timeEd32

I couldn't be more relaxed about all of this. Rafa has improved my summer immeasurably.

Sometimes, but he has an uncanny ability to swat things out of the air. Must have done it over 3000 times now.

She comes at you with Alan, you know what to do. I already got her to agree if we ever own a horse (which she wants but will almost certainly never happen) that it will be named Sir Alan Shearer. We have a cat named Derek Sanderson Jeter. The human names have less leeway.

thanks all. I tried Rafael too. I'm going to try trading boy naming rights for girl naming rights and roll the dice, but I'm pretty sure there's only going to be one winner in this game.

Just found out my wife is pregnant. What a day. First attempt at convincing her to name a boy Rafa did not land well.

He meant that he's not being told to sell them. Yeah, that doesn't mean players won't want out. He might want to keep Sissoko but I'm pretty sure he's not sticking around. But Ashley/Charnley will not be telling him Sissoko has to be sold to fund anything.

I think this is a turning point in his ownership of the club. Either he will actually stay out of the way, give a top class manager the resources to succeed, and the first nine dreadful years are viewed in hindsight as a learning experience (an extremely prolonged period of torture for most of us). OR he screws over Rafa at some point in the next few years and it's so obvious to all given the parameters that have been set that it creates real anti-Ashley momentum. Either way ... :frantic:

We have a manager who knows what this club is capable of and who has the expertise to make it a reality. What a glorious day. Please don't be a false dawn.

The list is less than 20. Might be less than 10. It's a staggering appointment.

I feel like they might quickly realize that relinquishing control and spending more money on a manager buys an incredible amount of peace of mind and security. If they give him what he wants and step aside Ashley may actually win something and he likely won't have the fans causing any level of grief. Meanwhile, Charnley will have the easiest job in the world and be paid handsomely for it. In fact, they probably already realized that in the last 6 games. Giving Rafa what he wants is a ticket to relative anonymity, which I think they will both be happy with.

Pretty obvious he's staying at this point, which is fucking amazing.

Who is the bit in bold referring to?

He went 6 unbeaten with us after only a month of preparation. A team that looked utterly hopeless for a year.

:lol:Drives me crazy.

Hope he stays. Would be an important player for us next season.

Missed all this today. Can't believe it. If confirmed I don't think anyone has ever been relegated under better circumstances.

Analyzing body language I think most of the team dislikes Gini.

Ridiculous statement.

Damn, that could have been catastrophic.

Nah, he will score 15+ goals next season.

Had no idea the Adidas deal was worth so much. £75m a season, man. How much do Puma pay NUFC per season? I think it's less than 10% of that.

Really good.

I'm at an 8 now.

Someone as successful as him wouldn't even consider that as a possibility.

Meh, Villa were still terrible. We were poor and still should have won. One goal would have made things toxic, but we're too fucking impotent for that.