Conjo

If the £22m fee is correct, that's pretty heart breaking in terms of any hope that Rafa might sign on for further torture. Edit: Fair enough if the player preferred Gladbach. If he doesn't want to come here, I don't want him either. Move on.

Ya. Good to know that no matter what, he's history in 10 months no matter how much he tries to wriggle and squirm.

Is this the last year/season of his contract?

Secluded himself in his parents basement worshipping a doll of Jermaine Beckford.

If Mo maintains the form he had second half of the season and its the new "standard" we will get from him, we have another two seaons or so until age will start catching up to him. That is enough time to find a replacement for him. Too long for Merino to sit and wait for a break through. That is a big if imo, as I am still not confident that what we saw from Mo end of last season is what we will get from him consistently from now on, but if it is, we are doing the right thing bringing in Ki to fight for a place without getting unhappy about playing time while we will have time to find the best possible replacement and focus on more important positions this summer.

Good fucking luck!!!

Willian is 29? The fuck?? I was thinking 25-26. So weird how some players age really slow and others really fast in my head lately.

It's a decent price for Townsend IMO, could be an England player again under Rafa. He means Matt Ritchie. Townsend is only 26. the fuck I thought Townsend was a "late bloomer" and expected him to be around 29 now. All of a sudden im way more positive to him coming back even though it was a really stupid decision of him to stay in the PL when we went down.

Merino out for ~£10m, Ki in for 0. Guess who wins again.

Under "normal" circumstances I would say yes. He's at the age now where his value will only go down, although hard working and a good shot he is a very limited player and should be replaced with someone better to move the club forward. Reality though is that we are still owned by Mike Ashley.

This. The guy left Dortmund for us in order to get first team football. Why would he want to stay here if he doesn't get to play regularly? Im assuming the release clause is so he has a way out in the event that what happened at Dortmund happens at Newcastle so he can find someone that actually wants to play him.

Same. Honestly think he is our most talented player in the squad, with the most potential. Madness to let him go, and he probably wants to as well due to lack of playing time after the freak emergence of Beast Diame. With our luck he'll be sold for buttons and Diame will revert to his old self next season.

I may be mixing up transfer fees here, but didn't we pay ~£12.5m (loan and transfer fee) for him? Why would we accept a release clause lower than what we paid?

From Wiki:

And that’s why we have this impasse: Rafa won’t sign without action (not promises, because these have been broken), and Ashley won’t buy players first without Rafa tied to a contract. Neither have any reason to back down, and both are pig-headed enough not to give ground. So no signings is a real possibility. I’m convinced Rafa could make a silk purse from a sow’s ear again - but only with a #9 and a #11, because if Gayle and Atsu are starting in August, we’re screwed and Rafa might not even see his contract out... I think its wrong of Rafa if he won't sign without action as I would assume that we will struggle to sign any decent player unless Rafa has confirmed that he will stay on. The solution would be as I wrote that his contract has a clearly outlined investment plan so that Benitez can walk with compensation for breach of contract if Ashley has not fulfilled his end of the agreement. That should give Rafa the security he needs, while Ashley has his assurances and should be able to attract the players we need. If Ashley is not prepared to make those commitments contractually then that is just another indication for Rafa to gtfo while his stock is high as Ashley is clearly just fucking around with him.

Unless the contract proposal includes a clearly outlined investment plan that Benitez is happy with and can point to as breach of contract if/when the promises aren't met, he shouldn't sign anything.

Not if he has the opportunity to play with an enlarged mirrored version of Kante.

Bite their hand off!!

To my knowledge - Slimani is the first player we've signed (loaned) under Ashley that has been on more than 30k at his club. I don't think we even look at players who are on more than that, regardless of their price/age etc.. With the astronomical increase in wages, we can pretty much forget about any popular names or players already established in England. 30k? Must be a quite a few, surely? Kenedy, Shelvey, Clark, Ritchie, Atsu. Some of those must have been on 30k at their former clubs? And they're names just off the top of my head. We had higher wages than some PL clubs when we were in the championship man, no way that is true

Yeah. Keep all the key players, another loan for Kennedy and spunk our "war chest" on a striker (better than fucking King) and I would be happy going into the new season.

That is absolutely not true. Before his injury at least he was the one who put in the most effort in the whole team. Don't think there was a game where he wasn't topping the distance covered and he rightly got praise for his stamina and always making himself available, even towards the end of a match. One thing is how we are set up now at the moment, so agree with you and hoping Rafa also has a plan for how we play when we get better players and aim to get up the league. Merino imo is a crucial part of that.

Really hope we get a better striker than King. Might as well stick with Gayle in that case and focus on strengthening other areas.

Personally I would have liked him to have more time on the pitch second half of the season but understand why it was hard for Rafa to give him that considering how good Shelvey and Diame were. Still think he should have gotten way more time after we secured our spot in the PL. He oozes class and is the future of our midfield. 1 or 2 failures to track back that resulted in goals isn't good enough reason for me to assume he doesn't have what it takes. Got no clue how some people doubt his ability. Probably our most technically skilled player, good engine, smart, good passer. Hope Rafa figures out how to include him and Shelvey in the same starting line up so it's not either or.

Are loyalty bonuses still a thing? Imagine they are due some pretty hefty sums for their loyal and devoted service throughout their contract duration.