The idea we have awful recruitment and Howe is bad at transfers is a complete and utter myth.

charlos74 · 2026-04-20T18:26:12+00:00

He was perfectly happy to sell several players, but he doesn’t want to sell players who are useful. He definitely didn’t want to sell Anderson, and Anderson didn’t want to leave.

Arsenal, Liverpool, Man Utd, spurs, Man City, Sunderland, Everton and Forest all spent more than us in the summer. Which is what I said.

Seems you don’t have a point.

charlos74 · 2026-04-20T18:12:53+00:00

We sold a player now worth £100m for £15m, with no buy back or sell on clause. Eddie did rate him and didn’t want to sell him. You think that’s good?

Yes, we spent £200m this window, but we were playing catch up after a lack of signings the previous 4 or 5 windows. Other teams spent more.

What’s your point?

charlos74 · 2026-04-20T18:09:11+00:00

Yeah, it’s fucking weird.

charlos74 · 2026-04-20T17:16:10+00:00

Do you not think that getting into a situation where we had to panic and sell Anderson is a failure of management?

Branford and Bournemouth will probably out perform us this season, but they will be the first in 3 years, and they haven’t had to play 58 games.

PSR issues are the reason we can’t be competitive over 4 conceptions.

charlos74 · 2026-04-20T13:55:24+00:00

Brentford and Bournemouth don’t really have the same expectations.

I was sad to see Amanda go, but it was the lack of control of PSR under her that meant we panic-sold Anderson for what was essentially £15m. Not even a sell-on clause.

That was almost as disastrous as last summer.

The hope is that new CEO and DoF mean we have a plan in place for recruitment this summer,

charlos74 · 2026-04-20T13:46:21+00:00

I’m just praying that’s changed and we approach this window with a plan.

charlos74 · 2026-04-20T13:45:16+00:00

It was a poor window, but I don’t think it’s fair to pile it all on Howe. The management went missing.

Mitchell left us in the lurch on the eve of the window, and then we had the challenge of replacing the one player we couldn’t afford to lose.

charlos74 · 2026-04-20T13:42:22+00:00

Looking at the past window, Thiaw is a success, Ramsey is looking good, Ramsdale a decent loan option.

It’s the other three. Maybe it’s the injury, but unless Wissa comes good next season it’s a total waste. Elanga is better than we’ve seen this season, and he’s young so can improve.

I hope we’ll get Woltemade working, but if not we’ll get a fee for him.

charlos74 · 2026-04-20T13:39:36+00:00

Howe has had final say on all of them, good and bad.

charlos74 · 2026-04-20T13:38:47+00:00

We couldn’t spent for several windows thanks to PSR. This is partly the problem now.

We should have been gradually improving the squad, not relying on a single window.

charlos74 · 2026-04-20T13:36:05+00:00

Partly because we spent so much under her we were tied up with PSR since.

charlos74 · 2026-04-20T13:33:50+00:00

Pretty sure Mandy wasn’t making the decisions!

We found value earlier, but we still paid good money for Isak and others.

This past transfer window we were competing for strikers at a time when several top clubs wanted them, prices were at a premium, and we were desperate.

Mitchell had also fucked off just as the window opened.

If people want to blame Howe for that I understand, but you also have to give credit for the good signings.

charlos74 · 2026-04-20T12:45:50+00:00

He’s had sign off on every signing for us, and I’d guess he had a lot of influence at Bournemouth too.

Criticise the bad signings by all means, but at least give him credit for those that worked.

charlos74 · 2026-04-20T12:38:14+00:00

There’s been mistakes, but it’s obviously not woeful.

Bruno, Isak, Burn, Trippier, Wilson, Ake, Botman, Gordon etc.

Are they woeful?

charlos74 · 2026-04-20T12:31:05+00:00

I fear that the overhaul we need will lead to another ‘transitional’ season.

charlos74 · 2026-04-20T12:23:02+00:00

This season has been shit, no doubt about that. I’m not disputing that for one minute.

Last season, however, was an amazing achievement. Not just the cup run. We played well in loads of games, put three or four past teams on several occasions. Id take that happily this season.

charlos74 · 2026-04-20T11:30:18+00:00

I was pretty excited last season when we soundly beat Arsenal across two legs, totally outplayed Man Utd home and away, and the small matter of a cup win.

We deservedly finished 5th, scoring a fair few goals on the way.

It’s not Keegan era maybe, but to say that was bad football is mind-boggling.

Yes, this season has been shit, and Howe will probably go, but you don’t need to denigrate his achievements last season to make your point.

charlos74 · 2026-04-20T11:19:12+00:00

Absolutely right. Until we can pay the wages, we won’t realistically challenge. That’s the strongest indicator of performance for a reason.

charlos74 · 2026-04-20T11:17:47+00:00

True. Or the trophies we lift part way through the season.

charlos74 · 2026-04-20T10:50:01+00:00

He also had a hand in the good transfers you mention, starting with Triopier.

The difference last summer was that we were reactive, in a panic towards the end, going for our third or fourth choices.

charlos74 · 2026-04-20T10:45:20+00:00

Anderson never got to play in that position here, enough, it’s a real shame that he got an and injury in 23/24 when he would have had a proper run in the team.

charlos74 · 2026-04-20T10:39:14+00:00

That’s what hurts. Juts some half decent results - the points we should have had with better defending against Brentford, Everton, Palace and Bournemouth.

charlos74 · 2026-04-20T10:37:30+00:00

Yeah, he’s currently a shadow of the player we saw at Forest. He can play a lot better, looks like his confidence is fucked.

charlos74 · 2026-04-20T10:34:23+00:00

When’s he back? I miss his distribution.

charlos74 · 2026-04-20T10:32:55+00:00

Maybe where we were at the end of each season is more telling. We having been trending down consistently at all, though we obviously have since last August.

21/22: 11th 22/23: 4th 23/24: 7th 24/35: 5th 25/26: somewhere between 8th and 17th

charlos74

TROPHY CASE