Eddie Howe

[The Butcher]

[gbandit]

30 minutes ago, LionOfGosforth said:

 

Maybe you're right. Perhaps the overhaul of his coaching staff is unlikely as he's just too loyal and that kind of augments one of the points in my post that I think he would rather walk than sully what has been a fantastic journey.

I want him to stay I just feel like he needs some proper downtime, he’s at 100% all the time and it bled into the off season as well. It’s just not healthy, we all suffer from being on it nonstop and it makes it harder to think clearly. Hopefully we can get through the season and he can have a proper break in the summer where he can be a lot more hands off until pre-season

[bobbydazzla]

Maybe taking a team to a cup win and regular European qualifications is his upper limit as a coach. Getting beyond that point might be beyond him. 
 

He’ll either step up and push on, or he won’t. 
 

There can be no doubt he’s one of the best at fixing an underperforming / underinvested side and making them very competitive and greater than the sum of their parts. 

 

 

Edited December 27, 2025 by bobbydazzla

[MagSA]

Would like nothing more than for him to turn it around again and lead us to further glory. As much I hated the result last night there was some improvement in our performance but thats off a terribly low base and not enough to put a mediocre Manure team to the sword.

 

So I am looking to see improvements that we moving in the right direction, even is that is slowly. Howe has earned the chance to turn it around but there has to be visible improvements. Previous success should not mean a free hit season, he has to show he is fixing shit and that we getting better output from underperforming players.

 

I wish he could be a bit more radical in his changes during the game, in particular when its there for the taking or we chasing it. 

 

The Jan window is going to speak volumes about how the club view our prospects for the remainder of the season. Personally I think we need a shot in the arm with a signing or two, the club may think they have enough in the building for a massive run.

 

[bobbydazzla]

If we win the Champions League, but get relegated.
 

Is that deemed as success, or failure ? 
 

Asking for a friend 

 

 

Edited December 27, 2025 by bobbydazzla

[Zero]

Success for me.

[gbandit]

39 minutes ago, bobbydazzla said:

If we win the Champions League, but get relegated.
 

Is that deemed as success, or failure ? 
 

Asking for a friend 

 

 

 

Success

[Toon No9]

Can't understand thoose who doubts Howe or even wants him sacked.

 

We won't get a manager like him again. He understands the fans and really wants what's best for the club. On top of that he is a really good manager.

 

I'd say now is the time to show him support and offer him a longer contract!

 

He will turn things around. And with Wilson and Hopkinson in place they can hopefully start working longterm and make the squad stronger.

[Kimbo]

Wanting him sacked right now is ridiculous, but no less ridiculous than thinking it’s impossible to replace him. Successful and talented managers do sometimes run out of road at a club, their tactics become stale and predictable, they stop getting reactions out of the players. He’s not doing a good job this season (or during the summer transfer window), he’s earned the time to turn it around, he hasn’t earned a permanent contract no matter what.

[Mills and Boon]

Doubts I can understand. Revelling in our defeats less so

[Nucasol]

2 minutes ago, Mills and Boon said:

Doubts I can understand. Revelling in our defeats less so

Yeah. The “told you so” mob are fucking weirdos.

[Holloway]

1 hour ago, The Butcher said:

Fuck me, modern life is hideous 

[GOTONEW]

Anyone who wants him sacked is, IMHO, a clown. 

Yes he needs to take a look at himself. Yes he needs to freshen so much up. But I know for a fact he's smart enough to have already started this process. I know he's as baffled with Elanga as the next guy...but working on it. He knows what's up with Gordon etc etc (likely unfixable, here). It's impossible for him to not know what us fans can see. Despite the baffling subs etc...there will be unknown (to us) underlining issues and reasons. 

Like I've said previously...ignoring the issues because of past successes is a sure-fire way of never repeating them. But he's going to work it out. 

Tinfoil hat thinking: I honestly believe there is a small group of players who are poisoning the internal feel-good factor which we've previously fed off. Suspicions of who, but no solid proof. Hence the "tinfoil hat" prefix. But something smells off. 

[AyeDubbleYoo]

1 hour ago, bobbydazzla said:

Maybe taking a team to a cup win and regular European qualifications is his upper limit as a coach. Getting beyond that point might be beyond him. 
 

He’ll either step up and push on, or he won’t. 
 

There can be no doubt he’s one of the best at fixing an underperforming / underinvested side and making them very competitive and greater than the sum of their parts. 

 

 

I really don't think this limit exists in this way, surely it's a constant interplay between the manager, the hierarchy and the playing squad. Give Howe another 5 or 6 world class players and see what his ceiling is. 

[bobbydazzla]

18 minutes ago, AyeDubbleYoo said:

 

I really don't think this limit exists in this way, surely it's a constant interplay between the manager, the hierarchy and the playing squad. Give Howe another 5 or 6 world class players and see what his ceiling is. 

Well that’s the conundrum.

 

Give peak era Mourinho, Fergie, Pep, Ancelotti, Wenger etc a squad like ours plus 5 or 6 world class players and you’ll win things consistently. 
 

But Howe isn’t in that elite group of managers. He’s won one trophy in his career and his achievements are doing an amazing job getting lowly Bournemouth up into the top flight and doing a brilliant job resurrecting NUFC.
 

So do you stick, or twist ?
 

If he’s not at his ceiling yet, great. He’s stepped up a level.

 

If he’s at his ceiling, then throwing more expensive players at him won’t make him a better manager and you’re just delaying the inevitable.

 

 

Edited December 27, 2025 by bobbydazzla

[JT24]

54 minutes ago, Toon No9 said:

Can't understand thoose who doubts Howe or even wants him sacked.

 

We won't get a manager like him again. He understands the fans and really wants what's best for the club. On top of that he is a really good manager.

 

I'd say now is the time to show him support and offer him a longer contract!

 

He will turn things around. And with Wilson and Hopkinson in place they can hopefully start working longterm and make the squad stronger.

Can we get somebody like this who can also win games away from home?

 

Asking for a friend. 

[oldtype]

5 hours ago, huss9 said:

unfortunately we arent very good at this.

elanga and ramsey?

We appear to have two good signings and two bad ones this summer. (Ramsdale is whatever and jury out on Wissa).

 

That is roughly average hit rate and honestly even kind of lucky given that we had no recruitment team. Prior to that, our hit rate was basically 95% since the takeover.

[Vinny Green Balls]

20 minutes ago, bobbydazzla said:

Well that’s the conundrum.

 

Give peak era Mourinho, Fergie, Pep, Ancelotti, Wenger etc a squad like ours plus 5 or 6 world class players and you’ll win things consistently. 
 

But Howe isn’t in that elite group of managers. He’s won one trophy in his career and his achievements are doing an amazing job getting lowly Bournemouth up into the top flight and doing a brilliant job resurrecting NUFC.
 

So do you stick, or twist ?
 

If he’s not at his ceiling yet, great. He’s stepped up a level.

 

If he’s at his ceiling, then throwing more expensive players at him won’t make him a better manager and you’re just delaying the inevitable.

 

 

 

the thing is we have no idea if this is his ceiling. He's relatively young. The most reasonable bet is to see how he does for hte second half of the season. If he can get us to 60 points or above again, I think it will demonstrate that he can adapt. 

 

 

[SUPERTOON]

2 hours ago, gbandit said:

I want him to stay I just feel like he needs some proper downtime, he’s at 100% all the time and it bled into the off season as well. It’s just not healthy, we all suffer from being on it nonstop and it makes it harder to think clearly. Hopefully we can get through the season and he can have a proper break in the summer where he can be a lot more hands off until pre-season

Agree with this, worth remembering he was in hospital for a while end of last season and just came straight back in, then no real break in the summer.

[500bhp]

1 hour ago, GOTONEW said:

Anyone who wants him sacked is, IMHO, a clown. 

Yes he needs to take a look at himself. Yes he needs to freshen so much up. But I know for a fact he's smart enough to have already started this process. I know he's as baffled with Elanga as the next guy...but working on it. He knows what's up with Gordon etc etc (likely unfixable, here). It's impossible for him to not know what us fans can see. Despite the baffling subs etc...there will be unknown (to us) underlining issues and reasons. 

Like I've said previously...ignoring the issues because of past successes is a sure-fire way of never repeating them. But he's going to work it out. 

Tinfoil hat thinking: I honestly believe there is a small group of players who are poisoning the internal feel-good factor which we've previously fed off. Suspicions of who, but no solid proof. Hence the "tinfoil hat" prefix. But something smells off. 

Interesting. What's up with Gordon that makes it unfixable here and who are the bad apples? 

[jackyboy]

Lesser managers would have walked after all the disruption we have had behind the scenes 

[duo]

3 hours ago, The Butcher said:

[BoSelecta]

6 hours ago, stozo said:

I find it a struggle to put any criticism at Howe's door at the moment. 

 

First, you look at the achievements. Our first domestic trophy in 70 years, Champions League qualification in two out of the past three seasons, another cup final and a top 7 finish in the only other full non-CL qualification season. That's a hell of a record. And this year, he's got us into (at least) another League Cup semi-final. I don't think we could dream for much more than that.

 

Then you look at this season. Have we been consistently bad? No. Have we been regularly inconsistent? Yes. Some great performances and some bad performances. But I think if you look at the overall picture we're much better than our points tally. We've had some bad performances where frankly we could have very easily earned a point (West Ham & Sunderland - neither side deserved to beat us and both games decided by fluke own goals), inconsistent performances where we could have got more (Man U and Chelsea) and good performances where we could have picked up more points (Spurs, Liverpool and Arsenal). We've had issues but we've also had terrible luck. The tragedy is that we're probably drifting away from CL qualification now, but if just a few of those had gone our way we'd be right in the mixer.

 

Then you look at why we've had issues this season. The number one reason is the attack isn't functioning as well as it has been. That is very, very clearly down to us losing one of the best strikers in the world and ultimately having to scramble to replace him. The scramble to replace left us with two players who are very different to Isak and that's left Howe trying to figure out how to make us as effective as possible with one player in particular (Woltemade) who is a very different focal point of the attack. Is it in any way strange that this is taking time? No. It was always going to and ultimately it's down to the constraints on the club, not Howe. And by constraints on the club, I mean specifically that we weren't able to line up an Isak successor or second striker a season or two before because of financial restrictions.

 

Which brings us on nicely to another issue this season, which is perceived lack of contribution of new signings. We all know that Howe has the potential to work wonders on players but that tends to take 6-18 months. Our new signings were always going to take time to bed in to Howe's system, especially when we continue to not be able to shop for truly elite players - Elanga, Ramsey, Thiaw and Woltemade all fit into the 'rough diamonds we are trying to polish up into elite players' category. The problem rests on the fact that we made no first-team signings in the 24/25 season, which means we have nobody really emerging this year to pick up some of the slack from the new group - all the expectation to deliver is on that new group right away. I firmly believe we'll look back in a year and all of the five signings will be viewed much more favourably than they are today. 

 

So to sum up, it's frustrating where we are this season but ultimately I have every confidence Howe will lead us through it and that we'll continue to benefit from his excellent work. 

What a disgustingly well reasoned post 👏 

[Heron]

5 hours ago, Sibierski said:

 

That says how poor Liverpool have been. Once others have played 28, are we much better than mid table? Eye test on pitch says no, and it’s backed up by that table.

That'd be assuming Palace, Brighton, Brentford and Everton all picked up maximum points in their games in hand - which they are likely not to. Chances are we'd remain 6th because of GD and the fact most those clubs will get 4 pts max.

[Mike]

3 hours ago, The Butcher said:

 

 Burn down the data centers.