Eddie Howe

[Kilcline]

6 minutes ago, Stifler said:

He’ll get the summer and such. However if we have no trophy, miss out on CL and possibly European football altogether, then I don’t think he gets to get to December in the position that we were in going into the Leicester match this season.

 

Hopefully it doesn’t come to that. Hopefully on Monday 17th March we are all still celebrating and making excuses to our bosses as to why we aren’t coming in (I’ve already got that day off), and maybe just maybe we have cup doubles, or made a decent end of season effort to get into the Champions League.

 

 

 

I don't see us being a "we'll give him to X" operation.

 

If we're not in Europe next year - unless due to some weird circumstances like last year - I think he's gone. No "start of the year," and rightfully so. If you don't fancy him, move on.

 

Tough gig when hitting targets isn't enough, but that's where we are.

 

I write words for all my clients for a living and I can't comprehend what I'd say if this guy won the lot with us, which is obviously what most of us want.

 

(Full disclosure - I was an Eddie skeptic, I'm now all in on the bloke) 

[Sibierski]

1 hour ago, Scoot said:

Eddie will have to take a lot of the blame today but we have to remember we haven't signed anyone of note for 18 months now. He's done fantastic to get us to where we are with the same squad basically.

 

We have a huge summer ahead. The whole squad needs a refresh plus extra bodies for competition and if that means letting someone like Gordon leave for big money then so be it.

Agree. He deserves to be giving like 3 new first team players (GK/CB/RW) with 2 squad players that can be useful (RB/CM) and be told to deliver a step forward.

 

As annoying as our league form has been this season, he’s doing as much as you can expect from same personal with us still being up there and in a cup final.

He needs to be giving some more top players (like Tonali level) and then we can expect Howe to evolve and improve. If he doesn’t, then I feel things can be 100% questioned with no push back. 

[BonesJones]

Don't worry guys. This is a whole lot better than factoring in what the score would be in a Wolves vs whoever match and how it would impact us in our fight against relegation.

 

We're just not in the elite bracket, like the club we faced tonight on their turf.

 

We've reached our second final in three seasons. That's madness to me at this point, and will take a good few more years of it being a consistent thing for me to not see it as a huge achievement that excites me. Actually can't believe we're going to Wembley again, just like the last time, we've come soooo far!

 

Eddie Howe's Black and White Army!!

[Erikse]

1 hour ago, Heron said:

Fair. We will learnt hat through experience though, as everyone does.

 

Yeah, hope we've been through it enough times for our nerves to be eased. Ofcourse those types of games are the hardest ones out there, regardless, so beating Liverpool will be very hard.

[TRon]

32 minutes ago, Sibierski said:

Agree. He deserves to be giving like 3 new first team players (GK/CB/RW) with 2 squad players that can be useful (RB/CM) and be told to deliver a step forward.

 

As annoying as our league form has been this season, he’s doing as much as you can expect from same personal with us still being up there and in a cup final.

He needs to be giving some more top players (like Tonali level) and then we can expect Howe to evolve and improve. If he doesn’t, then I feel things can be 100% questioned with no push back. 

 

I think it's borderline. We are at a crucial part of the season where it could kick on and really go up a notch, or we could limp our way out of a European position. Even though Chelsea, Man U, and Spurs are having shit seasons, teams like Bournemouth and Forest have stepped in.

 

We don't have Europe to contend with, we just need to learn how to get results when we aren't playing 100%. Too many results like today in one season.

[The Prophet]

It often feels like some fans project their expectations when talking about Howe's future.

 

He hasn’t had any new players for three transfer windows. Yet we're in strong contention for Europe, in a domestic cup final and in the last sixteen of another domestic cup.

 

He's as safe as houses.

[Dr.Spaceman]

He's not going anywhere any time soon FFS 

[JUICE690]

We played with an aging, out of form 34 year old at right back. An underperforming Willock in midfield. And a goal keeper that was hanging up his gloves for us a few games ago. Add to that an out of form Fabian Schar at CB, and you quickly can see what Howe is working with. We're a fragile team, always have been.

 

Everyone performing to their expected ability, or above (for some) and it's golden. But any slight wobble in one or more of our fringe players and things go south pretty quickly.

 

Doing an outstanding job given what he's working with.

 

 

Edited Saturday at 20:22 by JUICE690

[TRon]

2 minutes ago, JUICE690 said:

We played with an aging, out of form 34 year old at right back. An underperforming Willock in midfield. And a goal keeper that was hanging up his gloves for us a few games ago. Add to that an out of form Fabian Schar at CB, and you quickly can see what Howe is working with. We're a fragile team, always have been.

 

Everyone performing to their expected ability, or above (for some) and it's golden. But any slight wobble in one or more of our fringe players and things go south pretty quickly.

 

Doing an outstanding job given what he's working with.

 

 

 

 

But if you've got ageing players who lack pace, you then have to make sure you don't leave too much empty space where they will get exposed.

[Lush Vlad]

5 minutes ago, JUICE690 said:

We played with an aging, out of form 34 year old at right back. An underperforming Willock in midfield. And a goal keeper that was hanging up his gloves for us a few games ago. Add to that an out of form Fabian Schar at CB, and you quickly can see what Howe is working with. We're a fragile team, always have been.

 

Everyone performing to their expected ability, or above (for some) and it's golden. But any slight wobble in one or more of our fringe players and things go south pretty quickly.

 

Doing an outstanding job given what he's working with.

 

 

 

I agree with the wider point you’re making. But Tino was on the bench and patchy form or not, he was surely the better option today?
 

Pope is a better keeper than Dubravka and we were always going to be relying more on actual goalkeeping away at City. Passing it about at the back and being good with your feet not as important. Pope is (was) our number one and hardly a massive weakness. So why not play him? 
 

Debatable on Miley in place of Willock. But plenty are wanting him to get more minutes and he has a lot of potential. Willock deserved his chance after Birmingham but didn’t take it at all. 

 

Howe bringing Miley and Tino on and seeing us play a bit better is one positive from today. They’ll be in from the start for the foreseeable if we play 4-3-3, I reckon. 

[Colos Short and Curlies]

2 minutes ago, TRon said:

 

But if you've got ageing players who lack pace, you then have to make sure you don't leave too much empty space where they will get exposed.

 

Or play the young athletic player who's played pretty darn well all season instead.

 

I hate to say they are excuses because they aren't, they are reasons for a number of challenges Howe faces in getting this squad to where it is. Playing Trippier isn't one and is on the gaffer

[toon25]

The manner of the defeat and performance really hurts today, but this bloke is still getting us performing well above the capabilities of the squad as a whole. He's still working miracles.

[Jonas]

I don't think there's any great secret to why were so poor at times. Were not a top team, don't have a top squad, so its not realistic to avoid those things over a season. You get over-performing and you get under-performing. Fulham, Bournemouth, West Ham I get but today was exceptionally bad - the attitude mostly was weird. Weren't anywhere near that lame getting hammered there under McLaren (think we even had the better of the first half hour, just lay down today)

[Decky]

People who think he'll be moved on in the summer or soon into next season, who is coming in after him? Howe is still getting a good tune out of a squad that has been allowed to grow stale because of PSR. He's making what are average players in Burn, Murphy and at times others like Willock look really good. He has developed young lads like Hall, Tino, Miley and Gordon into proper players, some of which have made their England debuts under Howe. He's doing a brilliant job under extremely tough financial constraints while having to sell the likes of Minteh and Anderson who have proven to be good players at other clubs since. 

 

People need to remember that the first thing a new manager will have to do is replicate everything above on day one because they're going to be under the same financial constraints, and if they aren't and we've managed to position ourselves that we can spend a bit of money in the summer then why not let Howe do it? Has he not earned the right to finally improve his squad after 2 years?

 

He's got us to two cup finals (so far) and the top 4, he would have got European football last season too only for the FA Cup and he's in line to do it again this year. We're 2 points from 5th which will be a Champions League spot, maybe just chill and give him a chance? We could be in the Champions League again with at least one trophy in the bag in 3 months. People need to remember that there is more to Howe as well. After 14 years of hell this man has come in and brought huge hope, joy and togetherness to our fanbase which money cannot buy, do we really want change and potentially risk a managerial merry-go-round of has-beens like Mourinho who could completely tear all that apart? I know I don't, not just yet. 

 

 

Edited Saturday at 20:49 by Decky

[TheBrownBottle]

I’m not seeing miracles performed.  Howe’s doing well with a perfectly good squad.  If this is what miraculous looks like, then what are Forest or Bournemouth doing?  There’s a lot of miracles going around.

 

Four of the ‘big six’ are having - at best - ‘transition seasons’.  I think we’ve got a better team and squad than Bournemouth or Forest, but we’re below them.  We could soon be below Fulham and Brighton - and I think we’re better than them too.  There’s been no European football and no injury crisis.  We haven’t been able to spend - but holding onto players instead of selling them to give you a budget is also a choice.

 

Howe’s a good manager and we have a cup final to look forward to - but a team with the league’s best centre forward and one of the best midfields isn’t over performing. 

[Kid Icarus]

We're in our 4th season where Howe's doing really well with what we have. When Forest and Bournemouth are at that point then we can compare them, at the moment they don't mean much, especially Forest.

[shorty]

Look I was there today and I'm as disappointed as anyone but for me we have to trust in Eddie give him the tools and he can take us where we need to go imho.

[toon25]

I really can't at this stage imagine NUFC without Eddie Howe. He's wuh manager 

[J7]

27 minutes ago, toon25 said:

The manner of the defeat and performance really hurts today, but this bloke is still getting us performing well above the capabilities of the squad as a whole. He's still working miracles.

He’s not working miracles like. We’ve got many players we’ve spent £40m plus on and have internationals from many of the top nations. I’d say it’s about par in the league given we don’t have Europe. We had a really average start, an exceptional run, and have been pretty average again for the last 5 games. If you think he’s working miracles it would be interesting to know where you’d expect us to be given our team/squad.

 

I’m not anti-Howe and I want him to stay as I see him as the best person manage us, but there’s no point exaggerating or ignoring things that we need to improve on. 

[Slim]

Lol we back to discuss Howe leaving again...

[Heron]

I'll be honest - performance wise, I think this has probably been Howe's worst season to date with us, and yet he's got us into a cup final and the 5th round of the FA Cup at present, and only 3 points away from CL spots.

 

That shows how mental it is that people seemingly have him on borrowed time - to me anyways.

 

It still has the potential to be an absolutely phenomenal season results wise and we're halfway into February...

[Heron]

5 minutes ago, Slim said:

Lol we back to discuss Howe leaving again...

[SUPERTOON]

Still don’t think you can overstate how not being backed for 3 windows in a row has made his job that much harder. We still have 7 players (that I can think of) from Rafa/Bruce time who are vital to the squad. 

[Lish007]

To me, he's our Ted Lasso and it'll be a little less bright for a while if he goes.

[Keggy_Keagal]

There's not one person in the game who you could say would definitely do a better job with this squad.