The Fish

I don't think that's true though. I think that given the only perceived route forward was a contracted legal dispute, with no guarantee of progress, all plans would have been on hold. When suddenly the Saudis about face on the piracy shenanigans, everyone is caught short.

And what is the point of tapping up when the job might not be available for a year? Bear in mind nobody could look at anything bar the financials. Not the coaching setup, the scouts, nothing. I guess it's like buying a house through a blind auction. You've seen some photos, and can see the potential, but until you own it and start going through everything you're in no position to start work. You couldn't book a sparky or a bricky to come work on the project until you've know when the sale is going through.

The takeover definitely caught Staveley and the Reuben's off guard. We were all nicely set up 18 months ago. Get Benitez in while the rest of the football club took shape, spend a bit of money in the middle of the financial insecurity of the pandemic.

In a weird way I think that bringing in someone like Howe paves an easier path for a DoF than someone like Emery.

Honestly, it should be the other way around.

There was more going on there than his ability or lack thereof. Bruce had zero plan beyond "get it to ASM". Howe is a young coach who already has a better idea of how to play the modern game than that fat mess. Look at the comparative squad strength of Bournemouth then and Newcastle now. Even though we're weak in areas, we're still a lot stronger. To be fair you have more footballing nous than Bruce.

Way too much bed wetting going on. Howe would be a huge improvement on Bruce and while he's keeping us up we can be filling the other positions with a more long term focus. Emery deal isn't dead, fwiw

I smell a cheesey chip with a hint of blue pop...

Sounds like they'll have to take Gemmil's advice.

All of the press this morning seem to have picked up on Ballague's tweets. I'm still zen about the whole thing. If it's Emery, then it's Emery, if not, then it'll be someone else. Personally, think they should get the DoF in place ASAP and delegate the job of actually running the club to him. Oh, and stop the leaks. Vaguely remember something ages ago about how Saudis are perfectly happy to jump the gun and say something is done, before it's signed and sealed.

Not available in my country.

Or Diego. What about Diego?! How come he gets off scot free? What because he's got an exotic accent? Pathetic.

Oh sure, when Diego goes full bore he gets showered with praise, when I do it it's all "Shut up Dave", "Fuck off Fish". This is bullshit.

"If you don't know be now now"

Unai both know he's way better than Howe.

You should change your username; Eeyore, Droopy, Marvin

They went through it all with Conte in the Summer, it will have been a pretty easy appointment. Levy is also the man who took 10 weeks to appoint Mourinho.

I don't think so. But we'll be fine man.

Nerdista? (It's like a trequartista, but most of it's contribution happens off-screen)

I'm on a work call, playing FM22, answering you and alt-tabbing to that post.

Well, they've tried to boil the criteria down to a few arbitrary factors. Instead of looking at what possible systems, possible coaches will play. Half of the players they mention aren't getting into the squads because they're not good enough for the teams gunning for Europe, and given we're going to need that level of performance in the tail end of the season, they're not the players for us.

No.

A run of wins, a run of draws. We managed it under Bruce ffs.

That's a lack of confidence/coaching. The kind of managers we've been linked with will sort that shit out.