Mitchell a bull in a china shop. So he upset staff and players and was trying to sign second rate players. That's on Darren Eales for appointing him. Thankfully Eales is leaving as he has been a ****ing disaster too.
This is of course Craig Hopes version of events. I wonder who the players were? This side of the story is very bias imo. Hope loves a bit of persecution and **** stirring. The entire 'not fit for purpose' line was always misinterpreted and then weaponised imo. He wasn't saying the players were bad, but he was saying that's not how recruitment needs to be done, which are two very different things. The clubs was in PSR trouble, so what he said was right to at least a certain degree, but unfortunately people hear one thing and roll with another far more sinister accusation. The man simply wanted to do his job and wasn't allowed to, so he's left! Maybe it just wasn't the right fit. The narrative doesn't need to be that he's this awful guy that needs to be demonised because of an emotional preference, I wish him well. Eales is dieing I believe and I liked him here, so again I wish him well.
Well, we’re nowhere near signing these players we were supposed to be moving fast on. Just thought - if he’s so bad at his job, why would PIF be instantly bringing him to their flagship club?!
Something smells funny about all of this. It all doesn’t make an awful lot of sense. Meanwhile players are starting to sign for big clubs. Talksport said earlier that Manu are selling Bruno and buying Mbueno and Semenyo.
Ashford has weighed in saying Howe just didn't seem to want work with him. Howes defeated two Dofs, won a cup and landed champions league football so he's going all in now.
Won a cup, got us into the CL twice in three full seasons and saved us from near certain relegation in his first portion of a season. Legend. Also has us sitting a very respectable 4th if you add up all points gained for each club over the past three seasons.
That's very good, but there should be a concern imo. There's a reason clubs moved away from giving former players with coaching badges full control in the first place. There's seperation between on the pitch and what makes sense off it, that's all. Is Howe now the singular point of blame for both? I'm not sure this is a good idea.
You've got to say that the first burst of transfers were when Howe was taken in from the cold, and had probably very little control over the likes of Bruno G, Botman, etc. It's since he's got more and more control that we've really pulled back from the overseas activity. Tonali and Isak feel like - and I appreciate this is selective - Nickson signings. Barnes, Gordon, Livramento, Hall all feel like Howe signings. I wonder if the issue for a DoF is the obstinance to allow for foreign imports, meaning we're having to pay over the odds for English experience? And that doesn't mean Howe was in the wrong either, Hall in particular is looking like a steal. But there's two sides - he's been very successful and has us punching above the squad value/wages by a few places, so it's hard to really argue against the progress. Personally I think there has to be a DoF or similar, but one that Howe is happy to work with. We have to keep trying to find decent players, we have to have someone else taking the lead on negotiations and there has to be other voices involved in player recruitment other than people whose surname is Howe. There also has to be a bending on allowing overseas players into the club - I genuinely believe Howe would prefer a new contract for Wilson than bring in a Jonathan David type.
Howe has earned my full trust at this point to be fair, Mitchell potentially took a shot at the king and missed. Welcome to the jungle baby on your sha na na na knees.
Selective and probably wrong. Howe is on record early days saying Tonali was his signing. Something along the lines of his having fallen in love with the way Tonali plays football when he was watching AC Milan during his time out of management. Fairly sure he had large input in Isak too.
I suppose it doesn't really matter providing Howe gets it all right, but this side is crying out for something a little bit more exciting. It's a great foundation they've built, but it's surely time to add some more real quality? I would ask what's so amazing about signing the players you've listed? There's been about 500 million spent and every name is a name everyone knew already. Surely we should be seeing one or two finds by now?
