Eddie Howe

[dcmk]

1 minute ago, Tiotes Witch Doctor said:

That it was a good result and some great individual performances but doesn't change a season and a half of stagnation and questionable tactical decisions, WBU?

Stagnation.. we had a cup win and champions league qualification. His tactics seem to work when he has time at the training pitch.  

[Tiotes Witch Doctor]

Just now, Super Duper Branko Strupar said:

 

A season and a half? Didnt we qualify for the CL and win a trophy in that time?

Alright then a season and a quarter... We are shite mate and our manager has no answers, I know to that upsets the N.O cult but the simple fact is we need a change.

[TheBrownBottle]

3 minutes ago, dcmk said:

People said this during our injury hit season of 2024.   He won a cup and got champions League football the next season. He's proven that he can turn situations around.

Other than an eight game injury-ravaged spell we were never as consistently poor as we’ve been this season - and one of the excuses given is that he’d ’learn from it’.  I see no evidence of much learning having happened. 

[Tiotes Witch Doctor]

Just now, dcmk said:

Stagnation.. we had a cup win and champions league qualification. His tactics seem to work when he has time at the training pitch.  

So just every season we aren't in Europe then? Sounds like a great future.

[dcmk]

18 minutes ago, TheBrownBottle said:

Other than an eight game injury-ravaged spell we were never as consistently poor as we’ve been this season - and one of the excuses given is that he’d ’learn from it’.  I see no evidence of much learning having happened. 

We have not had a striker.  And yes we were very poor that season too.  Very similar in fact.

 

 

Edited March 23 by dcmk

[TheBrownBottle]

1 minute ago, Wolfcastle said:

Handful of good performances (including one against Barcelona), cup runs papering over woeful boring league performances, lame new attacker, shit summer of transfer activity, clear decline, limp cup exits and Arsenal winning the league. Deja vu really.

 

I do think that those of us of an older vintage have seen this all play out more than once before - for me, the Ashley era was a ‘blip’, not the norm.  NUFC has always been a club where once shit summer can just push the brakes on huge progress - ‘97, ‘03, ‘12 and now ‘25. 

[TheBrownBottle]

Just now, dcmk said:

We have not had a striker.  And yes we were very poor that reason too.  Very similar in fact.

Agreed, but it’s a much stronger point if we didn’t have three strikers in the squad - all signed by Howe - at a collective cost of about £140m

[dcmk]

1 minute ago, Tiotes Witch Doctor said:

So just every season we aren't in Europe then? Sounds like a great future.

Hopefully we won't hear you whinging for a season and a bit then since unlikely for Europe.

[Tiotes Witch Doctor]

Just now, dcmk said:

Hopefully we won't hear you whinging for a season and a bit then since unlikely for Europe.

Don't bank on it bonny lad 

[Decky]

That post match interview doesn't fill me with confidence. I can see he's emotional but it's just pure sound bites and the same sentences said before time and time again this season. No inspiration from that at all. 

[dcmk]

Just now, TheBrownBottle said:

Agreed, but it’s a much stronger point if we didn’t have three strikers in the squad - all signed by Howe - at a collective cost of about £140m

One was injured and doesn't look the same player as last season.  The other completely unsuited.

 

Woltemade wasn't the first choice replacement for Isak, and you know this.  Not to mention the DoF cluster fuck.

[dcmk]

2 minutes ago, Tiotes Witch Doctor said:

Don't bank on it bonny lad 

You was wanting him gone in 2024 during our injury crisis and very likely before that too.  If the club listened to your bed wetting we wouldn't have a cup and this CL campaign. 

 

 

Edited March 23 by dcmk

[Super Duper Branko Strupar]

11 minutes ago, Tiotes Witch Doctor said:

Alright then a season and a quarter... We are shite mate and our manager has no answers, I know to that upsets the N.O cult but the simple fact is we need a change.

Who are you like, Andrew Tate?  And not even a season, btw.

 

You need to try meditation or something, you're just winding yourself up. We got to the semis of the League Cup to be knocked out by City. Decent in the FA cup to be knocked out by City. Beating multiple PL sides along the way. Canny decent in the CL to be knocked out by Barcelona (who we also deserved to beat at home). Yes we were embarrassed away and by losing to the Mackems twice. Yes our league form has been generally poor this year. I'd tak on to that who's been good? Its a poor league. 

 

It's such an odd way to go on. Not long ago Howe was touted as a genius for how we dominated Arsenal home and away along with many other performances that year. And previous. And now he all of a sudden has no answers in such a relatively short space of time? You seem to lack so much understanding it's really quite baffling. 

 

 

Edited March 23 by Super Duper Branko Strupar

[dcmk]

3 minutes ago, Decky said:

That post match interview doesn't fill me with confidence. I can see he's emotional but it's just pure sound bites and the same sentences said before time and time again this season. No inspiration from that at all. 

Nothing said today could possibly be inspirational.  There were no positives. 

[Decky]

When Eddie was asked about the project hitting a stumbling block he said there's a limit to what we can spend. How many PL clubs spent more than us last summer? I bet a lot who spent less beat us this season. 

[TheBrownBottle]

1 minute ago, dcmk said:

One was injured and doesn't look the same player as last season.  The other completely unsuited.

 

Woltemade wasn't the first choice replacement for Isak, and you know this.  Not to mention the DoF cluster fuck.

I honestly never understand the ‘he wasn’t first choice’ patter.  Targeting players who go to bigger clubs isn’t good scouting or management - it’s the opposite.  It’s also a piece of piss given that everyone in football knew that the big boys were interested in them.  
 

Woltemade was an extraordinarily poor signing, given Howe’s lack of flexibility to his approach.  He can’t have been blindsided - all these guys do is live and breathe football and are paid handsomely to do so.  He should’ve been able to see Woltemade’s unsuitability to the system by watching a single match. 

[Jesse Pinkman]

1 minute ago, Decky said:

When Eddie was asked about the project hitting a stumbling block he said there's a limit to what we can spend. How many PL clubs spent more than us last summer? I bet a lot who spent less beat us this season. 

Sunderland for an

example

[Decky]

Just now, dcmk said:

Nothing said today could possibly be inspirational.  There were no positives. 

 

You're right but fuck me, is it time he came out and said more than "we prepared for the game and we're disappointed". We've given Sunderland six points this season man it's not good enough, he needs to show some fight. Look I'm not asking him to come out and slate players but being so defeated doesn't inspire confidence in anyone. 

[Decky]

Just now, Jesse Pinkman said:

Sunderland for an

example

 

Twice. Brilliant stuff. But we prepared well for both games. 

[dcmk]

1 minute ago, TheBrownBottle said:

I honestly never understand the ‘he wasn’t first choice’ patter.  Targeting players who go to bigger clubs isn’t good scouting or management - it’s the opposite.  It’s also a piece of piss given that everyone in football knew that the big boys were interested in them.  
 

Woltemade was an extraordinarily poor signing, given Howe’s lack of flexibility to his approach.  He can’t have been blindsided - all these guys do is live and breathe football and are paid handsomely to do so.  He should’ve been able to see Woltemade’s unsuitability to the system by watching a single match. 

Why wouldn't we go for top targets that we were convinced of?  

 

We were trying to replace Isak. Arguably the best striker in Europe at the time.

[The Bonk]

6 minutes ago, TheBrownBottle said:

I haven’t either tbh - but I also don’t think it needs to be a ‘name’.  I hadn’t really heard of Silva, Iraola, Farke, Glasner, Slot, Le Bris, Hurzeler, Andrews, Edwards, Pereira, or Nuno before either their current role or before coming to England.  This is why I’m not onboard with the ‘name someone who could do better’ crack I’ve seen (which I know you’re not suggesting).  My biggest concern is that I’m not particularly convinced by either the DoF nor the CEO, and I’m not sure they’d be looking for the right type of coach.  
 

The structure at the club is all wrong, and unfortunately one of the reasons I’m not convinced by Howe is that he’s actively pushed it in this direction - which by many accounts was also the case at Bournemouth.  

Yeah, but are any you’ve listed elite or better than Eddie? Iraola seems to have his number.

I’ve worked with Hopkinson’s team when he was at MLSE and presented to him, other executives when the project was near completion. Smart guy, very good on the commercial side. Bit weird seeing him at our club in all honesty. 

 

He’s also quite good on the operational side too and hopefully he brings some stability to our back office.

 

Wilson seemed decent at Forest before Edu rocked up, so hopefully he can make us look less of a mess in the transfer market this summer. 

[TheBrownBottle]

1 minute ago, dcmk said:

Why wouldn't we go for top targets that we were convinced of?  

 

We were trying to replace Isak. Arguably the best striker in Europe at the time.

Because we weren’t ever likely to sign them given who was in for them.  How much time did we waste on Sesko for example, despite knowing full well what his and his agent’s feelings were?  Pedro was linked with Chelsea for yonks.  Also, Ekitike, Sesko and Pedro had been linked with us for years - it ties back to a concern re there being a very small list of targets during that period and very little real scouting work done afterwards.  

 

If you played the window out again, you would probably be best to sell Isak to Liverpool quickly and go in for Ekitike (and I absolutely blame the club not Howe for the Isak situation - from his contract to faffing about in the summer).  

[TheBrownBottle]

Just now, The Bonk said:

Yeah, but are any you’ve listed elite or better than Eddie? Iraola seems to have his number.

I’ve worked with Hopkinson’s team when he was at MLSE and presented to him, other executives when the project was near completion. Smart guy, very good on the commercial side. Bit weird seeing him at our club in all honesty. 

 

He’s also quite good on the operational side too and hopefully he brings some stability to our back office.

 

Wilson seemed decent at Forest before Edu rocked up, so hopefully he can make us look less of a mess in the transfer market this summer. 

I wouldn’t rank most of them above Howe - but I also don’t know what they’ve have achieved if they’d been able to spend three quarters of a billion in the transfer market, either.  It isn’t that I think that they’re better than Howe - but I do think it lays out that in the modern game the role has fundamentally changed.  A decade ago you could pretty much write a list of ten managers who’d get a job at a PL club regardless of how many failures were on their CV.  These days, clubs are very much set up in a different way - as we should be, but aren’t (mostly a failure of the owners, with some of it on Howe). 
 

Interesting re Hopkinson - I don’t doubt at all exactly what you’ve said, and if he’d replaced Silverstone I’d have a very positive view tbh.  But running a football club?  There’s bot all on his CV to suggest he can. 

[dcmk]

Just now, TheBrownBottle said:

Because we weren’t ever likely to sign them given who was in for them.  How much time did we waste on Sesko for example, despite knowing full well what his and his agent’s feelings were?  Pedro was linked with Chelsea for yonks.  Also, Ekitike, Sesko and Pedro had been linked with us for years - it ties back to a concern re there being a very small list of targets during that period and very little real scouting work done afterwards.  

 

If you played the window out again, you would probably be best to sell Isak to Liverpool quickly and go in for Ekitike (and I absolutely blame the club not Howe for the Isak situation - from his contract to faffing about in the summer).  

  

 

I think it stems from the inability to be able to work on multiple targets at the same time - that screwed us over the most.  Having no DoF scuppered the chances of moving quickly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[alexf]

12 minutes ago, Decky said:

When Eddie was asked about the project hitting a stumbling block he said there's a limit to what we can spend. How many PL clubs spent more than us last summer? I bet a lot who spent less beat us this season. 

 

How many others were forced into selling their best player for a £120m? Contributing to desperate rushing around trying to sign 4th/5th choices for way over their value because we were desperate. 

 

I don't know why context is never applied to last summer. It was an absolute cluster fuck with so many problems. So to try and point to us spending the Isak money and a bit more to try and get in the numbers we needed to compete on 4 fronts this season as a stick to beat Eddie with constantly is abit odd.

 

The players signed ultimately don't look good enough and were likely big mistakes, but it's pretty obvious why that scenario might have happened due to the chaos going on behind the scenes at the time.