questionable

2. Close to PSR limit investment (compare with none or even negative investment during Ashley era)

3. Eddie Howe who performed miracles multiple times, and he is fully committed to us. We even going to hire a DOF that is fully on his side.

4. A very solid starting eleven, except ST

 

why and what are we afraid of letting Isak go? In the past, letting a player go means a total loss because Ashley won’t bring an adequate replacement in. What we would see, if still under Ashley, is DCL, the cheapest available option. Now, it is just a matter of which prospect in the world that we can agree a fee with. Yes we have a historically bad transfer window but the money is still there right? Why panic? The club ultimately would bring in a replacement, that’s for sure. Guaranteed. Even if it’s not this summer, it will arrive next summer. The club won’t just get a rubbish in and say good luck to the fans.

 

I understand that we might not make a good run in ECL this season, but a top 6-7 finish is still highly likely. Even if we can’t make it, so what? We have passed the first PSR limit suffering period and we have the Isak money.

 

in the past, we have an owner that would never reinvest the money, and we have tons of fucking shit manager like Bruce.

 

now we got an owner that always willing to spend to the PSR limit, and we got arguably the best manager since the EPL was established.

 

come on. It shouldn’t be me who post this.

This was our best chance to kick on, instead we've stood still whilst others have spent like mad. 

 

Meanwhile the gap which we need to bridge in terms of revenue isnt closing. We are basically stuck from a macro perspective and this is why people are concerned. 

 

We have deep structural issues are extremely difficult to sort. Truthfully we probably need to revise down our expectations to match this reality as "number 1" is so far away. 

[Zero]

11 minutes ago, r0cafella said:

This was our best chance to kick on, instead we've stood still whilst others have spent like mad. 

 

Meanwhile the gap which we need to bridge in terms of revenue isnt closing. We are basically stuck from a macro perspective and this is why people are concerned. 

 

We have deep structural issues are extremely difficult to sort. Truthfully we probably need to revise down our expectations to match this reality as "number 1" is so far away. 

I think there does have an expectation gap. You are talking about the best chance to kick on, bring in a few and we can go for the title. You ain’t wrong. However I would say I would be more realistic - we need to qualify for ECL a few more times and accumulate more PSR headroom before really make a challenge.

Things would never be that perfect. Just like Heron said, put it back one year ago, if I told you we can win a cup to break our curse but with massive cost, I think everyone here would just say fuck yes do it at all cost. That’s the level of expectation one year ago. So can you see how the cup win affects your expectation?

 

I know I always hold a different view compare with others here. In my opinion, only a few players in our team really deserves / good enough for challenging the EPL title. I always expect this generations limit is regular top 4 finish. We need them to build a foundation, a culture, a winning spirit, but they will need to be replaced by better players, and this is exactly why we need PIF to continue their investment and we need Eddie to steer through the process. It’s our next generation that can challenge the title, not the current one.

[Zero]

Put it simple, you are right that if we can score 100 marks this coming exam, we can get an early graduation and save 5 years time, however I would say as long as we score 75 marks we can graduate in 5 years. And the reason why we might get an early graduation is because in the past few years we keep on scoring something like 150 marks.

 

In fact a lot of fans from other clubs still can’t believe we can make such a leap within a short period of time and relatively less investment made. Even Man City need to spend a lot more and change a few managers before getting their first title. 

 

 

Edited July 27, 2025 by Zero

[r0cafella]

7 minutes ago, Zero said:

Put it simple, you are right that if we can score 100 marks this coming exam, we can get an early graduation and save 5 years time, however I would say as long as we score 75 marks we can graduate in 5 years. And the reason why we might get an early graduation is because in the past few years we keep on scoring something like 150 marks.

 

In fact a lot of fans from other clubs still can’t believe we can make such a leap within a short period of time and relatively less investment made. Even Man City need to spend a lot more and go through a few generations before getting their first title 

Zero, let go of the copium blanket, the theory which your pedaling never made any sense. We have competitor's which are also pushing as this window has demonstrated. Us just being a little better is no where near enough. 

 

It's why I'm always banging on about the clubs finances, and asking what are the ownership doing. Why is Steve harper in charge of the academy etc. 

 

The point being, we've lucked out way into an elite manager however the big caveat he has is he's like a particular profile of player which is really difficult for us to obtain as a club. 

 

As for the rest of it nothing else is best in class or even approaching it. 

[Zero]

16 minutes ago, r0cafella said:

Zero, let go of the copium blanket, the theory which your pedaling never made any sense. We have competitor's which are also pushing as this window has demonstrated. Us just being a little better is no where near enough. 

 

It's why I'm always banging on about the clubs finances, and asking what are the ownership doing. Why is Steve harper in charge of the academy etc. 

 

The point being, we've lucked out way into an elite manager however the big caveat he has is he's like a particular profile of player which is really difficult for us to obtain as a club. 

 

As for the rest of it nothing else is best in class or even approaching it. 

Your eyes are on Liverpool and Chelsea, I can understand, but also take a look at Man Utd.

 

Those mega clubs can push much more than us because they have accumulated their fortune and hard work for many years, close to 20. Certainly they also need to go through a period of bad investment and results like Man Utd in order to fall from grace. 
 

Thats why I said I never expect it’s that easy to challenge for the title and regular top 4 finish is what we should realistically targeting at this moment. It’s not a game that we can win by doing our best only. It’s a game that you also need your opponent to commit error. 
 

If Liverpool and Chelsea can keep on making perfect moves then we have no chance to overtaking them. That’s the truth. But this won’t hold forever, and that’s why I said it’s the next generation of players that can make it, not the current one.

 

Somewhat it’s good that you have forgotten the Ashley era. I haven’t. I obviously have more patience than some people here, despite I always being labeled as the most miserable poster.

 

edit: Spurs is also the same as Man Utd. Are they part of the cartel? Yes. Are they able to fuck up us now? No. The Soldado deal killed them.

 

 

Edited July 27, 2025 by Zero

[oldtype]

The reality is that there was never going to be a single transfer window where we were going to “kick on” and start challenging for titles. The financial constraints on the club and the rapidly increasing spending power of the big six mean that it’s going to take years and years to get to the point where we’re no longer on the outside looking in. We’ve gotten lucky with our initial wave of signings and our manager, but the short term success does little to diminish the fundamental structural challenges we face in advancing further.
 

(It’s worth noting that even *within* the big six, only two clubs have won the trophy in the past eight years, and two of the six haven’t even come remotely close).

 

That’s not to say we’ve conducted ourselves particularly well this transfer window, but the fundamental failure in my view is not anticipating that the bigger clubs would be in a historic spending cycle this year and going after targets we never had a realistic chance of signing. Rushing the process due to lofty ambitions that didn’t take into account our structural constraints, rather than a lack of ambition or “bad negotiating.”

 

Building a contender from nothing is a long term project, and we’d best get used to that.

 

 

Edited July 27, 2025 by oldtype

[KingArthur]

1 hour ago, oldtype said:

 

(It’s worth noting that even *within* the big six, only two clubs have won the trophy in the past eight years, and two of the six haven’t even come remotely close).

 

Building a contender from nothing is a long term project, and we’d best get used to that.

 

Only last season Spurs, Chelsea and Liverpool all won a trophy. City season before that. Or you mean PL title?

[oldtype]

1 minute ago, KingArthur said:

Only last season Spurs, Chelsea and Liverpool all won a trophy. City season before that. Or you mean PL title?

Yes. “The” trophy.

[KingArthur]

36 minutes ago, oldtype said:

Yes. “The” trophy.

My bad. In my opinion Spurs or ManU havent been doing great this window either. Just get few bodies in and no reason we shouldnt be above both of them again. 

[Heron]

"Luck" had sweet fuck all to do with our signings or managerial appointment by the way. Just for the record.

[Joe1984]

3 hours ago, oldtype said:

Yes. “The” trophy.

Oh. The Champions League... 😄

[Mole]

OT is a sensible lad (other than being a Celtics fan, but none of us are perfect) so I'm inclined to believe what he's saying is probably true.

 

 

[James]

I’ve felt for a long time going back to when we first qualified for the CL that one of the biggest areas of growth for the club is to learn to sell well.

 

The biggest mistakes under Howe is that upon qualifying for the CL that we did not sell Wilson and Willock.

 

the only good sales we have made under Howe are ASM, Wood and Longstaff.

 

Isak at the reported figures is probably a good sale in reality. Had he not behaved badly then I’d be content with the three very good years we got out of him and the potential to reinvest that huge sum to improve the team. In that regard the fan base need to learn to swap possessive attachment with nostalgia.

[Vinny Green Balls]

14 hours ago, RUHRLYASLEEVESUP said:

I think your spouting shite 

A bit uncalled for, dude.