afar

Hopefully our crapness most of the season, especially at the back, have helped masked this guy's ability, if PL teams did their research he should be one of the first poached, when you consider his supposed age he can only get better.

11 goals this season, I know he disappeared for a large chuck of the season but if some others had put in that many goals with the half efforts they put in, then we probably would have been fine. I think the frustration with him was the fact we knew he could play better (especially away from home) than we were seeing, some others however simply didn't have that level of ability.

4m for any of the last three is wildly optimistic, unless some nutcase Chinese team come along without doing any research. Also De Jong's market value must be a set of strips and a dozen size five footballs right now.

Come on man it's You're !!!

I kind of agree it wasn't deliberate but extremely clumsy and showed a lack of awareness of what could happen in that situation, he clearly doesn't realise that walker's leg is where it is. The talent is there fo sure, as I said under the right guidance could be a star, keep Rafa, keep him imo.

Far as I am concerned, really proud of the fans at the game today, tremendous support throughout for a team that has falling so short of what it was capable of. I get the "why support a group of players that haven't given a shit all season" line, I really do, not going to argue with anyone who takes that stance. But I do think they've given us a great chance of Rafa staying with their support, along with our better players who we want to keep, Townsend, a motivated Sissoko, the Gini today that didn't hide and the star of the future in Aarons. If Rafa decides against it, then if nothing else it's sent a message out to other potential managers that if you are good enough you could have a great job here with an appreciative fan base.

It was definately a from the sublime to the ridiculous kind of performance from himtoday, superb in that first half, but the sending off is what the scouting reports all warned about this guy. Under a manager like Rafa though, I think he could me immense for us next season, under someone the likes of McClaren, Carver, Pardew et al, he's just a a liability.

This to me is more enlightening than Caulkin's utterings, offers a little more insight into things that we may not have known about from the much maligned local rag: http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/inside-story-newcastle-uniteds-dismal-11330852 But since it's the Ronny Gill and not George then it's not worth reading.

Why would we agree to an £8m release clause after paying £12m for him a few months earlier? I'd take that with a pinch of salt. Relegation release clause surely? I tend to agree with Tron there, it's crazy to do business that way, if there is a clause it will be for what we paid for him, you would have to be out of your tiny mind and hopelessly bad at your job to agree to that....oh hang on a minute

Any more ludicrous than Rafa staying with a Sky Bet league team ?

If you are talking about Caulkin I agree he is kind of untouchable for some reason. Seems like he makes one or two points then drills it home over and over in his pieces, he's got great command of the English language and that makes him sound very intelligent and in touch with us but really he's not saying anything that hasn't been uttered many times by most people on this board, just in a more eloquent way and to a much wider audience of course. I think he does his research well, and his obvious love for the Mackems is a bit galling tbh, may have once been a geordie but he's clearly turned or at least he desperately seems to want to show that.

Everton is the obvious linkof course but they could be tempted to look at the guy who's just been dumped by Watford for no apparent reason. I've just got a feeling that's how that one plays out, wouldn't surprise me at all if a club of the stature of Watford (not necessarily them but a PL club not at Everton's level) make a big play to land Rafa. he could be tempted as it would be a much safer bet than us.

I really don't have a problem with them milking this situation for all it's worth, just doesn't really concern me in the slightest because they are such an irrelevance their opinion of us matters very very little to me. Enjoy it Mackems, have your day in the sun, you still live in a shithole, have the most retarded fanbase in football and are just a completely pointless club. That'll not change because we went down and you reached the giddy heights of 17th, there will still be more column inches dedicated to our club than yours next season, still more reason for that chip on your shoulder to grow further, congrats to you.

They've certainly won this battle and sent us down, they have every right to laud it up, which I'm sure they will kick it in to overdrive after the expect result comes through tomorrow. Enjoy this remarkable achievement of a 17th place finish yet again Mackems, enjoy the quality of football that awaits during your Fat Sam era. Enjoy doing what you do best and just existing and being an irrelevance that other fans cheer on to inflict pain on teams who matter a little more than your sorry club. I'll not miss the derbies one bit but hopefully we'll see them again in 2017/18 if we bounce back at the first time of asking.

If Martinez's role wasn't so insecure, I would like to think there was a small chance Rafa would stay, but I think Martinez will be sacked on Monday and Rafa appointed pretty fast after that, it's the perfect fit for him, the only solace I hang on to is the thought that he wouldn't want to harm his relationship with the red half of that city but plenty have represented both Merseyside clubs in the past, including our very own u21's coach.

Should get the freedom of Sunderland, this bloke, complete wanker.

This was taken from NUFC.com's match report, and it is spot on, vital that this happens, either way we need to plan for next season: "If nothing else, the Rafa situation needs resolving quickly so that the reconstruction can begin - the consequences of inaction this season are clear. "

Although I do agree the "it's such a hard league to get out of" line that is propagated is complete bullshit, what concerns me is that we are going to need a lot of holes plugged and a manager capable of not doing a McClaren and getting the best out of our squad. Remember Sheff Wed reserves beat us at home this season ! It's going to be a lot harder than last time, especially as Villa will be there with us, along with past masters at the yo yo like Norwich, Derby, QPR etc. I think Villa will rise from the ashes be bought out by a good company and walk the league, we'll be fighting it out for the other spot but probably end up in the playoffs. All depends on the manager though for me, it has not got to be the likes of McClaren, Pardew, Charver (I really could see them going back there hoping that what happened to Hughton will happen again with the kit man, they are that stupid)

I was reading some match report from the Chronicle Mackem writer after the Stoke game and he had stated that they got a bit of luck with the late penalty which was small payback for the lack of any throughout the year, lol did he not watch the derby game that their place or the fact that they are playing a bunch of teams at the end of the year with nothing to play for and other things on their minds ? Seriously never seen a team that gets the breaks as much as they do.

I think we'll struggle to replicate anything we did last time. I don't think we'll bounce back up immediately, could be a few years before we are back.

I'll take boring and wank, if we see even a tenth of the success he's had. The next appointment is so crucial for the club, we need to find someone who will get results, sees the bigger picture and gets the best out of the squad, since afa has been here, he's got the best out of a very poor squad, today's performance while not great was miles from some of the shit we put up with during this season under that fucking idiot they hired.

It took a little longer for his techniques to filter through to the players, and that big loss at Norwich is probably what in the end has sent us down, also the fact that this year very few teams were involved in the battle and one other, Sunderland are past masters of this, hired the perfect person to keep them in the division and got luck at the right time, that last minute pen against Stoke was a huge momentum shifter.

Yeah it's over, mathematically maybe not but in reality it is.

Wonder how much we'll make in sales, we've got some players that others will buy based on name alone and the right age, with all the money floating around for the PL clubs, we might not have too hard a time selling some of our crap. Is there really all that much we'll miss, Krul is always injured and replaceable tbh. Townsend's been great but there won't be a shortage of takers and we'll easily get our money back. We'll sell Gini based on his time at PSV and the first half of our season, and possibly make a profit. Mitro could be the biggest loss but that's all based on potential and thus far has done very little to make someone want to pay what we'll want for him. Are we really going to miss the likes of Sissoko, Perez and Janmaat, who might all get offers for. Thauvin and Cabella you can already write off as losses, who knows what they'll become or what they could have become under a proper manager like Rafa. When's all said and done, I wouldn't be surprised if Ashley recoups his lost TV money from sales and banks on the same immediate bounce bank with zero investment next year, they keep saying Villa have a big job ahead of them but ours could be even tougher.

Thanks for trying not your fault Rafa, wish you success whichever lucky team gets you to manage them next season.