The clueless boo boys were probably always Eddie Howe haters.
It makes it all the more hilarious that the man they seem to think should replace Eddie Howe, is Eddie Mk II, just five years later.
Although I maintain that most of them are so clueless and cowardly, they either don’t have or purposely don’t say who they think NUFC should go and hire once they’ve fired Eddie Howe, they only know they hate Eddie.
It’s someone else’s job to identify the shortlist and do what needs to be done to get them here. But they’re smart enough to spot a terminally failing manager when they see one. Laughable.
It never made much sense when pondering their complaints about Eddie’s current season with rational analysis. How could it possibly be that a man who has done what Eddie Howe has done at NUFC over several years, and Bournemouth, apparently didn’t just lose, but never even had the skills of man management, motivation, tactical flexibility, game management or squad overhaul/improvement (coaching, transfer dealings, youth development).
It makes perfect sense when you realise what’s probably motivated them all along. The boo boys probably never wanted Eddie Mk I at NUFC in the first place. Not a man who had never won a trophy, never managed in Europe. Not a man who had stayed so long at a small Premier League club, showing no ambition.
How ironic that his failures are now being cast by them in light of Pardew and Bruce’s league finishes with NUFC. Proud English men and career players turned managers who would have sold their grannies to have at any point in their careers, been not just considered a candidate to be the next England manager, but the only sensible choice. Sell their entire families for just a fraction of the black and white adulation Howe has rightly received.
The boo boys must have been fuming when Eddie Howe was given the chance by Newcastle United to prove all his doubters, and even pretty much all of his adoring fans, the Bournemouth fans, wrong.
It was said by them that, in essence, reflecting on his time at Bournemouth, all he really deserved, was a shot at another mid table Premier League club. At the time, 2019/20, Wolves, Burnley, Southampton, Everton, Palace. The fact all of them passed, happy with their lot or going in another direction, was seen as proof that Eddie was perhaps even worse a pick than getting Bournemouth relegated suggested.
So off he went, into the wilderness, and the haters were presumably very happy. Eddie didn’t even remotely deserve a shot at a job like Arsenal (finished 8th in 19/20). Nothing was said of the fact Sheffield United, who finished one place behind Arsenal, definitely wouldn’t have been relegated dead last the following season, had they taken a chance on Eddie. It’s a big club with a passionate support and, at that time, serious ambitions under Saudi ownership. Hard to see Eddie turning them down, given where he ended up.
And while I sympathise with the whole we’re a totally different club with different expectations argument, it’s nice to wonder what the Eddie haters would have made of Ashley’s Newcastle, who finished the 19/20 season in 13th, 10 points above relegation, had they reacted to that by replacing Bruce after one season with Howe, giving Bournemouth an offer they couldn’t refuse. A clear show of ambition. We had the cart, now for the horses, as Mike Ashley once said.
They’d have been fuming I think. Haters gonna hate. Lest we forget, the appointment of Eddie Howe by a new and ambitious ownership was greeted by these so called fans with pretty much the same mix of non-plussed regret at what might have been that had greeted Bruce, a regime that personified lack of ambition.
What might have been for Newcastle, for the boo boys, has never been a manager like Eddie Howe, in any era. Some call it delusion. I think it’s even worse. It’s not an accident you see some of these people, even when you push them really hard for a name, suggesting options that are so wildly beyond reason, you wonder if they’re under the influence.
So here we are. They’re very happy that Andoni Iraola evidently has ambitions higher than Bournemouth can accommodate. So all of us who appreciate what Eddie has done for us, and see exactly how he did it, and very much want to see if he can turn it around using those same skills plus the extra experience, aren’t supposed to point out the obvious, lest we be seen as deluded ourselves.
We’re all supposed to ignore the fact that at the peak of his attractiveness to other, bigger, Premier League clubs, Iraola’s CV reads no trophies, no European football, no star players, and with the benefit of playing only once a week, beating teams like Arsenal with nothing more complicated than an intense, aggressive, high pressing counter-attacking style.
I mean, let’s have it right. That was revolutionary when Eddie deployed it to great effect. Setting in motion the unintended (but hilarious) consequences of the PSR era, in which the merits of having pots of money and playing Pep-ball is on trial, yet to prove its real worth, having never actually seriously challenged the likes of Real Madrid or (coincidentally?) their cross city rivals, Simeone-ball, even at its height.
And through it all, ambitious Eddie was there, making all the would be successors with their styles, think. Think, PSG. Think, Liverpool. What do you really have, when it’s all on the line? Is your manager actually better than ours, if all other things were equal? We’ve got money, but not PSG/Liverpool money. Still not seeing a Mackem in Milan.
But is it revolutionary now? I think we can all agree, having read their assorted rantings and ravings, intensity as an identity is not just not good enough for the Eddie hating boo boys, an over-reliance on it, allegedly by choice, is in their eyes, the root of the many times Eddie Howe has been guilty of delivering “unforgiveable” performances in the name of our great club.
Catch yourselves on.
Shallow, short term, lacking in any morals or integrity. Entirely clueless. Blindly worshipping table positions without having the first clue what does and does not go into achieving them. How ironic that as I write this, Liverpool have just lost Ekitike for the season. So much for the theory that money is everything and a manager is merely a coach, and to aspire to back to back Premier League titles, you need a DoF.
So if Iraola is hoping to replace Eddie, and I actually doubt that, Iraola is taking advantage of that new era of football fandom. Worse, he’ll do what Eddie didn’t. He’ll come in with pride in his own achievements, such as they are. And we all know what pride comes before.
I thank Christ every day, given I now share a direct connection to supporters in my family who died long ago, seeing NUFC achieve legitimate, well deserved success (not that I didn’t enjoy being a supporter of everyone’s favourite second team), that we took a punt on Eddie, and in the process said screw you, haters. Eddie’s got more class in his little finger. Humble, respectful, reflecting. What an appointment.
Whoever was responsible for it, I hope to Christ they are still here. And if not, I hope to Christ they don’t waste a single second listening to the boo boys. They only know what they hate. And they take the word clueless to even greater heights in their hateful opinions. I’d not even give them the right to an opinion, let alone a seat in SJP. But I’ll settle with it not being obligatory to listen to them.
I genuinely love Eddie Howe. Not for me, empty platitudes of, well, gee, thanks Eddie, but time to move on eh? He has my unflinching support for a reason. It is the very opposite of blind faith. It is also not indefinite. But one bad season is not the mark of a bad manager. How hilarious it is to know that those who know best, are Bournemouth.
But hindsight is 20/20. It’s the people who were never having Eddie to begin with, who are so lacking in foresight, they hate Eddie Howe even as they urge us to go for Eddie II, who are the real problem. It’s been done. And who better to evolve Eddie I to solve the problems manifesting now, than the man who has already done what his haters said he couldn’t do. Step up. Handle big names. Fight on multiple fronts.
Not just couldn’t do, wasn’t even worthy.
The man is beyond worthy. Arise. And smite.