Eddie Howe

[r0cafella]

3 minutes ago, Ghandis Flip-Flop said:

Or a bloke who quickly falls out with people wherever he’s been, fell out with people even quicker this time after a disastrous interview a matter of days into his new job.

 

lets not forget it was that shitehawk, who in not negotiating a new deal for Isak was the true architect of what went down last summer.

 

And then even if he did lose the power struggle, he fucked off at the most inconvenient and disruptive time for the club rather than at least leaving post window proper.

You believe we have no issues with Isak if we offer him a new contract? btw he did get offered once this summer and declined. 

 

And please don't make me defend mitchell ffs, but anyone in his position would have left when he obviously didn't have any power. Imagine saying what he said and then signing off pissing 55m on Elanga and 50m and Wissa.

 

Get real man. 

[TRon]

13 hours ago, HaydnNUFC said:

 

I'd argue it was more down to quite a poor away record that season (6 wins from 19, 5 of those coming after we exited Europe) as well as only being able to take 1 point from 2 games against Luton and throwing away a lead to 10 man Liverpool at home. 1 more win and that Man Utd win doesn't matter.

 

 

Whilst I agree that it is undoubtedly a factor, my concerns is more the no real showing of evolution of how we play to be able to deal with 3 games a week better. We signed more of the same of what we had and/or what we didn't need in the summer in Elanga and Ramsey imo. No one we've signed recently, not just in the summer just gone, has allowed us to be able to play in different ways or exert control by being able to keep and pass the ball better. That, plus I don't think the squad management generally has been particularly good over the last 3 years. Players who should've been moved on a season or two ago are still getting regular minutes (Trippier, Willock, Pope and imo Joelinton) and players have been sold a lot more later than they should've been (Wilson & Almiron). 3 of those players mentioned got new contracts when they should've been sold. I think what we're watching this season is a culmination of all of those things.

 

As well as the loss of Isak which has been immense. We've been backed into a corner with that and the jury is out on the two lads we've brought in. But I do think, certainly in Woltemade's case, that no attempt has been made to play to his strengths. He's regularly isolated, no midfielder near him and the wingers with chalk on their boots when he receives the ball. I see him as a Firmino type; will play through the middle in a front 3 but needs attackers and goal getters near him whether that's the two wingers or the two wingers plus a number 10-y type player that Howe's never played. 

 

 

 

 

 

On that point re struggling with 3 games a week, I think some of that has been self-inflicted. We've got a bigger squad now, but it's only recently we've started rotating a bit more purposefully. Ramsey has been mostly unemployed, Miley could have been used a lot earlier, and while I get Osula has had injury issues this season, I always thought we were too reluctant to throw him into the fray as well. 

[The College Dropout]

11 minutes ago, r0cafella said:

You believe we have no issues with Isak if we offer him a new contract? btw he did get offered once this summer and declined. 

 

And please don't make me defend mitchell ffs, but anyone in his position would have left when he obviously didn't have any power. Imagine saying what he said and then signing off pissing 55m on Elanga and 50m and Wissa.

 

Get real man. 

Mitchell 100% messed up with Isak contract. If Isak signs a contract without a release clause in summer 2024 that changes a lot of things. If he was eyeing a potential move he would get a release clause Ala Bruno making summer 2025 easier to plan. 
 

The 2025 contract offer was stupid and naive. The ship had already sailed.  That contract offer is an example of how badly the situation was handled. 
 

 

[The College Dropout]

11 minutes ago, TRon said:

 

 

On that point re struggling with 3 games a week, I think some of that has been self-inflicted. We've got a bigger squad now, but it's only recently we've started rotating a bit more purposefully. Ramsey has been mostly unemployed, Miley could have been used a lot earlier, and while I get Osula has had injury issues this season, I always thought we were too reluctant to throw him into the fray as well. 

Yeh the squad is not good enough. You can’t rotate for the sake of it. The players stepping in have to be good enough to win premier league football matches. 

[r0cafella]

1 hour ago, The College Dropout said:

Mitchell 100% messed up with Isak contract. If Isak signs a contract without a release clause in summer 2024 that changes a lot of things. If he was eyeing a potential move he would get a release clause Ala Bruno making summer 2025 easier to plan. 
 

The 2025 contract offer was stupid and naive. The ship had already sailed.  That contract offer is an example of how badly the situation was handled. 
 

 

Doesn't change a thing and I'm really astounded people actually believe it  He had a contract with us and was promised a new one by someone who had long since left the building. 

 

The project stalled and he wanted out. He clearly doesn't view contracts as worth the paper they are written on so I've got no idea why some people believe a newer sheet of paper would have made any difference. 

 

Tldr hes a massive cunt. 

 

 

Edited February 2 by r0cafella

[Menace]

Happy with him to stay on, don't want him or Andy Howe near transfers moving forward.

[The College Dropout]

Just now, r0cafella said:

Doesn't change a thing and I'm really astounded people actually believe it  He had a contract with us and was promised a new one by someone who had long since left the building. 

 

The project stalled and he wanted out. He clearly doesn't view contracts as worth the paper they are written on so I've got no idea why some people believe a newer sheet have paper would have made any difference. 

 

Tldr hes a massive cunt. 

It changes a lot of things.  He deserved that new contract and discussions were taken off the table by new leadership.  That would change anyone’s relationship with their employer.  
 

The offering of a contract in summer 2025 shows the gap between ‘the club’ and Isak and his team. 
 

Being caught off guard that our star player wants to leave is bad management. Of course it was going to be ba, we’ve changed who should protect the club 3 times in 14 months. 

[TRon]

19 minutes ago, The College Dropout said:

Yeh the squad is not good enough. You can’t rotate for the sake of it. The players stepping in have to be good enough to win premier league football matches. 

 

 

These are players we bought specifically so we would have a squad big enough to rotate. 

[gjohnson]

Eddie is and always will be a legend, but whatever he's doing this year doesn't reflect his good work. He used to be able to get a tune out of a lot of average players and have us look like winning every game. Just watched highlights of the caraboa final and this team is a diluted shadow of it. So slow and predictable...whether it's coaching, tiredness or just simply players getting older. The energy is gone, the basic passing and adventure is gone. Set pieces are now an opportunity for the opposition rather than us. It looks like he's trying to turn us into a team that will pass through opposition and walk it in. It doesn't suit the players we have or the ones we've bought. Something somewhere has disconnected and now we no longer use our greatest strengths anymore....in their faces, quick running and breaks and dark arts to waste time against stronger teams

[Moose]

I love Eddie and always will, but I think we should part ways amicably at the end of the season, I don't want it to get to the point where he's being hounded out in the middle of next season.

 

The squad is a complete mess, the tactics and style of play are stale and it feels like there's a total malaise hanging over the club, we need a fresh set of ideas and a new approach, yeah sure, we might hire a dud and it could blow up in our face but we have to try something new rather than allow the club to continue decaying. 

 

It feels like we're not good at anything, we don't play with intensity, we don't show up for the big games anymore, we can't pass teams to death, we can't run over the top of teams, we don't have any player who can win the game with a piece of magic, we're not tactically flexible and we sure as hell can't see out games.

 

Football works in cycles and unfortunately I think Eddie has taken us as far as he can, I hope I'm wrong

[The College Dropout]

23 minutes ago, TRon said:

 

 

These are players we bought specifically so we would have a squad big enough to rotate. 

The squad is big but it is not good. Good gets you points.

[AyeDubbleYoo]

I'd say the squad is decent but has suffered from injuries and bad form, one compounding the other. The signings were fairly logical IMO, especially if you allow for the Isak chaos and every striker rejecting us.

 

We don't need to use the fact it hasn't worked out as well as we wanted to pretend there's no thinking behind it. 

 

 

Edited February 2 by AyeDubbleYoo

[black_n_white]

For me Eddie still gets next season whatever happens.

[AyeDubbleYoo]

4 minutes ago, black_n_white said:

For me Eddie still gets next season whatever happens.

 

Me too, pointless considering anything else really. 

[The College Dropout]

9 minutes ago, AyeDubbleYoo said:

I'd say the squad is decent but has suffered from injuries and bad form, one compounding the other. The signings were fairly logical IMO, especially if you allow for the Isak chaos and every striker rejecting us.

 

We don't need to use the fact it hasn't worked out as well as we wanted to pretend there's no thinking behind it. 

 

 

 

By not good - I mean it is not a squad that can challenge in the CL (last 16), FA Cup (SF/F), League Cup (SF/F) and then finish 4th or 5th.

 

Most people thought the signings were not good enough. The strikers were panic buys and major question marks over the rest. At the time, a lot of people didn't think it was a good window. Did you? 

[Wallsendmag]

Voted for the 2nd option in the poll. Happy with him but definitely some gripes. The mistakes made last summer can't be made again.

[Andy]

14 hours ago, dcmk said:

Why put the poll anonymous?  

 

Was curious to see how many secret Howe-haters we had when the public peer pressure was removed. 

 

And it's worked... @Kid Icarus, @Yorkie and @AyeDubbleYoo making up 3 of the 4 "time for him to go" votes is a twist none of us saw coming. 

[Adam P]

We are not big enough to qualify for the champions league every season. Villa are not big enough to qualify for the champions league every season. To qualify for the champions league, as a club in our relative position, its not neccessary to qualify for the champions league every season because in doing so, you significantly reduce the chances of qualifying the next season due to; PSR, squad costs, games to be played. This is obvious to all our leadership, publicly you dont say it but its the very clear commercial and operating reality under PSR with an incomes of circa 300-350m competing with 6 clubs with incomes 500m+. 

 

We've been a tad unlucky with a couple of injuries, we've not been able to adapt quickly enough across the two three key dimensions; change in attacking focus, embedding new players and coping with lack of training/intense number of games. We've had good game plans but lack the training time to execute consistently across the 90 minutes. My take on commercial strategy would be in terms of priority 1. go as deep as possible in CL to max revenue / exposure 2. try and qualify for Europe by winning a trophy 3. Get top 7/8 in PL and attack the CL again next season.

 

Eddie is on track for those objectives right now, lets see where it pans out. 

[AyeDubbleYoo]

29 minutes ago, The College Dropout said:

By not good - I mean it is not a squad that can challenge in the CL (last 16), FA Cup (SF/F), League Cup (SF/F) and then finish 4th or 5th.

 

Most people thought the signings were not good enough. The strikers were panic buys and major question marks over the rest. At the time, a lot of people didn't think it was a good window. Did you? 

 

I don't think Wissa was a panic buy.

 

I don't think I ever said 'good window' because Isak left. In fact I can remember saying it didn't really matter what else we did because we would inevitably end up with a worse team. 

 

But I did understand the arguments behind all of the signings and I certainly expected them to do a lot better than they have.

 

I still believe injuries are a huge factor. 

 

 

Edited February 2 by AyeDubbleYoo

[AyeDubbleYoo]

2 minutes ago, Adam P said:

We are not big enough to qualify for the champions league every season. Villa are not big enough to qualify for the champions league every season. To qualify for the champions league, as a club in our relative position, its not neccessary to qualify for the champions league every season because in doing so, you significantly reduce the chances of qualifying the next season due to; PSR, squad costs, games to be played. This is obvious to all our leadership, publicly you dont say it but its the very clear commercial and operating reality under PSR with an incomes of circa 300-350m competing with 6 clubs with incomes 500m+. 

 

We've been a tad unlucky with a couple of injuries, we've not been able to adapt quickly enough across the two three key dimensions; change in attacking focus, embedding new players and coping with lack of training/intense number of games. We've had good game plans but lack the training time to execute consistently across the 90 minutes. My take on commercial strategy would be in terms of priority 1. go as deep as possible in CL to max revenue / exposure 2. try and qualify for Europe by winning a trophy 3. Get top 7/8 in PL and attack the CL again next season.

 

Eddie is on track for those objectives right now, lets see where it pans out. 

 

Great post. Perennial CL club is really only available to 2 or 3 teams now. There are a lot of similar quality clubs competing for 2 places, there's no way to do it reliably. 

[Adam P]

Clubs with deeper pockets and bigger squads regularly fail to qualify, last year was a bit of an anomaly with 2 extra places. 

[The College Dropout]

1 minute ago, AyeDubbleYoo said:

 

I don't think Wissa was a panic buy.

 

I don't think I ever said 'good window' because Isak left. In fact I can remember saying it didn't really matter what else we did because we would inevitably end up with a worse team. 

 

But I did understand the arguments behind all of the signings and I certainly expected them to do a lot better than they have.

 

I still believe injuries are a huge factor. 

 

 

 

Wissa was like 4th or 5th choice - that's panic stations imo.

 

I get the logic behind signing Elanga but he isn't good enough. I sort of get the logic behind Ramsey but he isn't good enough. I thought I understood the logic behind Woltemade but I don't anymore.

[The College Dropout]

2 minutes ago, Adam P said:

Clubs with deeper pockets and bigger squads regularly fail to qualify, last year was a bit of an anomaly with 2 extra places. 

None of them are well run.

 

We haven't bee well run for 2 years and it's showing.

 

Because top teams aren't well run. With great management, some big investment - you can make a real fist of it. We had been doing that. Villa are doing that. But aye as soon as you get it wrong, like properly wrong, we can fall right off it.

 

 

Edited February 2 by The College Dropout

[Adam P]

Just now, The College Dropout said:

None of them are well run.

 

We haven't bee well run for 2 years and it's showing.

 

Which really just says 'football clubs are hard to run' and means that the judgement that we are not well run ignores the relaive competitive landscape. Its as though running a business based on competitive sporting performance entails all sorts of unmanageable risk! 

[Sir Joel Inton]

Interesting it’s shown that only 5 out of 188 (3%) votes are Howe out. 

 

When you consider some of those will probably be long term lurkers or mackems on the wind up, it goes to show there is not this mass hatred or agenda against Howe after all.

 

Funny that.

 

Voted unhappy but willing to give him time and that reflects one of the posts I made yesterday but @Moose’s second and third paragraphs above are spot on with my views.