He has done a very decent job, I agree, but “the best manager in the premier league” is somewhat far-fetched, to put it mildly. PS if you get to the top 4 and help make it harder for the likes of liverpool, united, chelsea, spurs getting into the CL I will welcome itHe's not the best in the league but he is a very good manager and nothing you've put in your post proves otherwise.
Howe did an absolutely brilliant job at Bournemouth and the fans of the club love him.
He took over as manager of Bournemouth when he was 31 years old when Bournemouth were 10 points from safety at the bottom of the 4th division and he kept them up, he took over on New Years Eve so a lot of the season had already gone by.
Howe got Bournemouth promoted in his first full season, a season when they had a transfer embargo so couldn’t buy players. In one and a half seasons he’d taken them from 10 points adrift at the botton of the 4th division to promotion. He was spending his own personal money to help keep the club afloat.
Howe took Bournemouth from the 4th division to the Premiership where they stayed for 5 seasons when they were eventually relegated from 3rd bottom of the league. They were relegated by a single point and I’m sure that they would have stayed up if it wasn’t for a failure of goal line technology which missed a goal scored by Sheff United against Villa. Villa would have rightly been relegated if it wasn’t for that failure as Bournemouth had a better goal difference.
So far, he’s been fantastic for us.
Not sure that finishing above the druggy dippers comes close to guaranteeing top 4They one to watch. Decent team, good manager, play good football, and could finish top 4 this season, hopefully at the dippers expense
He has done a very decent job, I agree, but “the best manager in the premier league” is somewhat far-fetched, to put it mildly
They are one to watch. Decent team, good manager, play good football, and could finish top 4 this season, hopefully at the dippers expense
Dan Ashworth was probably your most shrewd signing.He's not the best in the league, clearly. For where we are, he's probably the best that we could have and will hopefully grow as the club does because he deserves it.
I'm quite happy that he's being spoken about in those terms though as it's much better than what we've been through with most of our managers.
He's doing a great job to turn us around. We currently have the 5th best goals for and we've had both of our best forwards out through injury. Our defensive record is even better as we have the joint best number of goals against.
Not bad for a manager that we were told couldn't organise a defence.
How many players will you have going to the World Cup?I don't think we can finish top 4 this season, yet. I think we'll have a much better idea after the next 3 games. Man U away next Sunday, Everton at home the next Wednesday and then Spurs Away 2 weeks today.
Dan Ashworth was probably your most shrewd signing.
Howe is, as you say, the best that you could have got to progress you up the league and is probably even exceeding your owners’ expectations currently.
The next step will be to see how long they back a manager if you go through a sticky patch. The more time given the better, imho.
Ashworth is really good at his job though and will keep you signing the right players, whoever your manager is.
Lovely story Mick and welcome to how we felt in Autumn 2008. Buckle up for the ride of your lives!Ashworth could turn out to be a great acquisition for the club, as could Eales as CEO. I don’t think either have had an impact on the club yet as they’re both still getting their feet under the table. Ashworth did help out in the Summer Transfer Window but he didn’t have a lot of say because we had already identified our targets. It looks like we’re going to step up our presence in Brazil to try and tap that market for good value players and I think we’ll be paying good money for potential. I’m more than happy with that until we can get our academy working.
The club are spending a lot of time talking to the local city council as we work on what we can do to increase our capacity as we could probably get another 30,000 and that’s before we win anything. We’re also doing some work at the training ground to improve it but we’re also working on a brand new state of the art training ground which will bring the academy, women’s team and men’s facilities all within the same facility.
It's probably the most excited that I’ve ever been supporting Newcastle and I started watching us when you won your second league title when you beat us 4-3. I was really young back then so remember more about the occasions than the games as my uncle used to take me because he didn’t have his own kids back then. I think I was his excuse to go.
Off the top of my head we have Bruno playing for Brazil. Trippier will probably go with England and Schar should go with Switzerland.How many players will you have going to the World Cup?
I think this is the season where weird things could happen in the new year. I wouldn’t rule you out of the top 4 just yet.
I can be perfectly honest with you, I was never against your takeover. I was totally jealous because it could have been us. Your owners enquired about buying us and Ashley didn’t bother talking as he was probably waiting for a stupid bid which never came.Lovely story Mick and welcome to how we felt in Autumn 2008. Buckle up for the ride of your lives!
Are you thinking of expanding the Sports Direct Arena aka SJP or looking at a new stadium?
Training facilities are a key part of success, so doing that lays the foundation for life at the top.
How do you think your location will affect who signs for you? Do you think that if you become a regular top 4+ team that players will just come then anyway?
Sounds like you could be fresh for the second half of the season.Off the top of my head we have Bruno playing for Brazil. Trippier will probably go with England and Schar should go with Switzerland.
We have a few others who could go but are unlikely. Joelinton is still uncapped for Brazil, Wilson is good enough to go with England but he's never fit for enough games. Botman could get a call up as he does look good enough but he dropped out of Holland’s last set of under 21 games because he felt that it would be better for his career if he had 2 weeks training with Newcastle while he settles in.
Weird things could happen, I supported us when we went into Christmas 12 points clear at the top of the Premiership so I expect anythign happening to us is more often than not going to be negative rather than positive.
Lovely story Mick and welcome to how we felt in Autumn 2008. Buckle up for the ride of your lives!
Are you thinking of expanding the Sports Direct Arena aka SJP or looking at a new stadium?
Training facilities are a key part of success, so doing that lays the foundation for life at the top.
How do you think your location will affect who signs for you? Do you think that if you become a regular top 4+ team that players will just come then anyway?
Location isn’t important for us plebs, but it is to footballers and their WAGs. Gundogan’s missus has come out with some shite about not having decent restaurants here.Sorry, I didn't answer you fully.
It’s funny that you mention the Sports Direct Arena, there was hell on when Ashley renamed it but that was only because the club didn’t benefit financially. We are hearing talk now that the ground might be renamed again and I hope that it is as long as money is coming into the club. I’d sell my dad if Newcastle could get money for him and it improved the club.
We look like we’re trying to expand St James’ Park but I don’t know how we do that. We could look to continue the upper levels around the back of the Gallowgate (South Stand) and then maybe put another level on top of the east stand but I don’t know enough about the structures foundations to know what is possible or not. We could knock down what we have and start again, that would be possible as long as we have somewhere to play whilst that’s happening. We could expand Gateshead Stadium for them before doing anything with our ground and use that. I think everything is still possible but it does sound as if we’re talking with the right people.
Location will have nothing to do with who we can bring in. I know we all think where we’re born is the best and we cant be right but I love our location. I’ve lived in the midlands, I’ve lived in Scotland and I’ve lived 40 miles from Manchester and Newcastle has as much to offer as anywhere. I hate London so can’t see the attraction although I accept that I’m not in the majority on that one, it’s still only 40 minutes away by plane. I can be at the beach within 20 minutes, I can be inside 3 City Centre’s within 20 minutes and I’m in the countryside within 20 minutes. Other than easterly winds in mid-winter, the place is great as long as we sell it.
We have local history to die for and enough to keep young families busy for the rest of their lives as long as we make than aware of it. We also have more than enough pubs etc but they can be dangerous for young players who can get distracted.
We’ve attracted Ginola, Robert, Asprilla, Bruno, Botman and Isak to name a few. I think most players will come if we sell the project to them.
Sounds like you could be fresh for the second half of the season.
They just don’t realise that our owners’ don’t take money out of our clubs whilst theirs do.We are going to Saudi again during the winter break, it worked really well for us last time and it winds other fans up so I love it.
I love everything that we do when I see others moaning about us because it's pathetic jealousy. Some of your near neighbours seem to be wound up more than most, maybe because they tried to sell 30% of their club to PIF for £700 million and got laughed at.
Location isn’t important for us plebs, but it is to footballers and their WAGs. Gundogan’s missus has come out with some shite about not having decent restaurants here.
London is a pull for players, even though I agree with your assessment of it.
The players you’ve attracted aren’t top level. It’ll be interesting when they start agreeing to join, if they do.
It doesn’t work like that, sadly. All the players and partners could get better food cooked at home for them from their personal chefs.I understand what you’ve said about Gundogan’s wife and I would like to think that the club is run professionally enough to do something with the WAG’s. They really should employ somebody on that side of the club to keep them busy. Take them out during the week and give them a taste of what we have to offer. We have some fantastic places to eat but they’re not the most obvious places. We have some of the best Indian and Chinese food in the country but we have so many that it might be pot luck whether somebody from the area stumbles on to them.
The club should also take WAG’s to places like London, Manchester etc when the players are away and they might not be going to the games.
Does City do anything for the WAG’s or families? I hope that we do, or will do?
They were virtually 1 game away from sacking Ferguson and their whole history would have been different. I was sitting with them at Wembley when they beat us 2-0 in the FA Cup final and they were horrible, they moaned throughouth the 90 minutes and it was horrible to listen to and I hope that we never become entitled. I had a soft spot for them until that game as one of my relatives played for them years ago, not anymore.They just don’t realise that our owners’ don’t take money out of our clubs whilst theirs do.
FFP forbids owner investment, so everything in the accounts is self made.It’s just their owners take dividends out and ours don’t.
If you do start dominating, you will have to put up with entitled fans.They were virtually 1 game away from sacking Ferguson and their whole history would have been different. I was sitting with them at Wembley when they beat us 2-0 in the FA Cup final and they were horrible, they moaned throughouth the 90 minutes and it was horrible to listen to and I hope that we never become entitled. I had a soft spot for them until that game as one of my relatives played for them years ago, not anymore.