The People's Forum: Brighton, Bournemouth, Palace

and pretty much every club on the continent.

Look at the teams in the division who don’t;

City - essentially a club built to keep Guardiola satisfied (and why wouldnt you do that if you had a genius like him)

Arsenal - Arteta has proved his worth as a manager to the point where they’re all in on him and how he wants to do things (again, probably proven to be the right thing to do)

Forest - a basket case because the owner is intervening and meddling lion

Newcastle - wasted the windfall they got from Isak because they let Howe spend it all. Watch for the Saudis to implement a DoF model this summer (regardless of whether they sack Howe)

Sometimes zigging when everyone else is zagging can be a great idea. But unless you got an absolute solid gold manager in place (hint - we haven’t) then the overwhelmingly sensible structure to put in place is one where everyone specialises on the thing they’re really good at (whether that’s coaching, sports science, academy development or scouting).

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who is making it work....not for two or three years, who can show a decade of stability or progress using it?

It seems to me pie in he sky....the idea the club and DOF set a style and the manager is recruited to fit the style....it makes perfect sense, not swinging from one transfer strategy to another, but the reality is it cant really work.....so you sack your manager, you already have a small pool of potential new men, who is good enough, who would want your job, who is available. Now you are adding in...and plays our style. So a great manager is available, wants the job, fans love the idea...sorry mate, you dont play with three at the back...or whatever, its one of those things that looks good on paper but not in the real world.

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I remember being on this board during his first spell. I think we lost to Tottenham, maybe it was a cup game, and the unanimous opinion on here was that he should be fired.

We stuck with him, didn't regret it, but never got to see what he could have done with money and backing.

You could argue that he's finally been given a ~£30m centre forward and Barry is shite. But I don't blame Moyes for that transfer.

Looking back over what Kinnear said in September:

“Charly Alcaraz, Thierno Barry, Adam Aznou, Mark Travers, Tyler Dibling and Merlin Röhl are some of the most exciting young talents in European football, with great potential for the future"

“They will need time and our patience to settle and adapt to the rigours of the Premier League, but I have no doubt in their ability to make a positive contribution this season, and that their contribution will only grow over time."

“Their transition will be accelerated under the guidance of David Moyes. His desire to champion young talent remains as strong as ever."

“David was central to all our recruitment efforts. The first into Finch Farm each morning and the last to leave at night, he meticulously assessed every player proposal, data assessment and video review.”

Not sure what to make of that. I don't think we should have a DoF model but big question marks about how joined up our transfer committee was.

One thing that's not been said much is that Moyes 1.0 he brought in very highly rated coaches as his assistants. Steve Round was widely considered to be one of the best and was poached from Newcastle. I'd feel much more bullish about Moyes if he was doing the same again, rather than a mix of old favourites (McKinley and Irvine) and a club legend to put the cones out (Baines).

Moyes/McKinley/Irvine is a bit like the Dyche/Woan/Stone shit show. Old, stale, etc.

IF (and it's a big if) Baines is there on merit and is genuinely considered to be a future PL manager and IF Moyes is grooming him as a successor then stability is much more appealing. IF our technical team truly rate Dibling/Aznou/Barry/Rohl/Alcaraz and consider this to be an adjustment season and next year they will hit the ground running then that would be quite exciting. It doesn't make sense to me, but that's what I will cling to.

Next year will be Moyes' final season, maybe he'll hand over some media duties to Baines. We finish 8th and qualify for Europe.

Pickford
RB, O'Brien, Branthwaite, Aznou
Armstrong/Rohl, Garner, KDH,
Dibling, Barry, George

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But after that shambles yesterday I thinking I’m more 20/80.

Time for a new era with a new forward thinking manager.

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at best we will finish this season on 52 points.

But it's more than likely we will finish the season on 49 points. That's a 1 point gain on last season, a season that saw Dyche sacked for just 3 wins in 19 games.