Jump to content

Memphis

Member
  • Posts

    2,030
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  1. Looking back at the timetable, it seems that this all became public after 12 October, so it's not as if he was daft enough to bet on football after all of this emerged. This is a continuation of his previous infractions and I would hope common sense would prevail and his lengthy ban would suffice as punishment, but knowing the FA, I doubt it.
  2. Feels as if the season of short squads, injuries, and upheaval is catching up to us. We just look mentally and physically tired every time we step on to a pitch. It's been quite some time since we've looked anywhere near our best, and I think it was always going to be inevitable that we would feel the pain of having squeezed by as long as we did. I think it's silly to blame Howe specifically, as he's merely a part of the whole club philosophy when it comes to training and squad management. I do think we will need to reassess how we do things this summer and prioritize depth more than we have. But it would be harsh in the extreme to make sweeping changes on the back of what feels like an inevitable drop in form. To me, it simply means this summer will be absolutely critical not only in terms of player recruitment, but also a reimagining of how we balance the squad and how we handle our fitness levels.
  3. I think this is well stated. We are in a different position from a financial standpoint than when we hired Ashworth, but more importantly, we are now fully staffed behind the scenes. Knowing how things went with Ashworth, we may well decide to change the remit of the Sporting Director role. Or replace it with something else. Whatever the situation, I would expect whoever is hired to be indicative of that chosen direction.
  4. There is a great deal of speculation and argument over a lot of things none of us can know or will likely ever know: 1. The specifics of Ashworth's role in our transfers 2. The specific things he has done to create and build out our infrastructure 3. The nature of his relationships with the coaching staff and the owners 4. How indispensable (or not) his specific knowledge and methods are 5. How much of our methodology leaves with him and would have to be rebuilt or reimagined We can speculate all we like, we can claim to talk to friends of friends, we can scrutinise public comments, none of it will actually help us have concrete information to address those issues above. At the end of the day, he is obviously very good and very well-thought-of within the industry. And it can't be a good thing for us to have to pivot to a new Sporting Director after only a year or so. But to say it's a crushing blow or to say that Ashworth was worthless are equally knee-jerk reactions that aren't supported by data. We will never truly know those answers, and that's OK. The fact remains that we are supremely wealthy as a club and are extremely attractive to prospective employees. I have no doubt that PIF, Staveley, Ghodoussi, and Eales will find a fantastic candidate and we will continue apace. And yes, they can either pay £20mm or get fucked. Zero motivation, I'd imagine, for anyone to do Ashworth a solid here.
  5. With the importance of this role and the sheer amount of proprietary knowledge he would have, I'm not surprised we baked in a massive gardening leave into his contract. Him leaving immediately would damage us greatly in the short term simply from an information standpoint. I'm thrilled to see us taking a hard stance. PIF will have no problem paying him for putting his career on hold if it means keeping our secrets from them until 2026. Money well spent.
  6. More like Dan Ashworthless if you ask me
  7. We didn't crumble in the last 20 minutes because we weren't dog tired from having played 4 matches in 10 days or something crazy. There's not much more to it than that. If we had a deeper, healthier squad, we would have been seeing this all season. As it stands, once we've been given some time to breathe, we can play this way again.
  8. Fabulous performance so far. Isak injury puts a big stink on it, though. Just that kind of year, I guess. Unrecognizable from some of our earlier away performances, THIS is the team that I've used to seeing.
  9. Xabi Alonso is a million fucking miles ahead of Gerrard as a manager. And a billion ahead of Lampard. We can only hope it somehow ends up being Gerrard. It's nailed on to be Alonso and he's a good choice.
  10. From a brief look around the internet, he jumped into the U18s at age 16, was spending some time in first team training this year, highlights show him to be capable of seeing a nice pass and having enough pace to get into dangerous positions. Definitely looks a player.
  11. I think they're both definitely Men Intensely Loving Football
  12. Irrespective of what happens from here, Trippier's contributions to the club were massively important. His leadership, professionalism, and quality helped us immeasurably when we were seriously facing the prospect of relegation. That should never be forgotten. But if he's sold, this is now a sliding doors moment - and it could go one of two ways: 1. We sell Trippier for a nice fee and use that fee and the room it opens up for us appropriately to continue our rise as a club. Livramento slots right in for Trippier and we don't miss too much of a beat on the pitch. The players at the club understand Trippier's age, our financial situation, and where things are this season, and they react with long-term optimism about the project in spite of the sale. The summer sees us spend lavishly and keep growing. 2. We sell Trippier for a nice fee and the players immediately get upset, thinking that the project is stalling, and the future here isn't as bright as they expected. Other players start to see their heads being turned by offers and they start to doubt whether or not this is the right project for them. The rest of the season dwindles away in a sea of rumour and discontent and the summer is a reclamation project as we have to rebuild not only players but also attitudes. I hope it's 1, but there are a lot of people outside the club who would want to see 2. Huge challenge for Howe's leadership and the leadership of our ownership/Ashworth.
×
×
  • Create New...