Eddie Howe

[dcmk]

1 minute ago, Wolfcastle said:

Keegan left because of the move to being a PLC, Sir Bobby was retiring at the end of the season and after a bad start the board cut that retirement tour short. The fans wanted neither out

 

 

There was a portion of our fan base who wanted Sir Bobby out way before then.  We were terrible the previous season and had crashed out of the Champions League in the qualifying round by Partizan Belgrade.  

[TK-421]

7 minutes ago, Yorkie said:

 

There's evidence he wanted Mbeumo ahead of Elanga but granted, there's just as much evidence he was a long-term target, so he's accountable to that money being wasted if indeed he doesn't improve. 

 

Wissa is absolutely nowhere near this club if the rules are fairer imo. Or if he is it's as second fiddle to Isak. Either way there's no way we drop £55m on him; he's either cheaper cos we're less desperate or we look elsewhere.

On Wissa, I dont remember there being much issue geenerally when he was linked at around £35m initially, as many saw him (after last season) as an upgarde on Wilson, he certainly wasn't seen as the Isak replacement - that being Ekitike/Sesko. It was when Brentford started ramping the price up that eyebrows started being raised, but we stuck with it, kept upping our offer. We had plenty of time to say, 'no thanks' and look elsewhere for the 'wilson replacement', but we didn't. We actively chose to stick with the pursuit of Wissa.

Strand Larsson was then chased as the Isak replacement, with us finally panicking on Woltermade late on. But even after he signed, we still went after Wissa too, at stupid money when there must have been better, cheaper options available. Wissa was defintiely a choice, not something we were forced into by the rules.

 

 

Edited March 22 by TK-421

[Shearergol]

Strand Larsson is a much better fit for us, ironically 

[Milburn]

11 minutes ago, The Prophet said:

Howe has spoken numerous times about a collaborative approach to transfer activity. Does be want a lot of control or final say? Most managers have the latter.

Most top clubs don’t give the manager final say, that’s the whole point of having a DoF. The club sets the strategy, the manager works within it.

 

If the manager has the final call, it stops being truly collaborative and becomes manager-led recruitment. And that’s exactly where the issues tend to start.

 

I truly believe Howe just wants a DoF who brings him options, but ultimately acts on the manager’s command, and that’s not how a modern structure should work.

 

It’s quite telling, in my view, that Ross Wilson was appointed on Howe’s strong recommendation. My expectations for that appointment are close to zero.

 

 

Edited March 22 by Milburn

[AyeDubbleYoo]

Wissa was slightly too expensive but a pretty sensible signing given we needed some PL goals. Sadly he got a really bad injury before he had a chance to play and hasn't come back from it. The same issue also caused us to have to throw Woltemade in much more than we had planned. 

 

I feel like it's just a season with many compounding issues like this. 

[dcmk]

6 minutes ago, Sir Joel Inton said:

 

Correct. Howe wanted to keep Wilson.

 

What a dreadful decision that would have been too.

Howe also wanted one of Ekitike, Delap, Mbeumo or Cunha before the Isak situation happened.  

 

So no, Wilson wasn't the plan.

[AyeDubbleYoo]

Just now, Milburn said:

Most top clubs don’t give the manager final say, that’s the whole point of having a DoF. The club sets the strategy, the manager works within it.

 

If the manager has the final call, it stops being truly collaborative and becomes manager-led recruitment. And that’s exactly where the issues tend to start.

 

I truly believe Howe just wants a DoF who brings him options, but ultimately acts on the manager’s command, and that’s not how a modern structure should work.

 

It’s quite telling, in my view, that Ross Wilson was appointed on Howe’s strong recommendation. My expectations for that appointment are close to zero.

 

I just find it very odd if a young and clever manager like Howe would insist on a structure that doesn't exist at any top club. Would be an absolutely massive blind spot for his career. 

[Wolfcastle]

1 minute ago, dcmk said:

There was a portion of our fan base who wanted Sir Bobby out way before then.  We were terrible the previous season and had crashed out of the Champions League in the qualifying round by Partizan Belgrade.  

There's a portion want every manager out but there was no protests, no chants, no banners wanting Sir Bobby out and the only comments I ever heard were concerns about his age.  There was an entire season after Partizan to mount such if that was the case. Wasn't enough people to be noticeable, probably the odd letter in the Pink or Mag and nowhere near enough to influence a decision from above as the post implied

[TBG]

Daft Punk - Aerodynamic 

 

Is playing right now, such a tune.

 

Oh my God, Rollin & Sracthin now ( i picked this)

[Sir Joel Inton]

5 minutes ago, Yorkie said:

 

Seems most likely to me that offering Wilson an extension was a contingency plan in the event everything went tits up. Which it did, and with hindsight we'd have been much better off. 

 

We should have planned for Wilson’s exit 12 months before it occurred. He didn’t run out of contract overnight. He was never good enough or fit enough to be considered an option in that final season.

 

It was inexcusable to not have someone lined up to replace him almost instantly. As soon as Brentford rejected £35m for Wissa, we should have been elsewhere.

 

It got messy once Isak threw his toys out of the pram and we had failed to replace Wilson as we needed two strikers and everyone knew we had a lot of money to burn.

 

It was one of the biggest failures not replacing Wilson instantly at the start of the window. Particularly when you hear we knew Isak was unsettled long before and could have envisaged it spiralling.

[The Prophet]

1 minute ago, Milburn said:

Most top clubs don’t give the manager final say, that’s the whole point of having a DoF. The club sets the strategy, the manager works within it.

 

If the manager has the final call, it stops being truly collaborative and becomes manager-led recruitment. And that’s exactly where the issues tend to start.

 

I truly believe Howe just wants a DoF who brings him options, but ultimately acts on the manager’s command, and that’s not how a modern structure should work.

 

It’s quite telling, in my view, that Ross Wilson was appointed on Howe’s strong recommendation. My expectations for that appointment are close to zero.

 

 

 

 

Arsenal, City and Liverpool all give their managers final say. It's quite common in the English setup, simply because there's no point in purchasing a player that the manager isn't going to play.

[Mills and Boon]

4 minutes ago, dcmk said:

There was a portion of our fan base who wanted Sir Bobby out way before then.  We were terrible the previous season and had crashed out of the Champions League in the qualifying round by Partizan Belgrade.  

 

Yep. More recently there were a load who wanted Rafa out because he was playing boring football. I wonder if they enjoyed BruceBall?

 

There are always a few all too ready to turn on the manager despite it not making very much sense 

[Sir Joel Inton]

3 minutes ago, dcmk said:

Howe also wanted one of Ekitike, Delap, Mbeumo or Cunha before the Isak situation happened.  

 

So no, Wilson wasn't the plan.

 

What?  He wanted Wilson to extend before the season ended and those names were just a mere spec of consideration.

[Dava1892]

Read a lot on here and in my view only one cunt to blame over all of this and for the mess we’re in and it’s the Rat with the broken leg!

 

Wissa and Wolte signing rushed through when other options opted for else where. Learn our fucking lesson for this summer when no doubt more of the higher profile players will have their heads turned also. Bruno, Tonali, Tino, Hall, Elanga (Joke)

 

 

Edited March 22 by Dava1892

[J7]

1 minute ago, Wolfcastle said:

There's a portion want every manager out but there was no protests, no chants, no banners wanting Sir Bobby out and the only comments I ever heard were concerns about his age.  There was an entire season after Partizan to mount such if that was the case. Wasn't enough people to be noticeable, probably the odd letter in the Pink or Mag and nowhere near enough to influence a decision from above as the post implied

He should have gone at the end of the season before he got sacked. He wasn’t ’forced out by the fans’ though. 

[KaKa]

3 minutes ago, Milburn said:

It’s quite telling, in my view, that the Ross Wilson was appointed on Howe’s strong recommendation. My expectations for that appointment are close to zero.

 

Just have to hope Wilson can be more persuasive in convincing him to expand his horizons. There's been a good number of hints towards looking more at markets outside the Prem.

 

The way things have ended up going with Wissa and Elanga should also convince him that Prem proven is not always a guaranteed slam dunk without any issues.

[Decky]

6 minutes ago, Milburn said:

Most top clubs don’t give the manager final say, that’s the whole point of having a DoF. The club sets the strategy, the manager works within it.

 

If the manager has the final call, it stops being truly collaborative and becomes manager-led recruitment. And that’s exactly where the issues tend to start.

 

I truly believe Howe just wants a DoF who brings him options, but ultimately acts on the manager’s command, and that’s not how a modern structure should work.

 

It’s quite telling, in my view, that Ross Wilson was appointed on Howe’s strong recommendation. My expectations for that appointment are close to zero.

 

 

 

 

No no man have you not heard, Howe is blameless for the transfers. 

[Yorkie]

6 minutes ago, TK-421 said:

On Wissa, I dont remember there being much issue geenerally when he was linked at around £35m initially, as many saw him (after last season) as an upgarde on Wilson, her certainly wasn't seen as the Isak replacement - that being Ekitike/Sesko. It was when Brentford started ramping the price up that eyebrows started being raised, but we stuck with it, jept upping our offer. We had plenty of time to sya, 'no thanks' and look else where for the 'wilson replacement', but we didn't. We actively chose to stick with the prusuit of Wissa.

Strand Larsson was then chased as the Isak replacement, with us finally panicking on Woltermade late on. But even after he signed, we still went after Wissa too, at stupid money when there must have been better, cheaper options available. Wissa was defintiely a choice, not something we were forced into by the rules.

 

I don't think this is how it went down. I don't think we had a list of strikers under the subheading 'Isak replacements' and another under the subheading 'Wilson replacements'. We just wanted to recruit as best we could in the striker department; and 'best we could' was massively influenced by PSR. 

[Milburn]

1 minute ago, AyeDubbleYoo said:

 

I just find it very odd if a young and clever manager like Howe would insist on a structure that doesn't exist at any top club. Would be an absolutely massive blind spot for his career. 

Howe is known to be extremely detail-oriented and very hands-on in everything he does. That’s one of his strengths as a coach, but it can also blur the lines when it comes to other sides of the operation.

 

And when you factor in that his nephew is head of recruitment, it does raise questions about how independent that side of the operation really is...

[Carlito]

He has to go, asap. Sick of all the excuses I'm seeing made for him.

He can't moan about PSR when he's spent quarter of a billion in a single window. PSR doesn't dictate his stubbornness, or the fact that we've lost more than 20 points from winning positions this season, or that we've conceded 3 or more goals 8 times in 2026. You could probably count on one hand how many times we've performed well in both halves of a game this season.

 

He won us a trophy and we'll never forget that, but we're regressing big time and that falls on the manager. 

[AyeDubbleYoo]

Are we writing off Scott Wilson and the recruitment department already? Seems like he did a pretty good job at Forest and their signings were very good. 

[dcmk]

2 minutes ago, Sir Joel Inton said:

 

What?  He wanted Wilson to extend before the season ended and those names were just a mere spec of consideration.

 

 

We apparently had the opportunity to sit down with his reps to do a play and pay deal.  Sounds like someone we were desperate to keep doesn't it..

[TK-421]

4 minutes ago, Yorkie said:

 

I don't think this is how it went down. I don't think we had a list of strikers under the subheading 'Isak replacements' and another under the subheading 'Wilson replacements'. We just wanted to recruit as best we could in the striker department; and 'best we could' was massively influenced by PSR. 

 

I don't think the club did either, but given the age profiles, thats how the respective targets were generally perceived. We still had Isak, albeit on strike, saying he wasn't for sale when we first pursued Wissa, so had we called his/Liverpools bluff and sorted things, we may have just stuck with going for Wissa who'd then have been the 2nd striker (Wilson) alongside Isak.

[JT24]

Just now, AyeDubbleYoo said:

Are we writing off Scott Wilson and the recruitment department already? Seems like he did a pretty good job at Forest and their signings were very good. 

I know the Northern Echo isn’t great but howay, no need for this. 

[Milburn]

7 minutes ago, The Prophet said:

 

Arsenal, City and Liverpool all give their managers final say. It's quite common in the English setup, simply because there's no point in purchasing a player that the manager isn't going to play.

At places like Arsenal, City and Liverpool, the structure is still club-led. The recruitment model, profiling and long-term planning sit above the manager. 

 

“Final say” in practice usually means veto power, not that the manager drives the process or that the recruitment department/DoF chases players based on the manager’s command. The concern is when it tips into manager-led recruitment rather than a proper club strategy, but because that’s when you lose continuity the moment the manager changes.

 

Newcastle are now in a position where the DoF was effectively appointed on Howe’s recommendation, and one of the heads of recruitment is his nephew. Make of that what you want...