Paul Mitchell (Sporting Director)

[54]

Just now, Zero said:

The hiring of Bunce is already the first warning sign, and then the departure of Amanda…

The relationship between the management and Howe is deteriorating.

Again, that is literally just conjuncture, infact Howe said on Tuesday he has a good relationship with Mitchell. 

[timeEd32]

1 hour ago, KaKa said:

 

I know ...

 

It's so crazy because with all this coming up now, I couldn't help but recall what the Bournemouth fan @cherryred said on here a good three years ago, before there was even any hint of unrest.

 

 

 

 

 

 

That’s scarily accurate.

[TBG]

24 minutes ago, Miggys First Goal said:

You can get 12/1 on Eddie being next PL manager to leave. 

 

For those who don't know how betting works, this means if you bet £1, you will lose £1.

[Kanji]

@KaKa good post and points mate. 

[KaKa]

22 minutes ago, Kanji said:

@KaKa good post and points mate. 

 

I know it's not the most positive man, and to be fair I'm still hoping that it's okay between Howe and Mitchell and things work out.

 

Just seems like a potentially delicate situation. Fingers crossed it's all alright in the end.

 

I've loved Eddie's work, and he's so good working with players that aren't even the most talented. Would hope he could be a bit more open minded with players brought in.

 

Let's see what happens.

 

[TRon]

Mitchell's job is purely to recruit as far as I know. Did he really have no other alternatives on his books if Palace refused to sell Guehi?

 

 

[SUPERTOON]

3 hours ago, 54 said:

Again, that is literally just conjuncture, infact Howe said on Tuesday he has a good relationship with Mitchell. 

But Howe lies in press conferences remember.

[BottledDog]

4 minutes ago, TRon said:

Mitchell's job is purely to recruit as far as I know. Did he really have no other alternatives on his books if Palace refused to sell Guehi?

 

 

 

Give me a mo, will have a Google.

[Danh1]

4 hours ago, timeEd32 said:

That’s scarily accurate.

Very accurate.

 

I know we are working off reports in the media and the likes of that post. But it leads me to think that Howe won’t be here by the time the next window opens 

[duo]

43 minutes ago, TRon said:

Mitchell's job is purely to recruit as far as I know. Did he really have no other alternatives on his books if Palace refused to sell Guehi?

 

 

Well exactly - also it's not like we lost our whole scouting department.  One man left.  

[Sean]

6 hours ago, timeEd32 said:

That’s scarily accurate.

It's a scary read alright given the current situation.

[Erikse]

8 hours ago, KaKa said:

 

I know ...

 

It's so crazy because with all this coming up now, I couldn't help but recall what the Bournemouth fan @cherryred said on here a good three years ago, before there was even any hint of unrest.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another quote from that for those who didn't open the post:

 

Quote

He's very meticulous in his approach to tactics which led to us playing some absolutely stunning beautiful football at times, but in his latter days he did show a bit of an unwillingness to change style and personel which held us a back a bit. He takes his time with new signings so I wouldn't necessarily expect to see any January transfers walk straight into the team. He usually took a good 6 months at least to bed a player into the setup before he trusted them in the starting 11.

 

It's weird because the first season he came off as a guy that allways wanted to learn and develop, especially with that interview he did. But this Bournemouth fan literally described every part of Howes time at Newcastle before it even happened, atleast that's how it looks now. Feels like he hasn't change or developed that much after all, and is largely sticking with the same old way of doing things nomatter what.

 

 

Edited Friday at 01:04 by Erikse

[Ben]

Have we just accepted that we can't break into the top 6 ? Now we have lost the vision of Amanda and Ashworth do we just turn into Brighton mark 2, get rid of Howe for a younger coach that will work under Mitchell with "potential" players rather than established stars that take us to yhe next level.

[Pata]

11 hours ago, Upthemags said:

Some of you are dense, man. How many new sporting directors do we need to try out before we realize the problem with our transfer business probably lies elsewhere?

 

If you exclude the hysteria around this window, what has exactly been the problem with our transfer business?

[gazza ladra]

1 hour ago, Erikse said:

 

Another quote from that for those who didn't open the post:

 

 

It's weird because the first season he came off as a guy that allways wanted to learn and develop, especially with that interview he did. But this Bournemouth fan literally described every part of Howes time at Newcastle before it even happened, atleast that's how it looks now. Feels like he hasn't change or developed that much after all, and is largely sticking with the same old way of doing things nomatter what.

 

No agree with this at all. Or not all of it.

 

- We are a long way from the ultra-defensive shithousery that characterized our play when he first arrived. We changed our style to match the talent available. We went from surrending the second or third least goals in one season to near top scorers the next.

- He has integrated top quality players rather quickly. Tonali, for example, went straight in -- when signed and when he returned. Sure Gordon took a while and Bruno was a sub for something like 4 games when he arrived? Were Isak, Pope, Botman, Barnes, and Trippier struggling to get into the side? 

- Don't know anything about what is going on behind the scenes, and neither does anyone else. Maybe he's right about that (maybe), but he certainly has not been right about everything. Not by a long shot.

 

 

 

[Guest]

3 hours ago, Ben said:

Have we just accepted that we can't break into the top 6 ? Now we have lost the vision of Amanda and Ashworth do we just turn into Brighton mark 2, get rid of Howe for a younger coach that will work under Mitchell with "potential" players rather than established stars that take us to yhe next level.

 

If we were turning into Brighton mark 2 we'd have sold 1 or 2 of Bruno, Isak and Gordon and signed 4-5 £20-30m unknowns in the hope of flipping them.

 

The fact we haven't done that, and were trying to sign what we view as the best player we could afford suggests the exact opposite of that. 

[r0cafella]

5 minutes ago, Optimistic Nut said:

 

If we were turning into Brighton mark 2 we'd have sold 1 or 2 of Bruno, Isak and Gordon and signed 4-5 £20-30m unknowns in the hope of flipping them.

 

The fact we haven't done that, and were trying to sign what we view as the best player we could afford suggests the exact opposite of that. 

Good points ON. 

 

I actual think we don’t know how to navigate our predicament, after all we are the first club to run into this challenge. We want to compete but the rules forbids it from happening. 
 

We have to innovate and box clever to progress now and on the surface it doesn’t appear we are well equipped to do so. We’ve basically kicked all of the difficult decisions into the future and it’s starting to catch up with us. 

[TheBrownBottle]

19 minutes ago, r0cafella said:

Good points ON. 

 

I actual think we don’t know how to navigate our predicament, after all we are the first club to run into this challenge. We want to compete but the rules forbids it from happening. 
 

We have to innovate and box clever to progress now and on the surface it doesn’t appear we are well equipped to do so. We’ve basically kicked all of the difficult decisions into the future and it’s starting to catch up with us. 

Yeah, that’s how it looks to me too.  A genuine attempt to compete but turnover hasn’t risen at a commensurate rate (our revenues are as far behind Spurs as they were when we were taken over), so we’ve been unable to close the gap and are now left with a smattering of genuinely quality acquisitions and a bunch of Ashley-era triers who’ve been optimised by a superb coach.  And those acquisitions have left us with pretty much no more financial wriggle-room - and our inability to offload the Ashley-era players meant that there’s sod all else coming in.

 

There’s no easy fix to this atm

[r0cafella]

Just now, TheBrownBottle said:

Yeah, that’s how it looks to me too.  A genuine attempt to compete but turnover hasn’t risen at a commensurate rate (our revenues are as far behind Spurs as they were when we were taken over), so we’ve been unable to close the gap and are now left with a smattering of genuinely quality acquisitions and a bunch of Ashley-era triers who’ve been optimised by a superb coach.  And those acquisitions have left us with pretty much no more financial wriggle-room - and our inability to offload the Ashley-era players meant that there’s sod all else coming in.

 

There’s no easy fix to this atm

Pretty much, I mean obviously we have some funds to add another player of that calibre this window, we’ve just goofed it in the most naive way possible. 
 

The rest holds true to me, me and you have both been banging the drum that if we aren’t growing quicker than the sky 6 we are falling behind the January window really demonstrated this, we were basically at a standstill and we couldn’t do anything. 
 

I’m still left wondering what the long term strategy is because the actions don’t make the grandiose statements and we shouldn’t blame the fans for being upset with what they’ve told was going to happen. 
 

Back to Mitchell, it’s absolutely fascinating what’s taking place, of course we never have the full picture so we are left making assumptions but I do recall reading we approached him before Dougie and he turned us down because he wasn’t certain about his role, if true I wonder what changed his mind and if he has any regrets. 

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, r0cafella said:

Pretty much, I mean obviously we have some funds to add another player of that calibre this window, we’ve just goofed it in the most naive way possible. 
 

The rest holds true to me, me and you have both been banging the drum that if we aren’t growing quicker than the sky 6 we are falling behind the January window really demonstrated this, we were basically at a standstill and we couldn’t do anything. 
 

I’m still left wondering what the long term strategy is because the actions don’t make the grandiose statements and we shouldn’t blame the fans for being upset with what they’ve told was going to happen. 
 

Back to Mitchell, it’s absolutely fascinating what’s taking place, of course we never have the full picture so we are left making assumptions but I do recall reading we approached him before Dougie and he turned us down because he wasn’t certain about his role, if true I wonder what changed his mind and if he has any regrets. 

 

We're being hamstrung left, right and centre, though.

 

We're not allowed to get over-the-top sponsors because the Sky 6 don't think that's fair. We can't expect companies to pay us Sky 6 sponsorship monies as we've only been back near the top for 2 years.

 

We can't spend what we want because the Sky 6 don't like that, either. We don't want to sell our top stars because then our task gets harder to catch the Sky 6, but we can't refresh the squad as much as we like because of FPR.

 

We're still in the last 1-2 years of the Ashley-era hangover players. The ones not good enough for us, but are on too big a wage for clubs more of their level to want to come and buy.

 

We should at the very least have bought one CB imo this summer, whether it's Guehi, someone similar, or a loan to cover until Botman is back. I don't think it's the end of the world that we haven't, though.

 

I just don't see how it changes until Isak or Bruno follow their natural progression and go to an "elite" club for £100m, or FPR rules change. It's a bit shite, in all honesty. 

[r0cafella]

Just now, Optimistic Nut said:

 

We're being hamstrung left, right and centre, though.

 

We're not allowed to get over-the-top sponsors because the Sky 6 don't think that's fair. We can't expect companies to pay us Sky 6 sponsorship monies as we've only been back near the top for 2 years.

 

We can't spend what we want because the Sky 6 don't like that, either. We don't want to sell our top stars because then our task gets harder to catch the Sky 6, but we can't refresh the squad as much as we like because of FPR.

 

We're still in the last 1-2 years of the Ashley-era hangover players. The ones not good enough for us, but are on too big a wage for clubs more of their level to want to come and buy.

 

We should at the very least have bought one CB imo this summer, whether it's Guehi, someone similar, or a loan to cover until Botman is back. I don't think it's the end of the world that we haven't, though.

 

I just don't see how it changes until Isak or Bruno follow their natural progression and go to an "elite" club for £100m, or FPR rules change. It's a bit shite, in all honesty. 

We are absolutely are in a bind and our growth is definitely slow, but these rules for the most part have been in place for awhile they’ve gone into this eyes wide open. Our response has been to be good little pupils and not be confrontational. 
 

From a recruitment standpoint we’re shown an absolute steadfast determination to shop in the most expensive market in the world and complain about prices; nufc tax etc. 

 

I think we should accept that yes things are difficult but at certain stages we haven’t helped ourselves we haven’t been savvy as an organisation and we are now in a bit of treacle. 
 

We stagnated last season and it’s looking like another season of little progress as things stands (very early days admittedly). 
 

Im not in a position to dish out blame; I’ve got no idea what has been discussed and agreed but I think it’s quite obvious something isn’t right internally. 

[Guest]

We stagnated last season due to injuries and the Tonali situation, though. If any two of Pope, Botman, Joelinton, Barnes or Tonali were available for about 6-8 games more than they were, we'd have been top 4 imo. I know we already have a couple of injuries but I don't think we'll ever have a season like that again. We'll have a very good season. 

[r0cafella]

Just now, Optimistic Nut said:

We stagnated last season due to injuries and the Tonali situation, though. If any two of Pope, Botman, Joelinton, Barnes or Tonali were available for about 6-8 games more than they were, we'd have been top 4 imo. I know we already have a couple of injuries but I don't think we'll ever have a season like that again. We'll have a very good season. 

Oh yeah, I didn’t mention the factors behind the stagnation because it wasn’t relevant to the overall. 
 

We simply can’t afford mistakes, last season demonstrated that perfectly, those mistakes have led to the current stagnation and yes, we almost qualified for conference league which would have been better than nothing but it wouldn’t have been enough to material change our financial position either. 
 

We have to be pushing for Cl, and that is obviously a massive challenge which has been made all the more difficult by decisions made over the last 12 months at least. 

[Erikse]

6 hours ago, gazza ladra said:

No agree with this at all. Or not all of it.

 

- We are a long way from the ultra-defensive shithousery that characterized our play when he first arrived. We changed our style to match the talent available. We went from surrending the second or third least goals in one season to near top scorers the next.

- He has integrated top quality players rather quickly. Tonali, for example, went straight in -- when signed and when he returned. Sure Gordon took a while and Bruno was a sub for something like 4 games when he arrived? Were Isak, Pope, Botman, Barnes, and Trippier struggling to get into the side? 

- Don't know anything about what is going on behind the scenes, and neither does anyone else. Maybe he's right about that (maybe), but he certainly has not been right about everything. Not by a long shot.

 

 

 

 

Yeah, was up late, didn't quite think this through. So it wasn't 100% accurate, but pretty damn close.

[wallsendlad1952]

14 hours ago, Miggys First Goal said:

You can get 12/1 on Eddie being next PL manager to leave. 

He was only 6/1 a few weeks ago so the bookies  think he is possibly less likely to now.

 

14 hours ago, Miggys First Goal said:

You can get 12/1 on Eddie being next PL manager to leave.