Eddie Howe

[Wallsendmag]

26 minutes ago, LFEE said:

Could we not just have less players and pay them more individually?

 

Well yeah we can but last season showed that our squad doesn't have the depth of quality or quantity and we struggled under the weight of the fixtures.

[Dr Venkman]

11 hours ago, Myleftboot said:

That’s why I think the ‘credit in the bank’ has been used up in a lot of peoples eyes.

Well no wonder it’s run out, you’re not supposed to put credit in peoples eyes, never mind a lot of them.

[NUFC91]

1 hour ago, RS said:

I fully expect our lot to turn on him this season, such is the short term outlook of a large section of our fans. (But what about the half a billion he’s squandered? Etc etc)

After all, it’s not that far back when they took Mike Ashley’s 30 pieces of silver (aka the free half season tickets) when it looked like there was genuine opposition against his ownership. The rats were climbing over themselves to take his bait and save his face by filling the stadium. 
 

14 previous years of decay forgotten by some. If it takes 14 years to get us top 6 I’ll take it in a heartbeat. Hopefully Eddie is involved as long as he wants to be. 

 

I agree with you, but if you are meaning you would be happy to wait 14 more years to finish top 6 then we need to shift from this mindset.

 

Winning a trophy was the best thing we have seen as Newcastle supporters but I don't think we should accept that's the ceiling, we should be wanting to challenge for Europe every year particularly when we have seen clubs which much smaller budgets Sunderland Brighton Bournemouth qualify.

 

I think Eddie more than anyone will want Europe next year and I hope he proves people wrong.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited Friday at 18:31 by NUFC91

[Shays Given Tim Flowers]

But we do challenge for Europe every season? Or do you mean we should expect to qualify every season? 

[LFEE]

1 hour ago, Wallsendmag said:

 

Well yeah we can but last season showed that our squad doesn't have the depth of quality or quantity and we struggled under the weight of the fixtures.

Worth a gamble and blood more youth perhaps.

[bigfella]

7 minutes ago, LFEE said:

Worth a gamble and blood more youth perhaps.

 

Yup, and we'll likely play about 15 fewer games next season, so less need to have a big squad.

[Wolfcastle]

28 minutes ago, Shays Given Tim Flowers said:

But we do challenge for Europe every season? Or do you mean we should expect to qualify every season? 

We never challenged last season. Never looked anything but midtable throughout.

[Kid Icarus]

The league table said otherwise for most of it.

[Shays Given Tim Flowers]

8 minutes ago, Kid Icarus said:

The league table said otherwise for most of it.

At what point in the season could we no longer qualify. 4 points off at the end 5 or 6 for Europa places. 

[Wolfcastle]

Just now, Shays Given Tim Flowers said:

At what point in the season could we no longer qualify. 4 points off at the end 5 or 6 for Europa places. 

Could say that about the 21/22 season, only 3points worse off than last season and closer to 8th but it was a relegation battle season if anything, same with Leeds last year, 2points back from us in the end - not remotely in contention.

[Wallsendmag]

19 minutes ago, Wolfcastle said:

We never challenged last season. Never looked anything but midtable throughout.

 

Aye we only spent 10 of the 38 match weeks in the top half of the table. Our average position by week was 12th and our final position was 12th. 

 

People blame the amount of games but in truth we just never really got going. Need a fast start next season.

[Wolfcastle]

16 minutes ago, Kid Icarus said:

The league table said otherwise for most of it.

Only if you discount all the other teams that looked more likely.

We were in the top 8 for one week all season. Outside the European places for all but 2. Looked far more likely to finish midtable based on the league table and it felt every bit of it to me.

 

 

Edited Friday at 20:06 by Wolfcastle

[Kid Icarus]

3 minutes ago, Wolfcastle said:

If you discount all the other teams that looked more likely throughout.

 

Not really, the league was the battle of who could care less for most of it and beyond Arsenal and Sunderland you're scratching your head over who had a good season throughout. 

 

There was 3 points between 6th and 11th with 6 games left.

[Shays Given Tim Flowers]

5 minutes ago, Wolfcastle said:

Could say that about the 21/22 season, only 3points worse off than last season and closer to 8th but it was a relegation battle season if anything, same with Leeds last year, 2points back from us in the end - not remotely in contention.

No you couldn’t. Reality was if on 2 occasions we dropped points from a winning position we hadn’t we’d be playing European football. To not characterise that as challenging for European places is bizarre. 

[Colos Short and Curlies]

9 minutes ago, Wolfcastle said:

Only if you discount all the other teams that looked more likely.

We were in the top 8 for one week all season. Outside the European places for all but 2. Looked far more likely to finish midtable based on the league table and it felt every bit of it to me.

 

 

 

 

You can of course flip this to read that in a season where all bar 1 or clubs had sub par seasons we could only finish 12th.

[NUFC91]

1 hour ago, Shays Given Tim Flowers said:

But we do challenge for Europe every season? Or do you mean we should expect to qualify every season? 

 

I was referring to point on original post I quoted about being happy to not finish top 6 for years just saying we should be aiming for it every year.

[Viana]

I will always appreciate Eddie for the journey we've been on, but any time that his previous achievements might have bought him was used up last season. 

 

He has to get it right early doors this season or he'll be gone. 

[NUFC91]

21 minutes ago, Shays Given Tim Flowers said:

No you couldn’t. Reality was if on 2 occasions we dropped points from a winning position we hadn’t we’d be playing European football. To not characterise that as challenging for European places is bizarre. 

 

We didn't challenge for Europe  this season, I don't even think we spend more than a week in the top 8 throughout the whole season.

 

 

Edited Friday at 20:34 by NUFC91

[Abacus]

Where would people realistically expect to finish next season? I guess it depends on the summer and I do get that.

 

Right now, I think 6th and Europa would be a really good season and that's assuming Tonali might be away and a few relative unknowns in. Just curious what others think.

[Shays Given Tim Flowers]

Yeah I’ll leave it there. Seems redundant to engage. Enjoy your evening. 

[Wallsendmag]

3 minutes ago, Abacus said:

Where would people realistically expect to finish next season? I guess it depends on the summer and I do get that.

 

Right now, I think 6th and Europa would be a really good season and that's assuming Tonali might be away and a few relative unknowns in. Just curious what others think.

 

Think 6th/7th got to be the aim with no distractions next season. Should be finishing above the likes of Bournemouth (who've lost their manager), Sunderland and Brighton who have Europe to contend with. Hopefully leapfrog Brentford as well. Villa might hopefully struggle playing CL football but on the flip side I think Spurs will be stronger looking at how they're going about things.

[Colos Short and Curlies]

6 minutes ago, Abacus said:

Where would people realistically expect to finish next season? I guess it depends on the summer and I do get that.

 

Right now, I think 6th and Europa would be a really good season and that's assuming Tonali might be away and a few relative unknowns in. Just curious what others think.

 

4th has to be the target.

 

Top 2 are a given but the rest of cartel have question marks as to how they fare with new managers.

There is always at least one or two who have a shitter of a season, we need to be the ones to take advantage this time

[Kid Icarus]

22 minutes ago, NUFC91 said:

 

We didn't challenge for Europe  this season, I don't even think we spend more than a week in the top 8 throughout the whole season.

 

 

 

We spent 23 out of 38 game weeks either within 3 points or less of the European places or in the European places. We were also never more than 5 points away despite being shite.

 

Fixating on our position doesn't mean as much, eg being 1 place off in 9th but 10 points away means less than being 12th and 3 points off with a decent GD.

 

We had a shit season, I see no reason to pretend it was even worse than it was. The reality was that even after a shit season we were always the promise of a small run (that never arrived) of getting into Europe.

 

 

Edited Friday at 20:55 by Kid Icarus

[Abacus]

2 minutes ago, Colos Short and Curlies said:

 

4th has to be the target.

 

Top 2 are a given but the rest of cartel have question marks as to how they fare with new managers.

There is always at least one or two who have a shitter of a season, we need to be the ones to take advantage this time

 

Not that I disagree that at least some big team and maybe two will implode.

 

Personally, I think champions league is a bit of a high bar, which I also admittedly thought during the magic carpet ride of Howe's first full season and was then delighted and surprised like everyone when we got there.

 

Just genuinely curious as to what people expect. Target yes, and obviously I do hope we get there, but it would need a lot of things to fall our way.

[andyc35i]

6 minutes ago, Kid Icarus said:

We spent 23 out of 38 game weeks either within 3 points or less of the European places or in the European places. We were also never more than 5 points away despite being shite.

 

Fixating on our position doesn't mean as much, eg being 1 place off in 9th but 10 points away means less than being 12th and 3 points off with a decent GD.

 

We had a shit season, I see no reason to pretend it was even worse than it was. The reality was that even after a shit season we were always the promise of a small run (that never arrived) of getting into Europe.

 

 

 

That’s why I’m still annoyed with how things ended for us. If we didn’t give away the three points at Forest, we’d have gone into the last game with the possibility of finishing 7th. It was so tight even until the end despite how shite we were for much of the season.