If anyone's upset now

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Originally Posted by GBruno

No one on here is seriously talking of Howe being sacked.

My frustration comes from poor performances and not being able to criticise. I’m not the kind of person who is happy to be content when things could have been better.

Barnes, Livramento and Hall are squad players at the moment. We spent £120 mill on squad players and £55 mil on a gambling addict who cannot play for us.

Signings for the future is fine, but not getting European football means there is no future. Our future relies entirely on European football because of FFP.

My point is we did not improve our first 11 whilst our rivals did.

We should have been cementing our top 4 position, instead we’ve gone backwards. We needed experience, not youngsters.

I don’t want to wait 3-4 years for the chance of success. Let’s grasp it now! This is our opportunity to break into the elite.

That’s where I am coming from.

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Why then if you were so in the loop didn't you warn Eddie Howe about Tonali's addiction and advise him to buy some player you recommend.

Or is it just a perfect example of hindsight being 20/20 vision.

As for waiting 3/4 years for success, well let me tell you we have 1000% success compared to Fatty's tenure.

I'll tell you something else, real substantial success doesn't come in 5 minutes. It will take a few years to really establish what we all want but the first and most important criteria is patience. As in all walks of life PATIENCE.

I am not blaming Howe for the Tonali thing.
But the club have massively cocked up in buying him.

Again, I am surprised at the level of acceptance I am seeing over this transfer.

We are a weaker team this season because we wasted a massive chunk of money on Tonali. This could be the difference between finishing in the top 5 or not.

So by all means, watch the games, wave your little flags, support Tonali, and enjoy finishing 7th or 8th, safe in the knowledge that at least we aren’t fighting relegation!
Fingers crossed for a Carabao cup run 🤞.

Is this really where we are aiming?

I’m just concerned we aren’t making the most of our situation, that’s all. This isn’t even a criticism of Howe. It never really was.

[QUOTE=GBruno;40380507]I am not blaming Howe for the Tonali thing.
But the club have massively cocked up in buying him.

Again, I am surprised at the level of acceptance I am seeing over this transfer. (end of GBrunos quote)





I don't see your reasoning here, unless you were aware of Tonlali's problem as obviously the club weren't.

So how did the club cock up, and where were your objections to his purchase before the problem was exposed?

I think what GBruno is saying is that he thinks the club should have dug in deep to find out the addiction - I think?

If that is the case, I get what he's saying however, addicts hide things so so well. We could have done all our usual due dilligence and found nothing.

Look at drink and drug addicition - the people in that situation can hide the evidence amazingly well and not be found out for years.

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Originally Posted by Jammy89

I think what GBruno is saying is that he thinks the club should have dug in deep to find out the addiction - I think?

If that is the case, I get what he's saying however, addicts hide things so so well. We could have done all our usual due dilligence and found nothing.

Look at drink and drug addicition - the people in that situation can hide the evidence amazingly well and not be found out for years.

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Yes essentially. I am just not sure how we could spent such money and given such a lucrative contract without thorough research into the player.

And even if we did our due diligence and genuinely had no way of knowing, I then look to Tonali who certainly knew.

Either way it’s crap and a poor signing. I’ve said before. I never want to see the guy play for us again, but I digress…

Look I’m just frustrated by poor performances and especially our depleted squad. A better transfer window would have helped with both.

I think the loss to Dortmund is bigger than we felt at the time also. Getting out of the group stage is going to be incredibly difficult now. We needed first team ready players, some with experience. It’s a shame. I’m left wondering what might have been.

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Originally Posted by GBruno

Yes essentially. I am just not sure how we could spent such money and given such a lucrative contract without thorough research into the player.

And even if we did our due diligence and genuinely had no way of knowing, I then look to Tonali who certainly knew.

Either way it’s crap and a poor signing. I’ve said before. I never want to see the guy play for us again, but I digress…

Look I’m just frustrated by poor performances and especially our depleted squad. A better transfer window would have helped with both.

I think the loss to Dortmund is bigger than we felt at the time also. Getting out of the group stage is going to be incredibly difficult now. We needed first team ready players, some with experience. It’s a shame. I’m left wondering what might have been.

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But if that was the case, Milan who were closest to him must have been aware of the situation.

They claim they were not aware so how can you claim a purchasing club 900 miles away could know better.

There was a post on him on 21st of June when you posted a quote from the Guardian. You made no mention that he was a gambling addict then. No, you didn't know. Milan didn't know and this club didn't know. So how did they make, in your words, a cock up , by buying him.

As I said previously you are appearing to be wise after the event with so called hind sight.

If I remember rightly the sale of Tonali was unusually easy and we got him seemingly under the radar of other top PL clubs and for a not bad price ? To me there's a rabbit off, Milan knew a lot more than they're letting on.

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Originally Posted by Cannylad

If I remember rightly the sale of Tonali was unusually easy and we got him seemingly under the radar of other top PL clubs and for a not bad price ? To me there's a rabbit off, Milan knew a lot more than they're letting on.

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I've had the same thoughts. Simultaneously, Tonali is the most expensive Italian player in history and Milan desperately needed money to bring in the number of players they have to ensure a competitive side. They would not have had the depth they have now had they not sold Tonali. They are currently second in the league whilst competing in the CL (and not doing that well).

Remember, Maldini who was loved by the players and the staff, was sacked. He wanted to keep Tonali, for sure. When someone new comes in, there's a tendency to want to make their mark immediately and maybe Tonali was also a part of a strategy to bring in more money and invest them etc. Still, their willingness to let him go and not negotiate a higher price is a bit puzzling to me.

Remember we were in for Barella at Inter before we signed Tonali? He is now involved in betting allegations against him, and Inter wouldn't let him go in the summer. So that's a sign to me that at least they haven't been aware of anything.

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Originally Posted by GBruno

I mean I all not going to be too critical. Next season injuries and an underwhelming summer of transfers will not save Howe if the team aren’t performing. And I for one will call him out where appropriate.

I love the guy but he’s not infallible. We play the same formation and tactics every single game. I think our summer transfers were relatively poor in terms of our immediate needs. Is that down to Howe? Did he choose the targets?

There will come a time when we need to be ruthless or we might not win **** all.

I am not yet convinced that Howe will take us all the way. Hopefully he can.

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Big of you to be “ not too critical” “ next season injuries and and underwhelming summer of transfers” Eh! So you have an insight into next summers signings and injury situation, do me a favour! Let’s deal with the now shall we, and get behind him, he’s done nowt wrong that I can see.
Oh and “ might not win f..k all” actually means we might win something in grammatical terms. What you meant was “ might win f..k all” just thought I should clear that up!

Mind, in fairness, I get where GBruno's coming from in regards to not strengthening our first team. I get the whole 'buying talent for the future ' bit, but, because of the restrictions of FFP, maybe buying one of them and, say, another striker or CB would have been a more useful route to go down.

However, I don't agree about the expectations. We all want a season like last season -or even better - but we are being murdered by injuries and knackered by the extra games (and the nature of them).

I generally believe Howe is the manager to take us right to the top. What he has achieved with the players he has had, in the timescale he's had, is absolutely remarkable.

As the injuries mount up, the feeling is growing that we're going to fall short of last year's achievements but we need to look at the context of why this is and stick with the team and particularly the manager.