If there's anything to this rumour, why now? Parish could have amicably not renewed Hodgson's contract at the end of last season (the writing was on the wall given the way the last 8 games weren't competed for, a sign of what was to come) and we could have gone into this season afresh.
The only thing I can conclude is that if Howe does come in and those players who are currently going through the motions suddenly start to put a shift in, then Hodgson's motivational skills must surely be questioned.
Realistically 10/12 points should make certain. A few wins and draws one would hope are achievable with the fresh impetus of an enthusiastic new manager.

That may have been me.

"Blackburn's owner gave him the chance to resign honourably, but he refused to do so, leaving the club with no option but to dismiss him: "To Blackburn's honour, Jack Walker wanted me to resign, he wanted to still pay for the rest of my contract. He said, 'Why don't you resign? You've had enough, it's not working out.' I refused to do that, arrogant of course as I was in those days. I thought if they stuck with me I'd save them from relegation. I do think that the players were very much still with me, so I couldn't resign because that would be a suggestion that in some way I was doing something or something was happening which I didn't see to be the case or the truth. I gave him no choice but to sack me"

Most telling is this part - "I couldn't resign because that would be a suggestion that in some way I was doing something or something was happening which I didn't see to be the case or the truth"

Edited by southnorwoodhill (17 Feb 2021 9.40am)

Without our one man team,Wilf,afraid to say we are in for an inevitable spineless,gutless performance,maybe leading to Hodgson's removal.
Defeat is on the cards in these circumstances,may as well get on with things and appoint Howe now to give him maximum time to keep us up and enjoy the new manager bounce.

Edited by Jacey (17 Feb 2021 9.55am)

I'm not saying you're correct as a matter of fact of course but I certainly agree with most of what you've said.

I do not think Howe would be a disastrous appointment although others seem to, and I don't quite understand when people suggest bringing in someone as an assistant or 'moving Roy upstairs' - they're managers and should either be in post or not as far as I am concerned.

Now Zaha's got a bit of green grass ahead of him here... and finds Ambrose... not a bad effort!!!!

Certainly wouldn’t trust Pardew with them!

I wouldn't write off Howe just because he got Bournemouth relegated. From what I've read and understand about the fella, he's taken time away from the game to reset and analyse his shortcomings. He wasn't desperate to get straight back into the game which to me shows a willingness to reflect, learn and improve (which doesn't happen with a lot of managers) instead of thinking that 'his way' is the only way. All good things come to an end and that sure happened at Bournemouth as it does for every manager at any club.

Of course there is risk but drilling down into failures and learnings should have been covered off in the recruitment process, and for that you have to put your faith in those that are responsible for interviewing and hiring.

A manager very rarely succeeds over a prelonged period of time.
3-4 years appears to be the time when a dip in form seems to happen for any manager. I'd hypothesise that this is because methods get stale, and ideas - which may have been prevalent early on - are more likely to be roundly dismissed. This is the same as any job. Stuck in a rut, which is difficult to get out of.
It's how they cope with this scenario that turns a good manager into a great manager. Often a new man is needed to inject new ideas and momentum.

Our own man has hit this hurdle, and I dont think he's coping too well. He's done great for us, but it's that time that to keep progressing we need A new perspective.
I think the same can be said of Howe at Bournemouth, just ran out of ideas, and was there too long.
Howe is a good manager, one that we should look at. It concerns me a little that he didnt last too long at Burnley, but sometimes a club simply isn't the right fit. It also concerns me that the one of the areas we ned him to sort (defence) he hasn;t looked too good at in his time at Bournemouth.

If we do go for him, then I hope that he is given time. Yes he's a risk, but the issues we have are more than just the manager.

"It was a Team effort, I guess it took all players working together to lose this one"

In fairness to Howe, getting Bournemouth in the Premier League was a miracle and alongside Huddersfield were probably the strongest favourites for an instant relegation that the league has ever known - they have League 1 levels of infrastructure. For them to do 5 years was pretty special.

Looking at their squad list, only Ake, Wilson and maybe Fraser/King stand out. He tried to go for a policy of youth, and got stung when Ibe & Solanke didn't show up (Liverpool's expensive cast offs not doing well sounds familiar).

Yeah they got relegated last year, but they were probably one of the 3 favourites to be every one of those seasons they were up. He would, theoretically if we decide to use them, have greater resources here.

26th January 2010 - Enter Administration
2nd May 2010 - D-Day 1 - Survival at Hillsborough
1st June 2010 - D-Day 2 - Survival at Lloyds
7th June 2010 - CPFC2010 exchange contracts.

If Celtic are after Howe than Brendan Rodgers has laid out the roadmap. Go north and win loads of games in a 2 horse race and so rebuild your reputation then bide your time until a decent PL club comes calling.

One more point

Exactly what Gerrard has done ,premiership next for him