magvicar

Aye it was fantastic. I loved him and what he did for us. I sang his praises from the rooftops.

Of course. He was given a nice pot to coast the championship.

Shhh, it's a forum name.

Rafa dismantled it by some of his choice and by obvious relegation departures of players who didn't want championship football.

There's room to batter both managers, Bruce and Rafa and I'm basically saying Rafa wasn't all that. If people believe he was some kind of messiah then that's entirely up to them.

What he inherited was a very very good squad to be fair.

38th game of the season Rafa had us relegated. Not all his fault but it was still relegation under him.

I think he did do a bit better for your club.

One game?

Such as when?

So a portion of a season. I'll let you have that. We were in one hell of a state until that change happened. In relegation danger until Rafa went for it. He should've done it at the start.

You're entitled to your opinion on what you think I dress it up as but that's my opinion and I won't be wavering on it anymore than you will on what you think.

I'm bald but I won't take away your enthusiasm, so fill your boots.

If we had a regular strong Wilson we would've, I'm fairly confident of that. As for Rondon. He fitted Rafa's style, not Bruce's.

Aye. Wilson was always injured and Maxi was the one carrying us forward and did a great job doing so but neglected to track back or chase the ball once lost. However the football was much more enjoyable under Bruce for most part. As far as I'm concerned anyway.

Aye he was gung-ho many a time but I call it having a go regardless and his track record is favourable with Rafa's but overall better football for games played excluding Rafa's championship season.

Joelinton.

Better have a go football.

The football.

Good? I didn't say that. I said better.

He wasn't perfect by any stretch of the imagination. As I said earlier I was glad to see him go but I say it how I saw it and see it and his time at Newcastle was a mad mixture which included some good, just as Rafa's was, yet I enjoyed the football under Bruce much better, for a while than I did under Rafa, premier league wise.

Most I reckon. I think the players were a bit dejected under Rafa. Rafa seemed cold. Bruce at least came in with some zest even amid a mixed reception. I think Shelvey brightened up and I'll never forgive Rafa for destroying Mitrovic for us. But that's juyst my take as unpopular as it seems.

It's pretty simple. VAR is absolutely not the issue. It's a fantastic leveler. The issue is in having officials being inept at using it or basically cheating certain teams out of decisions of which there has been far too man y but the straw that should break the camels back should be the Tottenham v Brighton game. That was blatant VAR official bias and there's absolutely no excuse to be given. Two things need to be done for next season. 1. Demote or sack officials who blatantly call clear decisions wrong. 2. Make sure the grey areas of some rules are made more clear, especially the offside rule of toe margins and so on and handball rule being made to be hand/ lower arm to ball and not ball to hand/ lower arm.

He didn't set the bed alight but a 13th and 12th position in his first two seasons wasn't terrible. However he did seem to be losing the plot and the pressure was getting to him because fans were on his back. He was nothing special as a manager but then again few were. I was as glad to see him go as many were. He lost the plot and seemed to lose his ability to motivate the team or himself by the look of things at the time.

I'm not defending Bruce other than to say he came in and did a decent job at first. Benitez did a decent job at first. Pardew did a decent job at first. Hughton did a decent job at first. I could go on and on about managers that come in and do a decent job at first. If that's defending them then Rafa is also in that.