Eddie Howe

[r0cafella]

Just now, TheBrownBottle said:

I’m glad to learn that Eddie and the lads were ok to effectively sack off almost a quarter of the season as it was pointless anyway

 

That is no doubt why Eddie and the lads personally refunded everyone who paid for a ticket plus their travel to away games, as it’s the least they could do.  That must’ve happened if they were flip-flops on

They weren't ok to do it and it's not acceptable, not was our performances in the league this season, I'm not sure that's even debate worthy at this point. 

 

Judging from the reports, another such season will not be tolerated and both Eddie and the club are in agreement on this. 

[TheBrownBottle]

53 minutes ago, r0cafella said:

They weren't ok to do it and it's not acceptable, not was our performances in the league this season, I'm not sure that's even debate worthy at this point. 

 

Judging from the reports, another such season will not be tolerated and both Eddie and the club are in agreement on this. 

Too right mate - I’m scratching my head at reading effectively ‘they were ok to sack it off’.  It’s went from ‘new players need time to learn the club’s ways’ to ‘injuries’ to ‘transitioning’ to ‘fixture congestion’ to ‘we’re doing well in the cups’ to ‘fuck it, they were in flip-flops anyway, what more could be expected?’

 

Happy to draw a line under last season and get behind Howe and the team going forwards, but the excuse making has gone from understandable to ridiculous.  

[r0cafella]

29 minutes ago, TheBrownBottle said:

Too right mate - I’m scratching my head at reading effectively ‘they were ok to sack it off’.  It’s went from ‘new players need time to learn the club’s ways’ to ‘injuries’ to ‘transitioning’ to ‘fixture congestion’ to ‘we’re doing well in the cups’ to ‘fuck it, they were in flip-flops anyway, what more could be expected?’

 

Happy to draw a line under last season and get behind Howe and the team going forwards, but the excuse making has gone from understandable to ridiculous.  

I mean, people want to defend the manager which is fine they are entitled to that opinion. 

 

Ultimately, I think we are all best off drawing that like under it and moving onto the next season as the club has set out it's stall (if reports are to be believed). 

[TheBrownBottle]

8 minutes ago, r0cafella said:

I mean, people want to defend the manager which is fine they are entitled to that opinion. 

 

Ultimately, I think we are all best off drawing that like under it and moving onto the next season as the club has set out it's stall (if reports are to be believed). 

They’re absolutely entitled to defend him, no issues on that front - but I don’t understand how anyone can sanction them ‘downing tools’.  Personally I don’t think Howe did at all - it’s a smear if anyone thinks that - but I can think of little more shite for a professional football outfit to do.  

[Mattoon]

23 minutes ago, TheBrownBottle said:

They’re absolutely entitled to defend him, no issues on that front - but I don’t understand how anyone can sanction them ‘downing tools’.  Personally I don’t think Howe did at all - it’s a smear if anyone thinks that - but I can think of little more shite for a professional football outfit to do.  

I actually agree with you, downing tools in any scenario is not a viable excuse. I also don't think that its true, for the most part. Some of the excuses for and against are becoming more and more ridiculous and rivisionary.

 

We definitely do need to just draw a line under it all at this point and get behind the club and the course its chosen.

[r0cafella]

41 minutes ago, TheBrownBottle said:

They’re absolutely entitled to defend him, no issues on that front - but I don’t understand how anyone can sanction them ‘downing tools’.  Personally I don’t think Howe did at all - it’s a smear if anyone thinks that - but I can think of little more shite for a professional football outfit to do.  

Without wanting to dig too deep in to this, I think it's obvious that Eddie will have been unhappy with the state of some of those performances but unfortunately as the manager it's his responsibility to ensure they don't happen. 

 

Obviously they did happen, we all witnessed them but the past cant be changed, the issue for me does get compound though if those same lads who were on the beach are rocking up in August to play again. 

 

 

[TheBrownBottle]

23 minutes ago, Mattoon said:

I actually agree with you, downing tools in any scenario is not a viable excuse. I also don't think that its true, for the most part. Some of the excuses for and against are becoming more and more ridiculous and rivisionary.

 

We definitely do need to just draw a line under it all at this point and get behind the club and the course its chosen.

Absolutely - I don’t think it’s true either.  I think Howe was trying to win every match, as were the players (only the final match of the season was questionable). 
 

Fresh start for the season awaits, we still have a capable head coach and a talented squad - let’s hope the summer window goes well and we can look forward to putting last season down to experience. 
 

 

[cubaricho]

3 hours ago, r0cafella said:

They weren't ok to do it and it's not acceptable, not was our performances in the league this season, I'm not sure that's even debate worthy at this point. 

 

Judging from the reports, another such season will not be tolerated and both Eddie and the club are in agreement on this. 

Agreed. 

[TRon]

4 hours ago, TheBrownBottle said:

They’re absolutely entitled to defend him, no issues on that front - but I don’t understand how anyone can sanction them ‘downing tools’.  Personally I don’t think Howe did at all - it’s a smear if anyone thinks that - but I can think of little more shite for a professional football outfit to do.  

 

 

I think fans are just desperate to make some sort of excuses for last season, Howe is immensely popular because of what he's achieved before in previous seasons. Everyone kept hoping it was just a bad start/fatigue/bedding in problems/lack of training on the ground due to the fixture list etc.

 

Finally when we had a clear run of fixtures after being knocked out of the CL we would see what we could do with time on the training pitch. Then when it still produced the same turgid crap, it has to be because we've got nothing to play for. 

 

Sometimes the simple answer is the right one. We have played bad football most of the season and it's reflected in the table at the end of it. I'm not sure that will change next season either personally, but that's based on what I've seen this season and the fact we are going again hoping it will get better. 

[Wallsendmag]

Some people thought that once we were down to 1 game a week for the final 2 months of the season (8 games) that out form would pick up and we'd maybe grab a European place as we were 9th at the time. It was a fair assumption and I remember debating with Yorkie about it as he thought we would whereas I thought the malaise had set in and we wouldn't. We both put fair enough arguments across I felt. In the end we dropped a further 3 places when we dropped to 1 game a week and finished 12th which was desperately disappointing. 

 

Not sure if the players, or some of them downed tools or not. It's impossible to prove anyway. I'm 99.9% certain Howe wouldn't. I just don't believe he's that way inclined. My gripe with him was more about his summer signings, tactics, style of play, in game management and squad management. Obviously whatever he was saying in his HT team talks was having the opposite effect to whatever he was wanting as well. Playing a near enough full strength team for the 2nd leg v Qarabag bordered on the ridiculous with us being 5 goals up and going into it on the back of an energy sapping game at Man City where we spent a lot of time chasing the ball. We lost the following league game at home to Everton iirc.

 

Hopefully they don't just draw a line under last season and write it off as some are suggesting. I want Howe to learn from last season and not make the same mistakes again. He can't afford to anyway. Lot's of wrongs need to be put right and a good summer window and a quick start next season are vital. If there's a repeat of last summer and a repeat of last seasons start to the season he'll be away by the October International break and that's something nobody wants.

[TheBrownBottle]

1 hour ago, Wallsendmag said:

Hopefully they don't just draw a line under last season and write it off as some are suggesting. I want Howe to learn from last season and not make the same mistakes again. He can't afford to anyway. Lot's of wrongs need to be put right and a good summer window and a quick start next season are vital. If there's a repeat of last summer and a repeat of last seasons start to the season he'll be away by the October International break and that's something nobody wants.

I hope those in the club don’t - I’m happy to from my point of view.  If we’re poor by Nov / Dec is when I’m likely to reevaluate again - the ‘credit in the bank’ is definitely gone at this point.  Hopefully he won’t need to call on any credit. 

[TRon]

1 hour ago, Wallsendmag said:

Some people thought that once we were down to 1 game a week for the final 2 months of the season (8 games) that out form would pick up and we'd maybe grab a European place as we were 9th at the time. It was a fair assumption and I remember debating with Yorkie about it as he thought we would whereas I thought the malaise had set in and we wouldn't. We both put fair enough arguments across I felt. In the end we dropped a further 3 places when we dropped to 1 game a week and finished 12th which was desperately disappointing. 

 

Not sure if the players, or some of them downed tools or not. It's impossible to prove anyway. I'm 99.9% certain Howe wouldn't. I just don't believe he's that way inclined. My gripe with him was more about his summer signings, tactics, style of play, in game management and squad management. Obviously whatever he was saying in his HT team talks was having the opposite effect to whatever he was wanting as well. Playing a near enough full strength team for the 2nd leg v Qarabag bordered on the ridiculous with us being 5 goals up and going into it on the back of an energy sapping game at Man City where we spent a lot of time chasing the ball. We lost the following league game at home to Everton iirc.

 

Hopefully they don't just draw a line under last season and write it off as some are suggesting. I want Howe to learn from last season and not make the same mistakes again. He can't afford to anyway. Lot's of wrongs need to be put right and a good summer window and a quick start next season are vital. If there's a repeat of last summer and a repeat of last seasons start to the season he'll be away by the October International break and that's something nobody wants.

 

 

Couldn't have put it better. I think the players attitude as the season has spoken volumes. They were still putting in the effort, but the belief was lacking, and not many of them looked like they had really bought into what Howe was wanting. Stories of the best players looking to move on would never have been taken seriously a couple of years ago. 

 

Can we turn it around with some fresh blood? Maybe. I can understand why it was the safe option after success over the past few years, but I think the football itself is the problem now, and I saw very little over last season to make me think Howe will do much differently. 

[Yorkie]

1 hour ago, Wallsendmag said:

Some people thought that once we were down to 1 game a week for the final 2 months of the season (8 games) that out form would pick up and we'd maybe grab a European place as we were 9th at the time. It was a fair assumption and I remember debating with Yorkie about it as he thought we would whereas I thought the malaise had set in and we wouldn't. We both put fair enough arguments across I felt. In the end we dropped a further 3 places when we dropped to 1 game a week and finished 12th which was desperately disappointing. 

 

I can't remember our debate (or when we had it, which is important given how the context was changing with every passing result), but for sure I thought it was plausible our form would pick up at one game per week.

 

But I didn't think it was guaranteed and did say this at the start of the run-in: 

 

Quote

On the matter of improving players, I hold some hope that regular training time will bear some fruit, but it's crucial we get a result to accompany that or it'll all be futile cos their heads will go.

 

That's why Palace put the nail in the season's coffin, and any analysis of the manager's performance in the remaining games is caveated by the fact the season was all but done, rightly or wrongly. The players were mentally at rock bottom in the following Bournemouth game, then we were away to Arsenal.

[Ikon]

And then our start next season will be because of our ending this season?..   (If we start poorly). 

 

 

Edited yesterday at 09:36 by Ikon

[Smal]

I think the point that well and truly killed the season for me was the January window, but it arguably goes back to the summer given we probably couldn’t spend anything as a direct result of that. Not getting any back up at full back, a goalkeeper or even a striker on loan or something to correct any of our mistakes from summer meant we were never going to do anything with this group of players. It isn’t a group that is good enough to put a run together like previous seasons.

 

The main trio of disasters imo was a) a choice of Wissa/Woltemade up front, b) Pope or Ramsdale in goal, and then c) Tripps and Hall having to play every minute. It was never going to be anything other than mid-table with those in play. Bruno (and Miley) getting injured was just the icing on the cake.

 

The goalkeeper and striker situations alone will have cost us 20 points this season. If we go into next season with the same ones we’re done.

 

 

Edited yesterday at 09:41 by Smal

[Yorkie]

4 minutes ago, Ikon said:

And then our start next season will be because of our ending this season?..   (If we start poorly). 

 

 

 

 

Eh?

[Wallsendmag]

39 minutes ago, Ikon said:

And then our start next season will be because of our ending this season?..   (If we start poorly). 

 

 

 

 

No more excuses. We need to come out the blocks flying in August. Losing 5 and drawing 1 of our final 8 games after exiting the CL was disastrous. There's been many cases of clubs ending seasons really badly and then continuing where they left off the following season. That can't be us.

[Coffee_Johnny]

22 hours ago, The College Dropout said:

We need to get back to being ruthless in the market; Gordon, Isak, Bruno - we were ruthless.

Were we ruthless or just quick and lucky? Either way, more of that kind of business thank you very much. 

[Ben]

18 hours ago, Coffee_Johnny said:

Were we ruthless or just quick and lucky? Either way, more of that kind of business thank you very much. 

I get the impression its a lot harder these days, agents are promoting their "Clients" a lot more than before and apparently using their stats as selling points, they will definitely explore all options before making a decision, I suppose thats where the likes of Wilson comes in handy.

[sanyi75]

Unfortunately, we missed a big opportunity, because the European Cup will not be easier to get than this. We should have taken advantage of Tottenham and Chelsea's stumbles. I can't process this. We made a lot of mistakes, starting with irresponsible spending. We had a big opportunity to step up. I hope they learned from this, but it will be very difficult, Aston Villa will definitely strengthen, and so will the others. Our transfer system also needs to be improved, I don't understand why we missed out on signing Rayan, we need such talents.

[Cronky]

On 04/06/2026 at 09:12, Wallsendmag said:

Some people thought that once we were down to 1 game a week for the final 2 months of the season (8 games) that out form would pick up and we'd maybe grab a European place as we were 9th at the time. It was a fair assumption and I remember debating with Yorkie about it as he thought we would whereas I thought the malaise had set in and we wouldn't. We both put fair enough arguments across I felt. In the end we dropped a further 3 places when we dropped to 1 game a week and finished 12th which was desperately disappointing. 

 

Not sure if the players, or some of them downed tools or not. It's impossible to prove anyway. I'm 99.9% certain Howe wouldn't. I just don't believe he's that way inclined. My gripe with him was more about his summer signings, tactics, style of play, in game management and squad management. Obviously whatever he was saying in his HT team talks was having the opposite effect to whatever he was wanting as well. Playing a near enough full strength team for the 2nd leg v Qarabag bordered on the ridiculous with us being 5 goals up and going into it on the back of an energy sapping game at Man City where we spent a lot of time chasing the ball. We lost the following league game at home to Everton iirc.

 

Hopefully they don't just draw a line under last season and write it off as some are suggesting. I want Howe to learn from last season and not make the same mistakes again. He can't afford to anyway. Lot's of wrongs need to be put right and a good summer window and a quick start next season are vital. If there's a repeat of last summer and a repeat of last seasons start to the season he'll be away by the October International break and that's something nobody wants.

 

This sort of post does worry me. I think the club has got as far as it can with its previous strategy, which left us with a strong first team but not much in reserve. We had our successes but it was difficult to sustain. The constant pressure of two games a week had its toll on the first team, and they were knackered mentally and physically by the final run-in.

 

I think the transfer policy will now be changing under Wilson to take more account of the long-term. There will be more of an emphasis on developing youth, building a squad and a more versatile way of playing. If you're expecting the team to be challenging straight away for the top five, then I think you and many others are going to be disappointed. I can then see Eddie getting the blame and unhelpful pressure being brought to bear. It'll be Sir Bobby over again, with the same long-term result.

 

Eddie has proven himself time and again with two different clubs that he is excellent as both a motivator and a tactician. Stop panicking and give the guy a break.

[TRon]

25 minutes ago, Cronky said:

 

This sort of post does worry me. I think the club has got as far as it can with its previous strategy, which left us with a strong first team but not much in reserve. We had our successes but it was difficult to sustain. The constant pressure of two games a week had its toll on the first team, and they were knackered mentally and physically by the final run-in.

 

I think the transfer policy will now be changing under Wilson to take more account of the long-term. There will be more of an emphasis on developing youth, building a squad and a more versatile way of playing. If you're expecting the team to be challenging straight away for the top five, then I think you and many others are going to be disappointed. I can then see Eddie getting the blame and unhelpful pressure being brought to bear. It'll be Sir Bobby over again, with the same long-term result.

 

Eddie has proven himself time and again with two different clubs that he is excellent as both a motivator and a tactician. Stop panicking and give the guy a break.

 

 

Yeah I could see it being a difficult transition to a more versatile way of playing given how all in Howe has been on his Plan A for the last few years. 

 

What would you consider a reasonable expectation for next season given we are moving away from ready made stars?

 

 

[Wallsendmag]

19 minutes ago, Cronky said:

 

This sort of post does worry me. I think the club has got as far as it can with its previous strategy, which left us with a strong first team but not much in reserve. We had our successes but it was difficult to sustain. The constant pressure of two games a week had its toll on the first team, and they were knackered mentally and physically by the final run-in.

 

I think the transfer policy will now be changing under Wilson to take more account of the long-term. There will be more of an emphasis on developing youth, building a squad and a more versatile way of playing. If you're expecting the team to be challenging straight away for the top five, then I think you and many others are going to be disappointed. I can then see Eddie getting the blame and unhelpful pressure being brought to bear. It'll be Sir Bobby over again, with the same long-term result.

 

Eddie has proven himself time and again with two different clubs that he is excellent as both a motivator and a tactician. Stop panicking and give the guy a break.

 

The decision to sack SBR was the correct one. He'd lost certain players in the dressing room (the brat pack) and the team was starting to decline. We'd only won 2 out of our final 9 games in the 03/04 season and performance levels had dropped off massively. We then started the following season in similar form and won 0 of our first 4 and he was gone. This is what can't happen next season.

 

The problem was who they brought in to replace him. They went for someone who would rule with an iron fist to get the aforementioned brat pack under control, ignoring the fact that he was a very poor coach and we were entering into an era in which you couldn't control the dressing room in that way unless you were Alex Ferguson.

[sanyi75]

The problem is that now we will have a much harder time, and this is a spiral that is difficult to break out of. Now there was an opportunity, there was a lot of money to strengthen the squad, but we did not become any stronger. I hope I am wrong, but this squad is not enough to get into the top 6, some miracle should happen with player purchases. We cannot compete with weekly salaries, let's not force it, we should buy talents with less money, that's why we pay a lot of people to do their job. It was a very big mistake, for example, that we did not buy Rayan, even though he was not expensive, and his salary requirements are not high. And Wissa gets 140k per week, who previously received 25k at Brentford? This was not a normal deal, whoever is responsible for it is an idiot.

[sanyi75]

9 minutes ago, TRon said:

 

 

Yeah I could see it being a difficult transition to a more versatile way of playing given how all in Howe has been on his Plan A for the last few years. 

 

What would you consider a reasonable expectation for next season given we are moving away from ready made stars?

 

 

Since our opponents will be significantly stronger, I don't think we can reach the top 6, maybe 7-10 places.