Eddie Howe

[Theregulars]

1 hour ago, Dokko said:

 

It's performances rather than position. It breeds confidence and feel good. All that's out the window atm. If we're performing well with an optimistic future, then that'll be enough. We've seen he can ride a wave, this is the test of coming back from the crash. He couldn't turn it around at Bournemouth and looked spent. He's not there with us, he's still fighting, but his team doesn't look interested, with zero organisation.

 

Also, sometimes a manager just stops working for a team, leaves and goes on to do well somewhere else. Sometimes clubs and them need a change as do the players.

 

I don't know what the answer is, no one can really say why everything has fell apart so quickly, and no one can safely say he can turn it around or when he'll get it all back on track. We have to remember this is the highest he's been. 1 season of Europe, no trophies. It's all new territory with him, but I expected him to learn on the job, but it's just getting worse.

 

I'm glad we beat the mackems. I said it's the only thing I wanted this season and he can do what he wants and I'm still there, it's just sad now this is still going on and I'm still seeing fatigue from 6 games being used as an excuse.  

I’m not sure how you can watch us play and conclude that the team don’t look interested. 

[The College Dropout]

13 minutes ago, TRon said:

 

It's not the full picture of the injuries though, unless the teams above us also have the same percentage of their top ranking players out through injury.

Every team has injuries man. Man U are missing their first-choice CB, LB and 2 starting CMs for most of the season. They have the 4th highest wage bill. No matter the injuries, the court cases, the disrespect.. anything less than 4th maybe 5th is a proper underperformance by the whole organisation.

 

i think I said at the start of the season - with some bad luck with injuries we might be down to 7-8. I think that's fair. Good luck with fitness and continued momentum we would be 4-6th, closer to 6th considering Europe. Because I believe our manager is excellent, the squad is motivated and aligned and our recruitment is superior. Once you start going 9th, 10th, 11th... it's a bad season. Some of the factors i believe... you have to question if they hold true. Injuries contribute but there's an underlying underperformance from the squad, management and leadership. 

 

Every other team will work on the same basis.

 

 

Edited February 28 by The College Dropout

[AyeDubbleYoo]

Man Utd have been bad TBF. 

[The College Dropout]

1 minute ago, AyeDubbleYoo said:

Man Utd have been bad TBF. 

And recently... so have we.

[Lush Vlad]

Do other fanbases HOUND™️ their managers out quite like ours? 
 

I feel like he has had a few flaws and blind spots this season. But I’d say most managers do. He’s also been dealt consistently shit hands at every turn. 

The performances haven’t been great and there are some baffling things where most fans seem to be in unison on. But fuck me. I can’t quite believe how quickly we have turned on him. 
 

Loads on social media wanting him gone. Plenty of thinly veiled posts on here making it clear enough they want him replaced. 
 

Seems like everyone has got fed up of the perfectly reasonable injuries excuse and in turn, the ‘fatigue’ (NO™️) discussion and lack of rotation. So they’ve now just concluded that Howe isn’t good enough and he probably won’t turn it around. 
 

One season back up in the big time and we’ve become what the media have always said we are…..

[Away Toon]

I think that's the worst I've seen us play under Howe last night, there wasn't one thing we did well as a team . There are less and less mitigating circumstances. We do not look like a well coached team.

[worthy]

1 hour ago, RS said:

The constant huge gap between midfield and defence not being addressed is a massive concern. We look visibly slower at closing down than we were at the beginning of the season as well. 
I wonder  if Howe drops Barnes (or even livramento) in to close the gap that encourages the opposition to run straight through midfield at us. He needs to do something to resolve this obvious issue

He hasnt done it for two seasons. It’s been a problem ever since he decided on his 4-3-3 without a DM or anyone in the ilk to slot back there to protect the space between defense and midfield. 

[Scoot]

3 minutes ago, Away Toon said:

I think that's the worst I've seen us play under Howe last night, there wasn't one thing we did well as a team . There are less and less mitigating circumstances. We do not look like a well coached team.

 

I take it you didn't see us at Arsenal on Saturday?

[TRon]

13 minutes ago, AyeDubbleYoo said:

Man Utd have been bad TBF. 

 

They've also been worse the more injuries they have suffered. If Hojlund is out for a few weeks would anyone fancy them to continue winning games at the same rate as previously?

 

It's too glib to say all teams have injuries. If you have more injuries and to more key players than your rivals, then you will suffer worse results.

[Theregulars]

I think a lot of it is football being a game of such fine margins. When your confidence is high and momentum with you, things seem to “go your way” - I reckon there’s a psychology to it: taking risks, feeling energised, truly believing and trusting in something so there’s no doubt about what you’re going to do. It then seems like you’re winning the margins.
 

That momentum and confidence is so easily interrupted by circumstances; it’s so delicate - then you don’t win as much at the margins because you’re not taking risks or believing and don’t have that going energy. 
 

The end outcome is massive because it’s such an intensely competitive game. So I don’t even think it’s “over” or “under” achieving; just more circumstances have favoured and then not favoured us and we’ve had and not had momentum. 

 

I can therefore only remain of the opinion that there’s so much supervening and extenuating circumstance to this season - not to write it off; I think below 7th and no silverware would be disappointing and below my own ambitions. 
 

The nature of those extenuating circumstances also means their impact is still being felt now. 
 

Maybe it is a flaw in how he trains and plays, maybe other teams have had time to counter and plan, maybe we just really benefitted from few injuries and more coaching time, maybe it’s a bit of everything… I just don’t see much of a plausible argument that he should take more than a small amount of blame.

 

I think the comparisons with Manchester United are also weird: they have a much larger squad and much more financial resource / pulling power / (IMO) corrupting power. 

[The Bonk]

4 minutes ago, Theregulars said:

I think a lot of it is football being a game of such fine margins. When your confidence is high and momentum with you, things seem to “go your way” - I reckon there’s a psychology to it: taking risks, feeling energised, truly believing and trusting in something so there’s no doubt about what you’re going to do. It then seems like you’re winning the margins.
 

That momentum and confidence is so easily interrupted by circumstances; it’s so delicate - then you don’t win as much at the margins because you’re not taking risks or believing and don’t have that going energy. 
 

The end outcome is massive because it’s such an intensely competitive game. So I don’t even think it’s “over” or “under” achieving; just more circumstances have favoured and then not favoured us and we’ve had and not had momentum. 

 

I can therefore only remain of the opinion that there’s so much supervening and extenuating circumstance to this season - not to write it off; I think below 7th and no silverware would be disappointing and below my own ambitions. 
 

The nature of those extenuating circumstances also means their impact is still being felt now. 
 

Maybe it is a flaw in how he trains and plays, maybe other teams have had time to counter and plan, maybe we just really benefitted from few injuries and more coaching time, maybe it’s a bit of everything… I just don’t see much of a plausible argument that he should take more than a small amount of blame.

 

I think the comparisons with Manchester United are also weird: they have a much larger squad and much more financial resource / pulling power / (IMO) corrupting power. 

 

https://www.nufc.co.uk/news/latest-news/newcastle-united-appoint-dr-ian-mitchell-as-head-of-psychology/

Can we blame this guy?  

[TBG]

Folk talk about being in 10th like we're cut a drift.

 

Win on Saturday with other results going our way and we finish the weekend in 7th. 

 

Europe still on then or? 

 

 

[sushimonster85]

Didn't get a definitive answer to this the other day, but I believe Liverpool win the League Cup would drop the lowest European spot in the league (conference league) to 8th. That's assuming the PL gets the extra CL spot, which is looking likely. Not over by a long shot. 

[Jack27]

https://x.com/cfbayern/status/1762847517715136613?s=46&t=qch8y64njTIa-YpWt4BfqA
 

I don’t know if this is the right thread for this but what 

[Ronaldo]

4 hours ago, Theregulars said:

I don’t disagree with the sentiment but 3/4 of those players have missed significant time this season with injury. 

Not relevant to last season.

[365]

He is the most respected manager since Robson. If he manages to miraculously get us to win the FA cup, he will be a legend forever. 

[Fezzle]

37 minutes ago, TBG said:

Folk talk about being in 10th like we're cut a drift.

 

Win on Saturday with other results going our way and we finish the weekend in 7th. 

 

Europe still on then or? 

 

 

Na would be a blip and normal downward service will resume next game. Some on here would probably be gutted if we won the way they go on every day

[nufc123]

11 minutes ago, Fezzle said:

Na would be a blip and normal downward service will resume next game. Some on here would probably be gutted if we won the way they go on every day

Weird thing to say.

[The College Dropout]

47 minutes ago, Theregulars said:

I think a lot of it is football being a game of such fine margins. When your confidence is high and momentum with you, things seem to “go your way” - I reckon there’s a psychology to it: taking risks, feeling energised, truly believing and trusting in something so there’s no doubt about what you’re going to do. It then seems like you’re winning the margins.
 

That momentum and confidence is so easily interrupted by circumstances; it’s so delicate - then you don’t win as much at the margins because you’re not taking risks or believing and don’t have that going energy. 
 

The end outcome is massive because it’s such an intensely competitive game. So I don’t even think it’s “over” or “under” achieving; just more circumstances have favoured and then not favoured us and we’ve had and not had momentum. 

 

I can therefore only remain of the opinion that there’s so much supervening and extenuating circumstance to this season - not to write it off; I think below 7th and no silverware would be disappointing and below my own ambitions. 
 

The nature of those extenuating circumstances also means their impact is still being felt now. 
 

Maybe it is a flaw in how he trains and plays, maybe other teams have had time to counter and plan, maybe we just really benefitted from few injuries and more coaching time, maybe it’s a bit of everything… I just don’t see much of a plausible argument that he should take more than a small amount of blame.

 

I think the comparisons with Manchester United are also weird: they have a much larger squad and much more financial resource / pulling power / (IMO) corrupting power. 

I agree with lots of this and disagree with lots of this.

 

Agree with everything about confidence and fine margins. But that is elite sport. In any elite sport, compounding fine margins define over and under-performance.

 

Again in any elite sport but really any profession. Anyone leading/managing a team or programme has to take responsibility for its performance. Even Howe wouldn't claim he has a small amount of responsibility of how things have turned out so far. I'm not suggesting that's the end of the world and he must be sacked or anything. His job is judged by results and he definitely holds himself to account. Because you rate and like him - it doesn't mean you should absolve him of his contributions. It's him when it works but not him when it doesn't? Life doesn't work like that. You know that.

 

Man U comparisons are valid. They have the 4th highest wage bill in the league. Anything below 4th/5th is an underperformance. Aston Villa are likely to have played the whole season without their equivalent of Schar & Willock. And they will play the rest of the season without their equivalent of Lascelles, Joelinton & Burn. There's no excuse for Man U to finish below them outside of underperformance by squad/management/leadership and the fans already accept the leadership has underperformed. We should end the season closer to Villa than we are now both in terms of points and position.

[The College Dropout]

41 minutes ago, sushimonster85 said:

Didn't get a definitive answer to this the other day, but I believe Liverpool win the League Cup would drop the lowest European spot in the league (conference league) to 8th. That's assuming the PL gets the extra CL spot, which is looking likely. Not over by a long shot. 

UEFA need to confirm maximum allowance but this is the assumption.

 

It gets sticky if Villa win Conference or Brighton win Europa.

[sushimonster85]

1 minute ago, The College Dropout said:

It gets sticky if Villa win Conference or Brighton win Europa.

 

And really Villa have no excuse not to win the Conference League. To be honest Brighton & West Ham will be among the favourites for Europa.

[timeEd32]

2 hours ago, The College Dropout said:

Tonali - can argue all day about if they should've known. Spending so much money on one player is always a massive risk. 

Barnes - think we should've got a creative RW.  Still expect to be a good signing.

Tino - great signing on paper.. needed more buy-in from the manager IMO

Hall - well..

 

There's lots of ways the window could've gone. Could've tried spreading funds more. 

 

Mine is Kieran Maguire. Look him up on X. I've shared the precise post elsewhere on the board.

 

He uses clubs latest public financial accounts. Most haven't been released for 2023.

 

What's your source?

 

 

 

 

Kieran is great, but there's a couple problems in this comparison. Caveat that no source is perfect and I trust Kieran more than anyone, but I think even he'd agree with the following:

• Only 6 of the 20 clubs include 2022/23 numbers in what you linked so it's not yet a perfect comparison. Villa's wages from 21/22 to now will have increased considerably as one example.
• Player contracts are heavily incentivized with various bonuses and our 2022/23 accounts include Champions League bonuses, so those numbers are inflated from our 'base' wages. 
  • This is called out in our accounts: "Staff costs increased £16.5m ... the main factors being higher merit-based bonuses for the playing squad, team management, and club staff as a result of the club's 4th placed finish..."
• Most clubs don't separate out players from other staff in their accounts so you're getting full club wages. Since this is generally apples to apples it's fine, except the next part of that line from our accounts is "...along with the increase of c100 employees across the club as the build out continues across football operations, commercial teams, executive and central support functions."
  • Obviously players wages are the main driving force, but we have been adding a lot of staff that are mostly not helping us today. We've added around £2.5m in executive team pay since the Charnley days, which is basically a squad player.

That said, we're probably 7th or 8th. I'd put us in a trio with Villa and West Ham, who aren't miles behind and also added to their wage bill this year. Four points currently separate 7th-11th and I'd guess that group stays pretty tight. I'd love for us to qualify for Europe, but given what we've dealt with I'm not going to freak out if we finish a handful of points shy.

 

[The College Dropout]

9 minutes ago, sushimonster85 said:

 

And really Villa have no excuse not to win the Conference League. To be honest Brighton & West Ham will be among the favourites for Europa.

Villa do have a lot of long-term injuries.

 

They'll do well to hold onto 4th/5th.

[Fezzle]

24 minutes ago, nufc123 said:

Weird thing to say.

Seriously? Of the hundreds of absolutely ridiculous posts in this thread thats your weird threshold.......

[TRC]

1 hour ago, Jack27 said:

https://x.com/cfbayern/status/1762847517715136613?s=46&t=qch8y64njTIa-YpWt4BfqA
 

I don’t know if this is the right thread for this but what 

Surprised this has been ignored, would be a great appointment. Thanks for the service Eddie, but Nagelsmann would be a serious appointment. Semi reliable source too, or we are being used for leverage for Nagelsman to get the Man U or Liverpool job?