rgk_lfc

So so happy now. Hard luck to the couple of Spurs fans who posts regularly on here. No doubt they will improve further under Poch. Came in to check how the takeover is going on for you. With a decent budget, I have no doubt you will see similar nights under Rafa. After all, he has one CL, two UEFA cups, and has reached the semi-finals of European competitions 8 times in 11 attempts all with unfancied squads. The confidence we have in Europe in the modern era is due to this man.

From what I read it seems he wants to know what budget he has to work with and have transfers done quicker which is reasonable, but he wants to spend the money as he sees fit and if that means spending it all on players over 30 years old then he feels his decisions shouldn't be questioned. Ashley is probably the extreme case, but not many owners will give managers that sort of control these days. I do think the club has to compromise though to allow some experienced players be signed and getting Rondon makes sense as he has proven to be quality this season. I agree with a lot of the demands Benitez has asked from the club, but its just not realistic to expect Ashley or even other clubs to give the kind of control he wants from transfers even managers at Man United, Liverpool and Chelsea have to work under directors of football or transfer committees. I do agree with this however much it frustrates us, these days managers don't get to dictate buying policy and I just don't see Ashley compromising at all. It's going to fuck us over big time in the long run, we'll go back to having a team of random bargain parts instead of a well organised squad which understands how to implement a game plan devised by a manager who knows exactly what he wants. I think Rafa wants to dictate buying policy at Newcastle because there is no structure there. At LFC we have Edwards (our DOF + main scout), Gordon (finance guy), and Klopp. Gordon gets the total budget from the owners. Klopp makes the list of requirements and type of players available to Edwards. Edwards scouts and creates a list with ranking and value. Then the three of them get together and make decisions on the players depending on Klopps needs, budget, value, and price of each player. Rafa would be absolutely fine with such a system. Problem is that under Ashley there has been no coherent purchasing strategy which is aimed at helping Newcastle compete at the highest level. Add to that his history of screwing people. The thing with us though is that we have had similar structures, but what happens is that Charnley looks at the list, organises it from price (cheapest) and doesn’t go past a certain point. They will look at Perez who was signed for something like £2m and is doing well now and think that players like him can still be found for around that price. The thing is though Perez was basically a unique situation where the club pretty much had to sell him cheaply. These days there is no La Liga club going to sell a player to a Premier League club for that much now, and we know that because we sold a young player from our academy to Everton for £6m (who had never played for us), and even MLS teams are not prepared to sell their stars cheaply now, look at Almirón. But the system is only as good as the competency of the people and the objective of the owner. Edwards and Gordon are in a different league compared to Charnley. So is FSG compared to Ashley. I dont think Rafa wants complete control. He is ok with other people having power as long as there is transparency and competency. In his first few years at LFC, he was happy to bring in Rodolfo Borrell from Barca and make him in charge of the youth team development. There was another guy from Barca whom he bought in and he became some kind of defacto DOF. It was only when G&H took over, that the trust was broken, transparency was lost. That is when he fought for total control.

From what I read it seems he wants to know what budget he has to work with and have transfers done quicker which is reasonable, but he wants to spend the money as he sees fit and if that means spending it all on players over 30 years old then he feels his decisions shouldn't be questioned. Ashley is probably the extreme case, but not many owners will give managers that sort of control these days. I do think the club has to compromise though to allow some experienced players be signed and getting Rondon makes sense as he has proven to be quality this season. I agree with a lot of the demands Benitez has asked from the club, but its just not realistic to expect Ashley or even other clubs to give the kind of control he wants from transfers even managers at Man United, Liverpool and Chelsea have to work under directors of football or transfer committees. I do agree with this however much it frustrates us, these days managers don't get to dictate buying policy and I just don't see Ashley compromising at all. It's going to fuck us over big time in the long run, we'll go back to having a team of random bargain parts instead of a well organised squad which understands how to implement a game plan devised by a manager who knows exactly what he wants. I think Rafa wants to dictate buying policy at Newcastle because there is no structure there. At LFC we have Edwards (our DOF + main scout), Gordon (finance guy), and Klopp. Gordon gets the total budget from the owners. Klopp makes the list of requirements and type of players available to Edwards. Edwards scouts and creates a list with ranking and value. Then the three of them get together and make decisions on the players depending on Klopps needs, budget, value, and price of each player. Rafa would be absolutely fine with such a system. Problem is that under Ashley there has been no coherent purchasing strategy which is aimed at helping Newcastle compete at the highest level. Add to that his history of screwing people.

For such a methodical person, his career choices have been driven by emotion than logic. Of course, nothing is set in stone but I do think he is going to stay at Newcastle. Mainly because of how quite he has been. Rafa is not the type to quietly slip out of the back door. If he is leaving, he will drag Ashley through the mud. I think he is going to leave signing the contract till the very last minute so that he can get whatever leverage he can.

The only criticism I would have on Rafa is his ability to spend money on random dogshit fullbacks - Josemi, Kronkamp, Dossena, Degen. He did strike gold with Arbeloa. But I think he purchased Arbeloa because he was playing as a central defender for Deportivo and not as a fullback Johnson was an OK purchase but we did spend quite a bit of money on him at that time.

His transfer record was very good for us also. Dont base on your opinion on the British media which was full of PFM acolytes ready to stick their boots in at every opportunity. Kuyt, Garcia, Reina, Alonso, Torres, Mascherano, Arbeloa - great players who made significant contributions and many of them were sold at big profits. He revamped the youth system and made some canny purchases there also - Sterling ( sold for 50 million), Ibe (sold for 15 million), Brad Smith (sold for 7 million). Several others who made useful contributions to the first team squad and later were sold for million here and there. He was not perfect and did have his duds (particularly at fullbacks) but his transfer record was above average.

He is definitely above average compared to PFMs. He has the right idea in terms of how to play football. If the circumstances are in his favor, he has the ability to create teams which play high quality attacking football. His teams play one way and when it clicks they are brilliant to watch. He is also good with young players and invests time in developing them. But he is not an elite manager like Rafa. He is not the type to come to a bad situation and arrest the slide by lifting everyone around him using his tactical know-how and personality. His attacking coaching is very good. I can definitely see him having a great first season with you guys with his attacking strategies combined with Rafa's defensive training drills which the players will remember. Similar to what happened at Everton with Martinez in his first season. But once the defensive discipline wears off, not sure how he will perform with you. He is a nice guy but press conferences and statements can be grating especially when he is not winning. He really needs to cut down on cringeworthy quotes. Bottom line is he is a more than a decent manager, just not as good as he thinks he is.

Anyone can beat City once. But I haven't seen a manager who can consistently pull rabbits out of the hat over two decades now. He did for Valencia, he did it for us, and not he is going the same for you. The longevity is impressive. I think a big part of it is how he views football. He grew up playing subbuteo and chess. And apparently kids used to hate playing him. Because he always won. In the rare event he lost he used to torment the other kid by analyzing all of his moves and continuously playing against him until he won many times. That is how he views football. He is an all time great in identifying weaknesses in oppositions and creating systems through drills which nullify oppositions strengths and exploit their weaknesses. That is the reason he is good at European football. I think in the 11 or 12 times he participated in Europe, he has reached the semifinal 8 times which is a phenomenal record as in most cases he managed less fancy squads. With a little bit of quality, you are safe backing his team in a one on one fight. In a way, I think that is why he is not that suited for teams like Madrid. He will start complicating things there. He is like that kid in high school who can understand fermats theorem's but will still get only 70s in the final as solving quadratic equations is too boring. In a way, I am surprised some of the international teams haven't taken a chance on him. He offers a more than decent chance for teams like Japan, Korea, and Senegal for world cup glory. To win a world cup you need to win 7 games right. I cannot see anyone better at devising systems to neutralize those teams.

Not sure if we are good enough to capitalize this favor you guys did, but Rafa's stature among LFC fans just took one more leap. https://twitter.com/the_kop_king_/status/1090372314984779776

if he doesn't get any backing this january and keeps us up it will be absolutely remarkable tbph Not really when Cardiff, Huddersfield and Fulham are so shite Havent all three teams backed their managers to a reasonable amount?

Having said that, I think if he manages to keep Newcastle up ( which I am confident he will) this season, it will probably be his greatest achievement. He has pulled out magical victories at other clubs but this is the first where the owner is actively trying to sabotage progress made.

That CL is singularly the greatest managerial achievement I had the privilege of following in the last 20 years. Everyone focuses on the final but he was pulling rabbits out the hat every single game. Look at the Juve vs LFC squad in the quarter-final. Look at our subs and Juve was managed by Capello (who is no mug). Juventus: 1-Gianluigi Buffon; 21-Lilian Thuram, 4-Paolo Montero, 28-Fabio Cannavaro; 16-Mauro Camoranesi, 8-Emerson, 11-Pavel Nedved, 24-Ruben Olivera, 19-Gianluca Zambrotta; 9-Zlatan Ibrahimovic, 10-Alessandro Del Piero © Liverpool: 1-Jerzy Dudek; 3-Steve Finnan, 4-Sami Hyypia ©, 23-Jamie Carragher, 21-Djimi Traore; 18-Antonio Nunez, 25-Igor Biscan, 14-Xabi Alonso, 6-John Arne Riise; 10-Luis Garcia, 5-Milan Baros. Subs: Carson, Cisse, Smicer, Le Tallec, Warnock, Welsh, Potter.

The idea behind a devil's advocate is someone deliberately taking a contrarian stance so that an issue is looked at from all angles. The basis being such a discussion will lead to a deeper understanding of an issue which is not well understood. You can easily understand Ashley's impact on Newcastle by a five-minute look at numbers and facts - league position during his ownership and before his ownership, comparison of net spend with championship and other premier league clubs, money invested in training and youth facilities etc. This is not string theory. The damage can be measured by looking at numbers and facts. There is no devil's advocate role here as there is nothing deep or complex to understand and debate. Unless you are so thick that you cannot understand basic arithmetic where 110 million (money spent by Brighton) is greater than 1 million (money spent by Newcastle).

You have a higher chance of being hired as the Manure manager than Rafa.

The tactics wasn't pretty but you were well on your way to get a point. Chelsea was getting frustrated and their confidence was seeping away. The ref changed the dynamic of the game with that penalty. He gave Chelsea a shot in the arm which affected the flow. Looking at the poor decisions this weekend alone, the premier league should consider bringing in VAR this season itself (I know it is not feasible). There is no excuse for not having VAR next season.

Cheers. I hope he gets the chance.

I'm assuming that isn't meant in the sassy tone in which it reads. Absolutely not. I apologize if it comes across that way. Meant no disrespect at all. English is also not my first language. In general, we have had very good results against Hughton teams but always liked the way he set up his teams. I haven't watched a lot of his teams though. Just feel that it would be interesting to see how he would do with better quality players - maybe a club like Leicester? I was curious to know if you shared my opinion or whether I was overrating him.

Impressed with Brighton. They were defensively rigid and attacked when they had the chances. Hughton appears to be a very good coach, from afar at least. You guys obviously know better. Curious to know our thoughts about him.

Was wondering if you were going to remind us. It gives me no pleasure. While I am not a Newcastle fan, it is a club which I have admired from a distance. Based on our experience, expect some articles (from PFM aficionado reporters) coming out swinging strongly in favor of Mike touching on one or more of the following themes: - Rafa is a troublemaker who has rallied the fans against Ashley who has invested billions of dollars from his personal monies into the club and saved it from oblivion - Ashley is a financially responsible and prudent owner and Rafa, fans are always unreasonable. Expect some mad names thrown in as examples of Rafa's demands. - Newcastle fans have dreams above their station Sad part is some of the fans do fall for that. In our case, thankfully the fans remained strong and some of our influential past legends in the media stepped up big time and kept up the pressure.

Fucking nailed it, like. It is very easy to predict the behavior of an intelligent, honest man with oodles of integrity. You know he is going to take the right decision when the time comes whatever be the personal cost.

Defcon 1 with respect to this post https://www.newcastle-online.org/forum/index.php?topic=97780.msg6427151#msg6427151

Nah. Easily top 4 and will compete very hard for second, in my opinion. Once he gets his squad back, they will be fine. His football is boring but effective.

You have the money. So why worry about value. Even with the crazy deal you offered Alexis, isn't your wages to turnover (or revenue, dunno which one) lower than 50%.

No chance of that. The guy lives, breathes football, and has always honored his contracts. When he was fired from Liverpool, he started coaching his daughters U8 team. He used to turn up at games and weird parents out by shouting at 6-8 year old girls for not following his tactics. No way he is walking away from a contract.