New manager, Eddie Howe has been asked about this and said that he had an ‘interesting view’ on the matter.
Eddie Howe said: “I’ve got an interesting view on that. I’ve come from a club [Bournemouth] where at the start of our journey, we had very limited resources in terms of facilities and we had huge success on the pitch so the two things don’t correlate. It’s the work you do on the pitch that is the important thing. Now, that’s not to say you don’t crave the best infrastructure, the best facilities you can, the best things for your players. Of course I do. The most important thing is actually the work. All you need is some grass, some footballs, some cones ideally and some bibs. Then you just need to go ahead and work and implement what you want to do. But I know football at the very highest level you need to treat players in a way they expect and you need to give them no excuses so when they play on a Saturday, there’s a reason why they’ve underperformed.”