Eddie Howe

[Heron]

11 minutes ago, Away Toon said:

Ruthless is a word that is appearing in lots of posts and Eddie has to start being exactly that. Not only with some of the players but also with the ownership because unless they find the money to strengthen significantly the team and squad, we are staying where we are and that’s between 7th and somewhere right in the middle.

 

I know we need a squad, but there shouldn’t be contract extensions to any player who isn’t improving us and taking us forward. Play some of the youngsters some of them might surprise us. There are no surprises from Dummett, Krafth, Lascelles, Ritchie, Murphy, Almiron, Dubravka, Longstaff etc. except how often they remind us that they are not good enough. 

 

Eddie should be having a word with the likes of Longstaff and Willock and telling them these kinds of aimless half assed performances will result in them not playing and being sold.

 

It’s time to get brutal because if we hope to improve and god forbid actually win something it’s no time to show loyalty or to keep persisting with at least half of the current squad.

Half assed is what this post is if you're equating Longstaffs effort to that. 

[Zero]

I am pleased that we didn’t concede cheap goals tonight. 

[Pata]

2 hours ago, Newcastle Fan said:

but he's never won anything at the top level

Just the multiple promotions with Bournemouth but never winning a major trophy with them? Unacceptable.

[Gottlob]

If Eddie Howe needs a lesson in ruthlessness he should look no further than our own venerable leader his majesty Yessir Bin-Rumayyan, who would sell his own mother for a locker at one of the world's premier links golf courses and has done so in the past. What's more I have no doubt that if our poor form continues on to the end of the season, Howe will be the recipient of such a tongue lashing that in the philosophers' parlance he'll be a tabula rasa, meaning a blank slate, or in the everyday parlance quite literally licked clean as a whistle. There'll be no room for favourites or sympathy then, and I for one cannot wait to begin the summer's culling.

[Ronaldo]

1 minute ago, Gottlob said:

If Eddie Howe needs a lesson in ruthlessness he should look no further than our own venerable leader his majesty Yessir Bin-Rumayyan, who would sell his own mother for a locker at one of the world's premier links golf courses and has done so in the past. What's more I have no doubt that if our poor form continues on to the end of the season, Howe will be the recipient of such a tongue lashing that in the philosophers' parlance he'll be a tabula rasa, meaning a blank slate, or in the everyday parlance quite literally licked clean as a whistle. There'll be no room for favourites or sympathy then, and I for one cannot wait to begin the summer's culling.

Augusta National is a parkland course, not links.

[Erikse]

3 hours ago, LiquidAK said:

Then why post that straight after a game we improved in? Oh because it's nonsense used to fit an agenda.

 

So when we do well it's because it's expected and when we do poorly it's not good enough?

 

Without an unprecedented injury list, yes

 

It really feels like these injury problems will continue next season.. And it has nothing to do with a curse or having the stadium built on a graveyard.

[Vinny Green Balls]

Why does it feel that way? It wasn't a huge thing last season or the season before apart from the normal injury crocks like Wilson, and now the two ACL victims.

 

 

Edited April 3 by Vinny Green Balls

[timeEd32]

2 hours ago, Kid Icarus said:

 

It had nothing to do with availability and fitness tonight for me. If I felt we were giving everything and falling short I'd be fully with you, but I thought it couldn't have been more obvious that the players out there played within themselves against a really poor team who offered nothing tonight.

 

Hall stays on and we win 1-0 and I still would have thought the approach to the game was needlessly risky.

 

I said as much at half time and it only got worse second half.

If we had won (and we should have whether 1-0 or 2-0) I would have described it as a professional performance. Considering the injuries, the lack of bench options, three games in a week, and our defensive frailties the approach seemed spot on to me. They were dead at 2-0 and we should have gotten there.

[McDog]

21 minutes ago, Vinny Green Balls said:

Why does it feel that way? It wasn't a huge thing last season or the season before apart from the normal injury crocks like Wilson, and now the two ACL victims.

 

 

 

 

Wilson - Torn Pec - how often does that happen?

Lascelles  - Looked like his cleats caught or leg was twisted.

Popey- Shoulder - Dove and came up hurt.

Tino - Came down his ankle and turned it.

 

Just a couple of examples but it's been rather crazy and not someone's fault.

[kingxlnc]

I do think FFP can be gotten around with cleverer use of the loan market. Ok so wages go up slightly but you’re getting rid of a ton of deadwood. 
 

Use up our loan slots to beef up the squad, this is where Saudi teams could be useful. 
 

eg

get rid of 

Ritchie Dummett Wilson Longstaff Almiron Dubravka Targett then others eg Lewis Hendrick etc 

 

buy with cash permanent players for:

 

RCB, RW, CF, GK

Get Kelly or Tosin free for LCB cover

 

loan in 

LB (eg like that Brazilian at Nottm Forest last season)

CM//DM

Young CF
possible CB if don’t get freebies 

 

that’s a lot of business to do in one summer but absolutely needs to get done, the squad needs serious rejuvenation. Getting rid of 9-10 players will release a lot of wage room.

 

could even get a back up GK on loan and save on that for now. 

[kingxlnc]

Looking at the Saudi players, some of the bigger names might be interested in moving on, one year into the project with bank balances sufficiently topped up. The likes of Milonkevic-Savic or even Veiga. Bono for GK or Laporte for LCB. Even if on loan. 

[LiquidAK]

4 hours ago, McDog said:

 

Wilson - Torn Pec - how often does that happen?

Lascelles  - Looked like his cleats caught or leg was twisted.

Popey- Shoulder - Dove and came up hurt.

Tino - Came down his ankle and turned it.

 

Just a couple of examples but it's been rather crazy and not someone's fault.

Exactly, throw in TWO broken backs and a long-term gambling ban as well. How do you ever plan for that

[Optimistic Nut]

4 minutes ago, LiquidAK said:

Exactly, throw in TWO broken backs and a long-term gambling ban as well. How do you ever plan for that

 

Murphy and Barnes freak injuries too.

[The Prophet]

It's obviously not all bad luck, Willock and Isak for example were seemingly returned ahead of schedule, played three times in a week and broke down. Whether that was necessary or not is a different debate. 

 

At the same time we've also two ACL injuries, two fractured backs, two dislocated shoulders, a broken foot, a rolled ankle, a gambling ban and a partridge in a pear tree. You can't account for those and they went a long way to triggering the original injury crisis.

[Thumbheed]

35 minutes ago, LiquidAK said:

Exactly, throw in TWO broken backs and a long-term gambling ban as well. How do you ever plan for that

I ultimately agree but I do still think there's questions to be asked though.

 

Freak injuries aside,we have also had numerous muscular injuries you could attribute to training methods, like Trippier, Wilson (unfair to include him tbf), Longstaff, Isak, Willock, even Almiron - who as far as I'm remember has barely been injured in his entire time. 

 

There's precedent with this happening at Bournemouth, so it does set off alarm bells for me. 

[The Prophet]

They've already said we'll be reviewing our injury procedures at the end of the season. It'd be daft not to.

[LiquidAK]

Just now, Thumbheed said:

I ultimately agree but I do still think there's questions to be asked though.

 

Freak injuries aside,we have also had numerous muscular injuries you could attribute to training methods, like Trippier, Wilson (unfair to include him tbf), Longstaff, Isak, Willock, even Almiron - who as far as I'm remember has barely been injured in his entire time. 

 

There's precedent with this happening at Bournemouth, so it does set off alarm bells for me. 

I think a number of those can be attributed to the sheer number of games those players have had to play as a result of the freak injuries limiting our ability to rotate or even sub players off during a game.

 

I'm sure it will be looked at in the summer, whether the way we play or train has contributed it a meaningful way to the number of players out, but in my (uninformed obviously) opinion it doesn't get anywhere close to as bad as it has been without the pressure applied by the unprecedented freak injuries.

[The Prophet]

I've read the "Eddie need to be ruthless" line a few times, but I'm not sure what that looks like.

 

He's been here for five transfer markets and for each the club have stretched the budget as far as it'll go. I'm pretty sure he never imagined the likes of Dummett would have to play this season, he'll have been there to up the homegrown quota in Europe.

 

By all accounts we put Wilson and Almiron on the market on January, but I wouldn't say he lacked ruthlessness if we don't sell Longstaff for example. Unfortunately, with FFP, it'll take time to fill the squad with quality and we still need the numbers.

 

 

Edited April 3 by The Prophet

[Holmesy]

4 minutes ago, The Prophet said:

I've read the "Eddie need to be ruthless" line a few times, but I'm not sure what that looks like.

 

He's been here for five transfer markets and for each the club have stretched the budget as far as it'll go. I'm pretty sure he never imagined the likes of Dummett would have to play this season, he'll have been there to up the homegrown quota in Europe.

 

By all accounts we put Wilson and Almiron in the market on January, but I wouldn't say he lacked ruthlessness if we don't sell Longstaff for example. Unfortunately, with FFP, it'll take time to fill the squad with quality and we still need the numbers.

The one area he definitely needs to be more ruthless is dropping his favourite players when they play shit, which they have for large parts of this season. 

[The Prophet]

1 minute ago, Holmesy said:

The one area he definitely needs to be more ruthless is dropping his favourite players when they play shit, which they have for large parts of this season. 

 

Are you referring to Burn and Longstaff?

[Holmesy]

11 minutes ago, The Prophet said:

 

Are you referring to Burn and Longstaff?

Yes I am. The former cost us a lot of goals in a very poor run, and Longstaff needs no explanation. We haven’t necessarily had the players available to swap out Longstaff until now, but with Burn the performances from Tino and now Hall (and then Burn being a rock at CB last night) raise legitimate questions about some of Eddie’s decision making.

 

 

Edited April 3 by Holmesy

[SUPERTOON]

12 minutes ago, The Prophet said:

I've read the "Eddie need to be ruthless" line a few times, but I'm not sure what that looks like.

 

He's been here for five transfer markets and for each the club have stretched the budget as far as it'll go. I'm pretty sure he never imagined the likes of Dummett would have to play this season, he'll have been there to up the homegrown quota in Europe.

 

By all accounts we put Wilson and Almiron in the market on January, but I wouldn't say he lacked ruthlessness if we don't sell Longstaff for example. Unfortunately, with FFP, it'll take time to fill the squad with quality and we still need the numbers.

Despite the frustrations this season, it would also have been incredibly harsh getting rid of a lot of the players who got us 4th last year. Imo pretty much all of them deserved a crack at the champions league. I expect quite a few of them to go this summer where possible.

[Zero]

6 minutes ago, Holmesy said:

Yes I am. The former cost us a lot of goals in a very poor run, and Longstaff needs no explanation. We haven’t necessarily had the players available to swap out Longstaff until now, but with Burn the performances from Tino and now Hall (and then Burn being a rock at CB last night) raise legitimate questions about Eddie’s decision making.

 

I would say Burn could have occasionally played CB and let Botman rest on the bench, and then free up LB position for Tino/Hall

Yeah I know, hindsight stuff. Still there were posts suggesting this back in December.  

 

[Groundhog63]

6 hours ago, Erikse said:

 

It really feels like these injury problems will continue next season.. And it has nothing to do with a curse or having the stadium built on a graveyard.

 

What's next week's lottery numbers, Mystic? 

[Ghandis Flip-Flop]

43 minutes ago, The Prophet said:

It's obviously not all bad luck, Willock and Isak for example were seemingly returned ahead of schedule, played three times in a week and broke down. Whether that was necessary or not is a different debate. 

 

At the same time we've also two ACL injuries, two fractured backs, two dislocated shoulders, a broken foot, a rolled ankle, a gambling ban and a partridge in a pear tree. You can't account for those and they went a long way to triggering the original injury crisis.

Was this planned for? Or the result of the other freak injuries biting 5hough? Would Willock have been rushed back if Tonali wasn’t banned and Joelinton and Anderson didn’t have their own issues. Is it too difficult to realise that there's nuance and that factors outside of the managers control effect things within his sphere of influence?

 

Basically you can tell an awful lot of folks never have to make decisions or deal with ambiguity in their own work lives or there'd be a hell of a lot more empathy for Howe this year.