Football 2024/25

[thetime]

56 minutes ago, charlierc said:

Ten Hag being fired is not that great a surprise, although such are the margins in football that the final moment that made this sacking happen was a comically soft penalty given to West Ham yesterday. But in retrospect, I have no idea why he was kept on beyond the summer given INEOS talked to people to replace him then decided nobody was better.

 

No idea who'll be next either. 

 

Big talk on Amorim already being agreed. 

 

[charlierc]

1 hour ago, thetime said:

Big talk on Amorim already being agreed. 

So I have seen with him as the first big link. Brentford's Thomas Frank was mentioned by one or two people but Amorim seems to be first in the queue, and given he was linked with quite a few PL jobs including Liverpool and West Ham and even as a Pep successor on the other side of Manchester, could be a decent hire.

[thetime]

2 hours ago, charlierc said:

So I have seen with him as the first big link. Brentford's Thomas Frank was mentioned by one or two people but Amorim seems to be first in the queue, and given he was linked with quite a few PL jobs including Liverpool and West Ham and even as a Pep successor on the other side of Manchester, could be a decent hire.

 

More to do with the players. 

 

It will be the same cycle of top 4 finish, bad season and then sacked. 

[charlierc]

11 hours ago, thetime said:

 

More to do with the players. 

 

It will be the same cycle of top 4 finish, bad season and then sacked. 

We do seem close to the threshold tbf where we go from "the right manager appointment can fix this" to "yeah, it's just a f**king mess with no smooth way out"

 

At the very least the successor is going to have to do better in the transfer market rather than being the kind of guy who thinks throwing £20million over Ajax's asking price for Antony is a good idea.

[lost]

Its difficult to like Real Madrid sometimes. Absolute playground stuff at the awards last night. I get that he played for Athletico but you'd like to think clubs support players from the same country.

[Neil]

Moyes is still available to take the utd job

[thetime]

Looks like Amorim it is.

 

 

[charlierc]

5 hours ago, Neil said:

Moyes is still available to take the utd job

Much as I think he might like a redemption arc like he had at West Ham, I think that ship has sailed with Sporting confirming that Man U are looking to buy Amorim out of his contract in Lisbon.

[thetime]

33 minutes ago, charlierc said:

Much as I think he might like a redemption arc like he had at West Ham, I think that ship has sailed with Sporting confirming that Man U are looking to buy Amorim out of his contract in Lisbon.

 

How is Eddie Howe's position perceived at Newcastle? Down to 12th with arsenal at the weekend.

[charlierc]

41 minutes ago, thetime said:

How is Eddie Howe's position perceived at Newcastle? Down to 12th with arsenal at the weekend.

I can't say I'm speaking for all fans here. But I think there's two things going on.

 

On the one hand, we had an incoherent summer where we screwed up in the transfer market and there seems to be unresolved tension from changes at boardroom level, so there's sympathy for Howe that he's being asked to replicate 2022/23 with a stale squad that's missing things in certain areas.

 

But on the other, we're in a tactical style that looks like it's reached the limit of what it can achieve, with a slow defensive line, midfield that is just too easy to bypass and an inability to build coherent moves down the right flank. The mentality of some of our players has also looked off for a lot of this season. I know there's been a few games where we nearly got it right - Isak not squaring for Joelinton to tap in on Sunday was real WTF territory - but equally, it's 5 without a win and a lot of the underlying stats suggest we're playing like a midtable team right now. You won't get happiness when you slump like that.

 

There's always some fans who will say changing manager in the solution, but that happens all the time so that's hardly unique in this case. I do think that if we lose the Carabao tie with Chelsea tomorrow, then fail to beat Arsenal on Saturday and have another fruitless day at Forest in the last one before the next international break, making it 8 without a win in all competitions, that's going to turn the temperature up. Wouldn't say it'll necessarily guarantee a sacking but it won't help.

Edited 4 hours ago by charlierc

[thetime]

10 minutes ago, charlierc said:

I can't say I'm speaking for all fans here. But I think there's two things going on.

 

On the one hand, we had an incoherent summer where we screwed up in the transfer market and there seems to be unresolved tension from changes at boardroom level, so there's sympathy for Howe that he's being asked to replicate 2022/23 with a stale squad that's missing things in certain areas.

 

But on the other, we're in a tactical style that looks like it's reached the limit of what it can achieve, with a slow defensive line, midfield that is just too easy to bypass and an inability to build coherent moves down the right flank. The mentality of some of our players has also looked off for a lot of this season. I know there's been a few games where we nearly got it right - Isak not squaring for Joelinton to tap in on Sunday was real WTF territory - but equally, it's 5 without a win and a lot of the underlying stats suggest we're playing like a midtable team right now. You won't get happiness when you slump like that.

 

There's always some fans who will say changing manager in the solution, but that happens all the time so that's hardly unique in this case. I do think that if we lose the Carabao tie with Chelsea tomorrow, then fail to beat Arsenal on Saturday and have another fruitless day at Forest in the last one before the next international break, making it 8 without a win in all competitions, that's going to turn the temperature up. Wouldn't say it'll necessarily guarantee a sacking but it won't help.

 

He's probably got off a bit lightly with the money spent, with all the media attention on Ten Hag.

 

Can see him having lots of pressure next few weeks. 

[kaosmark2]

2 hours ago, charlierc said:

I can't say I'm speaking for all fans here. But I think there's two things going on.

 

On the one hand, we had an incoherent summer where we screwed up in the transfer market and there seems to be unresolved tension from changes at boardroom level, so there's sympathy for Howe that he's being asked to replicate 2022/23 with a stale squad that's missing things in certain areas.

 

But on the other, we're in a tactical style that looks like it's reached the limit of what it can achieve, with a slow defensive line, midfield that is just too easy to bypass and an inability to build coherent moves down the right flank. The mentality of some of our players has also looked off for a lot of this season. I know there's been a few games where we nearly got it right - Isak not squaring for Joelinton to tap in on Sunday was real WTF territory - but equally, it's 5 without a win and a lot of the underlying stats suggest we're playing like a midtable team right now. You won't get happiness when you slump like that.

 

There's always some fans who will say changing manager in the solution, but that happens all the time so that's hardly unique in this case. I do think that if we lose the Carabao tie with Chelsea tomorrow, then fail to beat Arsenal on Saturday and have another fruitless day at Forest in the last one before the next international break, making it 8 without a win in all competitions, that's going to turn the temperature up. Wouldn't say it'll necessarily guarantee a sacking but it won't help.

 

I'd agree with most of this. I would say that for all the fact we'd been picking up points playing badly earlier in the season, I thought the performance where we drew against City got me hopeful, as I think that's possibly our best display since thrashing PSG a year ago. But there's been nothing since, in performance or points, which I'm finding worrying.

 

I think Howe has managed to shift tactics a little bit, but I can't see us building good moves down the right regularly starting without a signing. Almiron having a stunning 18months kinda masked over it for a bit, but that's now looking like an extended purple patch instead of anything sustainable.