Where do we go from here...

[OzVilla]

All eyes on the owners. I think Smith’s time is done tbh, it just might not be this week but I just can’t see him still being here at Christmas.

The next appointment will tell us everything we need to know about their ambitions.

[richtheholtender]

there's no point in saying the manager needs to go if the model is now to finish midtable, develop players and sell them for a high profit because he is the perfect manager for that. Also, you can't sack a manager when you've not backed him and they haven't, the net spend was zero and teams above and around us invested. The time for that was last season.

[SoccerHQ]

there's no point in saying the manager needs to go if the model is now to finish midtable, develop players and sell them for a high profit because he is the perfect manager for that. Also, you can't sack a manager when you've not backed him and they haven't, the net spend was zero and teams above and around us invested. The time for that was last season.

I think they'll give it the next 4 games and see how we fit likes of Bailey in team now he's fit. Ultimately guys like him, Ings and Buendia cost 100m pretty much so think owners have a right to expect these guys to win us some games from time to time playing a logical system.

Purslow is DS biggest backer by all accounts so DS is done if he loses confidence so I'd say two wins from next 4 games is badly needed otherwise we'll be a far way off even 10th and that isn't acceptable for me.

[steamer]

Not sure, Tactics and performance are dire in last 3 games and always a nagging feeling about his ability to step up and change games.
But unless we ham some super dooper Manager in the wings , why change before end of season ?
Tweak a bit and we should finish 10th
But plan ahead, look at options and consider them.
It is what good management teams do.

[Duncan Shaw]

Purslow is savvy enough to know he'll need to pot Dean if the owners start questioning his judgement. 

[SoccerHQ]

Not sure, Tactics and performance are dire in last 3 games and always a nagging feeling about his ability to step up and change games.
But unless we ham some super dooper Manager in the wings , why change before end of season ?
Tweak a bit and we should finish 10th
But plan ahead, look at options and consider them.
It is what good management teams do.

Depends who long you wait. Not win any of our next 4 and we'll be a fair bit off 10th with a pretty difficult run of games in December.

I think he's got another month to get us back on track and he'll be gone start of December if we don't.

This is parallels with West Brom in 13/14 season. They won at Man. United for first time in decades in September 2013. Won then one of their next 10 league games and Steve Clarke was sacked in the December.

[Villan82]

One of the unfortunate aspects of our recent history is that we had to go to the Championship to end up with these owners. It has meant that we have had to come from a very low base. If they had rocked up around 2011 or 2012 imagine how different things would have been. Liverpool finished below us in 2010, were bought by proper owners and are now unrecognisable.

[SoccerHQ]

Think a good guide to our progress in short term is how close or far off we are to Everton.

They finished one place and a couple of points clear of us last season.

Barely spent anything in the summer and we beat them very comfortably a few weeks back (I know they had injuries blah blah).

They hold on to the win v Watford, they're 7 points clear of us. At this stage of the season that's still manageable. However we don't win in next 2-3 games and gap could easily be 10-12 points.

If that happens I think the owners would have a right to conclude what the hell is going on as they'd have been a realistic team we'd have targeted to finish above in August.

If the simple answer is they just have a much better manager than Dean Smith then well isn't it simply time in our evolution to do something about that and get in a Benitez standard manager in?

[AndyB6]

Look at the Everton score now!! 😯

[Ads]

We play our best system which is 433, with 3 midfielders with legs. That means no 10, but duel 8s giving Dougie the chance to screen from higher up and it means you have to kill your darlings. It's Ings or Watkins through the middle, not both.

For me, I think our beat team is probably;

Martinez

Targett
Mings
Konsa
Cash

McGinn
Dougie
Sanson

Bailey
Ings
Buendia

How about we play that against West Ham and see how we fare.

[jwarry]

Well we are either 6 points from the bottom 3 or 6 points from the top 4, so it depends how you hold your glass

[SoccerHQ]

Look at the Everton score now!! 😯

Aye, my post aged well didn't it. Hope everyone had a good chuckle at my post!

Benitez back to Newcastle will probably happen at some point in next month.

[Clark W Griswold]

I think if the owners were really serious you would have seen more investment in the summer. Deano saying with 2 weeks left of the window that he was happy with what he had and after we’d just signed an Man Utd reserve on loan was that sudden realisation moment that we’re not going to be challenging at the very highest level, similar to the end of the summer in 2007 when Lerner had been there a year and we’d just signed Marlon Harewood and Scott Carson on loan, after thinking Lerner was going to have us challenging Chelsea and Man Utd. On the other hand maybe it was Smiths decision alone not to bring in more but I doubt it personally. What has compounded the situation is that Smith seems to have gone off on an inexplicable tangent with tactics and his back room staff have turned over so everything has been turned on its head in a bad way with a squad that should be mid table. On current form we won’t be much higher than the relegation zone unless things change dramatically and one of those considerations will be Smith himself.

Going back to the owners, as said, they didn’t really spend to get us promoted, we loaned, and between Grealish, McGinn, Mings and Smith himself we got up by the skin of our teeth. For me, since then money has been spent on a new squad because it had to be and then when we nearly went down more was spent again to protect the investment. Am I grateful to them, absolutely, it’s better than Lerner did in his last few years or what the bloke at the Albion has done for them but do I think we’ll be up there challenging for the CL? No I don’t.

[Ian.]

We play our best system which is 433, with 3 midfielders with legs. That means no 10, but duel 8s giving Dougie the chance to screen from higher up and it means you have to kill your darlings. It's Ings or Watkins through the middle, not both.

For me, I think our beat team is probably;

Martinez

Targett
Mings
Konsa
Cash

McGinn
Dougie
Sanson

Bailey
Ings
Buendia

How about we play that against West Ham and see how we fare.

That’s pretty much a must and we could have done that last night but with Watkins in the wide role with Bailey ready to come on. I’m still completely baffled why we didn’t try that last night especially after our performances against Arsenal last season.

[Ads]

I find the idea that the owners aren't serious or "haven't really spent" absolutely bewildering.