Altamullan

apparently it is only common sense that you should though. Despite it serving no useful purpose;obviously. Wtf, knock yourself out Skel.

Tbf, we don't know how many attempts it took

More of a rotund, yet still charming, Michael Caine for me: "Pint of bitter...in a thin glass Toby Jug."

In the post-war era they've been out of the top Divison for five consecutive seasons on two occasions and for six consecutive seasons on two occasions. There was a brief run around in third tier in their somewhere. At the minute it looks like all the conditions could be in place for a reord breaking run. Btw, apparently only three league clubs have had three consecutive relegations (Wolves, Luton, Bristol City), unlikely but there's a winnable competition, actually wouldn't require much effort... just keep doing nothing. "3 in a row FTM!"

80-20 rule cropping-up regarding how relaxed fans are with transfer activity (lack of) to date. 20% of those polled are 80% relaxed or higher. 65 'sleeps' until the window closes, just saying... http://www.themag.co.uk/2017/06/asked-newcastle-fans-relaxed-transfer-activity-results-newcastle-united/

What's the point of that fugly castle thing tagged on to the stadium? Surely an architectural statement (barnacle?) that detracts, can't even imagine it looking better when finished.

Rich and Hughesy posted something earlier about Statsbomb, great site. Had a look at this http://statsbomb.com/2017/06/passing-percentages-are-mostly-useless-quantifying-passing-ability/ Gives a good explanation why pass completion rate is a nonsense number. Uses a more sophisticated analysis and mentions in passing that Cairney is one of the best passing midfielders in England. Splash the cash Ash!

It's going to be a long fucking Summer...

Murphy (back) in for £2.5m?? (No news, just wouldn't be surprised).

I'm Graeme Carr's campest son. Shame he's not been on loan at Barca, instead of around Madrid, as then you could have been his nou campest son! http://i.makeagif.com/media/10-21-2014/lhYaqO.gif

Looked at premierleague.com and transfermarket.co.uk. The prices listed vary on occasion, but the dates and total spend is interesting. So the promoted teams last year signed the following, in the Summer window. Burnley 7 players: 4 at total spend of £13m, two on 19th July, others 16th & 31st August. Plus 2 on loan, one free 30th June to 13 July. Hull 7 players: 4 at total spend of £11.5m, on 30 & 31 August; plus whatever they paid for Mannion on 1st July. Plus 2 on loan (July & August). Middlesbrough 12 players: supposedly paid for 8, 3 loans and a free, but transfermarket.com only shows four with fees, totalling £26.4m. All signings in July (9) or August (3). Could be a fair bit of patience still required if this season follows suit.

Bang on. That there are even rumours of discontent already is f***ing s***. That's all. It is s****. Takes the shine off the anticipation of a new season, the first in a long while which we could (justifiably, well, we'll see) be genuinely looking forward to. Point is, most clubs now, most clubs in the past, Rafa himself, don't do a lot of business in June. Facts. Would have been nice to, of course. There is the recent history at NUFC and the continued untrustworthy ownership, but it seems like the normal lack of activity seasoned with a dose of media s***-stirring--which some people choose to believe (because they can't know) comes indirectly from Rafa using the media to pressure the club--has led to many of us to also contribute to taking the shine-off. Rafa doesn't strike me as the kind of man, at this stage of his career, to take a passive-aggressive pop at the club through media outlets; he is well capable of having it out in person, behind closed doors. I'll be worried if we haven't got 3 or 4 good signings confirmed by mid-July (when there will still be 7 weeks or so of the window left). If I am late to the worry-fest, then so be it. At least I will have had a few more weeks of optimism.

Says 59 here: http://liverpoolfc.wikia.com/wiki/Rafael_Benitez/Transfers Media, mostly, will seek to sensationalise and create a story even/especially when there isn't anything to say. According to Carragher, who knows him well, Rafa isn't shy about speaking his mind when he does have something to say. Let's just discount everything from the media then in that case. You're probably disagreeing with the point I am making, not sure why you would want to do so, but if you add a couple of a caveats to your statement, it's not such a bad plan: take with a pinch of salt unsubstantiated picking over of old wounds, or anything else--he's coming, he might be, he wants to, blah de blah--especially when we're in the dead calm between seasons and there is nothing else really to write about.

Says 59 here: http://liverpoolfc.wikia.com/wiki/Rafael_Benitez/Transfers Media, mostly, will seek to sensationalise and create a story even/especially when there isn't anything to say. According to Carragher, who knows him well, Rafa isn't shy about speaking his mind when he does have something to say.

Alreet Giggsy Tell you what you what though, I really hope it isn't LC rather than RB doing the talking to players about a move. Huge own goal if so.

End of June can be a tough time. Over 50 days since we last played, 44 days until we kick-off again (for real), though only 17 until first friendly. The paddling under the water of the real transfer business (not the click-bait speculation of desperate to earn a living football journos) is hidden: lots to be anxious and frustrated about, not much in the way of excitement as yet. Trying to keep in mind that nowt has changed since end of season. We need players, we'll get them. How good? f***ing great I hope. 68 days of transfer window left to find out. Afterthought: in a way it adds to the angst that we have a relatively good start to the season (on paper). Would have been better to get some of the 'highly likely to not get anything' games out of the way before we have a chance to bed in our new signings and are at our strongest. Relative difficulty (guesstimate) of different stages of the season in below. http://www.newcastle-online.org/nufcforum/index.php/topic,98774.msg6403419.html#msg6403419

Good article by Carragher on Rafa from April (just found it). Apols for the length but only my phone is able to navigate the site, so didn't want to inflict link on others. Also of Rafa's 59 Liverpool signings, "only 4 arrived in May or June." Rafa Benitez will not change and he will never quit... conflict follows him but the Newcastle boss loves a fight! By Jamie Carragher for the Daily Mail 21:31 28 Apr 2017, updated 23:27 28 Apr 2017 He won't quit. He never quits. That is something Newcastle United fans should remember as another storm starts to blow around Rafa Benitez. It should have been a week of celebration on Tyneside, the club having secured an immediate return to the Premier League, but instead a group of supporters who have so often had to endure disappointment find themselves confused by the uncertainty that has followed. Benitez has indicated he will only stay on at St James' Park next season if he feels that Mike Ashley, Newcastle's owner, shares his vision for what is needed to be successful back in the top flight but he is confident that 'everything will be fine'. Watching the episode unfold brought some memories flooding back. Everything I've seen and read in the last few days had me thinking of many things, from our time together at Liverpool. He had three different sets of people to answer to at Anfield and fell out with them all. Rafa is an excellent manager and one of the biggest influences on my career — perhaps the biggest in terms of actually being on a pitch. I played my best football under him and many of the things he taught me I still bring in to practice, whether it is on these pages or with Sky. But he is, without doubt, the most political figure I've come across in football. I saw what is going on at Newcastle happen at Liverpool. It happened at Valencia, too, where he famously said he 'asked for a sofa and they gave me a table leg' during a row over transfers. This posturing has a purpose. Benitez wants the maximum amount of money he can get ahead of the transfer window in order to keep Newcastle competitive. If he doesn't get the funding that he feels is necessary and next season goes badly, he can turn around and say: 'I told you so.' He raised the prospect of leaving Liverpool many times, suggesting he could go to Real Madrid, Juventus, Bayern Munich and even England! He seems almost as popular in Newcastle as he was at Anfield. He aligns himself with the fans and they are hard people to walk out on. I'm sure the soundbites will continue and the sense of drama will heighten but this is part of the Benitez package. People talk about managers having certain styles and philosophies... well, Benitez manages by conflict. Look right through his career and you will see it everywhere. From his time coaching the youth team at Real Madrid, where he clashed with director Jorge Valdano over the selection of certain players, conflict has followed him. At Liverpool and Valencia, that method brought him great success. At Inter Milan and Real Madrid, however, it led to him getting sacked. Sometimes he will win the battles and get the things that he wants but it doesn't always lead to him winning the war and it is an approach that puts a strain on relationships with owners, chief executives and players. I'll come back to the issue of being sacked in a minute but, for a moment, there is one critical question that needs to be answered, when you think about the possibility of him resigning: where exactly is he going to go? What job in the Premier League outside the elite is bigger than Newcastle? At this moment, I find it difficult to see any of the top six clubs taking him. So what else is out there? Maybe West Ham if Slaven Bilic were to leave. But would that represent a bigger step up than Tyneside? No. He is working at a club with a brilliant stadium and a huge fan base that has potential. He is also being handsomely rewarded for it. This, though, is a dangerous game he is playing. Ashley has been subjected to huge amounts of criticism during his period of ownership but if he feels Benitez oversteps the mark, have no doubt that he will fire him. Why wouldn't he? Ashley wasn't afraid to axe club legends and local heroes Kevin Keegan and Alan Shearer, so why would he think twice about pulling the trigger on Benitez? You don't amass the business portfolio and personal fortune Ashley has by shying away from big decisions. Newcastle fans don't like Ashley. There have been disastrous appointments, such as Dennis Wise and Joe Kinnear and a fiasco with the renaming of the stadium but he isn't bothered about being popular with them. So if Benitez continues to challenge him through the Press — there was an episode in January, remember, when he never got his wish to sign Andros Townsend — you could see it ending only one way: with Ashley deciding enough is enough and Rafa getting sacked. Yet the thing is they both need each other right now. Rafa is back working in the Premier League, the domestic competition he loves more than any other, and Ashley has a manager who represents his best chance of winning a trophy. It should not be forgotten that there are few better managers in world football than Benitez in preparing a team tactically for a one-off game and there is no reason why Newcastle cannot win, for instance, the League Cup under him. Ashley, ridiculously, has never regarded cup competitions as being important to Newcastle even though they haven't won anything domestically since 1955 but Benitez excels in them and — with the exception of Real Madrid — has won silverware at every club he has managed since Valencia, including Napoli and Chelsea. He has met his target for the year, which was to secure promotion for Newcastle, but that was to be expected, given the money they laid out last summer to buy players such as Matt Ritchie from Bournemouth. But the thing with Rafa is he always wants more. And that is why the agenda that has been set this week, from talk of ambition and transfers and net spends, will continue until the day this chapter in his career reaches an end.

I guess the Ostrich thing is entertaining, given the typical lack of June activity (18 prem transfers to date, including tying-up loans and stuff). However if we are going to fully bite the journos' dangling bait, perhaps we need another 'camp' I vote for either the Gump-dump or Urine Drenched Gussets, as in 'Ah the fabulous stench of UDG in June, how I have missed that (not)'

Peppe, that is some deeply disturbing imagery...

reminded me of Rowan Atkinson or Rik Mayall in full on 'Go on, giz a face!' mode.

Over six players, yes. All exciting, nah.

Don't forget, the possibly even trickier rider (Ryder?), that he will have it written in the new manager's loved one's blood that he is guaranteed a percentage of starts (... In the first team as well; no flies on his agent).

Don't know enough about Enzo Perez to comment, but think in general top quality players in the twilight of their career, very promising young players, plus maybe the 'in prime looks class in a lesser league but Premier League/other top league unproven' are the three categories teams of our current standing will go for. Quite like the potential benefits, directly and indirectly/on the other players, that could come from getting a couple of the first lot in this window.

Do you think he'll remain club captain?

This bugger been spotted at The Nuffield yet? Buying a savaloy in The Green Market? Anywhere? Anybody?