Mattoon

Mourinho wanted to remind everyone that no one is bigger then Mourinho

Maybe we should lock Ashley in a room with Ritson for a few minutes and see what happens

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-6199249/As-Ashley-finally-watches-Newcastle-next.html Even the daily brexit are having digs now!

Ryan Taylor just signed for Fleetwood Town, pity it wasn't before the mackems game

No worries, didn't see it so I was a bit blagged. Nowhere near a Pards performance, he wouldn't have had us organised as well as that, we'd have let our hair down after a tough start and got mullered 4-0. Anyone comparing Rafa to Pardew deserves shot with shit.

Where's this aimed?

I disagree, having a patsy in charge would no doubt raise the anger in the stands and cause more vitriol, however it would be for the wrong reasons and detract from the real issue. We saw it with Pardew, everyone turned on the slimy lickspit and quite rightly but it was a distraction from Ashley. The consensus then was Pardew first, then Ashley, Pardew played his part perfectly keeping the heat off Ashley whilst numbing a fan base and destroying hope. This way, with a manager such as Rafa in charge, it makes the media listen. Why are the supporters up in arms when they have a manager of such esteem? Why is a manager of Rafa's stature being treated this way? It's not as hostile and vocal in the stands, no, but there's plenty more going on outside the stadium and people are waking up from a hopeless coma. Just because no one is screaming at everyone at the club, it doesn't mean things aren't changing.

Either you are blind or the people you associate with are all thick as fuck. All over Facebook all I'm reading on newcastle pages is people digging at Rafa whilst there's barely any anti Ashley stuff Unbelievable man Facebook... that says it all, don't go on Facebook for a balanced fans view on football ffs

Any sight of fatty haystacks yet?

I mean this just isn’t true. It’s overdue but not absent. It is overdue but like I said before more action is being taken now than ever before, bar when Keegan left and we're seeing a change in attitudes from fans and media alike. It's just the waiting game now which is the frustrating part. Rafa is playing part of the game but he's no patsy. We need to keep the pressure on Ashley, any focus moved on to Rafa or anyone else for that matter is only detracting from the ultimate goal.

Clearly he's using the current mood to put further pressure on Ashley AND his cronies. He's not stupid, he knows all too well what happens in January he just wants everyone to know that he is in no way complicit and has laid his plans out in full detail again, it's called diplomacy but seems to be wasted on Tubes. He has integrity, he has respect for the fans and his players, whom he bought, why would he abandon them? It's not in his nature to reneg on his promises or to fuck over a whole fan base, city and his players just to make a point to the few that are trying to destroy a club he has grown to love. If he stays beyond the end of the season it'll be because he wants what's best for us and is hoping that someone will buy Ashley out and give him some tools to progress. As for your point about him stopping any kind of ill feeling towards Ashley, you're very much mistaken, the biggest challenge to Ashley's tenure has come under our most stability, Rafa has given us all hope again, Rafa has shown us that we can compete, we can hope for more than survival, Ashley spent years extinguishing that hope with the help of Pardew, Carver et al. They got rinsed for being implicit because they were, they told us we couldn't compete, they told us we were a little club now, not a sovereign state. Rafa tells us we can compete, we have got the ability to aim higher and we can beat anyone on our day. Saying Rafa is like any of those is a fucking insult, give your head a shake!

I managed to talk a friend into spending twice as much for an umbrella when it was lashing it down the other day to avoid SD, every little helps!

Who is HF? I'm assuming Happy Face Anyone got a link to it? Yes, sorry, I did mean Happy Face. Check out @bigchrisholt’s Tweet: https://twitter.com/bigchrisholt/status/1042318975772835840?s=09

Could be 18 months before we find out though possibly? If he did it after June 30th then it won’t show in the next set of accounts due in March(ish) 2019. We’ll have to wait until the following set in 2020. Is that right? Yes it'll be 2020 if it was outside last year's accounts which it probably will be. If it is true then hopefully he won't be here when those land and no one will give a shit.

I see HF has been on Twitter theorising that Ashley has dropped the price because he's trousered the excess cash from the summer to take back most of the debt. At the very least it will rile up the masses.

Lovely but a little bit insensitive, well in a few years. Oh damn!

Oh joy

I'll eat him for free. You're gonna need a couple of dozen mates or a few weeks to commit to that

For me it's pretty simple really, we can all agree that the main culprit is Ashley, no that doesn't mean we can't question some of Rafa's choices but this is Rafa, he knows more about the game than the members of this forum put together and that earns him the right to make mistakes. If this was Alardyce or Pardew then have at you but it's not and if Rafa doesn't think a player is ready to join the first team, unlike Pardew, he won't play them. Our best 11 won't be fielded until he thinks they're ready to be fielded and when he thinks it's best to field them. Just like he did last season and the season before he'll spend the first 10 games mixing up the first team and easing players in, the main reason we don't suffer from injury set backs and why we're still relatively fresh in the vinegar strokes of the season. There's a lot of factors damaging our form at the moment but I'd say 1% or maybe less of that is down to Rafa and only Rafa, come Christmas he'll have had time to get his best 11 together and singing from the same hymn sheet and we'll have enough results in the bag to not be flirting with relegation. Whatever happens and when we do start to move free and gain some momentum my only hope is that the protests against Ashley only intensify otherwise we look fickle and Ashley will go back into hiding safe for another season.

It's also important to remember Rafa is all about rotation at the beginning of the season, under him we've pretty much always started slow (admittedly much slower this season) and kicked on as the season has gone on, also finishing relatively strongly. At a time where most teams are getting injuries and fatigue, the way Rafa mixes it up leaves us stronger towards the end of the season and keeps our injury list relatively low at all times. When he thinks we're ready we'll see his best 11 week in, week out but it's never at the start of the season.

This. Alienating customers and suppliers before he's even properly got his chair under the desk. This isn't SD where you sell last year's fashions to the desperate and skint who can't afford to go elsewhere for their chav clothes. I can understand playing hardball with the supply chains and the landlords to try and cut costs but if you bite the hand that feeds you then where's the money coming from?? Consumer trust is priceless.

Probably. Somebody like Guardiola can afford to make little mistakes, but Rafa has absolutely no room for error anyway. This is exactly what I said in the match thread. Rafa is not infallible, he will absolutely make mistakes, he's human. The major problem is that he's working with such fine margins that the smallest mistake is make or break with this squad, one wrong sub, wrong starting player, slightly wrong tactic or minutes late on a sub will put us in a no win situation. However if he was fully backed like any other manager in this league then those slight mistakes would still see him win because he's superior to most other managers. He's trying to sculpt the next Venus de Milo with a sledge hammer and a toothpick.

Now, fucking now ???? Not yet, January is the real test iyam #wait

Rafa will get it wrong from time to time, it's inevitable, he's not infallible. However there is only one person to blame, if there was investment in the team then he wouldn't be working within such fine margins. Better teams can afford to make small mistakes and still win, one wrong sub, tactic, starting player or a sub made a few minutes too late for us will likely cost us the game. It's ok to be annoyed at the incorrect decisions being made but make no mistake if it wasn't for Ashley those mistakes wouldn't be costly. Be annoyed at the players/tactics but direct all your blame and ire at Ashley.

NUFC is no cash cow, mind. Milk it slightly too much and most of the udders fall off. The club has made a chunky surplus over the last 12-24 months, but everyone knows that to ensure the PL cash keeps coming that money needs to be used on improving the squad and the facilities. The cash cow is the revenue streams that he siphons off, advertising and merchandise to name but 2, all go direct to his true love.