duo

Please let us not throw away £15mil on Phil Jones

His job is not getting the team to play the way he wants but getting the team to play in a way that suits the players. That's where Rafa was king - he nailed it.

Becomes a 5 for me if Rafa came back as in Rafa I trust. It is a 10 for Howe sadly.

It is never going to happen unless PIF suddenly pull rank as Amanda would have to admit she got the appointment wrong.

What direction is that? We've been awful all season and show no signs of turning the tide.

His job atm the minute is not to get us into Europe, or win things it is to keep us up. Granted he inherited a mess but he knew the brief when he came in so it's only right he's judged on it.

Yep - respect to them for that.

Can't believe people are writing him off - he was just the right man at the wrong club. It happens.

Bowen man

Just a shame about the result ?

One thing is for sure he's proven he can get more out of this squad. I think we'd see the manager bounce that we didn't see with Howe as the squad really respect Rafa.

To be fair to him - at the time he joined Everton the takeover looked unlikely. Not many thought it'd happen anytime soon - if at all. It came out the blue.

He basically didn't have a striker for most the season - every club would suffer if that happened.

As harsh as it sounds if I was the owner I wouldn't wait - I'd make the decision now. Rafa is the kind of man that can plan for both eventualities - he also knows the players well so I wouldn't be surprised if he already had a list in mind where we needed to improve and a list of targets.

Good shout

Yep - Rafa is just in a different league.

I don't think it's this at all - I just think he joined a club that a.) didn't really want him b.) had already squandered £500Mil on players which meant Rafa had zero budget to work with. The sad thing is he'd have ben tailor made for Newcastle as the current squad is mostly his players.

I always feel his shots are hit and hope rather than placed

Yesterday was huge. Season defining.

My main concern with us going into the Championship is PIF loosing interest and buying another club albeit in another league to show case. Newcastle in the Championship doesn't quite fit that bill. Who knows how long it'd even take to get promotion.

Just get it done now

Couldn't knock his effort yesterday there was just very little end product sadly.

I don't think anyone is blaming EH or the consortium. I think everyone agrees under MA we were down. The new owners gave us a chance to stay up, but due to the damage MA had done to the club it was a minimal at best. I think what is in question was whether EH was the right man to take on that burden of keeping us up. And I don't think it means people aren't behind EH, I think everyone hopes he does well. Personally I will never blame EH if we do gp down, those weeds were sown long before he came.

granted we had a striker for the watford game but did he actually strike?

Trippier wanted to come back to uk and no other club in the uk came in for him. we go lucky.