[Football] Forest vs Newcastle

[Hillian1]

It's not just this match though is it.........and radio phone-ins this morning suggest otherwise. Geordie meltdown.

Meltdoon.

 

[dazzer6666]

Meltdoon.

 

[Eggman]

Meltdoon.

Melt-Toon

 

[Easy 10]

Rafa's getting a bit of an easy ride there. He's spent circa £35m+ in each of the last 2 transfer windows, on top of what was already a fairly decent PL squad. Yet the narrative is always Big Bad Mike, not cutting Rafa loose with the chequebook for a proper Supermarket Sweep of the transfer market.

He's undoubtedly a very good manager and Newcastle are lucky to have him, but this notion that he's operating there with his hands tied behind his back is bobbins. He's had money, but they're not a superpower, they're Newcastle. They never win anything, never have, not since the advent of colour TV. That's not Mike Ashley's fault is it.

 

[Beanstalk]

Rafa's getting a bit of an easy ride there. He's spent circa £35m+ in each of the last 2 transfer windows, on top of what was already a fairly decent PL squad. Yet the narrative is always Big Bad Mike, not cutting Rafa loose with the chequebook for a proper Supermarket Sweep of the transfer market.

He's undoubtedly a very good manager and Newcastle are lucky to have him, but this notion that he's operating there with his hands tied behind his back is bobbins. He's had money, but they're not a superpower, they're Newcastle. They never win anything, never have, not since the advent of colour TV. That's not Mike Ashley's fault is it.

I don't think that the narrative has been that Newcastle haven't spent anything, but more that Ashley is unwilling to spend what is necessary to get the players Rafa wants in.
The story about Rondon is that he had a £13million release clause, but Ashley would only go up to £11million. So instead of having Gayle and Rondon (two very different strikers) Benitez had to give up Gayle on loan in exchange for Rondon. Klavan (Liverpool -> Cagliari £2million) and Pieters (Stoke) are similar stories of Ashley refusing to pay the asking price for cheap players from this summer.

It's true that they're not a superpower and have never really been so but, Ashley is a terrible person and a stingy chairman, who has regularly stood in the way of Benitez building the squad he wants. He is a manager who has won an unbelievable amount of trophies and with someone like him at the helm, Newcastle should be in a much better place than surviving. It's fairly obvious that Rafa isn't the problem.

 

[Hillian1]

I'm sure the Jawdee nashun will continue their protests by shouting at Sports Direct Shops.

They really are quite a special bunch up there.

 

[dazzer6666]

I'm sure the Jawdee nashun will continue their protests by shouting at Sports Direct Shops.

They really are quite a special bunch up there.

Apparently (heard this on the radio last week) they have a coordinated approach to trying to **** up the Sports Direct online ordering system. Log on, fill online baskets with tons of stuff, them just leave it there without checking out - so the stock system marks it as sold and unavailable to anyone trying later.....