Mick

I would get Doumbai on fairly soon and tell him to run at them through the centre because Huth looks fairly slow.

Rafa, Rafael, Rafa, Rafael, Rafa, Rafael, Rafael Benitez.

I'm nervous as hell now, can I stop caring again?

The nerves will be kicking in this time tomorrow, it's madness.

Was it Pearson in charge when we lost 6-0 at Man Utd? Or am I re-writing history? Think that was Steve Clarke I'm sure it was Pearson, didn't Ronaldo score 3 and Tevez get 2?

What he said.

Every player who has ever returned from injury missed the game before. Players probably do have more enthusiasm for a return and it's only natural, players even come back early from injury under current managers and are injured because of it.

It looks like Palace, Everton and Watford are going to be in the FA Cup semi finals and Leicester have a chance of winning the league while we're fighting to avoid relegation.

No wonder they couldn't motivate anybody, they couldn't have been motivated themselves as I can't see anything wrong with the Simpson interview that could get him into trouble.

Their fans are horrible and I've never had any time for them, I hope we take something off them and I hope they don't win the league.

WTF?

I agree with that, it's going to be interesting to see how we react if we go behind, although I wouldn't mind not finding out for a few weeks.

I really don't think Ashley will want the hassle, if we stay up he'll not want us appointing more shite and potentially creating another fight against relegation.

The more I read and hear about Benitez, the more I'm convinced we've got the best man possible for the job. Our job is seen as a bit of a poisoned chalice by some and that's bullshit. Benitez clearly loves football so he shouldn't feel any pressure here as the job will not be a chore to him. The best managers we've had here have passionately loved football, it was their lives and they thrived on it and Rafa is the same. We've appointed a good person who none of us will dislike and he's brilliant at what he does because he takes his job seriously, his job is his life. I still can't believe how lucky we've been to get him while at the same time understanding why we have. He's going to love it here once he settles in and for once everybody connected to Newcastle United are heading in the same direction, the positivity is intoxicating. We've got the perfect manager for our club actually at our club for the first time in years.

I wasn't having a go, they are clearly protecting him and felt they could take him off once at 0-2.

Put the postcode in location https://pubfinder.sky.com/

Then hooked.

I thought that you had a car.

That's quite damning on the players and former coach but it does seem to happen a lot at clubs.

It'll also help that they're not going to be asked to do what they've been asked to do all season and failed at. It must be absolutely shite if you're losing games and trying the same things all of the time. It's no wonder the players weren't looking as if they were being coached.

That's a big if.

That's what I thought.

What was that about?

Our first insight into how the players feel about this, it's from shelvey. It’s obviously sad to see Steve go, because he brought me into the Club and I owe so much to him for bringing me to this great football club, but ultimately it didn’t work out for him here. But we’ve been lucky to get Rafa, because he’s a great organiser of teams, and you hear things from ex-players about how great he is. It’s just an exciting time for the fans and the players to learn more about Rafa Benitez and the way that he wants us to play. He must think a lot of the Club to come in and take over. He’s been at Real Madrid, Inter Milan, Napoli, Liverpool - he’s been at all these top clubs, and I think it speaks so highly of the stature of this Club for him to take on an opportunity like this. You see the honours he’s won, and you don’t win those without knowing what you’re doing. He’s a top manager and everyone’s excited in the changing room. It’s like when you go to school for your first day - everyone’s trying to impress the manager, everyone’s in early and in the gym. It’s exciting to work with someone who’s worked at the top clubs - he was at Real Madrid earlier this season, and that speaks highly of the calibre of the manager he is. He’ll bring a new lease of life to Newcastle. The players are excited, and everyone’s excited around the city.

I've always had good times with Liverpool supporters going back decades to when you were playing Forrest at Wembley and we were playing Chelsea and both sets of fans had a mass game of football in Trafalgar Square. I once missed the first half at Annfield when we had a lock in at the Arkle and we couldn't buy our own beers because your fans kept buying them for us. Your fans ended up in the away end singing Newcastle songs at a time when opposition fans used to kick 10 bells out of each other.