afar

That same ridiculed SackPardew that resulted in Pardew leaving and us ending up with Benitez further down the line. We're not deluded for wanting our club to at least compete with Brighton, Bournemouth, Swansea etc. I couldn't give a s*** what the press have to say in that regard and nor should any fan. Not sure how much role the campaign played in that, he must have known he was hugely unpopular long before the flyers started showing up and remember he was give free reign at his former club. Of course we are not deluded, that's not the national narrative though, and that's the level we have to work out to force change with Ashley.

Walk outs won't work, posters and banners won't work, relegations we've seen don't work, the only hope we have is that someone else comes in with big enough pockets to buy the club off him, that means we have to look like something worth investing in. I applaud these guys for doing what they are doing but it will be ridiculed by the national press and other fans who will see it as another Pardewout type campaign, deluded Geordies etc etc. Look at poor Arsenal fans who've gone over a decade since winning the league, and have only league and FA cups to point to in recent years, that's where the national sympathy will go not to us. I honestly don't see any realistic solutions to all this.

Exactly, i don't really get the argument they are the same as ashley Wasn't Bilic whining the other day that he had no sympathy for Rafa because West Ham's Net spend was less than ours, and just look at that team that turned up at SJP, James fucking Collins at CB, that's tragic. Not sure they've backed Bilic at all this summer although unlike Rafa that's probably a wise move.

Yep. 6 in 17 out, I know we had a bloated squad but hell that's a lot. We still have a lot of players tbf, what the f*** are you going to do with the likes Haidara and Colback. Our back up LBs right now !!!

Absolutely true, there will be a bunch of stories come out about how "furious" he is, without any direct quotes. Gotta take it all with a pinch of salt and just wait for the man to actually speak, he won't be happy, but I'm not gonna believe a word in the papers until it's backed up with words from Rafa. IT's all click bait right now.

Yep. 6 in 17 out, I know we had a bloated squad but hell that's a lot.

Not convinced West Ham will be a good move for him tbh, those owners are wacky and they have a terribly inbalanced squad he would have to work with for at least 6 month. He may sit tight here and wait out for a proper job to come open.

I will maintain this all season, he's our best keeper, I love Rafa but don't understand how he thinks Elliot is a better option. Need to see what we have in woodman now.

someone updated it to say we bought him for 3.5million, gone now, obviously a prank.

WTF is this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryan_Babel

Not true, West Ham are in a much worse state than us on the evidence of Saturday and haven't done a lot since then to improve. Crystal Palace look truly awful and haven't improved, I'm not at all convinced about Brighton's signings and they are struggling to even score in the PL, Bournemouth look a bit of a mess also, while Watford, Burnely and Huddersfield have all splashed some cash, I'm far from convinced they have quality in their squads that will keep them out of our reach. That's all no excuse for our inactivity but we have to remember the quality of opposition at the bottom of the PL is not stellar. IF Rafa walks out, which is probably the most likely scenario now, then we are in deep shit that's for sure, especially if Ashley reverts back to his JFK/Pardew/Carver/McClaren type appointments.

That's derisory for a player with his goal ratio to games played last season, yet they wanted 20 million for Cairney !

No, not until both Krul and Lazaar have left, then we are done !

Formation change you say? New manager in then? I can't see him not bringing Shelvey back straight away, so that will mean dropping one of Hayden or Merino, which would be a little silly. Really Perez, despite playing a little better on Saturday should not be getting a game ahead of one of these three. I can see Rafa, playing Shelvey in a slightly deeper 10 role though.

Gonna be another tough game on the road, they will be bouyed by a great end of the window as well as beating Palace away from home last match. We've decided to drain away any confidence we had from the West Ham game with a terrible last week of the window. If we want to pick something up from this game, I think we need to move away from his standard formation and play a more flat 3 in midfield, Shelvey replacing Perez.

Despite this horrific window, I'm still at a 6, too early to go too much higher than that. West Ham were truly awful on Saturday and if that's the standard of teams around us, then even with this squad we should be fine with Rafa in charge. The big concern of course will come if Rafa leaves, the next few days are going to be nervous and pivotal in our PL fate. If he doen't walk in the next few days he'll be here until at least January.

Makes you wonder why so many people want to buy unprofitable football club if it's so hard to make money from them with sponsorship deals, TV money and the rest. On the point about sponsorship, wonder why last year we didn't try to find a back of shirt and arse sponsor and this year we appear to not be seeking a sleeve sponsor, you would think even Ashley himself would want Sports Direct on the kit if he can't find someone to pay for the space ?

15 players have left the club this off season (although one has already come back from Loan). The problem from a financial point of view is that they are mostly free transfers and loans, depending on which source you believe we have probably pulled in less than 20 million in total and spent around double that, in Ashley mixed up world that's significant expenditure.

The one thing about January and this window that Rafa has surely learned is that he can't rely on the ownership to get signings over the line, so he'll surely not approve any sale without the replacement not only agreed but actually signed up.

He's in the last year of his contract, and won't resign, he'll go for a lot less than his worth compared to the current market. 50 million is a fair chunk, they'll probably settle somewhere between 60 and 70, add that to the 40 million for Ox and they are loaded.

Absolutely, a point a lot of folks are missing, Ashley has been very clear in his message that Rafa approves all incoming and outgoing transfers. Here's his direct quote from the interview he gave" let's be crystal clear, Rafa makes all the final decisions on players out, players in, " http://www.skysports.com/football/news/11678/10986341/mike-ashley-speaks-direct-newcastle-united-owners-exclusive-interview-with-sky-sports-in-full If Ashley sells someone without Rafa's permission then Rafa would have a pretty watertight case for constructive dismissal, that would cost Ashley a bundle. If this does happen, it's because Rafa wants it to, not in this case because our owner is a greedy b****** (which of course he is).

If it is Wolves who are interested, then this may be the reason why, just sold a striker who's already bagged 2 this season: http://www.bbc.com/sport/football/41082360

He's clearly not been the same player since his injury last season, despite his wonderful record you can't keep players around that have a saleable value but are simply not contributing. Gayle has hardly contributed since January, some 8 months ago. The big question is if we sold him would we replace him? And the obvious answer is, no.

Right now we have 29 players that would need registering for the 25 man PL squad, that number includes the following that probably should be shifted too to get the number down: Hanley Colback Diame Saivet Haidara Darlow Sterry (should he really be taking one of the precious slots ?) Krul Lazaar Good The bottom three are likely to not be registered, with Hanley on the verge of leaving that brings the number to exactly 25. We still probably need to get rid of more if we want to bring in an over 21 year old. Registering Krul though would be sensible as it would free Woodman up to go out on loan, which is desperately needs. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newcastle_United_F.C.

Ox moving to Chelsea will free up Kenedy to move, most probably. http://www.bbc.com/sport/football/41077833