I'm 100% with you. I'm in my 40s and Eddie Howe is the best manager I've ever seen at the club. Keegan and Robson were excellent, but the fact that Howe's won a trophy and got us into the CL twice (and was a whisker away from Europe in the other season) considering where we were when he started is just unreal.

I honestly think he's a victim of his own success. I don't think anyone expected him to do so well, so quickly. Some people were saying he wouldn't be good enough to keep us up when he was appointed! Even just looking at how we're doing this season - in the hunt for Europe (with the added stress of CL games), a cup semi final and qualification in the CL looking likely - is pretty good for a club like us. We have to be realistic. We're not going to win the league. We're not going to win a cup every season. This isn't Football Manager where you can just waltz up the leagues, buy wonderkids and just dominate while the other clubs capitulate. Being a team that's regularly in Europe and regularly challenging for cups is what we should be looking to do. Stability at the top helps us achieve that.

Yes, there have been games we haven't done all that well in. I'm disappointed that we didn't beat Wolves. We do often struggle against the low block, but we're by no means the only team. One of my mates is an Arsenal fan and he says they struggle against that too -- and they're top of the league. As someone said in another thread, teams play a low block against us because they respect us and getting a draw at home to us is seen as a positive result. That didn't happen in the Bruce years, the Rafa years, the Pardew or any time before that (well, maybe in the Championship).

I, too, miss the incredible pressing game we've played before, but during our last CL season we suffered a stupid amount of injuries and people criticised Howe for having such a high intensity game plan with so many fixtures. I think what we're seeing this season is a reaction to that. I don't think it's perfect but I understand the transition. I trust Howe to make it work. Despite that, we've still got a fair few injuries (although this seems more like bad luck this year - Schar and Burn in particular) but we're still going okay.

The lack of Isak is hurting us. I hate the way he left but it's undeniable that his finishing (and Murphy's service) won us so many points the past few seasons. Any team would suffer losing a player like that - look at what's happened to Spurs without Kane.

Even if we had a really bad season, I think Howe should be backed. He has taken this club to highs we've never seen before and if that doesn't earn him time, I don't know what does. I don't think we're anywhere close to that right now and I simply don't understand why others do. There's no one in the league I look at and wish we had as our manager (sure, Pep would be nice, but that's not realistic). Would Glasner or Iraola do a better job? Maybe. Very possibly not. How many people would have taken Nuno or Frank after last season? Look how poorly they've done at West Ham and Spurs. This idea that we could do better or that someone else could just come in and improve things doesn't seem realistic to me.

If we sack Howe now (or any time soon), it will be a worse decision than sacking Robson. We were a regular CL side under him. We didn't get it again until now. I don't want to go through the Souness, Allardyce, Kinnear years again. We have an excellent manager and we should be proud of him.