tmonkey

Looks like a rabbit caught in the headlights whenever he gets the ball.

His foot isn't raised at head height like Mane's was.

Tad idiotic from Ritchie.

Wish Ayoze could control the ball reliably.

He should/could have realised the keeper has gotten to the ball first, it's at head height, and that a Liu Kang flying kick isn't going to achieve anything positive. As soon as he realised that he could/should have simply jumped for the ball hoping for a block or just to put the keeper off. Some players jump and turn their backs mid air for example. It's actually quite common to have this situation where it's a 55:45 ball (as opposed to 50:50) and the player on the 45 end will change their attempt to get to the ball first instinctively, especially if it's a keeper who is favourite. Absolutely no way is trying to get a foot on the ball at that height reasonable or acceptable, let alone when he's running in at that speed and jumping off the ground. What he did is the exact equivalent of jumping in studs up with 2 feet aiming for a ball that's on the ground but which the opposition player has gotten to first. That type of challenge is deemed a highly dangerous potential leg breaker, an instant red card, with zero consideration of notions of intent or "what else he could do if he wants to get the ball". Players are simply expected to know not to do something dangerous when challenging for a ball. It's hardly unreasonable.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-4867934/Sadio-Mane-red-card-decision-wrong-says-Gary-Neville.html http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/09/09/13/4412862400000578-0-image-a-24_1504960085645.jpg http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/09/09/14/441274A800000578-4867934-image-a-43_1504962058755.jpg

He could have not gone for it with a running flying kick at head height. Absolutely insane thing to do.

3 words - Kim Jong-Un.

What the fuck. I was on the verge of sticking money on Rafa leaving cos of Crumpy's OP but couldn't find the market for it. Cunts.

Absolutely no chance he's looking to sell. He's making all sorts of money from owning NUFC is my guess - probably a bunch of Freddie Shepherd type deals we don't know about (e.g. leasing an empty warehouse from his brother for £0.5m a year). That's before we start considering NUFC being a giant Sports Direct advert for free, and all the high ranking jobs within the club he gives to his unqualified and inexperienced golfing/casino/drinking buddies.

If Ashley wanted rid of Rafa because he's popular, then why not get rid after promotion when talks were held to persuade Rafa to stay? He could, in theory, have parted ways with Rafa and brought in a puppet with barely a murmur of discontent (most of us would have considered it a real possibility that Rafa would leave after what happened in January). Could have put out news stories about Rafa wanting to move on or wanting different challenges compared to what NUFC can offer to placate fans. Obviously we don't know if contract clauses would have affected those discussions, though if Rafa was unhappy with the discussions what other option would he have had other than to leave? And whilst I imagine Rafa allegedly communicating his unhappiness with the transfer situation through the media during the summer may have irked Ashley, Rafa did the same in January, so it's nothing new. Nothing makes sense with Ashley. There's many possibilities, but one of them that I won't rule out just yet is that this is all to do with not wanting to spend until the money is actually received and banked. Wishful thinking probably, but it's still a possibility.

Benitez won't sell without a replacement. Until I see evidence that we're willing to sell players out from under Benitez this is bullshit IMO. If there's any owner in world football stupid enough to do that it'd be Mikey Ashley.

Whilst he's clearly had numerous battles with boards over his career, this one is different. This one involves a serious possibility of relegation. Relegation would be a big dent in Rafa's reputation (even if it shouldn't, but we know how fickle and uninformed people within the sport generally are). Even a bad string of defeats could result in a sacking by Ashley, which would be an even bigger dent in his reputation. In both instances his future job prospects could be damaged, which is something I'm sure he'd want to avoid, and there's going to be a line drawn as to how much risk he's willing to take on - it's easy to forget that some managers have their careers effectively ended after a bad job or two. Whilst that won't happen to Rafa, it does mean he'll not have a reasonable pick of clubs going forward. And this is before we get to all of the stuff about principles, broken promises, being lied to, etc.

His distribution has always been the weakest part of his game. On that basis alone I'm not surprised Rafa hasn't taken a shine to Krul given that he values distribution from the back. That's before we take into account the injuries and loss of form in recent years.

That's the only hope we have. The hope that: - Ashley isn't sanctioning spending because the money hasn't come in yet. When the money does come in Rafa can use it as he sees fit. - Ashley doesn't want to sanction purchases using installment payments over X years because he views it as a risk should the signings fail. - The £80m spunked under McClaren, and other spending sprees here and there (including last summer with a fair chunk of money brought in through players sales spent on Championship players), is evidence that Ashley will release funds when it's available and needed (or if he's panicking). If he were truly trying to squeeze NUFC for all he can he could have spent alot less, like we did when we first went down in 2008. So there's some unpredictability and inconsistencies with the notion that Ashley is a nefarious owner, and is simply a badly advised idiot who lies whenever he's cornered. - Rafa's unhappiness leaked through the press / associates is just another bluff, another screw to turn the pressure on Ashley to eventually release money and accept Rafa's high ambitions for this club. If/when he gets the money to spend next season he'll be happy. This is all straw clutching at its finest though.

Comfortably the best player on the pitch for me. Oozes class on the ball. Really does remind me of Redondo in style (again, no direct comparison intended). Shelvey absolutely must play alongside Merino. At the very least we have to try it to see if it works, since in theory if it works alright defensively it means having two CM's who can genuinely "play", which in turn will make creating chances a hell of a lot easier. Don't think we've had a pair of CM's who were both good technical passers since Speed slotted in alongside an aging Rob Lee (prior to the latters legs going).

Alot better today so fair do's. Needs to keep this level of performance up - as stated before, without pace and trickery he has to consistently produce end product in some form to justify being in the team in his position. Happy for us and him if he does.

Those quotes are eerily reminiscent of Keegan's random post-match interview at some point during his second tenure here when he suddenly seemed very despondent and talked about how without money noone can challenge for anything. Stark contrast to all the positivity coming from him in every interview when he first returned and prior to that moment, when he was constantly talking about the potential of the club/city/etc. At the time I thought Keegan was prematurely throwing the towel in because he couldn't spend his way to a trophy challenge immediately, especially since at the time he gave the brief interview there was no real hint of anything being wrong. Looking back it's obvious that that was probably the moment had realized what Ashley and his cronies were up to.

Are you telling us to read more of tomorrows quotes, or stating that you've just read those quotes? Which is it? It's important I know. In fact, I'm fairly certain the future of Rafa as NUFC manager hangs on what side of the coin your ambiguous sits on.

Merino alongside Shelvey could be quite tasty in terms of possession and distribution.

Firstly, we could sign players paid via installments. Refusal to do so is idiotic and imo motivated by a desire to hold back, or withdraw, cash whilst gambling on the squad being good enough to survive. But then a club generating the turnover ours does (usually top 7 in UK, top 20 worldwide) wouldn't have been relegated twice (and almost relegated a few more times) if we weren't owned by an idiot putting his own self interests first. Secondly, Mike Ashley can't use a lack of funds available as an excuse if he's actively reducing the club's revenues by giving free advertisement away to Sports Direct, which benefits him and him alone. That's some serious advertising real estate he's giving away to himself for free. Thirdly, if reports are to be believed Rafa isn't just upset with the lack of money available despite the promises. It's also about the club not bothering to bring in who he wants, even if they're available for cheap or on a loan. The reporting around Tammy Abraham for example suggests that Rafa wanted him, had him lined up after speaking to him, but the club never bothered to make a proper move which is why Tammy opted for Swansea. Similar to Keegan and Hyppia, or whoever Rafa was angry about in the January transfer window (when Ashley & Co effectively apologised as they hadn't anticipated Rafa making things public). Ultimately though, would you really want to trust Mike Ashley over Rafa Benitez? Purely in terms of personality Ashley is as legally close as you can get to a modern day slave owner operating in the retail sector. We've had Panorama documentaries and MPs/newspapers going after him because he's such a dodgey businessman, and the tax authorities have already raided his premises and arrested a number of people he's associated with over fraud. He's been proven a liar in court with respect to football, we know he's employed people at NUFC who have acted shadily (e.g. Wise & co buying via select agents), he's clearly secretive and aloof, he utilises PR against fans, he employs questionable people to roles they shouldn't be anywhere near, so on and so forth. Not sure why you'd side with a person like that over the equivalent of a footballing saint in Rafa.

He's shown for Palace he can score in the Premiership. The issue is whether he's suitable for Rafa's system. I don't think we can afford to carry a poacher who provides nothing else, not without a good number 10 to compensate anyway.

Peter Lovenkrands scored more goals than Ritchie did in far fewer games the first time we were in the Championship under Ashley. Didn't mean I was a fan of Peter, and I'm sure you weren't either. A limited player is a limited player, even if they do well for a season at a lower level. Whilst I appreciate they played in slightly different positions and Ritchie is a better footballer, the logic still holds. I view Ritchie as a borderline limited player given the position he plays in (an opinion I appreciate few will share). Having a winger without pace or trickery or the ability to create chances through skill, even at a significantly lower level than we are at now, is in my eyes along the same lines as having a centreback who can't head the ball, or a goalkeeper who can't jump. It's a limitation for the position and one that will hold the team back by placing the burden of creativity on other players when in truth his position should be providing it - hence why I'm not a fan. Hardly mental. Needless to say, I'll be happy to be wrong about Ritchie, although even if he starts adding a few goals here and there I'd still want him upgraded on eventually (ala Nolan being replaced by Cabaye). I simply like my wingers to be fast and/or skillful and a constant creative threat.

Wasn't a fan of him last season. Thought the goals papered over what were workmanlike performances devoid of any real creative quality on the ball. He generally played very simply, took no risks alot of the time in build up play, and relied heavily on Yedlin making an impact going forwards. Ergo, I had him down as being was part of the problem of there being a lack of creativity in this team, especially when Shelvey was out. The one saving grace was that he could strike a ball relatively well sometimes, although it felt like he wasn't consistent at applying the good technique he does have. Seemed to slice/scuff/not cleanly hit the ball alot of the time, and felt like it was a mental issue (e.g. panicking, lack of composure, etc). With respect to this season, I'll wait to see if he produces or ups his consistency before judging, as he's earnt some leeway for now. Plus not sure we have anyone else worth bothering with in the first team ahead of him.