Eddie Howe

[Turnbull2000]

15 minutes ago, nufc123 said:

Aye CL doesnt mean much to us beside the money income. A year here and there wont mean much to players.

 

That's why EL qualification is now more meaningful imo. It's a level we can settle at and a trophy we can regularly win. CL is just about making up the numbers and trying to pad out our finances - a futile exercise under these rules, really. 

[TheBrownBottle]

2 minutes ago, SUPERTOON said:

Whilst you are probably right, none of our top players are good enough for teams capable of winning the champions league imo.

Isak went to Liverpool, Gordon is linked with Bayern (and they wanted Woltemade last summer), Tonali and Livramento will likely join an elite club - and that’s not allowing for the likes of Bruno and Hall.  Comfortably a third of our squad could play at that level - at least according to managers of those clubs. 

[TRon]

3 minutes ago, TheBrownBottle said:

Isak went to Liverpool, Gordon is linked with Bayern (and they wanted Woltemade last summer), Tonali and Livramento will likely join an elite club - and that’s not allowing for the likes of Bruno and Hall.  Comfortably a third of our squad could play at that level - at least according to managers of those clubs. 

 

It's only the elite clubs our top players are leaving for as well. I doubt we'll lose any to Aston Villa or Espanyol for example. 

[Wolfcastle]

1 hour ago, The Prophet said:

I must say as well. I was naive in thinking with Champions League football and a trophy in the bank that we could hold onto our best players. Last summer was an eye opener.

The new financial rules have meant clubs having to sell after qualifying for it not after missing out - if they're outside the cartel.

Its always just been about money. Champions League was just previously a faciliator of that.  Less games and more money at Man United is more attractive than CL games and less money.

[OpenC]

 

thank god the forum is back online  spent the last two hours worrying about where I'd get my daily fix of views that things have gone stale

[TBG]

So that's now Dubs and Lascelles' careers ruined by this guy letting them go.

[Andy]

15 minutes ago, OpenC said:

 

thank god the forum is back online  spent the last two hours worrying about where I'd get my daily fix of views that things have gone stale

 

Server couldn't keep up with the intensity, Eddie has fucked this up for us too

[NUFC91]

14 hours ago, The Prophet said:

Two takeaway from this page.

 

Anyone demanding season-on-season improvement on the pitch is going to be disappointed until we catch up off it.

 

Linked to that, Ashley has set us back years by i) neglecting to grow our revenue in anyway shape or form, ensuring we'd always hit pretty low ceiling ii) neglecting the academy denying us a talent pool we could blood into the first team or (as grim as it is) sell.

 

 

 

 

Not at all, reading through here no one is expecting season on season improvement, we finished 7th the year after our first year in the champions league and is was still a very good and positive season, we are 14th this year and 20 points worse off than this stage last year which is why some fans are concerned but are still behind the team.

 

[The College Dropout]

11 hours ago, TRon said:

 

Being able to pay the top wages really does make a massive difference. 

Yep it is THE difference.

 

11 hours ago, SUPERTOON said:

Whilst you are probably right, none of our top players are good enough for teams capable of winning the champions league imo.

The best players will join clubs that have ambitions to win it or have won it in the last 10 years. But money is more important.

[OpenC]

Aye it's no coincidence that there's a pretty strong correlation between paying the most and winning the most like.  Not many if any are signing for teams because they love a manager's ethos, they're signing for the team that will pay them literally twenty million more over the length of their contract

[TRon]

Just now, OpenC said:

Aye it's no coincidence that there's a pretty strong correlation between paying the most and winning the most like.  Not many if any are signing for teams because they love a manager's ethos, they're signing for the team that will pay them literally twenty million more over the length of their contract

 

 

That's why the new rules implemented across Europe makes it impossible for us to pay top wages even if we have all the money in the world. They are designed to prevent any competition to the established superclubs of the world. 

[Benwell Lad]

12 minutes ago, OpenC said:

Aye it's no coincidence that there's a pretty strong correlation between paying the most and winning the most like.  Not many if any are signing for teams because they love a manager's ethos, they're signing for the team that will pay them literally twenty million more over the length of their contract

 

From the Northern Leaguer 2nd division all the way to the Champions League it's essentially the same and though the numbers are bigger nowadays it always has been like that.

 

 

Edited April 23 by Benwell Lad

[OpenC]

12 minutes ago, Benwell Lad said:

 

From the Northern Leaguer 2nd division all the way to the Champions League it's essentially the same and though the numbers are bigger nowadays it always has been like that.

 

Aye, absolutely.  The important difference between the Northern League and the Champions League is that a proud new owner of a Northern League club can spend whatever they want to try and improve their situation without some bribed league governance shill telling them that they can't and it's for their own good in the long run   you still get the dramatic spurs style falls from grace at established clubs in both scenarios but in non-league you also get upstarts making waves, which is now depressingly rare and evidently unsustainable in Proper Football.  Like TRon says, it's been engineered to keep it depressingly rare and unsustainable.

 

 

Edited April 23 by OpenC

[Benwell Lad]

4 minutes ago, OpenC said:

 

Aye, absolutely.  The important difference between the Northern League and the Champions League is that a proud new owner of a Northern League club can spend whatever they want to try and improve their situation without some bribed league governance shill telling them that they can't and it's for their own good in the long run   you still get the dramatic spurs style falls from grace at established clubs in both scenarios but in non-league you also get upstarts making waves, which is now depressingly rare and evidently unsustainable in Proper Football 

 

 

 

 

Ironically there have probably been more financial artificial bubbles burst at lower levels than have ever happened higher up. 

The Richie Rich's of the game who become attracted for whatever reason, throw money at unrealstic ambitions and then bale out a year or two later when they get bored. There have been dozens and dozens of such examples (remember Colne Dynamos) and probably enough material for a good book about it all 

 

South Shields and Hebburn recently, and Morpeth before that, thankfully seem to be going about it in a sustainable way. 

Then there's Gateshead almost the opposite. Consistently, for decades now, the North East's top non league club, from the most hampered of situations, without ever making any waves.

(Should probably be in the NL thread )

[alexf]

As bad as this league season has been, if we had just hung on to win in 2/3 games instead of capitulating late and turning wins into losses so many times, we'd have been sitting in 6th/7th right now. 

 

That tells me that it really doesn't take a lot to finish ahead of most in this league. Said it for awhile but it felt like the only thing separating us from the rest of the pack last season was that we had Isak up front. 

 

Take him away and we would fall back and could finish anywhere from 6th-14th.

 

What I didn't anticipate was us falling apart so spectacularly like we have post CL elimination and that it now looks like we won't win another game. 

 

If we had beat Sunderland and gained some momentum towards the end of the season we would have comfortably finished top 6-7 and the whole complexion changes. 

 

Sadly it went the other way and we now face an uncertain future for the manager and many of the players who seem to want to leave. 

 

[Wallsendmag]

1 hour ago, alexf said:

As bad as this league season has been, if we had just hung on to win in 2/3 games instead of capitulating late and turning wins into losses so many times, we'd have been sitting in 6th/7th right now. 

 

That tells me that it really doesn't take a lot to finish ahead of most in this league. Said it for awhile but it felt like the only thing separating us from the rest of the pack last season was that we had Isak up front. 

 

Take him away and we would fall back and could finish anywhere from 6th-14th.

 

What I didn't anticipate was us falling apart so spectacularly like we have post CL elimination and that it now looks like we won't win another game. 

 

If we had beat Sunderland and gained some momentum towards the end of the season we would have comfortably finished top 6-7 and the whole complexion changes. 

 

Sadly it went the other way and we now face an uncertain future for the manager and many of the players who seem to want to leave. 

 

 

Agree to a point but there's a lot of "ifs" in there. If my Auntie had bollocks and all that....

 

I think 14th is about right for where our performances have been this season. I don't look at the league table and think we deserve to be 4 or 5 places higher. We've chucked away some daft points (when it keeps on happening that goes past being unlucky though) but we've also won games where we've probably been 2nd best, Wolves (H), Leeds (H), Fulham (H) could have gone either way till Brunos last minute winner all spring to mind.

 

We have a mentally weak team and presently a manager who looks absolutely drained. It's all pretty much the polar opposite to the season where we finished 4th, had a team of strong minded shithouses who were a load of right nasty bastards to play against and a manager who had found the perfect way of playing and getting the very best out of each individual player.

[Coffee_Johnny]

13 minutes ago, Wallsendmag said:

 

Agree to a point but there's a lot of "ifs" in there. If my Auntie had bollocks and all that....

 

I think 14th is about right for where our performances have been this season. I don't look at the league table and think we deserve to be 4 or 5 places higher. We've chucked away some daft points (when it keeps on happening that goes past being unlucky though) but we've also won games where we've probably been 2nd best, Wolves (H), Leeds (H), Fulham (H) could have gone either way till Brunos last minute winner all spring to mind.

 

We have a mentally weak team and presently a manager who looks absolutely drained. It's all pretty much the polar opposite to the season where we finished 4th, had a team of strong minded shithouses who were a load of right nasty bastards to play against and a manager who had found the perfect way of playing and getting the very best out of each individual player.

Can’t be bothered to look and list them, but we have had some results this season that don’t support a justified 14th placed team, or us being mentality weak. One of the Man City games, four fifths of the Barca games and PSG spring to mind. 

[Wallsendmag]

4 minutes ago, Coffee_Johnny said:

Can’t be bothered to look and list them, but we have had some results this season that don’t support a justified 14th placed team, or us being mentality weak. One of the Man City games, four fifths of the Barca games and PSG spring to mind. 

 

But there's far more that do show that we are. The 2 derbies probably showcase their fragile nature more than any. The 2nd half at home especially. They went for it. We hid away and went into our shells waiting for the inevitable. They are the games where you see where your team is at in terms of it's character. We barely even put a tackle in.

 

 

Edited April 23 by Wallsendmag

[TheEntertainer]

6 minutes ago, Coffee_Johnny said:

Can’t be bothered to look and list them, but we have had some results this season that don’t support a justified 14th placed team, or us being mentality weak. One of the Man City games, four fifths of the Barca games and PSG spring to mind. 

I hate the 4/5th's of the Barca game example, the problem all season has been we don't have the mental fortitude or the ability or the fitness or whatever it is to hold onto what we invariably get early in games, this is the absolute prime example of that. 

 

There have been some good games though I agree, but I think that's a terrible example as it is the perfect example of what's been wrong with us all year. It's no good being brilliant for 75 minutes in a 90 minute sport! 

 

 

Edited April 23 by TheEntertainer

[Wallsendmag]

3 minutes ago, TheEntertainer said:

I hate the 4/5th's of the Barca game, the problem all season has been we don't have the mental fortitude or the ability or the fitness or whatever it is to hold onto what we invariably get get early in games, this is the absolute prime example of that. 

 

There have been some good games though I agree, but I think that's a terrible example as it is the perfect example of what's been wrong with us all year. It's no good being brilliant for 75 minutes in a 90 minute sport! 

 

Aye showcasing an 8-3 aggregate loss where we completely crumbled in the final 45 minutes and conceded 5 goals in that time wasn't the best example.

 

Personally I'd have used the Man Utd game when we beat them despite having to play the 2nd half with 10 men 

 

 

Edited April 23 by Wallsendmag

[TheEntertainer]

1 minute ago, Wallsendmag said:

 

Aye showcasing an 8-3 aggregate loss where we completely crumbled in the final 45 minutes and conceded 5 goals in that time wasn't the best example.

 

Personally I'd have used the Man Utd game when we beat them despite having to play the 2nd half v 10 men 

We had a run in October/November where we had a few good games (though spotty) and looked like we might be able to have a decent season, it's been fairly consistently bad since then with the odd bright spark to stop us completely losing hope but trending down all season. 

[Chicken Dancer]

Man U and Liverpool were probably our best performances in the league, closely followed by Everton (A) and Man City (H).

 

We were desperately unlucky in the Liverpool game but that's probably the only time I can remember feeling pretty hard done by. On the other side of the coin I reckon Burnley would have felt pretty hard done by at St James' in December - with 10 men they looked the more likely and very nearly scored an equaliser at the death. Same goes for Fulham and Wolves too.

 

The season has hopefully just been a down year and we can get back to our best next year, but I would like to see something in the final 5. Given Europe is probably out of reach now, I'm at the stage where performances are more important to me personally than results. I'd feel a lot better if we looked like our old selves in the final 5 with little to show for it rather than winning 1 or 2 flakey games with more of the same.

 

Just me though, I totally get it's a results business.

[Miggys First Goal]

 

[OoOGazOoO]

'Scouting for a Howe team'.

 

Isn't that what we have with the likes of Elanga, Thiaw, Wissa, etc...?

[Wallsendmag]

1 minute ago, Chicken Dancer said:

Man U and Liverpool were probably our best performances in the league, closely followed by Everton (A) and Man City (H).

 

We were desperately unlucky in the Liverpool game but that's probably the only time I can remember feeling pretty hard done by. On the other side of the coin I reckon Burnley would have felt pretty hard done by at St James' in December - with 10 men they looked the more likely and very nearly scored an equaliser at the death. Same goes for Fulham and Wolves too.

 

The season has hopefully just been a down year and we can get back to our best next year, but I would like to see something in the final 5. Given Europe is probably out of reach now, I'm at the stage where performances are more important to me personally than results. I'd feel a lot better if we looked like our old selves in the final 5 with little to show for it rather than winning 1 or 2 flakey games with more of the same.

 

Just me though, I totally get it's a results business.

 

That's where I am tbh. I just want to see something, some sort of positive reaction in the remaining games. I know we'll almost certainly get beat on Saturday but it's about the performance and how we approach it for me. If we give them a good game, maybe even a bit of a scare and come away with a 1 or 2-0 loss fair enough but these players have got to show that they're still playing for the manager, for the supporters and even for themselves. If they've got a bit pride about themselves the (justifiable) criticism should be hurting them and they should be going out and proving that they can roll their sleeves up and complete because it's too long since we last seen that.