It is quite subjective. Depends on who you ask. Quality is a fresh product. Few people wanted Joelinton, Almiron, Dan Burn, Longstaff, etc. a little while ago. Now Newcastle are in third place in the PL, 20 points ahead of us after 18 games. Led by a manager quite a few on the forum here made fun of. Because he after leading Bournmouth from League one to the PL, and kept them in the PL for 5 years with one of the smallest budgets in the PL eventually went down with Bournmouth. In relative terms he overachieved, or no he blew the scale. But the fans could only see what was right in front of them.
I voted for Howe in the poll on here when we were replacing Acelotti and we went for Benitez. You’re right, very few wanted him. Very good manager and miles better than Benitez, Lampard or most managers for that matter.
Yes, he’s got a tune out of some of their flops, doing a great job. They’re way ahead of where they should be. He has improved their team with good additions compared to where they were though so should see some improvement on Steve Bruce’s team.
For us though, the most decorated manager ever could only finish mid table with us when he had Digne, James, Siggi, Richie, fit DCL and we massively relied on them to create and score.
It just seems unrealistic to say Lampard should be finishing in roughly the same position or one or two below when there aren’t any really weak teams in the league this year and we’ve replaced players with a track record of producing quality with players who have no track record of producing quality, at least consistently.
Only so long you can strip quality out an average side, replace with crap before chickens coming home to roost.
Anyway, I’m away out but like your posts ??
