Dman

Twar clearly didn’t rate Tripper or Wood that highly, he was still tipping Newcastle to go down 10 days after Wood signed 😂 And we’ve got ‘mid table’ Perrud, ‘Incredible talent’ Salisu, ‘£60m rated’ JWP, + his known thoughts on Adams, Tino and KWP, better squad than villa etc., yet we’re orver achieving and lucky to stay up…

The point I’m trying to make is, if Bruno, valued at £35m, is the reason they are now averaging 2.1 PPG, then why are we only averaging 1.2 PPG when we have a player who (plays in the same position), is apparently worth double that? I use Bruno as an example because the others are very comparable in terms of L4L quality and ones that I think 90% on here wouldn’t have been overly excited about if we’d signed (tripper aside who has been injured).

If we’re going to link player value to quality, you rated JWP at about £60m, almost double that of Bruno, yet we haven’t seen the dramatic improvement this season. Tripper has been injured for most of the time he’s been there, so I’ll ignore him, but had you been asked in December if you’d swap Wood for Adams or Salisu or Burn, then I almost certainly suspect you would say no. Everton have one of the most expensive squads outside the top 6, yet despite Rafa the great doing a brilliant job at the start of the season, they still find themselves in a relegation battle. Yes Newcastle have spent, massively overspent on some pretty average players imo, but Howe deserves credit for improving the style and picking up results in the process.

Another win for Newcastle. The turnaround since Howe came in has been staggering, not just in results but style as well. I think he’s won something like 35 point. When he came in, they genuinely looked like relegation fodder, now I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re top 10.

I heard from someone well placed in the club, that at the time of VVD being offered about to Liverpool / City etc. he was also offered to United and they turned their nose up. Didn’t think he was good enough. I think that sums up how poorly United have brought over the past few years.

Not many I’d take from any of them, but Watford have a few exciting attacking players. I suspect they would be out of our reach, but I wonder if we could use A Armstrong as part of the deal to make it more affordable. proven championship striker so would be ideal for a relegated side.

Oh I don’t disagree. The miserable weather and the fact we seemingly never get a result there, or at least in the times I’ve been, have made it a pretty miserable hunting ground from personal experience.

I think Ralph is his own worse enemy. As Dan sheldon said on TSP a few weeks back, when he has time to think (I.e international break) we need to worry, as he starts to tinker and over think. Ive always said he’s a good training ground manager and a decent ‘coach’, but tactically not great. Yesterday, we went back to basics and like magic, it worked. That being said, Arsenal weren’t great and on another coulda/shoulda won.. but you need to ride your luck against the better teams. Re Broja, I think most can see what influence he has on us. He’s a top quality player and even when not scoring, he’s still contributing to style and giving us a genuine threat in behind. He struggles when teams sit deep and prevent any space for him to run in to. If we had the quality in midfield, this wouldn’t matter so much, but we don’t.

Having been to Burnley a few times, I’d find it hard to get the enthusiasm to go for a ‘6 pointer’ on a Saturday, let alone a Thursday night. There and Stoke seem to be the coldest, most miserable grounds in the country… I guess that’s just the soft southerner in me.

I’m just here to call out the bullshit buddy. He just says a lot of it. Live by the sword and all that. Act like a know it all, expect to be shot down when proven you don’t.

I thought the exact same. He’s a better version of Stephens. He’s got a decent range of passing as well.

He epitomises everything we need at the moment and miss when he’s not in the side. Technically he’s probably not the best player, but he has guts, determination and fight. And to think, Mr stat man wrote him off after watching the highlights of a bad game on YouTube….

When the manager learns from mistakes and changes his style 😉

Not pretty, rode our luck at times, but done exactly what we needed to do and had the fight to do so. Fair play, good win.

Done exactly what was needed today. Credit where it’s due. Please just find some consistency.

What a shite game of football this is.

About Fraser Forster “Southampton lost 6-0 last week, but without him it could have been double figures”… do these bloody useless commentators not know teams rarely exceed thier XG 😡

Trying to hit them on the counter attack with Broja’s pace it seems. Sensible, he’s already looked to have the beating of them once or twice.

Brilliant from Broja there. Should be 1-0

I may be mistaken, but we’ve persisted with the same formation for the past 5 or 6 games, which we’ve not won 1 of.

Personally, I’d swap salisu for Bednerak but those at CB are a bit of a raffle and you’ve no idea what you’re going to get. However, for me, that’s the strongest side we can put out. Why does it take a hammering for Ralph to change things though?

very naive way of looking at things. Koeman has been ridiculously hit and miss other than his spell at Saints. He went to Everton, where he had a huge budget and is generally considered a failure. MoPo, is at PSG, who have the biggest budget in football and he’s not exactly pulling up trees. Puel, in his one season (and limited budget it should be said), hugely outperformed any manager since Koeman. Koeman was a success here because of the players he brought in, not how much they cost. Pelle (£8m) was far a greater player than Carrillo (£20m) Mane (£11.5m) was far better than Boufal (£16m). What would Puel have achieved with Mane, Tadic & Pelle up top? Who knows? But they were far more talent than Redmond, Boufal & Austin

And Broja, don’t forget broja. Even managed to dig him out in a discussion about the quality of Chris Wood…

Out of interest, what do or did you expect Bournemouth to Achieve in the PL? Also, I don’t get you obsession with spending and guaranteed success. We spent a shit ton of money in the season or 2 after Virgil left, we didn’t spent it wisely and we’re hampered until probably last season as a result. Similar happened at bournemouth they spent big money on bang average players. Ibe, Solanke, Lerma, Billing, for example. (Our Lemina, Carrillo, Hodet’s). Who you sign is far more important than how much you spend. We’re living proof of that. Probably 99% of managers in this league do not pick the players who are signed, they have an input, but don’t pick them specifically. If player recruitment is poor, then how much you spend almost becomes redundant.

And in the main, for the first few (more successful seasons) at least, he was using a core squad of players who he had in L1 and the championship.