NUFC in Crisis... What Next?

Make no mistake; this is the biggest challenge Eddie Howe and PIF have faced since his appointment and the takeover. The manager and owners are in a crisis situation.

Where was the fight and urgency?

After the devastating double loss to Sunderland ,on the back of a crushing capitulation to Barcelona, Eddie Howe had a three week break from games to contemplate how he would tackle the last seven games of an inconsistent and underperforming PL season.

Nor only that - but Eddie had the wake up call of CEO David Hopkinson not giving his immediate future at SJP any guarantees and stating that European qualification was the minimum that he and PIF would accept from the team.

In his pre-match presser Eddie fully acknowledged that the last even games of the season were pivotal in the assessment and conclusions that would be drawn at the season's end - massive conclusions and decisions would be made on those results.

So...

My expectation, and hope, was that the team would perform with an urgency, motivation and energy right from the kick off against Crystal Palace. That is what I would expect from a manager in Eddie's situation having had three weeks to galvanise team attitude.

Is that we saw? Absolutely not.

What we saw was the same type of performance that we have seen time and again this season.

The oppo out-passing us, slap dash hopeful punts up-field from defensive possession, predictable passes out wide that the oppo have prepared for, and a general feeling of 'here we go again, nothing has changed' in our during match thoughts.

But, despite all that, we scored from our first shot of the game.

Did it gave us fans confidence we would go on to win? No.

Not only were we not playing well, but this season tells us we cam't keep a clean sheet or hold on to a win. And guess what, we didn't.

Who was surprised? No me, and I guess not 1000's of other fans.

We could tell from the first 5-10 minutes of this game that the fight, urgency and gameplan we were hoping to see wasn't going to happen.

It can't be a happy camp

On the great things up to now about Eddie's time at SJP has been the trenendous team spirit with the squad.

IMO that has taken a big hit.

Take last summer's signings; is Woltemade as Germany's first choice ST happy at being shoved into midfield? Is Wissa who joined us with such excitement happy at permanently warming the bench?

How happy were key ambitious players like Tonali, Gordon, Tino and even Bruno and Hall when they saw our top targets turn us down last summer for the established top clubs?

At least one of those players may be sold - and more than one may be hoping to leave.

They all know now that NUFC is a second choice at best for the top players who we want to sign, plus financial restrictions mean even if they did want to come we can't pay the wages they want - or the wages that our top player could get elsewhere.

What next?

I'm not sure.

But one thing I am sure of is that NUFC is at a crisis point in their progress and ambitions.

Massive decisions need to be made at the end of the season.

This is where top management show their mettle.

If they get it wrong any dreams they or us fans have of regular CL qualification and a PL title by 2030 will become a fantasy.

Do you think I am overreacting?

Post your comments below.

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