ExiledGeordie

He could do the absolute bare minimum to keep Rafa. Give him a 70-80m plus player sales (we spent fuck all this season plus to deal) budget and let him get on with it. Then the club would tick along nicely and there'd be the potential for a takeover season after next if Ashley is sticking around for a bit. What will probably happen is he'll do his level best to completely fuck things up forcing Rafa it have no choice but to leave and then we'll end up with some bog standard manager and battle against relegation or likely go down.

If he's backed with even a mediocre budget in comparison to what he's had recently we'll become a really good side under him. God knows what he could do with a proper budget or more.

They're surely fucked. Both Birmingham and Bolton are 6 points clear and Birmingham and Barnsley have a game in hand.

Completely agree, I thought he'd be the difference, literally

Devastating equaliser that

I guess Benitez will be key in all this. If he stays his status and ability to convince Kenedy that it's better for him to stay and get regular 1st team action will be crucial. Kenedy is exactly the type of player who would probably stay and play for Rafa whereas if it all goes tits up and we get another patsy in no chance it'll happen.

I don't really mind Southampton but their "model" seems to have gone badly wrong. I suppose you can only go so far when you keep selling your best players season in season out. The manager changed knackered them and clearly most of the players gave up any fight they had. As far as Stoke, be great to see them go down, can't stand them.

I think Huddersfield will just about hang on. Unless there's a major change at Southampton they're as good as gone. Palace for all their spirit and players are still right down there. They should be ok but as someone earlier has mentioned in this thread, losing Zahar could be the difference.

Premier league status is pretty much guaranteed, tv rights have been sorted, if the club is going to be sold everything surely is in place. The worry is obviously more of the same nonsense from Ashley and/or Staveley not being genuine enough. It's a crucial summer though, no which way about it. The potential is massive, the club is poised to really push on, we're just so used to the same complete nonsense over summers. Rafa pushing the club on with a proper transfer budget versus Ashley orchestrating a complete collapse.

What this bloke could do for our team with even moderate transfer funds. Hope to god he stays this summer

Think Gayle will be off, if Mitrovic keeps this form up he will stay unless a £20m+ offer comes in It'll be an interesting umber either way. I just can't see Mitrovic fitting in with how Benitez wants to play, he simply doesn't work hard enough. I've never been fussed about the lad at all and think he's all piss and wind but things can change obviously so we'll see.

Great that these two have been completely exposed for the jokers they are. Carver starting on fans again, couldn't make it up ?? I see Ian Wright now saying Pardew would struggle to get another job "who would employ him?". Fuck me wasn't long ago he was slating nufc fans for calling it as it was that Pardew was shite

Assuming Benitez stays we'll bring in one probably two new strikers and Gayle may stay too. Mitrovic is a non-issue for me. It's more just a question of how much we'll get for him in the summer.

Huddersfield have Brighton away after us and have Arsenal and City as their final two matches. After yesterday’s loss the pressure will really be on them and that should play into our hands in a couple of weeks.

Albeit with a three week game between the next two home games we can go a long way to securing survival. Southampton is critical, win that and I think the momentum will carry us through. I think we have the work ethic and resilience to stay up now like. Actually getting Slimani on then pitch for a few games would do us all a favour too.

Agreed, awful

Be great if he could make the bench for Southampton match

It is when you're in a relegation dogfight 2-0 up away from home with ten minutes to go looking comfortable - then the substitutions. Madness. It's about control. Most of these players don't have the intelligence to play for fouls and waste time when it counts. As a result Rafa over compensates by bringing on defensive players. I personally would have left Gayle on for his pace, and used Merino rather than Hayden if we were going to bulk the midfield out. But I can see why he's done it, the team are naive and lack confidence to see a game out. Excellent point this. We lack the intelligence and nerve to finish off games like this and this is compounded when our more "experienced" players like Shelvey are letting players run into the box in the final 10 minutes. These lads are good lads and work really hard but they have a terrible habit of not killin games off and switching off defensively. We've shipped far too many points in the final minutes

He doesn't score nearly enough goals either

Standing with his hands in his knees in the closing stage rather than making any attempt to pick up runners into the box on both occasions for the goals. That's not good enough and no amount of crisp long passes make up for that. At least he's finding some form in the run though

Plus a fit Slimani with a bit of luck. This is the key point, will be a massive lift for the players if he plays

I'm hoping Kennedy and Slimani provide more of an edge at home in this final run in. Having a proper forward up front and a proper left winger should make all the difference.

Could go 12th or something like that with a win

He shouldn’t have been bought in the first place if you buy s*** you get s*** and the fact he has played so much is f***ing criminal. Mitrovic is not brilliant by any means but he is and always will be f***ing a better option than this f***ing clown Blame Ashley for that

This window is shaping up to the mother of all fuck ups considering our situation. There's been some colossal cock ups and shafting of managers under Ashley but my god this window............