Eddie Howe

[Shearergol]

Proper mixed feelings on it. I love Howe and what he’s done for us, but it’s clear something has to change. The only person who can change it is him, and I don’t think he’s willing to. I think we’ll go backwards without him but I don’t think we’ll go forwards with him, so very conflicted.

[The Prophet]

Just now, Sir Joel Inton said:

 

Who?

 

 

 

 

I don't know, I'm not a football agent.

 

Like I say, absolutely loads of this shit plays out in the shadows months before a move is made.

[Milburn]

2 hours ago, Unbelievable said:

I wouldn’t even say it’s one bad season. It’s one admittedly bad league campaign in an otherwise okay season. That’s against the backdrop of three seasons of overachievement. I maintain he deserves the chance to lead us into next season where the aim should be to develop a style more suitable to grinding results in 3 games per week seasons, and ultimately to get back in the CL places. If we’re not looking to achieve that by mid-season by all means pull the plug, but not now. Not for me anyway.

Fair point. 

 

For me, the line has to be clear: if we don’t qualify for Europe next season - even if it’s just Conference League - then it’s time to move on.

 

We should be comparing ourselves to a club like Villa. They would not accept missing out on Europe, so why should we?

 

If we do scrape into the Conference League, then fair enough - I’d give him the benefit of the doubt going into next season. But there has to be a clear standard. Otherwise it just drifts.

 

Based on what the owners have said about ambition, it’ll be interesting to see how they react if we fall short. Nobody knows, really. 

[TRC]

We should reset the poll tomorrow once everyone has calmed down 

[Sir Joel Inton]

1 minute ago, The Prophet said:

 

I don't know, I'm not a football agent.

 

Like I say, absolutely loads of this shit plays out in the shadows months before a move is made.

 

To be fair, it’s only a few pages back that people were demanding a list of replacements for Howe otherwise it’s unacceptable to suggest he should leave. We’re not sporting directors either.

 

The point I was making is if anyone has turned those clubs down, how many of them have a CV that only has one League Cup and two CL entries on it? The calibre of manager to reject those clubs is not Eddie Howe.

[dcmk]

24 minutes ago, The Prophet said:

 

I think he'd have a chance of getting the Liverpool, Chelsea. Man United or Spurs gig.

Would walk into them.  He's a big improvement on the current managers in those posts ATM.

 

Fortunately he's been all in with us so far.

[The Prophet]

Just now, Sir Joel Inton said:

 

To be fair, it’s only a few pages back that people were demanding a list of replacements for Howe otherwise it’s unacceptable to suggest he should leave. We’re not sporting directors either.

 

The point I was making is if anyone has turned those clubs down, how many of them have a CV that only has one League Cup and two CL entries on it? The calibre of manager to reject those clubs is not Eddie Howe.

 

If you say so man.

[KaKa]

9 minutes ago, TheBrownBottle said:

Most of them would - mainly because in the modern game, the manager is far more like a head coach and they’re not as indispensable as they once were.  There’s no chance that Rosenoir would be manager of Chelsea or Carrick at Man Utd a decade ago. 

 

None of them would because they all have sporting directors and the managers don't get the final say on signings.

[dcmk]

6 minutes ago, Shearergol said:

Proper mixed feelings on it. I love Howe and what he’s done for us, but it’s clear something has to change. The only person who can change it is him, and I don’t think he’s willing to. I think we’ll go backwards without him but I don’t think we’ll go forwards with him, so very conflicted.

Do you think he finds this week acceptable? C'mon.  

[TheBrownBottle]

Just now, KaKa said:

 

None of them would because they all have sporting directors and the managers don't get the final say on signings.

I don’t think he’d be a success at quite a few of them - he’d likely fall out with a powerful DoF and get the sack.  But I reckon he’d be considered by them. 

[TRC]

1 minute ago, dcmk said:

Do you think he finds this week acceptable? C'mon.  

That’s not what he said

[andycap]

We need a experienced manager that can set a team up for multiple games in a week. 

A manager that's been and done that many times howe I feel will never be that type of manager. 

 

A rafa type is the blueprint someone that can adapt to the situation the other team creates with tweaks here and there. 

[dcmk]

Just now, TRC said:

That’s not what he said

He said he doesn't think Howe is willing to change it.  

 

Based on this week - I'm sure he knows what reinforcements and where we need to improve are.  

 

 

[KaKa]

1 minute ago, TheBrownBottle said:

I don’t think he’d be a success at quite a few of them - he’d likely fall out with a powerful DoF and get the sack.  But I reckon he’d be considered by them. 

 

Howe would pull out of any kind of consideration as soon as transfers get discussed.

 

The move to Celtic fell apart because they said he couldn't hire all of his backroom people. It would be the same over final decisions on signings.

 

Howe will never accept a role where he doesn't control transfers. He is very very particular about the players that come in. "Small pool pf players ..." etc.

 

The only one where there might be a chance would be Liverpool because those are all the people he came up in football with, and so maybe their ideas are aligned to some degree, but even then, I doubt it.

[Fak]

1 minute ago, dcmk said:

He said he doesn't think Howe is willing to change it.  

 

Based on this week - I'm sure he knows what reinforcements and where we need to improve are.  

 

 

 

I think he was mainly referring to tactics, transfer policy etc.  

[TheInfiniteOdyssey]

If we finish with a whimper and end up bottom half of the table, it’s been an absolute disaster of a season for me. I can’t honestly believe how far we’ve went backwards in the last year.  

[Shearergol]

2 minutes ago, dcmk said:

He said he doesn't think Howe is willing to change it.  

 

Based on this week - I'm sure he knows what reinforcements and where we need to improve are.  

 

 

Only time will tell us that won’t it.

[The Prophet]

I'm happy for Howe to lead us into next season.

 

He's not perfect and he seems like a massive control freak, but there's enough mitigation there to excuse a below par season. He's overcome pretty much every challenge we've faced to date, giving us some of our best times as NUFC fans. He deserves time to fix things.

[James]

I just think like the squad he looks tired.

 

the warning signs were there last season where we had a mini collapse after his return from illness. We were genuinely in the run for second but we collapsed and barely made CL.

 

 Pneumonia can really impact energy levels - I have never been the same since a bout in 2018 and I am 9-5, not 6am - 9pm or whatever Eddie works.

 

I have a lot of sympathy but his attempt to come back last season so soon was the wrong one, possibly forced on him by the presence of Paul Mitchell.

 

With that in mind I think at this point he should go off sick until July - if he wants to come back at all.

[Yorkie]

"Has the project stalled?"

 

"I think the rules have made it very difficult for that momentum to go with the speed that it initially did. I don't know whether we can beat that system, we have to follow the rules that are set.

 

"The club desperately want to be ambitious but there's a limit to what we can spend and that has a knock-on effect that everything we do and decisions we made previously. To not recruit for that many windows - I don't know a team that wouldn't suffer from that, and we certainly have. Then losing Alex last summer was a considerable blow.

 

"But we can't feel sorry for ourselves and we can't offer excuses; we have to find a way to be successful without all of these things. But I think there has to be an understanding of the tough conditions that we're working in."

 

 

So do people just not buy this? 

[Alberto2005]

2 minutes ago, Yorkie said:

"Has the project stalled?"

 

"I think the rules have made it very difficult for that momentum to go with the speed that it initially did. I don't know whether we can beat that system, we have to follow the rules that are set.

 

"The club desperately want to be ambitious but there's a limit to what we can spend and that has a knock-on effect that everything we do and decisions we made previously. To not recruit for that many windows - I don't know a team that wouldn't suffer from that, and we certainly have. Then losing Alex last summer was a considerable blow.

 

"But we can't feel sorry for ourselves and we can't offer excuses; we have to find a way to be successful without all of these things. But I think there has to be an understanding of the tough conditions that we're working in."

 

 

So do people just not buy this? 

Yes and no.

 

It definitely makes it very hard for us to be finishing top 5 every season.

 

But we're 12th, which is no way near good enough so there's no excuses for that.

[dcmk]

2 minutes ago, James said:

I just think like the squad he looks tired.

 

the warning signs were there last season where we had a mini collapse after his return from illness. We were genuinely in the run for second but we collapsed and barely made CL.

 

 Pneumonia can really impact energy levels - I have never been the same since a bout in 2018 and I am 9-5, not 6am - 9pm or whatever Eddie works.

 

I have a lot of sympathy but his attempt to come back last season so soon was the wrong one, possibly forced on him by the presence of Paul Mitchell.

 

With that in mind I think at this point he should go off sick until July - if he wants to come back at all.

We drew away to Brighton (we dominated the game), we lost 1-0 away to Arsenal (again the better team, we missed 3 big chances) and a disappointment loss to Everton at home - where we missed host of chances.

 

Wouldn't call that a mini collapse tbh. We played well in all those games.

[JasMann]

3 minutes ago, Yorkie said:

"Has the project stalled?"

 

"I think the rules have made it very difficult for that momentum to go with the speed that it initially did. I don't know whether we can beat that system, we have to follow the rules that are set.

 

"The club desperately want to be ambitious but there's a limit to what we can spend and that has a knock-on effect that everything we do and decisions we made previously. To not recruit for that many windows - I don't know a team that wouldn't suffer from that, and we certainly have. Then losing Alex last summer was a considerable blow.

 

"But we can't feel sorry for ourselves and we can't offer excuses; we have to find a way to be successful without all of these things. But I think there has to be an understanding of the tough conditions that we're working in."

 

 

So do people just not buy this? 

Some of it. Isak leaving is shit of course but brentford lost Wissa and Mbeumo and are doing okay. And I would suggest the way around the “rules we can’t beat” isn’t to wax money on /Elanga/Ramsey,

Wissa but rather look to exploit lesser known markets at lower premiums. 
 

I think that excuse is fine if A) we didn’t just waste a shit load of money, B) we weren’t 12th. A drop off is acceptable, but we’ve gone backwards at an alarming rate. That isn’t on PSR

[Guillaume]

If we aren't in the top 5 at Xmas, time for a change.

[Kid Icarus]

6 minutes ago, Yorkie said:

"Has the project stalled?"

 

"I think the rules have made it very difficult for that momentum to go with the speed that it initially did. I don't know whether we can beat that system, we have to follow the rules that are set.

 

"The club desperately want to be ambitious but there's a limit to what we can spend and that has a knock-on effect that everything we do and decisions we made previously. To not recruit for that many windows - I don't know a team that wouldn't suffer from that, and we certainly have. Then losing Alex last summer was a considerable blow.

 

"But we can't feel sorry for ourselves and we can't offer excuses; we have to find a way to be successful without all of these things. But I think there has to be an understanding of the tough conditions that we're working in."

 

 

So do people just not buy this? 

That to me reads as him saying something out loud that he thought (rightly imo) was already unspokenly understood.