The race for... Europe?

[AjaxAndy]

I think teams become very predictable under Moyes, everyone knew the lineup long before it was released, and that makes it very easy for the opposition to plan for.

I do think though adding in the right signings will help a lot though. We had so little creativity in the team, but you replace the full backs, add Grealish back in and sign someone like Ivan Toney (not necessarily him but just an example), then just by default we're much harder to play against.

Someone like Moyes will operate on a fine margins basis, and go with a team he feels is hard to beat as opposed to something more attacking that creates a larger swing of margin between victory and trying to come away with at least a point.

Ireola is clearly someone who'd give us a more positive outlook on these kind of games, but also even if we sacked Moyes I think our chances of getting him would be about 0.5%.

More than happy to see how we do next season under Moyes, no manager is perfect, and his approach has probably won us a lot more points than its lost us over his spell back in charge. It can be frustrating but I'm also extremely grateful that we're absolutely nowhere near a relegation scrap that would potentially require 40 points to stay in the division. We're very lucky that this is the season where any of our previous recent points finishes may well have see us relegated.

[Shogun]

Although I disagree with the 0.5% thing. He's being linked to Crystal Palace. Given he rejected Bilbao then presumably he wants to stay in England. Would be mental to go to Chelsea. United will hire Carrick.

Going from 10k at Bournemouth to 50k every week at Everton with more money (both salary and to spend) would be a very attractive prospect I think.

[AjaxAndy]

Although I disagree with the 0.5% thing. He's being linked to Crystal Palace. Given he rejected Bilbao then presumably he wants to stay in England. Would be mental to go to Chelsea. United will hire Carrick.

Going from 10k at Bournemouth to 50k every week at Everton with more money (both salary and to spend) would be a very attractive prospect I think.

He's been linked with Palace but he's also been linked with Real Madrid, so I wouldn't really read too much in to that tbh.

I agree overall we're a step up from Bournemouth, but I don't think we're enough of one.

I'd obviously take him in a heartbeat, he's a class manager and most importantly i feel he plays much better football than Glasner who is just a better version of someone like Nuno.

There's plenty of teams we'd be behind though in the queue to sign him, I'd include Newcastle in that who I think will definitely be in for him, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if Man UTD see him as a more long term option than Carrick.

[TheRam]

He has some reputation for someone who hasn’t done much in the game.

He’s a good manager, but I’m not sure he’s really worth sacking Moyes for.

Bournemouth have gone through some horrid spells under him and the fact Sean Dyche had his number quite a few times is a massive red flag for me.

[Gash]

Bournemouth sunk like a stone at one point this season, didn't they go something like 10-12 games without a win?

[Shogun]

For me you have your Moyes, Franks and Nunos who are all very good managers in their own right and they'll get the most out of teams where they are trusted to run things. They're not going to win a lot of trophies or push beyond 6th/7th and they won't trouble the top teams bar the odd ocassion. They're objectively good managers.

Then you Iraola who might have a side competing for the same places but he'll have them playing in a way that does trouble the top teams. He will have them playing like a top team even if the players aren't good enough to be a top team. I think they lost 3 of their back 4 in the summer and have just cracked on as usual. They'll beat and more consistently trouble the top sides more than the previously mentioned.

It's why he'll have a better chance of adjusting the higher he gets as a manager whereas it's no surprise the former 3 I mentioned all failed in their big jobs.

[Evertonfc15]

Mid table mediocrity beckons but I'll take that after the last few years. It feels like the season will probably just fizzle out a bit now, we've lived off the back of our away form but that's gone a bit south recently, our home form has been poor and our defence from set pieces has been awful, 18 goals conceded now. That's a bit un-Moyes like and while he can take a lot of credit for some things he also needs to take a lot of criticism for others and not addressing them and it feels like a lot of the old Moyes traits are still there after all these years.

we used to dream of mid table mediocrity in the last 4 seasons - when fighting relegation
now we are here we dream of getting into europe
not sure our squad is big enough to cope with the prem europa/conf lge fa cup league cup competitions
we have to add too add to our squad in the summer big time if we want to progress

[superpull]

we used to dream of mid table mediocrity in the last 4 seasons - when fighting relegation
now we are here we dream of getting into europe
not sure our squad is big enough to cope with the prem europa/conf lge fa cup league cup competitions
we have to add too add to our squad in the summer big time if we want to progress

Nobody disputes this and everybody who has brought up the negative feelings have put a big caveat at the start saying "we've done really well".

Everybody accepts this season has been a huge success. But we're still allowed to be gutted we couldn't beat a relegation-threatened team in a fixture that would have come close to guaranteeing European football.

The squad is paper thin and couldn't cope with Europe. But qualifying for it would mean we recruited accordingly.
It's not like we're only allowed to sign a set number of people regardless of where we finish

[AndSeel]

Still think genuinely, if we beat Palace and Sunderland it will be in our own hands final day.

Dont see why we wont beat both of them too.

[The Doc]

Still think genuinely, if we beat Palace and Sunderland it will be in our own hands final day.

Dont see why we wont beat both of them too.

Because that would require not bottling it.

[Cods]

Nobody disputes this and everybody who has brought up the negative feelings have put a big caveat at the start saying "we've done really well".

Everybody accepts this season has been a huge success. But we're still allowed to be gutted we couldn't beat a relegation-threatened team in a fixture that would have come close to guaranteeing European football.

The squad is paper thin and couldn't cope with Europe. But qualifying for it would mean we recruited accordingly.
It's not like we're only allowed to sign a set number of people regardless of where we finish

Agree with your points here in the main, but Im not sure we'll spend all that big. It will be dictated by our overall finances(revenue), capacity to spend, and then the budget TFG set once we know if/ what we qualify for first.

We're still not really starting from zero after the last decade. If we make champions league then fair enough we probably can spend but even then I don't see it as massively changing our squad.

They've not gone crazy at Roma. Different league and no CL I understand, but TFG spent big in the year they took over, then the next two seasons they actually had big negative spends, resulting in a €14m transfer net profit over their first 3 years of ownership. Big losses (likely) on their biggest purchases in Abraham and Dobvyk too. Incremental league improvements 7th to 6th to 5th...

The amount that has been poured in just to save us as an entity has been huge. They'll want to see returns across the board (including ticket revenue, f&b, entertainment etc) I think we shouldn't have our expectations too high just yet. This coming window will be very revealing.

[Goaljira]

We've been here before, we'll be here again, and whilst its a million times better than the annual stresses on the heart a relegation battle brings if this is the best we can hope for then it just feels like 'Then whats the point?'. And this is exactly how I felt by the end of Moyes I.

Its not the hope that kills you, its the realization that there's no point hoping at all.

[Cereal Killer]

Over half our team needs replacing with some basic competent footballers, it’s not like we’re actually the 6th best team in the league, Moyes has done well to get us over performing as much as he has

[Bumble]

Three out of the last four games we have conceded injury time goals which prevented us getting anything out of those games. At the business end of the season. When we had everything to play for.

Something needs to change at this club. We recycle managers and players and keep circling back to a level. It is 100% a mentality issue we have, but how do we solve it?

[Cereal Killer]

Three out of the last four games we have conceded injury time goals which prevented us getting anything out of those games. At the business end of the season. When we had everything to play for.

Something needs to change at this club. We recycle managers and players and keep circling back to a level. It is 100% a mentality issue we have, but how do we solve it?

Probably not thrash the same XI through every game and use more of the subs so everyone’s not dead on their feet by the end of the match