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Rafa. He's still not happy

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Maybe Fat Mike is trying to do it sensibly like Burnley did and not spend too much whilst banking the TV money. Even if it means going down again to come back up stronger. Although the mags won't have that as they were expecting mid table
 
I can see where they are coming from mind in some ways- very like with allardyce having a strong 2nd half to the season and optimism and great atmosphere, if we had signed yedlin, m'vila early on to maintain what we had, a good target man and another winger even with a different manager (not moyes) in and the excitement/goodwill to the team would have been so helpful.

Instead the club seemed to be dicking allardyce about with transfers, then in came moyes with some woeful choices all round and a host of dire buys and loans and negativity and right from when he had to field o shea in midfield 1st game the ominous bad feeling set in.

Similarly with Newcastle- they didn't spend big when they finished 5th which was staggering, (like us 2 years under Reid) and only threw big money at the team when in bother until last seasons summer 50odd million spend (which they then ended up in profit on anyway), I was dreading a 100m spend on loads of class players and a season of gloating.

From a critical point of view , you can point out they have spent 80m, 50m, 40 m in the last 3 seasons, and this should have been enough to assemble a good team.

For me Benitez has made a pigs ear of the good feeling this summer with his powerplay with Ashley, with both obviously wanting to be in charge - id argue Ashley could have allowed 50-60 million or more for some established players that would have had the fans buzzing, but in his defence Benitez made some signings that didn't work out that probably were not needed and lumbered an already huge squad with more deadwood which he has surely alienated (Colback, Haidara, his obvious dislike of Mitrovic as a player) and so on, when they would probably have been ok as back-up for a handful of games.

Also think they would have been better off spending the 40m on two really good starting players than going down the get fillers in route like we always used to as well.

Good post.
Every club in the top flight has broken its transfer record in the last two years, Newcastle's still stands from 2005.
Haggling over £8m release clause for Lejeune, trying to pay it in instalments. Refusing a £1m loan fee for Abrahams.
The owner said on tv the club can have every penny it generates, yet it's £9m ij profit from transfer sales since Benitez arrived.
Hundreds of thousands of pounds per week knocked off the wage bill in the last week alone.
Several injuries and suspensions in the first few two weeks of the season, yet no player signed in the last 34 days of the window.
16 players out and 6 brought in.
Deliberate sabotage by the owner/board.
 
It's ridiculous. Ashley has backed Rafa in 3 windows if they don't have a good enough squad that has nothing to do with Ashley that is Rafa's failure. Even by mag standards they are being particularly ignorant and deluded.

No signings in January, and not getting players he wanted in this window doesn't look like backing in 3 windows to me. A goalkeeper, left back and another striker were the priorities and none arrived

Good post.
Every club in the top flight has broken its transfer record in the last two years, Newcastle's still stands from 2005.
Haggling over £8m release clause for Lejeune, trying to pay it in instalments. Refusing a £1m loan fee for Abrahams.
The owner said on tv the club can have every penny it generates, yet it's £9m ij profit from transfer sales since Benitez arrived.
Hundreds of thousands of pounds per week knocked off the wage bill in the last week alone.
Several injuries and suspensions in the first few two weeks of the season, yet no player signed in the last 34 days of the window.
16 players out and 6 brought in.
Deliberate sabotage by the owner/board.

Edit. I've wrote 34 days where I meant to write 14.
 
Good post.
Every club in the top flight has broken its transfer record in the last two years, Newcastle's still stands from 2005.
Haggling over £8m release clause for Lejeune, trying to pay it in instalments. Refusing a £1m loan fee for Abrahams.
The owner said on tv the club can have every penny it generates, yet it's £9m ij profit from transfer sales since Benitez arrived.
Hundreds of thousands of pounds per week knocked off the wage bill in the last week alone.
Several injuries and suspensions in the first few two weeks of the season, yet no player signed in the last 34 days of the window.
16 players out and 6 brought in.
Deliberate sabotage by the owner/board.

Lets say for example as soon as the window opened he got in Pepe Reina, Townsend and, Slimani or Bony or someone spending 50-60M - the optimism would have been huge.

The likes of Lazaar, Colback, Hanley and so on could have probably done a job as fillers- then if it got to January and the clubs on 30ish points and looking safe can take punts on prospects like Murphy.

The only window I can think of where I can remember recently SAFC went out with a common sense approach was Allardyce- we needed height, pace and power through the spine of the side
he got in kone
kirchoff
Khazri
N Doye

Who all contributed well, in a lesser way re N Doye as he usually played in left wing, but our approach of buying endless dire cheap right backs and endless dour 5 foot 8 midfielders just means years of stockpiling them.

Good post.
Every club in the top flight has broken its transfer record in the last two years, Newcastle's still stands from 2005.
Haggling over £8m release clause for Lejeune, trying to pay it in instalments. Refusing a £1m loan fee for Abrahams.
The owner said on tv the club can have every penny it generates, yet it's £9m ij profit from transfer sales since Benitez arrived.
Hundreds of thousands of pounds per week knocked off the wage bill in the last week alone.
Several injuries and suspensions in the first few two weeks of the season, yet no player signed in the last 34 days of the window.
16 players out and 6 brought in.
Deliberate sabotage by the owner/board.

re sabotage- who knows - has he told Benitez he WILL be backed to bring in better left backs than Dummet, better than Colback and Hanley and so on then gone back on his word with Benitez having told them they wont play again to make him look like a git?
Or has Benitez played it badly?
 
Lets say for example as soon as the window opened he got in Pepe Reina, Townsend and, Slimani or Bony or someone spending 50-60M - the optimism would have been huge.

The likes of Lazaar, Colback, Hanley and so on could have probably done a job as fillers- then if it got to January and the clubs on 30ish points and looking safe can take punts on prospects like Murphy.

The only window I can think of where I can remember recently SAFC went out with a common sense approach was Allardyce- we needed height, pace and power through the spine of the side
he got in kone
kirchoff
Khazri
N Doye

Who all contributed well, in a lesser way re N Doye as he usually played in left wing, but our approach of buying endless dire cheap right backs and endless dour 5 foot 8 midfielders just means years of stockpiling them.
Wanted Townsend back in January and apparently he was willing to drop to the championship for 4 months as promotion was nailed on and could already start building for the top flight. Board decided to spend nothing.
Other targets were identified early and nothing really happened.
That's where the issue is as Benitez has said several times, it's not been the funds, but the timing of going for players. Delayed moving for certain positions and targets have been missed, resulting in other ones having to be brought in.

Re. Broken promises, I think the fact that he agreed to stay after relegation means he was given certain assurances on budget and recruitment, even the removal of graham carr happened. The fact the manager has had to go public to try and force the club's hand probably shows how bad he feels he's been lied to. Also keeps fans in the picture.
 
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They're like a toddler sitting on the floor crying repeatedly banging it's fists against the floor screaming "we are a big club!" over and over again.

Remember that leave Brittany alone video from years ago with that weird fucker crying?

I can picture mags doing that but going leave Rafa alone!


f***ing hell man they can't even spell Geordie right :oops:
 
As I've said all along, a 'great' manager will easily get a tune out of that £100 million pound squad. Nowhere for Benitez to hide now. Everyone is watching the squad that HE hand picked for promotion and players surely chosen because HE believed they could step up to the mark this season.
Benitez wanted control over the transfers last season and he got it, so I don't see how they can blame Ashley.
 
It must be full of shite, only so much smoke you can blow up his arse.

Unless it's a pop up book, be about the level of reading skills for the majority of their supporters.

Just read Henry Winter and George Caulkin on Twatter feeding the Mags - both saying money should have been spent and Ashley has let the club down. Q the mags agreeing.
 
Good post.
Every club in the top flight has broken its transfer record in the last two years, Newcastle's still stands from 2005.
Haggling over £8m release clause for Lejeune, trying to pay it in instalments. Refusing a £1m loan fee for Abrahams.
The owner said on tv the club can have every penny it generates, yet it's £9m ij profit from transfer sales since Benitez arrived.
Hundreds of thousands of pounds per week knocked off the wage bill in the last week alone.
Several injuries and suspensions in the first few two weeks of the season, yet no player signed in the last 34 days of the window.
16 players out and 6 brought in.
Deliberate sabotage by the owner/board.
Do you think you'll struggle then?
 
Just read Henry Winter and George Caulkin on Twatter feeding the Mags - both saying money should have been spent and Ashley has let the club down. Q the mags agreeing.

Would be foolish to try and improve your team after promotion wouldn't it?
 
Florian Lejeune £8,700,000
Jacob Murphy £12,000,000
Javier Manquillo £4,500,000
Joselu £5,000,000
Sels £5,000,000
Dwight Gayle £10,000,000
Matt Ritchie £12,000,000
Jesús Gámez Free
Isaac Hayden £2,500,000
Grant Hanley £5,500,000
Ciaran Clark £5,000,000
Mohamed Diamé £4,000,000
DeAndre Yedlin £5,000,000
Achraf Lazaar £3,000,000
Daryl Murphy £3,000,000

= £85.2 million

why would Benitez sign anyone on the last day? he has brought in 15 players in the last 2 summers, spending over £85million. he appears to be well supported by his chairman in the transfer market, and with a squad consisting of mostly his own players, Newcastle fans must be giddy with excitement at the prospect of a world class manager and his personally assembled squad taking over the Premier League
 
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