aimaad22

Should these fears come true and the Saudis do eventually push Eddie out, I'd love to see their plan for the next manager. As things stand their pitch would be: "Transfer budget for the next year is about 2 loan deals. We want you to take this half squad of relegation fighting Bruce players and finish top 4 plus win a cup or two. Just like Eddie did, after which we backed him with 2 first team signings and against everyone's wildest expectations the whole thing fell to shite so he got the sack." I'm confident candidates will be falling over each other to join.

My wife once got mad that I have no sense of direction. So I packed up my stuff and right.

PIF own/control some of the most complex entities on the planet. There's probably a bunch of long term financial models and business plans that will have been put in place for NUFC right down to 5-10 year cashflow projections. My guess is there's a particular point in time the management feel certain things have to be put in place to get the maximum benefit out of them, perhaps aligned withg the stage of progress/evolution the club is in. I could be wrong, but something like that seems more likely to me than them simply not knowing how or being able to immediately raise all revenue streams when every other club is doing it.

We tried being positive when the Tonali news first broke and thought some journos were making more of it than there was. The pissy pants are sometimes right I still don't think Ashworth will leave. Man Utd are a mess by all accounts and he's already helping build something special here.

In that case we can continue to blame our rotten luck and not have to contend with the meltdown a defeat against Sunderland would entail.

Unless they can find a way around FFP they'll have to suck it up. And it's hard to think of another manager who can get more out of the current players than Eddie has. If we dont turn it around in February that's when the alarm bells should go off. We've already been soundly beaten by many poor teams so when the fixture list and injuries have eased off there will be no mitigating factors. Football can be funny but there's no reason to think we wont turn it around then, a manager and players that have been this good for two years shouldnt just suddenly become shite.

Football is funny, and fickle. A couple of decent results and we'll be flowing again, sausages everywhere. Eddie will sort it out. Just not this month perhaps Let's just have some relief from the mackem game.

Some nervy moments defending though which is unlike him. Understandable of course because of how shite we are defending as a team at the moment and he's just come back from injury. That long ball over the top which ended up falling to Nunez was the bread and butter sort you'd expect him to clear half asleep.

The Mourinho link just wont go away. Do the people that keep advocating for him seen some of his recent teams play? He's methods have been outdated for some time, all he does now is throw tantrums and live in the past.

Aye. My biggest fear right now is Bruno doing something stupid and getting sent off after 10 minutes. The way our luck has gone this season.... We should be cruusing this game by all means but confidence is a massive factor in football.

Well this went pretty much the way we thought it would. From us being ran ragged to the laughable penalty decisions. I think some have summed our situation up pretty well already. It's going to get better before it gets worse. Calm heads need to prevail, keep the trust in Howe. We could well be bottom half before fixtures ease up and more players return from injuries. The mackem game becomes even more important. A strong performance and victory gives everyone a huge lift and a cup run could salvage a relatively disappointing league season.

You just knew it. Beyond a disgrace....

I was just going to say can we at least avoid more injuries and suspensions

You can tell most of us aren't even watching or doing so silently in some hidden corner with the volume down. Real throwback to the Bruce days this. You can tell it's only a matter of time for their goals to start going in.

Hang in there lads you're more likely to be mourning cup final losses over the next few years than days like yesterday

Yep that's why I said most of us were happy in September. But it was always a stretch going into this season with 2 first team signings. Great that Tino has stepped up at least. You can blame FFP, and by all accounts we can't spend much in January either. So if we're having to play the long term game I hope the owners remember that if they decide to judge Howe.

No I actually do agree with you, I just don't think Eddie had too much choice in tactics with these players. Just taking Almiron as an example, if you take the energy out of his game he's an utterly mediocre player at best. And we're seeing that now he's running on fumes. Earlier on in the season I think we saw evidence of the trigger pressing system Fish referenced. Even before the injuries and fixture congestion it was clear we were less aggressive in the press than last season. I think Howe did realize some changes this year were necessary but with how things have unfolded he's had his hands tied. I do think he has to take some responsibility of course. If Burn keeps starting over Tino there's serious question marks. And in general I do agree he has to evolve the squad and tactics now. It will take time and some backing in the transfer window. In hindsight the summer business has turned out to be 2/10 when most of us said 8/10 in September.

It worked. Running and intensity was the best way of getting this group of players to perform and in fact punch above their weight. Evolving the team is something you've got to do in the process of becoming a top manager. This is Eddie's next test. People said his teams couldn't defend when he arrived here. He proved them wrong. I hope he can keep doing it.

Well across a few windows perhaps. And I guess he's staying for now. Once again, they are above us in the table

Hopefully INEOS reckon they need to chuck another billion quid at home to sort out the problems.

Play the reserves and focus on the cup game.

Not even looking at Twitter for this reason. People can't tell the difference between a team that's evolving and struggling in the process of doing so, and one that would barely try or be expected too. Mind you we're still 7th where were we two years ago and how many of the same players are still in the squad?

I really do think the owners have more sense than that. Someone made the point that PIF might be more impatient but what the hell did they expect considering the only first team players we bought were Tonali and Barnes? Things will get worse before they get better this season. I hope the board does not make an utterly stupid decision, especially if we get beat by the mackems. All the talk has been about building for the long term and I think they won't lose sight of that.

Eh what? Constant negativity. I dunno how much of my comments you read then. I take it you're not a fan of the Miggy criticism which is fair enough. I said after the Luton game write off is probably the wrong word but since we're using it already just means accepting this is non CL finish season of learning and transition. Not the kind of progress or trophy challenges some might have accepted after last season. Pretty much what most are saying. Funny you're picking up on me considering what a lot of the others have been saying too. I do stand by the Miggy thing. He's infuriating and has always been for barring that purple patch. Agree to disagree.