Eddie Howe

[The Butcher]

Went to the matchday stadium tour a few weeks back and it was a 15.00 kickoff. Eddie arrived at 11, four hours before the game.

 

I'm not sure there's a harder working manager out there. Really, really hope he can turn it around.

[Ghandis Flip-Flop]

3 minutes ago, Gawalls said:

And for the others like the Brentford's, Leeds getting a draw, Sunderland, West ham, Bournemouth getting a draw, Brighton?

Yeah because it works in a linear way like that, I bet you were hand wringing about the defeats to West Ham and Bournemouth last season when we qualified for the CL. Honestly at this point you come across as someone who isn’t happy until they’re whining and being in perpetual misery.

 

Honestly sometimes on here it displays how we've ended up in our current polarised political situations, because it would appear context and nuance are alien concepts to some people.

[Cf]

2 minutes ago, wyn davies said:

I dont get why people are so protective of Howe, its like no one can touch him or say anything against him.

No doubt people will spout he won us a trophy and all this credit in the vank nonsense. Joe Harvey won the us a Eueopean Trophy, but got the bullit, Keegan knew when it was time to depart with the depart when he realised time was up, Rannereri got the bullet after winning the PL, whats special about Howe?.

 

If you think you have the right man, and I'm confident that we do, you don't throw away years of progress because of some short term bad form.

[Sir Joel Inton]

23 minutes ago, Kid Icarus said:

We definitely need to sort ourselves out, I just don't really buy this idea that despite all of the mitigating circumstances that the root cause of our situation is the manager that until now has been continuously successful and had us punching above our weight.

 

Out of interest, what are the mitigating circumstances?

[Danh1]

3 minutes ago, The Butcher said:

Went to the matchday stadium tour a few weeks back and it was a 15.00 kickoff. Eddie arrived at 11, four hours before the game.

 

I'm not sure there's a harder working manager out there. Really, really hope he can turn it around.

True this mind, the man’s dedication to the job is incredible. 

[Lush Vlad]

7 minutes ago, wyn davies said:

I dont get why people are so protective of Howe, its like no one can touch him or say anything against him.

No doubt people will spout he won us a trophy and all this credit in the vank nonsense. Joe Harvey won the us a Eueopean Trophy, but got the bullit, Keegan knew when it was time to depart with the depart when he realised time was up, Rannereri got the bullet after winning the PL, whats special about Howe?.

Have you not been reading this thread most the season?! Plenty of people are getting stuck into him for the shit performances. Myself included. You absolutely can ‘say anything against him.’ Why do people keep spouting this bullshit?! 
 

If you don’t get why people are protective of Howe or loathe to criticise him. Well, I can’t help you there. It’s fairly fucking obvious why. 

[Ghandis Flip-Flop]

3 minutes ago, wyn davies said:

I dont get why people are so protective of Howe, its like no one can touch him or say anything against him.

No doubt people will spout he won us a trophy and all this credit in the vank nonsense. Joe Harvey won the us a Eueopean Trophy, but got the bullit, Keegan knew when it was time to depart with the depart when he realised time was up, Rannereri got the bullet after winning the PL, whats special about Howe?.

And remind me what happened after both of those managers you’ve mentioned left again? Did things dramatically improve or did they get a fuck load worse?

 

The reason many are supportive of Howe is because they can see that things off the pitch this summer have had a massive destabilising effect and as you’ve already mentioned he quite rightly has a lot of credit in the bank. Obviously if this kind of form persists into next season then I think the club would have to reappraise things. But to shit the bed at effectively the first big bump in the road after 4 years of observable linear-ish progress is the kind of shit we rightly give Chelsea fans dogs abuse for.

[Kid Icarus]

1 minute ago, Sir Joel Inton said:

 

Out of interest, what are the mitigating circumstances?

Everything that happened in the summer, not just with players but backroom staff. Howe was left to bail the club out of its situation and is now getting the brunt of a lot of the criticism for that.

[Heron]

18 minutes ago, JoeyBartoon said:

Mid table teams usually hover around 25-30% away wins rate. 
For context, Bournemouth and Brentford both had 7 away wins last season. Granted their home form won’t be as strong as ours.

 

Still to go:

burnley

wolves 

liverpool

spurs 

city 

chelsea

palace 

arsenal

fulham 

Yeah - I could only say with any confidence that those top two would likely be wins based on present performance. Who knows though, perhaps we pull more out the bag. We'd need a significant up-turn in performances at home too though and to start making more draws into wins. Next 4 games will be pretty pivotal in the league.

[Heron]

Just now, Kid Icarus said:

Everything that happened in the summer, not just with players but backroom staff. Howe was left to bail the club out of its situation and is now getting the brunt of a lot of the criticism for that.

[Gawalls]

Just now, Ghandis Flip-Flop said:

Yeah because it works in a linear way like that, I bet you were hand wringing about the defeats to West Ham and Bournemouth last season when we qualified for the CL. Honestly at this point you come across as someone who isn’t happy until they’re whining and being in perpetual misery.

 

Honestly sometimes on here it displays how we've ended up in our current polarised political situations, because it would appear context and nuance are alien concepts to some people.

Not at all, I'm just pointing out facts and am sick to the bach teeth of anyone that says anything negative about Howe getting labelled you just have to me. Look I rate Pope and for what it's worth imo at the moment we're in a dip not helped as from last season we've lost the big man up front and the big man at the back. I genuinely believe that alone will be giving the others a little less fight, belief etc but until that gets sorted then Howe needs to think outside the box a little and banging the same drum with lineups, subs leading to the same results and therefore the same discussions on here is frustrating me.

 

Think of me what you want, personally I pride myself in the fact I never slag others off and just discuss and feel the forum would be better if we all did that.

[Ghandis Flip-Flop]

Just now, Gawalls said:

Not at all, I'm just pointing out facts and am sick to the bach teeth of anyone that says anything negative about Howe getting labelled you just have to me. Look I rate Pope and for what it's worth imo at the moment we're in a dip not helped as from last season we've lost the big man up front and the big man at the back. I genuinely believe that alone will be giving the others a little less fight, belief etc but until that gets sorted then Howe needs to think outside the box a little and banging the same drum with lineups, subs leading to the same results and therefore the same discussions on here is frustrating me.

 

Think of me what you want, personally I pride myself in the fact I never slag others off and just discuss and feel the forum would be better if we all did that.

Well I’ll put my professional hat on and maybe ask you to read back through your posting history on here, then do a bit of self reflection. Because almost every post of yours I read on here is negative as fuck and you never seem to post much when we win.

[J7]

Just listened to the Caulkin/Edwards podcast re last night. I know their default mode seems to be to defend the manager, but I still find it baffling that there seems to be no considering that we can play any other system. Amorim has rightly been getting pellets for being rigid, where as our journalists first port of call seems to be to criticise the signing of Woltemade because he doesn’t ’fit our system’. 
 

Sorry, but most managers in the league would love to be given a player like Woltemade. I gave Howe the benefit of the doubt when Wissa was out as there wasn’t really much option but to play him as a number 9, but last night especially we were crying out to have them both on together. It was hardly a surprise that Wissa came on and barely touched the ball either. Woltemade basically has to come deep to get it anyway. 
 

The criticism of only wanting to sign ‘athletes’ for the system while neglecting technical players is a good one. As is the flat midfield, which we didn’t have most of last season. We just seem to be plugging away with pure hope that luck will change or that it’ll click. They could have easily gone 4231 when we were going for a goal last night, but the like for like subs just played into their hands, happy to sit and watch us fail. Things need to change very soon.

[gbandit]

He’s exactly who we need. He’ll continue to deliver lasting success but we need some major sales and buys in the transfer market and to prise the following players out of the side - Gordon and Joelinton. We need a new keeper and sadly a new RW. If we make all those changes with the right players we’ll smash teams for fun again. The right players all need to be footballers who can control a football in tight positions under pressure 

[Sir Joel Inton]

Just now, Kid Icarus said:

Everything that happened in the summer, not just with players but backroom staff. Howe was left to bail the club out of its situation and is now getting the brunt of a lot of the criticism for that.

 

How does that impact solely our away form? Do the players care more about who the DoF is when they get on a coach?

Does Howe make nonsensical substitutions on Boxing Day because Isak asked to leave in June?

 

This excuse is as laughable as Liverpool fans claiming Isak’s poor form was due to his lack of pre-season. 

 

Our 11 yesterday was more than good enough to turn up and put 3 or 4 past an extremely poor Man Utd/Sunderland/West Ham/Brentford side. We didn’t due to the poor team selection, tactics and apparently low morale/confidence in the squad - all sits firmly with the manager.

[The Prophet]

34 minutes ago, JoeyBartoon said:

*All away PL games

1 win in 9 (this season)

8 win in 19 (24/25)

6 win in 19 (23/24)

8 win in 19 (22/23)

5 win in 13 (21/22)

Overall: 28 wins from 79 games (36% win) 

 

Given that we’ve barely faced any strong opponents away so far, it’s increasingly likely that this will be our worst set of away results since Howe took over. With an away win rate of around 12%, we’re currently among the poorest performers in the league.

 

 

 

For context...

 

22/23 - 3rd in the away table

23/24 - 11th in the away table 

24/26 - 10th in the away table (but 6th to 10th all finished level on points)

[Gawalls]

2 minutes ago, Ghandis Flip-Flop said:

Well I’ll put my professional hat on and maybe ask you to read back through your posting history on here, then do a bit of self reflection. Because almost every post of yours I read on here is negative as fuck and you never seem to post much when we win.

Then after this post I'll stop posting after negative as well, to be honest mentioned this once and don't want to do it again but step daughter died not so long ago and football forums aren't that high up in my worries where my head is at. Don't need this shit 

[The Prophet]

I had no issues with signing players to improve our "Plan A"  but we're not really playing that plan very often. Chelsea is the first time we've seen it in a while.

[J7]

We’ve hardly been sparkling at home either mind. Two last minute winners against Fulham, 1-0 against the worst team up to Christmas the league has ever seen, a late win against a flagging Ange Forest and nearly throwing it away against 10 man Burnley. Everton away and City apart, it’s been very average.

[St1pe]

1 hour ago, SUPERTOON said:

His signings though. The summer set us back massively. We haven’t improved the starting 11 since we signed Tonali.

Mostly agree. Thiaw has been great. I think Woltemade will be when we adapt. Without his goals we would be fucked. 
 

I definitely agree on his preference for proven Premier League players has held is back - the value is awful when it doesn’t work. 

[r0cafella]

1 hour ago, SUPERTOON said:

It shouldn’t drop yet, but surely that’s the job of Wilson.

The job who he had a hand in hiring? You see the issues yesterday  

[Kid Icarus]

8 minutes ago, Sir Joel Inton said:

How does that impact solely our away form? Do the players care more about who the DoF is when they get on a coach?

Does Howe make nonsensical substitutions on Boxing Day because Isak asked to leave in June?

 

This excuse is as laughable as Liverpool fans claiming Isak’s poor form was due to his lack of pre-season. 

 

Our 11 yesterday was more than good enough to turn up and put 3 or 4 past an extremely poor Man Utd/Sunderland/West Ham/Brentford side. We didn’t due to the poor team selection, tactics and apparently low morale/confidence in the squad - all sits firmly with the manager.

Mitigating circumstances effect everything because they take away time and resources from your ability to do or prepare your own job properly. I think it's something a lot of us will have experienced in our own jobs.

 

If you don't think a huge squad turnover, selling the focal point of your attack, having no CEO, no DoF, and being told to sort out the transfer window isn't going to have an impact on the time, thought, and effort you can put into your own job, then I have a bridge to sell you.

 

You'll have had absolutely no problem with Howe's same methods when he had us winning. Now that we're not winning, that same person's methods are inexcusable? Right oh.

 

 

Edited December 27, 2025 by Kid Icarus

[Andy]

9 hours ago, dcmk said:

It's maddening how many people actually believe the points you were responding to.

 

It's like they are on the wind up.

 

I don't think Pilko is on the wind up, like. It's just different perspectives on how the window went, which stories you choose to read and believe, how you think the actual signings have performed etc. 

 

The actual wider point of whether we failed to replace Wilson until right at the end of the window, despite knowing he'd need to be replaced for two seasons, is binary. Regardless of reasons or mitigating factors, there was a failure there that deserves a critical post mortem. 

 

I also agree with Pilko that the Wissa transfer was a complete mess. That is obviously subjective, but we signed him for the fee that Brentford allegedly wanted 4 or 5 weeks earlier. By all accounts it could've just been done, same as Trafford before City knew Ederson was leaving, we acted way too slowly. The likes of Sesko and Ekitike fall under a different debate as they were clearly prospective Isak replacements. Pedro and Delap went early, so there was still plenty of time at that point. 

 

[Holloway]

we now have the attackers for a significantly different plan B, but haven't had anywhere near the time to implement it. The horrific timing of Wissa's injury coupled with the limited training time due to the hectic schedule means that we are still finding our way with the preferred formation,never mind a plan B. Eddie needs time to sort it,he gets another full year for me,with the go ahead to go after his targets 

[Heron]

9 minutes ago, Sir Joel Inton said:

 

How does that impact solely our away form? Do the players care more about who the DoF is when they get on a coach?

Does Howe make nonsensical substitutions on Boxing Day because Isak asked to leave in June?

 

This excuse is as laughable as Liverpool fans claiming Isak’s poor form was due to his lack of pre-season. 

 

Our 11 yesterday was more than good enough to turn up and put 3 or 4 past an extremely poor Man Utd/Sunderland/West Ham/Brentford side. We didn’t due to the poor team selection, tactics and apparently low morale/confidence in the squad - all sits firmly with the manager.

Disagree.

 

Losing a striker whom is considered "world class" at the very end of a transfer window where we'd been claiming we weren't going to sell and then trying to reinvent your team (squad?) around changing alternatives (tactically) is NOT the same as one individual player gaining match fitness.