Eddie Howe

[Wolfcastle]

The 'mitigating circumstances' are being given way too much importance. Its rare that a manager wouldn't have them.

The manager of a team should be more important and should have a bigger effect on the team and no matter what they are and shouldn't render a manager apparently helpless and blameless for any bad that ensues and time has shown countless times they're not incapable of getting tunes out personnel they inherit.  

There's managers coping better with worse now that having a massive spend on mostly duds to supplement an already strong team.

 

[TRon]

3 minutes ago, J7 said:

If he’s going to stay, given we have nothing to play for now, I’d like to see at least some evidence before the end of the season of what he is going to change to have us moving forward again. 
 

If it’s just going to be more of the same tired 433, hoping we’re playing with enough intensity and pressing to do anything, then I’ll have no confidence for this summer. My fear is that this ‘rebuild’ will just be trying to find new players to fit the same system Howe seems wedded to. 

 

 

Pretty sure that will be the plan given he's tried to play it all season even without the strikers suited to it. 

 

Personally I think he's took that pressing game as far as he can and teams have sussed out how to counter it so I don't think we'll have a great season if he's still here. We might not have one without him either so there's always the other side of the coin. 

[andycap]

This last seven games we had plenty of time to get on the training pitch and push for Europe. To then watch us look worse than we did with a crazy fixture list is disheartening to say the least. 

The players aren't playing for him what makes hopkinson think he still has anything to give to this team anymore. 

[LFEE]

7 minutes ago, J7 said:

That’s the kind of turd polishing that saw people gushing that we played well at Anfield for half an hour. ‘Impressed we’ve done as well as we have’. Give over.

 

 

 

Depends where you start from. If for 3 seasons you’ve been outperforming with the players we have then I just feel this has been more of a levelling off to the players abilities. It’s just took the likes of maybe yourself to catch up. 
 

[Wolfcastle]

1 hour ago, Andy said:

 

Palace away is a much easier game than a local derby against a team who are in contention for Europe, they've literally got nowt to play for and are phoning it in even more than us. First half in that match was arguably the flattest we've been all season after a 3 week break. 

There's 3points between them. One was at home one away. Would no point in home advantage then.

There's 3points between Leeds and Forest, is Forest away a much easier game than Leeds at home. 

[Wallsendmag]

10 minutes ago, LFEE said:

Depends where you start from. If for 3 seasons you’ve been outperforming with the players we have then I just feel this has been more of a levelling off to the players abilities. It’s just took the likes of maybe yourself to catch up. 
 

 

Going from 5th to 14th isn't just a case of "levelling off" I'm afraid. There's more to it than that.

[J7]

17 minutes ago, LFEE said:

Depends where you start from. If for 3 seasons you’ve been outperforming with the players we have then I just feel this has been more of a levelling off to the players abilities. It’s just took the likes of maybe yourself to catch up. 
 

We over performed for his first 18 months, but not since. It’s been about par/good in the league after that and before this season. 
 

You don’t spend the best part of £700m, have Brazilian and Italian internationals in midfield, the starting English right winger, two young highly rated English full backs, then settle for ‘levelling off’ in 14th behind Bournemouth, Everton, Fulham, Brentford and Sunderland. £55m Elanga is his man. The performances have been in the main very poor, never mind the league position.

 

 

Edited April 21 by J7

[Mikky]

19 minutes ago, andycap said:

This last seven games we had plenty of time to get on the training pitch and push for Europe. To then watch us look worse than we did with a crazy fixture list is disheartening to say the least. 

The players aren't playing for him what makes hopkinson think he still has anything to give to this team anymore. 

He’s ran out of ideas - it’s as simple as that - none of this rubbish he needs a summer - he’s had his time here - leaves with his head held high - Thank you EH - bye

 

He’s shown me nothing throughout the season thar he can change - we concede the same soft goals week in week out - have no idea how to play against a low block - doesn’t know who is best striker is - plays our most expensive signing as the 8 - poor subs - loyalty to his favourites - HIS recruitment has been diabolical - calamitous in fact - wants to play a certain ‘new’ way then buys players who are average 

 

[Dr.Spaceman]

47 minutes ago, Stuy_O said:

How on earth is it crazy? 
 

How many times does this need to be addressed? Most people acknowledge the summer was a shit show, but you can’t just point to that as the be all and end all reason as to what we’re seeing every game, particularly these last few games, when the wheels have completely fallen off. 
 

And if it needs reminding, we still spent a fortune. 
 

There’s absolutely no way any fan would have said fair enough if someone had told them where we’d be come this stage of the season, and the results that got us there. 
 

The questions are simple.

 

Was the summer a collective mess? Yes. 

 

Is Eddie Howe currently underperforming? Yes. 
 

Both are true, yet the hardcore Eddie followers on here treat even the slightest criticism like a character assassination. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Because people are ignoring a lot of what preceded this slump in order to fit their narrative. I'm no Howe fanboy, I've criticised him loads on here and in person but you cannot ignore last summer and the lack of support he had from those above him. You cannot be angry at the slow paced nature of the PIF with things like the stadium decision or replacing Eales and in the same breath think sacking Eddie Howe today is the best thing for a productive summer to lead us into the next season.

 

Yes Eddie has made mistakes, but don't all managers? Literally the best two managers the PL has ever seen (imo) made shit loads of mistakes, neither getting it right first time. One of the fuckers signed Bebe and the other signed Igor Stepanovs. Get them out the Hall of Fame now...

 

Eddie has shown that with a harmonious squad he can deliver a brand of football that gets us pumped and can deliver some of the best experiences most of us have ever had at SJP. Doesn't he deserve at least one go at clearing the decks and rebuilding? It's clear to me that several of the first team don't see their futures here and that is what I think has destroyed a lot of what Eddie and his team have built - the squad harmony, the togetherness and the general feeling of us v the rest of the world.

 

Fuck whatever the southern press or fat Geordie paedo youtubers tell you they're thinking for clicks, it's time to buck the trend and stick with what we've got, because fuck knows what we end up with next.

[Mills and Boon]

Eddie is still the man

[Mikky]

3 minutes ago, Dr.Spaceman said:

 

Because people are ignoring a lot of what preceded this slump in order to fit their narrative. I'm no Howe fanboy, I've criticised him loads on here and in person but you cannot ignore last summer and the lack of support he had from those above him. You cannot be angry at the slow paced nature of the PIF with things like the stadium decision or replacing Eales and in the same breath think sacking Eddie Howe today is the best thing for a productive summer to lead us into the next season.

 

Yes Eddie has made mistakes, but don't all managers? Literally the best two managers the PL has ever seen (imo) made shit loads of mistakes, neither getting it right first time. One of the fuckers signed Bebe and the other signed Igor Stepanovs. Get them out the Hall of Fame now...

 

Eddie has shown that with a harmonious squad he can deliver a brand of football that gets us pumped and can deliver some of the best experiences most of us have ever had at SJP. Doesn't he deserve at least one go at clearing the decks and rebuilding? It's clear to me that several of the first team don't see their futures here and that is what I think has destroyed a lot of what Eddie and his team have built - the squad harmony, the togetherness and the general feeling of us v the rest of the world.

 

Fuck whatever the southern press or fat Geordie paedo youtubers tell you they're thinking for clicks, it's time to buck the trend and stick with what we've got, because fuck knows what we end up with next.

So going into the summer - what do you think we need in terms of personnel to change things? Honest question …

 

And who goes?

 

 

Edited April 21 by Mikky

[toontownman]

We have had and still have every opportunity to push to get into europe. 

 

Not getting into Europe was always going to be the biggest red flag or all for endangering Eddie's Position. Its a huge chunk of missed revenue. We are losing 20-30m from the league alone arent we? Let alone the loss of European revenue.

 

If we can't manage it I don't see him staying. I think its 60/40 him leaving as it is.

[Kid Icarus]

27 minutes ago, Wolfcastle said:

The 'mitigating circumstances' are being given way too much importance. Its rare that a manager wouldn't have them.

The manager of a team should be more important and should have a bigger effect on the team and no matter what they are and shouldn't render a manager apparently helpless and blameless for any bad that ensues and time has shown countless times they're not incapable of getting tunes out personnel they inherit.  

There's managers coping better with worse now that having a massive spend on mostly duds to supplement an already strong team.

 

Two of the best managers this league has ever seen dropped the same points % we have in their transition seasons, one of them (the one many deem the best manager around and one of the best of all time) didn't win a match without Rodri from October 2022 to December 2023 when they beat the mighty Luton Town.

 

Meanwhile look at how we'll we did in 23-24 with probably the biggest injury list this club has ever had.

 

Yet the same manager now is struggling with different mitigating circumstances.

 

I just don't think there are any hard and fast rules with these things.

 

 

[Hanshithispantz]

It's fairly obvious he will want another striker. If Gordon goes he'll want a winger. I think he'll try to turn Elanga's form around.

 

Another central midfielder I would imagine is a must, not being able to win games without Bruno is worrying.

 

A centre back.

 

A keeper. 

 

One or 2 right backs depending on whether Livramento stays or goes.

[Dr.Spaceman]

6 minutes ago, Mikky said:

So going into the summer - what do you think we need in terms of personnel to change things? Honest question …

 

And who goes?

 

 

 

 

I'd add a coach or two, someone said to replace Tindall and I don't think that's a wild idea. I'd also shift several stale first teamers and move on the likes of Willock and Murphy. If Sunderland can do what they've done with pretty much an entire new first team then we can do it with 5 or 6 quality additions on mixed with some dice throws from within Europe and South America.

 

Our situation is nowhere near as bad as a lot of people are making it out to be.

[LFEE]

1 minute ago, J7 said:

We over performed for his first 18 months, but not since. It’s been about par/good in the league after that and before this season. 
 

You don’t spend the best part of £700m, have Brazilian and Italian internationals in midfield, the starting English right winger, who young highly rated English full backs, then settle for ‘levelling off’ in 14th behind Bournemouth, Everton, Fulham, Brentford and Sunderland. £55m Elanga is his man. The position performances have been in the main very poor, never mind the league position.

Par with a CEO and DOF on our current wage bill is 8th.

 

Not sure how winning a cup and finishing 5th is below par last season

 

His full season record is 4th, 7th and 5th and his cup record by and large been brilliant with 2 Finals and 1 QF (which was seconds away from a SF against Boro so likely final) and another SF losing to the winners. We’ve only been KO’d by Man City in the FA CUP last two seasons. Shef Wed his only full season blemish and that was due to wasteful finishing second half.

 

Apart from one half against Barcelona we’ve not been disgraced in any European game and if my memory serves me right we are the only English team PSG haven’t beaten and if it wasn’t for two of the worst penalty decisions I’ve seen we might’ve beaten them 3/3 at least 2/3.

 

This league campaign has been the ONLY under performance AS IT STANDS. We’ve five game to go to make final judgments on it. 
 

Currently we are 6 points behind Brentford despite them taking 6 of us. 4 behind Sunderland despite them taking 6 of us. 3 points behind Fulham with us still to play them. 5 points behind Everton and 6 behind Bournemouth. They’ve hardly ran miles ahead of us despite NONE of them doing well in the cups or having European games.

 

You do when your club and squad had no investment or serious direction for 13yrs or whatever it was. It’s chicken feed compared to the money the others have spent, usually whilst retaining their best players.

[KetteringMag]

A lot of ‘as it stands’ in these statements , not sure that support will be so rubber tight if we lose our last 5 in all honesty 

[Stuy_O]

15 minutes ago, Dr.Spaceman said:

 

Because people are ignoring a lot of what preceded this slump in order to fit their narrative. I'm no Howe fanboy, I've criticised him loads on here and in person but you cannot ignore last summer and the lack of support he had from those above him. You cannot be angry at the slow paced nature of the PIF with things like the stadium decision or replacing Eales and in the same breath think sacking Eddie Howe today is the best thing for a productive summer to lead us into the next season.

 

Yes Eddie has made mistakes, but don't all managers? Literally the best two managers the PL has ever seen (imo) made shit loads of mistakes, neither getting it right first time. One of the fuckers signed Bebe and the other signed Igor Stepanovs. Get them out the Hall of Fame now...

 

Eddie has shown that with a harmonious squad he can deliver a brand of football that gets us pumped and can deliver some of the best experiences most of us have ever had at SJP. Doesn't he deserve at least one go at clearing the decks and rebuilding? It's clear to me that several of the first team don't see their futures here and that is what I think has destroyed a lot of what Eddie and his team have built - the squad harmony, the togetherness and the general feeling of us v the rest of the world.

 

Fuck whatever the southern press or fat Geordie paedo youtubers tell you they're thinking for clicks, it's time to buck the trend and stick with what we've got, because fuck knows what we end up with next.

 

Now you're talking about sacking him though.

 

Im talking about the very fair questions he's been getting for how he's setting the team up and the manner in which we're losing games. 

 

I certainly didn't think we'd be getting outplayed by Sunderland at home when I heard Paul Mitchell was leaving.

 

That's the point I'm making, is that you can point to the window and other things to a certain point, but when you're playing as bad as we are now, and make no mistake we are currently one of the worst teams in the league, then questions are bound to be asked of the manager and he can have no complaints. 

 

I won't exclude the players either who have done nothing to justify the money they earn. 

 

 

Edited April 21 by Stuy_O

[J7]

2 minutes ago, LFEE said:

Par with a CEO and DOF on our current wage bill is 8th.

 

Not sure how winning a cup and finishing 5th is below par last season

 

His full season record is 4th, 7th and 5th and his cup record by and large been brilliant with 2 Finals and 1 QF (which was seconds away from a SF against Boro so likely final) and another SF losing to the winners. We’ve only been KO’d by Man City in the FA CUP last two seasons. Shef Wed his only full season blemish and that was due to wasteful finishing second half.

 

Apart from one half against Barcelona we’ve not been disgraced in any European game and if my memory serves me right we are the only English team PSG haven’t beaten and if it wasn’t for two of the worst penalty decisions I’ve seen we might’ve beaten them 3/3 at least 2/3.

 

This league campaign has been the ONLY under performance AS IT STANDS. We’ve five game to go to make final judgments on it. 
 

Currently we are 6 points behind Brentford despite them taking 6 of us. 4 behind Sunderland despite them taking 6 of us. 3 points behind Fulham with us still to play them. 5 points behind Everton and 6 behind Bournemouth. They’ve hardly ran miles ahead of us despite NONE of them doing well in the cups or having European games.

 

You do when your club and squad had no investment or serious direction for 13yrs or whatever it was. It’s chicken feed compared to the money the others have spent, usually whilst retaining their best players.

I didn’t say it was below par. I said it was par/good, in the league. 

[Hanshithispantz]

Realistically if we lose our last 5 it will be down to the players downing tools, in which case they can all fuck off and I'd happily sell the whole squad.

[LFEE]

Just now, J7 said:

I didn’t say it was below par. I said it was par/good, in the league. 

Even that is clearly mealy mouthed.

 

Anyway… @Dr.Spaceman Has supplemented anything further I was going to add brilliantly with his last post.

 

Lets hope we get the players we want in the summer unlike last summer (still going to be hard) and see where we are come Xmas.

 

Its the very least this manager deserves.

[Wallsendmag]

8 minutes ago, Kid Icarus said:

Two of the best managers this league has ever seen dropped the same points % we have in their transition seasons, one of them (the one many deem the best manager around and one of the best of all time) didn't win a match without Rodri from October 2022 to December 2023 when they beat the mighty Luton Town.

 

Meanwhile look at how we'll we did in 23-24 with probably the biggest injury list this club has ever had.

 

Yet the same manager now is struggling with different mitigating circumstances.

 

I just don't think there are any hard and fast rules with these things.

 

 

 

That'll be the same Luton Town that we couldn't beat then. Mighty indeed 

[Mikky]

3 minutes ago, Dr.Spaceman said:

 

I'd add a coach or two, someone said to replace Tindall and I don't think that's a wild idea. I'd also shift several stale first teamers and move on the likes of Willock and Murphy. If Sunderland can do what they've done with pretty much an entire new first team then we can do it with 5 or 6 quality additions on mixed with some dice throws from within Europe and South America.

 

Our situation is nowhere near as bad as a lot of people are making it out to be.

The coaching changes I am on board with - there comes a point when you have to freshen it up 

 

For me, if Howe stays, then we need a total rebuild of epic proportions - there needs to be clever signings in there - not everyone has to cost £40m

 

OUT - Ramsdale - Kraft - Trippier - Schar - A Murphy - Tino - Joelinton - Willock - J Murphy - Wissa - Gordon - keepers x3

 

Burn only just survives even though I want him gone too 

 

IN - GK - RBx2 - CB - young CB - LB - DM - AM - RW - LW - 9

 

That’s the scale of the job 

[The Prophet]

My position has always been Howe was delt an absolutely rotten hand in the summer, for the second summer in a row and given his list of sizeable achievements, he should be the man to lead any rebuild.

 

I'm still there, but I had expected a reaction from the players, post-international break and while I've not watched much football of late, it sounds like we're playing with very little intensity. That is alarming, with parallels to his final months at Bournemouth, concern is understandable.

 

If we were going to twist, it has to be for an upgrade. Any more towards Iraola or Glasner would feel like side ways steps to similar problems down the line.  Ultimately though, until the wage bill and transfer spends consistently increase, it's marginal gains no matter the ability of the coach.

 

I do fear for his future as we approach wheels off territory this campaign, but I would like to see the man who has dug us out of the mud, reinvented us and taken us to new heights so many times, given one last opportunity to so. He's earned it, no matter how ugly things get this month.

[LFEE]

Actually I do want to add more.

 

Lets not forget we went 2-3 windows unable to advance the squad and Tonali

banned for a season. 
 

Whereas you had Man City looking not the same force then hey ho let’s buy Semenyo and Guehi because we’ve two £60-70m players out of form/injured for a few weeks 

 

Look where that squad boost leads to…