steve_69

I guess the deal could be done in principle but there are still a few finer details to be ironed out eg. HMRC stuff. If an offer has been made by Staveley and accepted by Ashley that could be construed as the deal being done but until everything is buttoned up they won't announce it. Things could still go wrong, especially where Ashley is involved, and the deal would probably impact the share price of various companies so there's probably a proper legal procedure. I'm just speculating because i know fuck all about this stuff.

So far I haven't seen this guy do a single thing of quality - pass, run, dribble, shoot, win the ball, cross. I've no doubt he has the ability to do at least some of those things well, otherwise Rafa wouldn't have signed him, but he just looks like he's constantly shitting himself. The crowd starting to get on his back won't help but that isn't going to get any better until he starts showing a glimmer of ability. Maybe the move was just too big for him.

Mitrovic is obviously doing something in training, or not doing something that is causing Rafa to not pick him. We know the kind of manager he is and the standards he sets. If Mitro is resigned to leaving maybe his attitude and effort have dropped in training, maybe he’s running around knacking other players, who knows?! The one thing we can be certain of is that every decision Rafa makes is in the interests of the team, not born out of some imagined vendetta. We all knew the squad was shit when the transfer window closed and we were punching way above our weight for the first few games. We’ve now lost a couple in a row that we could’ve easily won and sadly cracks are starting to show in our support. I guess the only way people will calm down is if Rafa bows to supporter-pressure and plays Mitro but part of me doesn’t want that to happen because he’ll be compromising his approach to the game that has served us so well thus far. That’s the kind of shit a weak manager like Pardew would do just to appease the fans.

The game should’ve been out of sight in the first half. Rafa got his tactics and game plan spot-on as usual but the players weren’t clinical enough and then the officials robbed us of a legitimate goal. To criticise Rafa after that is bullshit! It’s typical knee jerk stuff to say he should’ve done this or he should’ve played this guy. We have a world class manager who knows better than the lot of us. He was just as let down as we were by the players he selected and I’m sure he’ll react.

I think we're all just beyond the point of desperation with regards to Ashley possibly leaving, so any piece of information that suggests it could actually be happening sends us into a frenzy. Like a few have said, no news is probably good news at this stage but it's the not knowing that's so fucking frustrating

Diame is nowhere near Premier League level.

He was at Juve before now but I think its probably just a throw away comment made into a big thing I imagine Turin was less of a shithole than London as well.

You can't blame the guy for not liking London FFS! He's young and it's his first time living outside Spain, and if he didn't find London stressful there'd be something wrong with him. The place is a fucking nightmare! Yes he's on massive money but that doesn't necessarily guarantee quality of life if you fucking hate your surroundings. I'd 100% choose Madrid over pretty much any UK city if I had the choice.

It's a hamstring injury so they'd be daft to risk him.

It must be great being a journalist these days - just mash together two articles from other sources, call it your own and get paid.

So she's just the representative of an as yet un-named buyer or buyers?

Joselu is a better football than Mitrovic imo. Our style of play doesn’t suit either of them mind. Too bad Gayle still hasn’t recovered mentally from his injury last season. He's technically better I agree, but he's a training ground champion IMO. He's got worse every game he's played, and his finishing goes to s*** under pressure. Mitro's got more self belief, and I think that counts for a lot playing for a club like Newcastle. On the game itself, I think we might lose this 1-0. Two well drilled sides, but I think our back four has more potential for errors. If Wood doesn't play i'll think we'll win. I don't see where their goals could come from without him in the side. Either way it's going to be a turgid game

It's clearly the easiest part of management/coaching though. There are so many mediocre managers who can set up a team to be hard to beat but when it comes to improving the creative/attacking side of things they fall flat on their arses, so their teams are just consistently boring as f*** - Pulis, Allardyce, Moyes, Pardew attempted it but he was even s*** at that, Hodgson etc. We're not entertaining to watch at the moment and Rafa is clearly a defensive manager but when he has the right players at his disposal (Torres, Alsono etc. for example) his teams are equally effective going forward. Same with Mourinho. Allardyce is like the Red Adair of football management - teams bring him in when they are haemorrhaging goals and heading for the drop. Once he's stabilised things, his employers invariably replace him because he can't do anything beyond that (and he's completely repellent). The thing with Rafa is that he wants those 3 points, home or away, regardless of who we are playing. Thankfully he knows how to set a team up to defend and to be hard to beat, but to also be effective at the other end. Pardew et al rely on individual brilliance or set pieces to nick a win. The likes of him go into a game hoping for a point and its a disgrace really because its kind of like cheating the players and fans out of what the game is all about - winning. Especially when you consider some of the teams Pardew did it against consistently ie. bottom half teams, relegation fodder etc. We should've been set up to try and batter teams like that but Pardew didn't have the balls or the skills to do that so he just tried to keep it tight and nick a win, with the likes of Williamson and Taylor at the back I might add. At least the other anti-football protagonists generally succeed in keeping things tight at the back. Rafa is just a realist - he knows we don't have the players to take the game to the opposition right now so he plays a brand of football that is compact and effective. When we get a decent #10 and a quality striker i imagine we'll be a bit more expansive.

It's clearly the easiest part of management/coaching though. There are so many mediocre managers who can set up a team to be hard to beat but when it comes to improving the creative/attacking side of things they fall flat on their arses, so their teams are just consistently boring as fuck - Pulis, Allardyce, Moyes, Pardew attempted it but he was even shit at that, Hodgson etc. We're not entertaining to watch at the moment and Rafa is clearly a defensive manager but when he has the right players at his disposal (Torres, Alsono etc. for example) his teams are equally effective going forward. Same with Mourinho. Allardyce is like the Red Adair of football management - teams bring him in when they are haemorrhaging goals and heading for the drop. Once he's stabilised things, his employers invariably replace him because he can't do anything beyond that (and he's completely repellent).

IF we get taken over and have new ambitious owners I’d be less devastated if Rafa left because I’d be confident we’d replace him with someone of a similar calibre. Don’t get me wrong, I’d hate to see him go because I genuinely love the man - he’s reignited my love for this club - but, one of the biggest fear factors is losing him under Ashley and seeing him replaced with David Moyes. That fear would be reduced if our new owners knew something about football and actually gave a shit about us. That said, please don’t ever leave us Rafa.

British players staying in this country I understand, I don't agree with them but the vast majority of them are that thick and ignorant that they'd find integrating themselves into another culture very difficult. Unfortunately it also highlights the complete lack of ambition and motivation in some of them because they'd rather get splinters in their arses for £50k p/w than move somewhere they might actually get some game time. For managers though, there's no excuse. Yes, the money is here but a lot of the British managers don't get any of it because they keep getting overlooked in favour of better candidates. So instead of doing something about it they take a cushy sofa job for a few months and spit out some cliched sob story at every opportunity. Take Giggs for example, he's been looking for a job in the Premier League or Championship for what, 3-4 years?? Think what he could've achieved in that time - he could be fluent in German & Spanish and have 4 years worth of overseas coaching under his belt. Instead he still just has "I used to be Ryan Giggs" written on his managerial CV.

Why don't some of these British managers go abroad for a bit, learn another language and some new tactics, take a spell at a lower league foreign club and actually show that they're willing to better themselves and gain some experience in order to secure a decent job in English football? It's no different to any other industry - if you're not getting interviews or offers for roles on the next rung, you have two options - change industry or make yourself more attractive to potential employers. Don't just fucking moan to the press. If I was a club owner i'd 100% go for a multi-lingual, tactically-astute, intelligent, experienced foreign manager over the likes of Tim Sherwood, Ryan Giggs, Alan Pardew etc. It's a total no-brainer!! Until these fucking halfwits change their attitudes and their approach to the job market, they'll continue to be overlooked in favour of clearly superior options and rightly so.

Tony Cottee was on some Sky Sports show the other day talking about the Everton job and he was saying they should go British, the names he trotted out were fucking priceless. Pardew, Coleman, Allardyce, Big Dunc was mentioned - you get the idea. This is a team with new owners who are looking to push onto the next level. What is he on?!

I think he came here short of confidence, scored a couple and looked to be growing and then I think the Stoke game did him in again. He seems to have shrunk since then. I know he scored against Liverpool but he very nearly didn't and if he's questioning himself, he probably won't back on that positively

Montgomery Brewster

As long as he's not from Down South, and he/she agrees with the entire fanbase that we should be winning the World Cup every week.

Yes. What a time to be alive. Think it was around £3.5m as well He was reportedly one game away from the sack as well. Blackburn must've been laughing their tits off

I don't know what it is about Joselu, but i really like the guy. I just wish he wasn't so crap

Wants the Italy job doesnt he Open to a return to the PL if the right club makes an offer, according to The Telegraph

Probably a good time to lump some money on Ancelotti's Premier League return.