Kasper

Loved this idea

It's a bit tricky. Even with these inflated fees you'd think 20m could buy you something exciting. Someone like Deeney gives me zero excitement. Considering our situation I guess you have to put some value for Premierleague experience, more than normally. Still...meh.

Stop torturing yourselves He's doing what he's done before. He'll only sell if someone bids an insane amount and accepts all the shitty clauses like free Sports Direct ads for 10 years etc.

Why are people going with this argument? People still believe stuff being put out by Ashley? If Mandy wanted the deal done it would be done by now. It’s Mrs Staveley for you. And you’re clueless. Also: If Ashley wanted the deal done it would be done by now.

Sack Rafa that would cost money

Guess that counts as progress. Though I cant wait for someone to bid 300 and get rejected.

Shock. Lying prick is lying prick. And he aint selling.

Rafa learns about Ashley's latest attempt to sell the club.

Aww. No one asked him for a statement.

Mike and Lee on their way to finalise the deal.

Lovely.

The logic is him taking a risk that Rafa can do it with minimum funding. Can't say it's a very well calculated risk considering how much money the club would lose out on and how much unrest another relegation would cause among fans.

He's going on about like Staveley somehow interferred with Mike's desire to sell the club. Now Staveley has to walk away so Mike can go find a real buyer. What a load of shit.

What is happening? Ashley just pissed on your offer yesterday and you just keep saying "it's still there". Games, games, games...

I dont get the ”still waiting to hear back”. They’ve met in person and surely had other negotiations as well.

There's something quite Trump like in him. Big baby who throws his toys out quickly. Just imagine him using Twitter.

Let's just list everyones diseases and illnesses and whoever has the worst does it. If it ends up being someone with herpes then so be it.

Green light to bid 50% of asking price.

Expecting him to join another club on loan before the window closes.

So they just decided to play that way or Swansea forced us into playing that way then is that it? I was there and saw Rafa telling the players to keep it, Lascelles telling the keeper to keep a hold of it, Rafa instructing Perez to go deeper. As soon as the whistle went we dropped back deeper and stopped pressing. Again this isn’t a one off, we usually start that way at home, only we started that way second half this time. It’s s if because we didn’t score first half Rafa decided a different approach. Again this sums up Rafa. He didn’t trust the team to keep going in the same vein and getting reward so decided he’d try a different way, a way which let Swansea back into it and to take the lead. Then he had to make a change which did work, but by then it was a case of oh well, a point is better than a loss. He didn't trust them to keep going the same way? What are you on about? We played a very compact shape first half and they never looked like scoring from anything other than a set piece. The argument that Rafa wanted to make us more defensive after half time is just mind bogglingly stupid.

You cannot be serious. We were the total opposite in the second half man. You say Swansea forced that. Bull shit. They didn’t and even if they did we did fuck all to counter it and were happy to sit in there and contain and protect. Either way it was bull shit nonsense at home to a worse side than us who again wee wasting time from minute one happy to get a point. This sums up their adventure. 45 minutes they get a corner and they take an absolute age to take it. There was little chance of us breaking from it but they didn’t want to just send it in and take a chance. They couldn’t wait for that whistle. WE invited them back into the game by dropping off, not pressing and launching it long. Basically the opposite to what we did in the first half where we carved the, open, they couldn’t get out and we created chance almost after chance or opportunities. You're talking complete crap man. They had lots of posession in the first half. Actually they had more in the first half than second. Almost all our chances in the first half came from them just passing it around and eventually making a mistake. It wasnt a relentless pressure you're describing at all. We were patient, waiting for the chance to win the ball and going direct when we did. Nothing changed in our tactical approach.

Just wake up for a minute and think. Why on earth would Rafa tell them to stop playing the way they did first half? Swansea wasn't dangerous at all, there was no need to change to a more defensive approach. If you're argument is that Rafa would settle for a point then we could've played the same way we did first half. We were very compact already. You're argument is that Rafa is a complete moron. Why do you think he made these "changes"? Quotes because it didnt happen.

I'll watch the start of the second half later again but I'd bet decent money that we're not any deeper by default. Obviously you're pushed back if you keep loosing the ball and opposition finds space in your defense and manages to keep posession. I think you're just very wrong on this one.

There is going for it and going gun ho. No one expects us to go all out attack. But there should be a balance. Second half we literally dropped back and conceded territory, possession and the game to them and when we did equalise the game was begging out for us to go back at them and bury them and we didn’t. I’m of the opinion that someone like Hughton for example would have us doing just as well (or bad whatever way you want to look at it) with the same players, but we’d play better football and not be so negative, especially at home. Now that’s not me saying I’d swap Rafa for Hughton before anyone starts or that I think Rafa is shit. I just don’t buy into this whole we have to play this way because the players are crap. First half we did everything but score. Why couldn’t we play the same way in the second half? You cannot say because we don’t have the players or if we did we’d get beat. We actually conceded and looked like losing by playing the opposite to how we played in the first half. We were not all out attacking or gung ho on the first half, we were on the front foot though and caused them problems and again, did everything but score. Such tactics have cost us at home dearly and if we go down, we can look at that as one of the main reasons. Like someone just said in the match thread: Do you think Newcastle is alone on the pitch? There's this other team there who can change things and improve their game. We were dropping back first half as well. It was clearly a plan to get some space behind their defense and use our fast players to get there when we won the ball. Maybe they changed something that made it harder for us. I don't know. But clearly it isnt as simple as "why couldnt the second half be like the first".