Eddie Howe

[Gaztoon]

No Rafa probably no promotion, and definitely no takeover.. just a club In the champs with Ashley.

[Collage]

46 minutes ago, Vedder said:

Leaving KK out of the equation for now, I personally don’t see Howe above SBR yet. 
 

Both took over struggling teams but SBR took us to 3rd/4th/5th positions in the league, through a Champions League group, semi final of UEFA cup. Played great football during this time too with some of the most memorable nights in my time supporting us. Also, like Keegan, this was more than a job for him, he totally loved the club to his core.
 

Eddie given time will hopefully eclipse all this but if he left us tomorrow I don’t think he’d have done enough. 

 

 

 

This. People tend to forget that we were shite when SBR took over as well. He transformed the club, although not as much as KK or Eddie.

[PauloGeordio]

6 minutes ago, Collage said:

This. People tend to forget that we were shite when SBR took over as well. He transformed the club, although not as much as KK or Eddie.

All 3 are transformers of varying degrees.

 

 

Edited January 16 by PauloGeordio

[54]

It's probably been mentioned, but 9 wins in a row is absolutely mental, like fucking bonkers, and it equals our club record, with the previous two being under Rafa in the Championship, and under Keegan which spanned two seasons. Its even more extraordinary when you consider we've been away to Man United, Tottenham and Arsenal in that stretch, as well as played Villa. Feels like a fever dream   

[Cronky]

Keegan, in partnership with Sir John Hall, changed the whole thinking and ambition of the club. I don't think we'll ever go back to a pre-Keegan phase, so he will always have a special and pivotal place in the club's history.

 

I think the factor that's not been aired so far is that in his era, we were outspending every club except Man United. Every time the momentum stalled (even in the Championship), the club would go out into the transfer market. And I have to say it - when the money ran out, he left.

 

Sir Bob and Eddie both over-achieved on limited resources. All subjective of course, but I think Eddie's situation at the start was far worse. We looked like going down with about 20 points, and I couldn't see any way of getting out of trouble, no matter who was in charge and how much money could realistically be spent. 

 

What stands out for me is the way he gets good performances out of ordinary players. He has improved every player that he's managed at our club. I think they are all playing the best football of their careers, and our team is so much better than the sum of its parts. 

 

The man is the complete package. 

 

 

 

[54]

I'd also mentioned, that I think this may be the best run of form in my lifetime. 

[PauloGeordio]

The exciting thing with Eddie is his age. He could be with us for many, many years!

[TRon]

7 hours ago, TheBrownBottle said:

Given the way the team is playing and performing the questions were absolutely reasonable - there was an awful lot about how mediocre the squad was and Howe was doing well to have it challenging top 7/8.  Personally, I felt we had a really strong starting XI and a decent bench, and should have been playing and performing much better.  Howe’s an excellent coach, was never in any doubt re that, and I never joined in the calls for his time to be up - but just as he deserves every bit of praise lavished on him at the moment, he also deserved some of the criticism for early season performances.  It’s a wide open league at the moment, and if we’d got our shit together a month earlier we might have a very different trophy being talked about this season. 

 

 

This is me as well. I never wanted him out, he's just too obviously intelligent to be jettisoned that easily, but the balance of the side was off for the first dozen games or so. I feel like switching Tonali into the no 6 position transformed our midfield and our results.

 

Still feel very pissed off that PSR has been set up as an obstacle to stop him building the side he really wants. Would love to see what he could put together if money was no object.

[mighty__mag]

[Groundhog63]

46 minutes ago, PauloGeordio said:

The exciting thing with Eddie is his age. He could be with us for many, many years!

 

"There's nothing exciting about Eddie Howe" Luke Edwards 16/01/25

 

 

Edited January 16 by Groundhog63

[Kanj]

If there weren’t any spending restrictions, how much better would we be right now?

[Conjo]

Maybe we'd be worse?

[Coffee_Johnny]

Thought I'd update the league record for Eddie's tenure. It's compared to all PL era managers who had had at least a full season's worth of games. 

 

 

He's the 4th longest serving, in the 'Premiers' era. Second best points per game. 3rd best highest placed finish. Third best goals scored. 2nd best goal difference. Second best win percentage. It would look even better if we only counted from when it was 'his team' (which would be a fairer comparison with Keegan, though not the others), i.e. from January 2022 the points per game becomes 1.78, best ever. As does the win percentage at 52%.

 

However you cut it, not too shabby and can, hopefully, soon become indisputably our best performing manager of the modern era. 

[Dan Gleebals]

I wonder how much impact James Bunce has had on our style of play.  We had to address the injuries and on the whole, they seem to be improving.  We are still a very aggressive team, but we definately manage that better now it seems.  Having Tonali in his role, seems to have calmed the intensity a little but we can still turn it on! 

[PauloGeordio]

5 minutes ago, Dan Gleebals said:

I wonder how much impact James Bunce has had on our style of play.  We had to address the injuries and on the whole, they seem to be improving.  We are still a very aggressive team, but we definately manage that better now it seems.  Having Tonali in his role, seems to have calmed the intensity a little but we can still turn it on! 

We can soak it up, and dictate play more now, with rapid turnovers. 

[The College Dropout]

Jacob Murphy has 11 PL goal contributions in January.

 

Howe deserves tremendous credit for getting the most out of the likes of Murphy and Burn. 2 players if sold, i'm not convinced go to top half PL sides, Murphy - not a PL side at all.

 

I thought Tonali would come good... but I didn't expect him to be this good. So again, I give him credit for getting the most out of him.

 

This is by far... the best central midfield pair i've seen us have. It has everything.

[huss9]

2 hours ago, mighty__mag said:

@Heron

[huss9]

Bobby had some shite to work with, mind.

[54]

3 hours ago, 54 said:

It's probably been mentioned, but 9 wins in a row is absolutely mental, like fucking bonkers, and it equals our club record, with the previous two being under Rafa in the Championship, and under Keegan which spanned two seasons. Its even more extraordinary when you consider we've been away to Man United, Tottenham and Arsenal in that stretch, as well as played Villa. Feels like a fever dream   

For shits and gigs, here where the teams the previous two times we won 9 games in a row:

 

[Kid Icarus]

Man I absolutely loved that first half of 94/95 team. As good as 95/96 was that first couple of months was just as much up there for me. 

 

 

Edited January 16 by Kid Icarus

[Chris_R]

1 hour ago, 54 said:

For shits and gigs, here where the teams the previous two times we won 9 games in a row:

 

 

There's some decent players in the Keegan team but by god that Benitez team is shite.

 

Getting 9 wins all season with that would be some achievement. Fucking hell. 

 

Edit: As has been pointed out, Benitez's wins were in the Championship which makes that a little less incredulous.

 

 

Edited January 16 by Chris_R

[TheBrownBottle]

49 minutes ago, Kid Icarus said:

Man I absolutely loved that first half of 94/95 team. As good as 95/96 was that first couple of months was just as much up there for me. 

 

 

 

They were more exciting - I know the 95/96 team closer but they weren’t ’The Entertainers’.  93/94 and the first half of 94/95 was that side - proper swashbuckling attacking football.  The formation suggests a 4-4-2 but in attack it was more like a 4-1-5.  

[54]

9 minutes ago, Chris_R said:

 

There's some decent players in the Keegan team but by god that Benitez team is shite.

 

Getting 9 wins all season with that would be some achievement. Fucking hell. 

 

 

 

Them 9 wins where in the Championship like, and that side was quality for that level at the time  

[TBG]

The biggest advantage Keegan has over Howe is, Howe is only as good as his last result.

[Chris_R]

13 minutes ago, 54 said:

Them 9 wins where in the Championship like, and that side was quality for that level at the time  

 

Ah, OK, that makes more sense. Fine then, by those rules why are we not talking about Keegan's 13 consecutive wins in the Championship then?  11 of them were in the "PL era", 1992-93 season, so at least they should count?

 

I'll accept Keegan's record of 9 alone, or I'll accept Keegan's record of 11, or even his record of 13, but there's no grounds to say the record is 9 tied between Keegan and Benitez because if Championship games are allowed then the record is no longer 9.

 

 

Edited January 16 by Chris_R