steve_69

Steven Nzonzi would fit the bill perfectly, but his value has soared since he went to Spain Rumours are that he's Arsenal bound (??) He’d be a great signing for them

Steven Nzonzi would fit the bill perfectly, but his value has soared since he went to Spain

If it’s effectively Staveley’s money funding the transfers you can be absolutely certain she’ll be the one calling the shots on who we sign and how. As part of the DD she’ll know what our wage bill is and she’ll be the one telling Rafa what he can and can’t have. Potentially but him, or any of his merry band of arseholes, being involved in any way, no matter how small, is not good. Absolutely no benefit for him not to be a total bellend. £30m is a lot of money. I can’t see a business woman as shrewd as Staveley allowing Ashley to risk devaluing her investment with his meddling and penny pinching. She’ll issue guidelines to Ashley and Charnley on what she’s happy with and it’ll be down to Charnley and Rafa to do the negotiating. She’s seen what Ashley’s idea of backing his manager is and will know exactly why we are in this position. I totally agree but as I said any of the current band of knackers involved is an automatic red flag for me. Let's hope not! That Justin Barnes prick is the biggest concern. Hopefully now the takeover is nearly done he’ll be on his bike

Yeah, other than Manquillo and Diame it was decent, but the alternatives to those two cloggers aren’t exactly inspiring.

If it’s effectively Staveley’s money funding the transfers you can be absolutely certain she’ll be the one calling the shots on who we sign and how. As part of the DD she’ll know what our wage bill is and she’ll be the one telling Rafa what he can and can’t have. Potentially but him, or any of his merry band of arseholes, being involved in any way, no matter how small, is not good. Absolutely no benefit for him not to be a total bellend. £30m is a lot of money. I can’t see a business woman as shrewd as Staveley allowing Ashley to risk devaluing her investment with his meddling and penny pinching. She’ll issue guidelines to Ashley and Charnley on what she’s happy with and it’ll be down to Charnley and Rafa to do the negotiating. She’s seen what Ashley’s idea of backing his manager is and will know exactly why we are in this position.

If it’s effectively Staveley’s money funding the transfers you can be absolutely certain she’ll be the one calling the shots on who we sign and how. As part of the DD she’ll know what our wage bill is and she’ll be the one telling Rafa what he can and can’t have.

Hold up lads, sensible post alert! Not sure these are allowed at the moment mate. I’d get your tin hat on sharpish

It won’t take £100m. A relaxing of the age cap, wage cap and start paying loan fees, and we should be able to bring in enough quality and experience to stay up.

Momentum and confidence from the Champonship season carried over and we were an unknown quantity in this league for the first few games. Doesn’t take long for other managers and scouting teams to figure out a team. That’s what’s happened here, combined with a group of players who haven’t experienced a situation like this before. That’s why Rafa wants some experienced players.

Thats a great thing for Guardiola to say, considering hes only managed sides with superstars and huge budgets. Is he a f***ing idiot. Most of us would probably finish somewhere near the top 4 with the sides hes managed. Guardiola had a relatively poor season last season because he didn’t have the players to fit his system and style of play. Now that he does, the results are there for everyone to see. Apply the same situation to Rafa - does he have the players he needs to fit his preferred system or style of play? Of course he doesn’t. He’s doing his best with an ill-suited group of young, inexperienced players. To expect anything other than scraping survival is too much.

Did you watch the first half of that game? We might’ve lost but we didn’t deserve to. The first half performance was the best we’ve played recently and the second half performance came from a combination of being deflated after going in behind, and fat Sam parking the bus.

You cannot completely absolve him from number 2. Seriously, even with the ridiculous restrictions and number of times he has been f***ed over, the players he has decided to bring in are just pure crap. Right, name the free left back and £5m striker you wanted us to sign. Do I have to in order to say Benitez has made some f***ing crap signings? Nah. World’s biggest cop out. I thought as much. Rafa brought in 4th or 5th choice players he thought might be able to do a job. He has made it clear all along that they are not the players he wanted. If they were his first choices the criticism would be fair but give the situation some context and throw a bit of intelligence into the mix (fat chance of that with you) and you realise they were the best he could get UNDER THE CIRCUMSTANCES.

You cannot completely absolve him from number 2. Seriously, even with the ridiculous restrictions and number of times he has been f***ed over, the players he has decided to bring in are just pure crap. Do you even know how football works? How about you suggest a better striker, left-back and centre back he could’ve brought in for the pittance he was given in fees and wages? I’ll leave it with you for as long as you like.

The lineup was fine tonight. The first half performance should’ve seen us out of sight and once again an individual mistake has taken the wind out of our sails and cost us. As a manager you can’t do anything about that. I feel so sorry for Rafa having to precise over this shower of fucking amateurs.

I hope those of you who called for Elliott to be dropped are pleased with yourselves. This soppy cunt in the sticks has cost us more points in two games than Blobby did since the start of the season

Merino?

I suppose because he has absolutely no experience or qualifications to hold the position he does. He's another Ashley 'yes' man and that's the only reason he was fast tracked to MD of Newcastle United. Of course he gets a lot of backlash purely for being at the club under Ashley tenure, but there are also legitimate reasons for the animosity towards him. But hasn't Rafa said that he works well with him? And out of interest which "qualifications" is he missing to be MD or CFO or whatever his title is ? He has, which i guess has to count for something. To a degree I think they're both in the same boat - completely in the dark day to day and feeding off the small crumbs of information and money that Ashley releases on a whim. It seemed a very odd appointment at the time though - to jump up from Club Secretary to MD of one of the country's biggest football clubs is a huge promotion. At the time we were in a bit of mess and hoping for someone to come in and give us some direction and communication. That hasn't happened but to be fair it probably isn't all Charnley's fault. Maybe the criticism is unfair, he's just a more visible target than Ashley to direct our hatred and fury at.

I suppose because he has absolutely no experience or qualifications to hold the position he does. He's another Ashley 'yes' man and that's the only reason he was fast tracked to MD of Newcastle United. Of course he gets a lot of backlash purely for being at the club under Ashley tenure, but there are also legitimate reasons for the animosity towards him.

Walcott Barkley Sturridge Shaw Giroud Bale Higuain Neuer Ronaldinho Bring fat Ronaldo out of retirement

That's the kind of day dreams are made of. Get yourself a lottery ticket immediately

Amanda Staveley you are the love of my life Amanda Staveley I wish you were my wife Amanda Staveley...... That's as far as I got. Got to bear in mind the whole crowd is likely to be wankered for the next few week so a familiar tune is probably best

I almost can't remember what it's like to support a properly-run, ambitious football club. It'll take a while for the pessimistic outlook and curbed expectations to subside because they've been ingrained for 10 years.

Forgot about him. What happened with that deal again? I believe that's another one our board fucked up because they're tight

The only similarity is that Rafa doesn't rate either so they might as well be sold. The Mitrovic situation is sad for us fans because I think we'd all liked to have seen him do well, but if he hasn't started doing what Rafa wants him to do after a season and a half, I guess he deserves everything he gets. I don't rate Mitro either tbh, we went down when he was our main striker, and his finishing was poor. But he's young and arguably improving, and scoring goals for Serbia, so I think he should be playing ahead of Joselu. Colback is not fit for purpose at this level, probably not the championship either. If we put both up for sale, there's only one who'll end up at a premier club. It’s not that don’t I rate Mitro, I do but we know how methodical Rafa is. The reason certain players play is because Rafa knows he can trust them to carry out his instructions. Those that can’t don’t play, simple as - Mitro, Mbemba, Aarons and possibly now, Shelvey. I think it’s safe to assume that Mitro isn’t doing what Rafa wants him to do, therefore Rafa doesn’t trust him and won’t put him in the team. If he’s still not doing it after a year and a half he’s either really thick or deliberately rebelling. I don’t think there’s any question he’s a more talented striker than Joselu but Rafa trusts Joselu to play the way he wants him to play.

The only similarity is that Rafa doesn't rate either so they might as well be sold. The Mitrovic situation is sad for us fans because I think we'd all liked to have seen him do well, but if he hasn't started doing what Rafa wants him to do after a season and a half, I guess he deserves everything he gets.