Eddie Howe

[r0cafella]

5 minutes ago, SUPERTOON said:

We have spent an absolute fortune and hardly addressed a single weakness in our starting line up.

I think we've addressed weaknesses within our squad on paper which was the club's goals imo. I'm very skeptical of our transfer business this summer but it must be said it's too early to judge/write off our signings. 

 

The more concerning thing is the players like Gordon who have been around for awhile, and have regressed despite being given massive deals and lots of opportunities. 

[Keegans Export]

1 hour ago, gbandit said:

I repeat that I think our tactics were spot on yesterday and we played well largely. Had excellent defensive shape for a lot of the game and created a lot of opportunities. If we’d been able to play our strongest team we win. We’d likely have won without Pope’s error 

I think we set up ok initially. I was quite positive on here at half time.

 

The worrying thing is how one goal (avoidable error or not) caused us to completely lose the plot for 10-15min then when things settled down and we needed to respond we showed absolutely nothing.

 

Regardless of Pope's error, I don't think that game was finishing 0-1 and what mattered was how we would respond if they got the next goal. They did and we responded poorly.

[gbandit]

Just now, Keegans Export said:

I think we set up ok initially. I was quite positive on here at half time.

 

The worrying thing is how one goal (avoidable error or not) caused us to completely lose the plot for 10-15min then when things settled down and we needed to respond we showed absolutely nothing.

 

Regardless of Pope's error, I don't think that game was finishing 0-1 and what mattered was how we would respond if they got the next goal. They did and we responded poorly.

That’s a fair analysis but I personally think without that error it’s still ours to win and the worst result is likely a draw. We continued to create chances in the second half although not as well as the first but we should have scored again 

[Super Duper Branko Strupar]

How have we spent a fortune? We've had 1 window worth of some level of strengthening since years ago and currently Elanga aside we've bought well. Ramsey is a good player who's currently not had much time to get 1st team ready. He'll hold value too. 

Still reading "we should have bought x" nonsense from people who were going on for ages about Aaron fucking Hickey. 

[r0cafella]

1 minute ago, Super Duper Branko Strupar said:

How have we spent a fortune? We've had 1 window worth of some level of strengthening since years ago and currently Elanga aside we've bought well. Ramsey is a good player who's currently not had much time to get 1st team ready. He'll hold value too. 

Still reading "we should have bought x" nonsense from people who were going on for ages about Aaron fucking Hickey. 

Branks, since PIF tookover We've spent a lot of money. Our squad cost isn't the highest but let's not pretend like we aren't amongst the biggest Spenders outside of the sky 6

[Keegans Export]

6 minutes ago, gbandit said:

That’s a fair analysis but I personally think without that error it’s still ours to win and the worst result is likely a draw. We continued to create chances in the second half although not as well as the first but we should have scored again 

Obviously we'll never know but for me the evidence was there - they scored, they put some pressure on, we lost the plot for 10-15min, they scored again, then when they settled in to preserve their lead we offered very little.

 

Both sides created chances and if it'd gone 0-2 then in all likelihood we'd have seen it out but once they come back to 1-1 it was a repeat of the last few away games.

[Super Duper Branko Strupar]

That's not a fortune then though is it. And generally we've bought very well. What's our list of duds? 

 

Someone is going to mention Chris Wood aren't they (not you rf).

[r0cafella]

Just now, Super Duper Branko Strupar said:

That's not a fortune then though is it. And generally we've bought very well. What's our list of duds? 

 

Someone is going to mention Chris Wood aren't they (not you rf).

I mean players might prove to be worth whatever it is we've paid but we've still spent a lot on them. List of duds isn't really relevant it's more a factual discussion of how much has spent. 

[AyeDubbleYoo]

I mean, any PL player costs 30m+ and we probably needed to buy 20 after not spending for 15 years. That’s before replacing Isak. 

[r0cafella]

1 minute ago, AyeDubbleYoo said:

I mean, any PL player costs 30m+ and we probably needed to buy 20 after not spending for 15 years. That’s before replacing Isak. 

This isn't true Ian. If it that's the case why isn't everyone's squad cost a minimum of 30m x 25. 

[AyeDubbleYoo]

2 minutes ago, r0cafella said:

This isn't true Ian. If it that's the case why isn't everyone's squad cost a minimum of 30m x 25. 

Well I guess a lot of clubs physically can’t spend that much so they have to fill the squad cheaper/younger. 

 

I’m generalising but you get the point. We needed to recover from 1.5 decades of neglect and buy a hell of a lot of players. And we decided, rightly IMO, that we couldn’t take many risks on ones that might not work out. 

 

 

Edited November 26, 2025 by AyeDubbleYoo

[Joe1984]

14 minutes ago, Super Duper Branko Strupar said:

That's not a fortune then though is it. And generally we've bought very well. What's our list of duds? 

 

Someone is going to mention Chris Wood aren't they (not you rf).

Well there's also Joselu who couldn't hit a barn door for us.

 

He ended up at Real Madrid near the end of his career, got called up by his country, and won the Champions League.

 

Still seems surreal...

[huss9]

2 hours ago, gbandit said:

I repeat that I think our tactics were spot on yesterday and we played well largely. Had excellent defensive shape for a lot of the game and created a lot of opportunities. If we’d been able to play our strongest team we win. We’d likely have won without Pope’s error 

bit of a deja vu feeling reading that.

[Yorkie]

I'd maintain as I always have that I think it's still too early to judge the transfer window, but I really do think - in particular - that the jibes about our business after every defeat is tiresome and devoid of nuance. A, because it ignores PSR's parasitic influence on what we could actually do in the summer; B, because it ignores the fact our Isak replacement got injured through no fault of our own; and C, because our problems aren't as straightforward as "we should've signed X not Y." Spending £40million on Ramsey has got absolutely fuck all to do with our insanely weak mentality on the road, for instance.

 

I literally don't know why we're so Jekyll and Hyde this season. If I was to put it down to one thing above all, it would be the Wissa, Tino and Hall sharing the physioroom all at the same time, leading to us falling on the wrong side of incredibly fine-margin games thereby obstructing momentum and damaging morale. You can't blame our transfer window for that.

 

"We should've signed cover for Hall!" Sorry, no. That's just an incredibly harsh stick to beat us with given the summer conditions. Who could we even have got who was any good and happy to play second fiddle to a 21-year-old? Not to mention the plethora of full-backs we were already paying for.

[Super Duper Branko Strupar]

People are just selective with the fee talk, unfortunately. Outtara cost 40+, Guessand and Kalimuendo cost 25+, Madueke cost 50+, JP cost 55+, Kevin cost 35 etc

I feel like people are creating sticks to beat Howe/The club with when actually our business is terribly normal. Wissa aside, and Elanga too if this is his peak (it hopefully wont be) but we had to fill positions this window in what was actually rather difficult circumstances. 

 

 

Edited November 26, 2025 by Super Duper Branko Strupar

[Coffee_Johnny]

1 hour ago, Keegans Export said:

I think we set up ok initially. I was quite positive on here at half time.

 

The worrying thing is how one goal (avoidable error or not) caused us to completely lose the plot for 10-15min then when things settled down and we needed to respond we showed absolutely nothing.

 

Regardless of Pope's error, I don't think that game was finishing 0-1 and what mattered was how we would respond if they got the next goal. They did and we responded poorly.

Second goal and think we would have won. Even the disallowed one after they scored. If we managed to put away one of the chances at 1-0 then it would have been a completely different game/second half, quieter crowd less impetus from them, easier to ride the game out. 

[TRon]

1 hour ago, r0cafella said:

I think we've addressed weaknesses within our squad on paper which was the club's goals imo. I'm very skeptical of our transfer business this summer but it must be said it's too early to judge/write off our signings. 

 

The more concerning thing is the players like Gordon who have been around for awhile, and have regressed despite being given massive deals and lots of opportunities. 

 

 

I agree it's too early to judge these players, but I don't think it's too early to be playing them more. We are a third of the season through and some players are playing twice a week, while new signings are barely registering 20 mins off the subs bench. I don't know why, but it's a poor use of squad resources in my view. 

[Displayname]

Can't really deny that we have a pretty expensive squad can we?

 

Numbers from memory, but should be close.

 

Woltemade £65m

Wissa £55m

Tonali $55m

Elanga $55m

Ramsey £45m

Bruno £40m

Gordon £40m

Joelinton £40m

Botman £40m

Barnes £35m

Tino £35m

Hall £35m

Thiaw £35m

Willock £30m

 

£10-20m:

Pope

Trippier

Burn

Osula

Murphy

 

Aren't exactly chump money, anyone outside top 6 close?

[enthusiast]

Depth is more important than the sum total (even if some of this summer's fees are a little eyebrow-raising, especially to an old cunt like me), something that would probably be less of an issue if our academy hadn't been almost completely useless for the last 30-odd years. 

[TheBrownBottle]

40 minutes ago, Displayname said:

Can't really deny that we have a pretty expensive squad can we?

 

Numbers from memory, but should be close.

 

Woltemade £65m

Wissa £55m

Tonali $55m

Elanga $55m

Ramsey £45m

Bruno £40m

Gordon £40m

Joelinton £40m

Botman £40m

Barnes £35m

Tino £35m

Hall £35m

Thiaw £35m

Willock £30m

 

£10-20m:

Pope

Trippier

Burn

Osula

Murphy

 

Aren't exactly chump money, anyone outside top 6 close?

No, they’re nowhere near.  Villa are the closest, and our squad cost £130m more than theirs.  After that it’s West Ham, and our squad cost £190m than theirs.

 

For point of comparison, Liverpool’s squad cost about £215m more than ours.  So we’re in a strange spot where we massively outstrip the other 13 clubs, but lag well behind the ‘big six’.  
 

edit: our squad cost £300m more than Palace’s - who also won a trophy last season, and have European football this season.  And are doing pretty ok so far. 

 

 

Edited November 26, 2025 by TheBrownBottle

[AyeDubbleYoo]

That's only 14 players for significant fees though (say 5 for 'big' money), and a few key ones have been injured all season. It's not like Howe is working with Arsenal's squad. 

 

 

Edited November 26, 2025 by AyeDubbleYoo

[janpawel]

4 minutes ago, TheBrownBottle said:

No, they’re nowhere near.  Villa are the closest, and our squad cost £130m more than theirs.  After that it’s West Ham, and our squad cost £190m than theirs.

 

For point of comparison, Liverpool’s squad cost about £215m more than ours.  So we’re in a strange spot where we massively outstrip the other 13 clubs, but lag well behind the ‘big six’.  
 

edit: our squad cost £300m more than Palace’s - who also won a trophy last season, and have European football this season.  And are doing pretty ok so far. 

 

 

 

 

Wages is a better indicator of where we should be imo, not how much was paid for players 

 

Kamara and Tielemans are both brilliant and cost £0. Though I'm sure they are paid appropriately 

[The Prophet]

It's a bit pointless looking at spend without other factors such as wages and the value of the squad v the competition at the time the investment started.

 

If you marry all of that up we've been largely punching above our weight for the last few seasons.

[TheBrownBottle]

1 minute ago, janpawel said:

 

Wages is a better indicator of where we should be imo, not how much was paid for players 

 

Kamara and Tielemans are both brilliant and cost £0. Though I'm sure they are paid appropriately 

We’re £5m off Villa re wage bill.

2 minutes ago, The Prophet said:

It's a bit pointless looking at spend without other factors such as wages and the value of the squad v the competition at the time the investment started.

 

If you marry all of that up we've been largely punching above our weight for the last few seasons.

Agreed - which is what defines good management.

[The College Dropout]

13 hours ago, duo said:

Come on - was a decent performance 1st half and it took a mistake from Pope to gift them a game.  Could see the heads drop when it went it.

Nah. We looked vulnerable first half too. 1-1 isn’t a reason to capitulate that’s weak.  This is a weak team that’s not down to a Pope mistake.