Minhosa

Please let this be because Rafa wants his own people in. Did Rafa bring him in? Can't remember.

He just wants their stock and assets...he is a parasite. He could do that without quitting SD though. To leave the SD role to concentrate on Debenhams is really very random.

Weird move if true. It's a bit like Fergie jacking in Man Utd to go and join Coventry City.

Hopefully, if Rafa is spun this yarn, he's able to get them to formally commit to x spend per year and x investment in the infrastructure each with a penalty clause in his favour of £xm if it's not undertaken. Get the fat wanker to put his money where his mouth is.

Probably arranged through that Jim White cunt.

Kanj - agreed. The bid was genuine. That I know for sure. What was never clear and, imho what scuppered the bid, were Ashley's demands. I suspect he's not so keen for a clean break after all and wants to tie the new owners to all sorts of longer term (and self-benefitting) commercial arrangements that AS/PK/whoever would not stomach. Doing a deal with Ashley is virtually impossible as, truth be told, he's probably a very reluctant seller. He buys damaged businesses like NUFC, he doesn't sell them. He's clearly very reluctant to walk away from a profit making enterprise unless the offer is out of this world. The only way you get offers like that is from nation states with huge budgets. Sensible buyers won't work to his terms. I genuinely felt it was different this time from what I knew of the PK bid. I did always caveat that, all along, with 'but Ashley' however. And, once again, he's proven to be the immovable object. Genuinely no idea where things go from here. I wouldn't be surprised if he even gives an interview stating he's staying long term now. Genuine question. You say you know for sure the bid was genuine. Why did Kenyon write Ashley a letter thanking him when they weren't even coming to an agreement? This just does not happen. I'm not ITK on the detail of the deal nor that specific point but I'd hazard a guess that Ashley wanted to put some of the fire out and told Kenyon that penning the letter would both reflect well on PK AND MA and also be a chance to talk directly to his future client base. PK probably saw it as a positive in terms of keeping the seller on side. When you're in 'deal mode' sometimes you go with the flow to get the thing done. Getting Ashley on side would be a big positive for any potential buyer and it cost PK nothing. In every single deal of this size the buyers AND sellers will have to make concessions in exchange for something. Ashley might have asked PK to put something out in exchange for exclusivity and and agreement that he'd talk to nobody else. If you really wanted to buy NUFC, and thought it could happen, that you were in the box seat, what harm a one page letter? I'd have done it if I thought it would mean the deal was more likely to conclude on positive terms. All sorts of weird shit happens when people are making deals of this size. Politics/Personalities/Ego's/Favours/Manipulation. And that's before you factor in the man-child of an owner we have. PK is probably fucked off that Ashley got him to do that and then effectively changed his mind about a deal. I don't know who PK's backers were but I should doubt very much if pure finance was the reason this fell over. I rather suspect it was the commercial terms/tie-in's that did that. If you broadly know the price is circa £300m then you don't knock on the door when you only have access to £200m. That just doesn't happen. I feel that both sides had done sufficient homework for PK to know the deal stood a good chance of working financially and that MA had done his homework on PK and his backers. For one thing, MA's Lawyers, always ask for proof of funds before sending out the deal packs etc. Just because PK could potentially get his hands on £300m (which isn't that hard btw) that doesn't mean his backers would be comfortable at writing off x% of profit every year because Ashley wanted a cut or a long term incentivised exit.

This first hand knowledge was given along the lines of "clubs gonna be sold, stop protesting else you'll ruin it". Come on now, join the dots That's not true at all. I was the original source for PK and didn't get involved in any of the protest discussion from memory. The conspiracy theorists among you might not like it but I'm telling you it was genuine. What happened during DD and with funding, I'm not sure, and I'm not privy too but I know there was a significant amount of money spent by both sides in the DD Process with legals/accountants etc. You don't do that if it's not serious. This is what leads me to believe that ultimately MA's demands fucked it because he doesn't sell profit making businesses unless the deal is obscenely in his favour.

Kanj - agreed. The bid was genuine. That I know for sure. What was never clear and, imho what scuppered the bid, were Ashley's demands. I suspect he's not so keen for a clean break after all and wants to tie the new owners to all sorts of longer term (and self-benefitting) commercial arrangements that AS/PK/whoever would not stomach. Doing a deal with Ashley is virtually impossible as, truth be told, he's probably a very reluctant seller. He buys damaged businesses like NUFC, he doesn't sell them. He's clearly very reluctant to walk away from a profit making enterprise unless the offer is out of this world. The only way you get offers like that is from nation states with huge budgets. Sensible buyers won't work to his terms. I genuinely felt it was different this time from what I knew of the PK bid. I did always caveat that, all along, with 'but Ashley' however. And, once again, he's proven to be the immovable object. Genuinely no idea where things go from here. I wouldn't be surprised if he even gives an interview stating he's staying long term now.

The one are we stuggle with the most - none of our full backs are really up to scratch and something that needs to be sorted in the Summer. If Rafa stays that has to be his priority. I'm sure it is. N'Soki would be the one he'd want to go big on.

Player in having bad game shocker. Thing is I thought he was ok - not brilliant my any stretch but he was the only player who didn't give the ball away often. I thnk he is playing a bit safe at the moment probably as he is new to the club and I would certainly push him further forward. He could do with really getting a hold of one of those shots from outside the box. His shot's have been De Jong-esque from distance. Can't believe anyone would be giving him stick mind. I love the little fella.

Agreed. I honestly thought the ref was gonna book Snodgrass.

Lejeune hasn't even played 1 full season worth of appearances for us so I'm not sure how you can say that He's been here going on two years, and has barely put a foot wrong. All I was saying is that the conversation would be different, if Colo had maintained a standard that was worthy of comparison. The fact he didn't and is still our goto comparison says it all, though. Tbf Lejeune was really shaky last season until Lascelles came back from injury He was. He took a while to get fully match fit imho. I was in the away end at Southampton last season and we'd been superb, played them off the park, and even after they nicked one back, it was his foul which let them get a very very lucky draw. If he was fully fit, he'd never have been caught like that. He's been superb for the most part and his distribution is out of the top drawer. Love it when he gets the old 7 iron out of his bag and sticks on at Yedlin's feet from 80 yards away. His lateness in the tackle cost us tonight just as it did at Southampton last season. Shame as he's been great lately but he does look less than sharp in some games. A bit tardy at times.

I didn't think there was two goals in it tonight but fuck me our full backs are fucking dreadful. Their centre backs were excellent for the most part and our back five were very much below par. Hey ho, we move on, but a bit of a surprise this performance given our recent form and the fact we had an extra recuperation day.

alongside Williamson as well! Who had more of a driver in his right boot than an iron .

Lejeune hasn't even played 1 full season worth of appearances for us so I'm not sure how you can say that He's been here going on two years, and has barely put a foot wrong. All I was saying is that the conversation would be different, if Colo had maintained a standard that was worthy of comparison. The fact he didn't and is still our goto comparison says it all, though. Tbf Lejeune was really shaky last season until Lascelles came back from injury He was. He took a while to get fully match fit imho. I was in the away end at Southampton last season and we'd been superb, played them off the park, and even after they nicked one back, it was his foul which let them get a very very lucky draw. If he was fully fit, he'd never have been caught like that. He's been superb for the most part and his distribution is out of the top drawer. Love it when he gets the old 7 iron out of his bag and sticks on at Yedlin's feet from 80 yards away.

Dummett can play left centre back too. It'd probably be his strongest position but his distribution would let him down when compared to Schar and Lejeune. They're long range passes are vital in this system and PD doesn't have them in his locker.

Out of interest, do you think it's always been Rafa's intention or long term plan to play this 3CB system or do you think he's just working with what he's got and he's stumbled upon it? Well, not stumbled upon as the bloke probaby prepares his breakfast menu eight months in advance, but you know he's tested it and it's worked rather than it's always been the masterplan. Does that make any sense or am I just babbling utter shite to myself? FWIW, his signings would indicate that he'd maybe had it planned all along imho but then why wait to now? He brought it in when we lost Diame/Shelvey/Ki, right?

If Benitez stays I would like us to try and sign N'Soki again in the summer. Genuinely didn't read this before I started my reply to Haydn saying the same thing .

One of your posts after we drew at Southampton in October and everything about the club was miserable as fuck: Correct, and we actually won the 3 games following that draw at Southampton. We've got the bold and one of those 4 signings in Almiron, as I agree that 3 more good signings that Rafa is allowed to spend decent/good money on and we'd be revolutionised. But as we all know, the fat leopard never changes his spots, though Rafa's mood seems to have changed tenfold. It's unrecognisable to when he was saying we'd need to be hoping that there was going to be 3 teams worse than us (no word of a lie, he actually said that earlier in the season). Plus we never thought we'd pay the money for Almiron or pay the money for anyone for that matter. But still, that fat lying bastard lingers like a bad smell. Not gonna lie, I thought as was about to get rinsed there when I saw it was one of my old posts :lol: . I've got a long held view that our full backs have been a big part of the problem for us under Rafa. They're not awful individually per say but when you only play one up top, you've got to service him well, and they barely ever contribute to direct assists. I'd happily keep them as squad players but two top end, or even top emerging talent like that N'Soki kid from PSG, would be a massive step and I think it'll be the next thing Rafa concentrates on if he stays. I have to say, this new system is so impressive. We just look so comfortable, there's always an option when we're in possession, we've got loads of time on the ball and we're randomly more solid defensively but creating more offensively. He's some guy Rafa.

Imagine if he could add a couple of proper wing backs to this system? Jesus, we'd look a revelation from the promotion team. What a guy he is. Total genius.

I love the air of upredictability he brings. Probably the first player in one of teams under Rafa where he gives us that 'unknown' factor. Absolutely love him.

He's a tremendous ambassador for the club.

Yeah - he's started ahead of Walcott a few times over Xmas/Jan I believe. I think he'll end up playing more central personally, not on the wing.

Silva seems to have brought him into the fold much more over the last few months and he's starting to look like a key squad member. He'd be a very interesting shout if available though.....

I'd 100% prefer Staveley over Kenyon.