What do you think? Do you think they'll risk keeping him? If we starting playing utter **** like we have recently, then people may interpret that as just a good run of form from a team that's battling to survive. Wigan did this sort of thing all the time. If we only just survive, do we sack how? Should we or will we? Two questions.
We ain't ****ing Watford, we need stability and to be able to build. We were unlucky to lose to Chelsea, but the last 2 games we've been crap, but still overall Howe has made a definite positive impact - team far more positive and attacking, reinventing Joelinton, turning Fraser into a new player and getting crap like Clark and Hayden out of the team. Remember at Christmas we looked dead and gone, let's not lose site of the fact that the turnaround has been huge.
I can't see him being sacked. He was brought in when we were rock bottom and had a 2-part objective. 1. Try to avoid relegation, then 2. Begin the process of building for a longer term project. If we go down, he's as good as anyone to try to get us back up. If we stay up, then he's achieved part 1 and can focus on phase 2. I don't think the owners will jump from manager to manager if they genuinely have a long term view.
There's no need to replace Eddie Howe in either scenario. We need to stabilise and we need proper players before we're even close to fairly judging the manager. Anyone who can manage a team to 19 pts from 7 matches playing Chris ****ing Wood and Jonjo ****ing Shelvey every week deserves a knighthood. Before anyone bleats on about Bruce and players, this squad is not the worst in the division, which is where Bruce has us. We are about 16th in terms of ability, about 12th in terms of wages, so anywhere between those two positions is about right. Howe has us at the top end of that on his form - and this "he spent £90m" is bollocks, we spend what had to be spent because for the previous two windows we'd spent £25m on one player we already had on loan. The future is all in Howe's hands. If he keeps the team up, it'll then be about either touching distance of Europe, or actual European finish (depending on investment). From there, it'll be CL place. He'll only be replaced when he fails to achieve subsequent goals, or looks like he's failing. It's going to be super interesting, though, to see how someone like Howe gets on with increasingly bigger players.
Ah the eternal broken record - Chris ****ing Wood who scored for fun at Burnley and who has been a key part of our resurgence, and Jonjo ****ing Shelvey who has been also been a key player. Why pick those 2 as a credit to what Howe has done? Joelinton and Fraser have been the key transformations, that's blindingly oblivious to anyone. And for what he's done with those 2 he deserves a knighthood.
Of course he shouldn't be sacked, staying up was his task and he is going to do it, whether we finish poorly or not is irrelevant. Around Christmas we looked absolutely ****ed, he is doing a good job.
Not for me - if (when) he keeps us up he'll have done enough to earn a crack at it next year. Depends who comes in in terms of transfers etc. as to what the ambitions are for next year but if he can crack the top 10 next year I'd settle on him to have a go over 3 years and see what he can do in terms of the start of the project. By the end of 2027 I'd imagine you'd be looking for consistent EL places and breaking the top 6 in that time, I know I'd be ecstatic with that and a few European holibobs as it stands today but the owners could see that as faliure. Not sure Eddie will be here for 10 years or anything crazy but you look at the managers who win things - they've been at the clubs a few years - to get consistent success you need consistency around the club.
If you think he's a decent player, that's up to you mate, not a lot of point arguing about it as I just personally think he's terrible and is getting markedly worse each week. I admitted I was wrong when he put in a decent shift at So'ton, but since then he's nosedived. Even his goals against New Caledonia and Fiji haven't helped. Hopefully he can pull something out of nowhere and produce a performance and a goal to keep us safe, but just now he's dragging us into the mire with insipid performances that are almost comically bad. I've never seen anyone look more toothless since Kenedy vs Cardiff.
Stick to facts though and don't re write history - his scoring record for Burnley was good. You obviously have to admit he was OK vs Soton cos he scored, but your endless berating of him every other game doesn't make sense, as him coming into the team his coincidened with a clear upturn in results and has given us an attacking focal point we didn't have before. Just compare results with Wilson up from to those with Wood up front.
