Eddie Howe

[Minhosa]

Just now, r0cafella said:

Oh yeah of course it depends on how we utilise our money but I mean generally clubs with our revenue don't spend 70m on players. 

We spent £250m last summer. We could've bought three of them and still picked up a Thiaw or Ramsey to go with them....

[Minhosa]

1 minute ago, r0cafella said:

It absolutely was panic by the time we got big nick mind. Given we have tried to play him as if was isak should tell you all you need to know about the amount or research we did on him  

Don't disagree on that at all.

[The College Dropout]

3 minutes ago, Minhosa said:

Agreed. Amanda going remains a loss imho and we've never got the Sporting Director role right since PIF arrived.

 

Jury is out on Wilson but I'm already anticipating 'hard to do deals in a world cup year' whilst Man City, Liverpool, Villa etc all announce signings prior to it.

In retrospect Ashworth was great 

[timeEd32]

15 minutes ago, The College Dropout said:

We spent £60m on a striker that scored 6 goals the season prior. We spent £35m on a 19 yo fullback with 12 senior appearances. We spent £45m on a PL winger with 4 PL goals in his career.  We spent £40m on a pacy 21 yo fullback with only 1 season of PL football and fresh off an ACL return. 
 

We used to back our judgement on ability, attitude and squad fit.  

 

The fact that the players we missed out on are, for the most part, quality gives me hope that the biggest issues last summer were deal making and desperation. 

[Minhosa]

4 minutes ago, The College Dropout said:

In retrospect Ashworth was great 

Aye - just a bit of a self-serving cunt.

[HawK]

Whilst Ashworth was here we got some fabulous deals done, went through the signings before individually, but for conciseness to me there's a clear distinction between what was an Ashworth-player or signing for the future/breakingthrough players (Lewis Hall/Livramento), and an Eddie Howe signing for the here-and-now (Elanga,Ramsey). This is not a slight against Eddie Howe, he shouldn't have been put in the position to effecitvely head up recruitment, but it shows why you need a DoF person to oversee long-term strategy vs the need for now and looking at attributes  and squad planning rather than recent form.

[The College Dropout]

3 hours ago, timeEd32 said:

 

The fact that the players we missed out on are, for the most part, quality gives me hope that the biggest issues last summer were deal making and desperation. 

Also a different profile though.  We used to go for players before they were proven enough for the others to get interested or at a lower ebb. We went back for JP and Etikite as more proven players. 

[Groundhog63]

4 minutes ago, The College Dropout said:

Also a different profile though.  We used to go for players before they were proven enough for the others to get interested or at a lower ebb. We went back for JP and Etikite as more proven players. 

 

So you're saying we went in for them, originally, when they weren't "more proven players" then?

Can't win can they?

[The College Dropout]

Just now, Groundhog63 said:

 

So you're saying we went in for them, originally, when they weren't "more proven players" then?

Can't win can they?

I mean yes - we aren’t going to sign top players. We never did.  We can sign players with something to prove.  We signed Isak Bruno Hall Tino even Gordon before they were proven enough for the top 6 to sign them.  
 

Thats what served us well.   

[The College Dropout]

Hi will say it’s harder now.  Chelsea in particular will sign anyone with a reputation 21 and under now. 
 

Selling Jackson to sign Delap is mad. 

 

 

Edited March 2 by The College Dropout

[astraguy]

If any of the top 6 replaced their  manager in the summer i guarantee they would all look at Eddie! We need to protect him at all costs its going to be a cruel few weeks but he still has my full backing..The owners need to hurry up and find a way of getting this man a fucking squad that can cope with games every 3 days

[Kanj]

Some good discussions being had on here @Minhosa @The College Dropout -- couldn't agree more. 

[Yorkie]

6 hours ago, The College Dropout said:

It’s one of the worst windows of all time imo. 

 

Oh for the days of Vurnon Anita or de Jong/Rivieire/Cabella et al.

 

Christ almighty, lads.

[Maggies]

6 hours ago, The College Dropout said:

It’s one of the worst windows of all time imo.

In relation to where we currently are as a club and PSR rules, I completely agree.

 

Unless Wissa, Wolt or Elanga come good, then we’re probably looking at a £70m+ hit which means we effectively let Isak go on a free.

There’s definitely been worse windows on a signings perspective, but I don’t think there’s been one which has effectively knocked us back as a club when you take in to consideration the spending rules.

 

 

Edited March 2 by Maggies

[SUPERTOON]

27 minutes ago, Yorkie said:

 

Oh for the days of Vurnon Anita or de Jong/Rivieire/Cabella et al.

 

Christ almighty, lads.

Different circumstances obviously, but for our ambitions and the chance we had to kick on, it was disastrous imo.

[The Prophet]

The number one take away from the summer should be that we aren't in a place to be paying a premium for Premier League players. Not only does that market bring you into competition with bigger clubs who will offer more generous wages, but it's far from being a guarantee.

 

Having said that, previous transfer markets demonstrate that it's probably still too early to be coming to any firm conclusions about the summer business. Granted, it's not delivered in the short term.

[TheBrownBottle]

56 minutes ago, Yorkie said:

 

Oh for the days of Vurnon Anita or de Jong/Rivieire/Cabella et al.

 

Christ almighty, lads.

I think last summer is up there with ‘88, ‘97, ‘03 and ‘12 tbh.  A quarter of a billion to go backwards.  Again, the Ashley era is not a benchmark - being better tha an idiot and his goons willingly sinking the club is not deserving of the least bit of praise.  Last summer was a cock up from start to finish.  

[Yorkie]

37 minutes ago, SUPERTOON said:

Different circumstances obviously, but for our ambitions and the chance we had to kick on, it was disastrous imo.

 

But we didn't have the chance to kick on. It didn't exist; never there, never happening. As soon as Isak called it quits, we were going backwards, it was just a matter of limiting the fall. 

 

What the transfer window provided is a squad which has - despite relentless injuries and hideous cup draws - delivered progress in the FA Cup, a very creditable defence of the League Cup, a place in the Last 16 of the CL and - as it stands - an outside chance of exceeding our revenue/league position for the fourth season running. 

 

I'm as gutted about Wissa and Elanga as anyone and recognise the financial implications if those signings don't work out. But the hyperbole is unbearable at times.

 

And I still say there's time left to make a judgement on all of these buys. Sandro Tonali was one of our worst ever buys in November 2023. 

[Yorkie]

12 minutes ago, TheBrownBottle said:

I think last summer is up there with ‘88, ‘97, ‘03 and ‘12 tbh.  A quarter of a billion to go backwards.  Again, the Ashley era is not a benchmark - being better tha an idiot and his goons willingly sinking the club is not deserving of the least bit of praise.  Last summer was a cock up from start to finish.  

 

Just an insanely reductive way to present the situation.

 

Even if you're going to take the net spend angle (which is redundant nowadays), it's "£89m to go from CL contenders to mid-table whilst competing in all three cup competitions."

[TheBrownBottle]

1 minute ago, Yorkie said:

 

Just an insanely reductive way to present the situation.

 

Even if you're going to take the net spend angle (which is redundant nowadays), it's "£89m to go from CL contenders to mid-table whilst competing in all three cup competitions."

Tbf Yorkie it’s no more reductive than comparing a couple of shit Ashley windows to what transpired last year - and you’re correct, net spend has far less meaning at this point.  I’d have a lot more sympathy on the ‘competing on three fronts’ if the manager wasn’t playing Tonali for 90 mins in the second leg vs Carrier Bag, or picking pretty much his first XI at home vs Bradford.  If he can’t manage a squad effectively then he’s in the wrong job - he’s not ‘elite’, he’s just a good coach.  We looked shit before the fixture pile-up btw - this isn’t the result of fatigue.  This is the second time this has occurred, and it’s worse than last time out - lessons haven’t been learned. 

[SUPERTOON]

22 minutes ago, Yorkie said:

 

But we didn't have the chance to kick on. It didn't exist; never there, never happening. As soon as Isak called it quits, we were going backwards, it was just a matter of limiting the fall. 

 

What the transfer window provided is a squad which has - despite relentless injuries and hideous cup draws - delivered progress in the FA Cup, a very creditable defence of the League Cup, a place in the Last 16 of the CL and - as it stands - an outside chance of exceeding our revenue/league position for the fourth season running. 

 

I'm as gutted about Wissa and Elanga as anyone and recognise the financial implications if those signings don't work out. But the hyperbole is unbearable at times.

 

And I still say there's time left to make a judgement on all of these buys. Sandro Tonali was one of our worst ever buys in November 2023. 

You may be right, some of my criticism may be OTT. I just struggle to hide the frustration of spending over 150 million on Wolt, Wissa and Elanga who look absolutely shocking. 

[Yorkie]

5 minutes ago, TheBrownBottle said:

Tbf Yorkie it’s no more reductive than comparing a couple of shit Ashley windows to what transpired last year - and you’re correct, net spend has far less meaning at this point.  I’d have a lot more sympathy on the ‘competing on three fronts’ if the manager wasn’t playing Tonali for 90 mins in the second leg vs Carrier Bag, or picking pretty much his first XI at home vs Bradford.  If he can’t manage a squad effectively then he’s in the wrong job - he’s not ‘elite’, he’s just a good coach.  We looked shit before the fixture pile-up btw - this isn’t the result of fatigue.  This is the second time this has occurred, and it’s worse than last time out - lessons haven’t been learned. 

 

I don't think it's reductive to make the point that we've had worse transfer windows in the recent past. I wasn't interested in making direct comparisons but in 12/13 we were in a position of strength and nearly went down. In 15/16 we spent a fortune and did go down. 

 

The rest of your post is another topic. I wouldn't argue too strongly against the notion that the manager hasn't juggled his balls as effectively as he might've. 

[Super Duper Branko Strupar]

31 minutes ago, Yorkie said:

 

But we didn't have the chance to kick on. It didn't exist; never there, never happening. As soon as Isak called it quits, we were going backwards, it was just a matter of limiting the fall. 

 

What the transfer window provided is a squad which has - despite relentless injuries and hideous cup draws - delivered progress in the FA Cup, a very creditable defence of the League Cup, a place in the Last 16 of the CL and - as it stands - an outside chance of exceeding our revenue/league position for the fourth season running. 

 

I'm as gutted about Wissa and Elanga as anyone and recognise the financial implications if those signings don't work out. But the hyperbole is unbearable at times.

 

And I still say there's time left to make a judgement on all of these buys. Sandro Tonali was one of our worst ever buys in November 2023. 

 

But I need to be right now, Yorkie! NOW!

[TheBrownBottle]

1 minute ago, Yorkie said:

 

I don't think it's reductive to make the point that we've had worse transfer windows in the recent past. I wasn't interested in making direct comparisons but in 12/13 we were in a position of strength and nearly went down. In 15/16 we spent a fortune and did go down. 

 

The rest of your post is another topic. I wouldn't argue too strongly against the notion that the manager hasn't juggled his balls as effectively as he might've. 

Fair enough, but we know why we had shit windows during that period - this time isn’t the result of miserly ownership.  Based on our current PL form it’s probably lucky we did get some points in the bag at home earlier in the season because at present we don’t look any better than we did in 15/16 - we are toothless up front and leaking goals at an insane rate.  Our form against top half sides tells us where we are - and we don’t have a cheap squad nor a low wage bill.  I don’t buy that matches against some of the shittest sides I can remember us playing against in Europe has that much of an impact.  We’ve looked poor this season in pretty much every match we’ve played.  It’s nowhere near good enough. 

[Fenham Mag]

The summer window of 2025 has proved the worst of the Howe regime so far, but this is based from a very high base, before that they had struck gold  in almost every signing (Kelly does not count as a free and sold for an unbelievable profit). 

Eddie did not help himself at all by saying any new signings have to improve the first team, he could have just said we want to strengthen our squad. That has been used as a huge stick to beat him with by fans and journalists.

 

 

Edited March 2 by Fenham Mag