George Caulkin

[Si]

You's might want to vote for him...

 

https://t.co/zyEOD3LHsX

Squires too ftw.

[Guest firetotheworks]

There being no Football Ramble in there is a bit ridiculous.

[Si]

There being no Football Ramble in there is a bit ridiculous.

Genuinely baffled

[Jordan]

There being no Football Ramble in there is a bit ridiculous.

Genuinely baffled

I've really gone off it lately. Just seems rammed with adverts and Luke is incredibly annoying. Guardian and Totally Football are much better imo.

[Fugazi]

Not listened to it for years, but I was never keen on Luke.

[Guest firetotheworks]

I didn't really like him at first but I like him now. He does hog the mic a bit mind. The John Fantastic one recently was great.

[loki679]

You's might want to vote for him...

 

https://t.co/zyEOD3LHsX

Squires too ftw.

 

Shearer for pundit too.  Jordan Nobbs for womens player of the year just for the name.

[Wilson]

This worry anyone else from the TF podcast with Caulkin re Rafas contract?

 

It's difficult to know what the club is thinking, but I think they'll be saying 'If you don't sign, we're gona struggle to sign players this summer, it'll be more difficult to sign players' ... When I say 'I think they'll be saying that', they are saying that

[Eddy Chibas]

This worry anyone else from the TF podcast with Caulkin re Rafas contract?

 

It's difficult to know what the club is thinking, but I think they'll be saying 'If you don't sign, we're gona struggle to sign players this summer, it'll be more difficult to sign players' ... When I say 'I think they'll be saying that', they are saying that

 

Yup, his connections & coaching pedigree (and that of his offsiders) has to be a drawcard when dipping into the loan market too. Especially when it comes to borrowing & blooding promising youngsters from clubs (like Chelsea) who have stockpiled that talent (where first team opportunities are limited, for now).

[Unbelievable]

This worry anyone else from the TF podcast with Caulkin re Rafas contract?

 

It's difficult to know what the club is thinking, but I think they'll be saying 'If you don't sign, we're gona struggle to sign players this summer, it'll be more difficult to sign players' ... When I say 'I think they'll be saying that', they are saying that

 

Yup, his connections & coaching pedigree (and that of his offsiders) has to be a drawcard when dipping into the loan market too. Especially when it comes to borrowing & blooding promising youngsters from clubs (like Chelsea) who have stockpiled that talent (where first team opportunities are limited, for now).

 

I don't think that is what is being inferred. Sounds like they are trying to pressure Rafa into committing early by laying any blame for failing to get in his transfer targets at the uncertainty of his own contract situation. Doesn't surprise me in the slightest, but he should flip the table on them and seek black on white assurances before committing. In any case, the mind games will be unbearable this summer. Wish the fat cunt would just sell up and leave already.

[Wilson]

That's it, Caulkin is saying that the club have said, if he doesn't sign a new contract, it will be hard to sign players.  Mike being Mike.

 

 

[Greg]

It's a stupid tactic. Even harder to sign players if Rafa walks. Even if that payment clause exists he can afford it and would make it back with his next job signing on bonus.

[xLiaaamx]

Oh goodie, now podcasts spread doom and gloom with unnerving accuracy. Might as welll delete the whole internet.

[Eddy Chibas]

This worry anyone else from the TF podcast with Caulkin re Rafas contract?

 

It's difficult to know what the club is thinking, but I think they'll be saying 'If you don't sign, we're gona struggle to sign players this summer, it'll be more difficult to sign players' ... When I say 'I think they'll be saying that', they are saying that

 

Yup, his connections & coaching pedigree (and that of his offsiders) has to be a drawcard when dipping into the loan market too. Especially when it comes to borrowing & blooding promising youngsters from clubs (like Chelsea) who have stockpiled that talent (where first team opportunities are limited, for now).

 

I don't think that is what is being inferred. Sounds like they are trying to pressure Rafa into committing early by laying any blame for failing to get in his transfer targets at the uncertainty of his own contract situation. Doesn't surprise me in the slightest, but he should flip the table on them and seek black on white assurances before committing. In any case, the mind games will be unbearable this summer. Wish the fat cunt would just sell up and leave already.

 

If there's an air of uncertainty hanging over the management situation (and the first team coaching set-up), whereby it's easier on his bank balance for Rafa to quit during the final year of his contract, then we're not really that attractive a loan destination. I think Rafa would have dipped into the loan market again, utilized his Chelsea connections once more. The club might well remind him of that, as a strong-arm tactic (to get him to re-sign).

 

To clarify, it will much easier for the club to lay blame on Rafa's doorstep, if any potential loan moves (involving cracking youngsters) fall through due to the uncertainty hanging over the first team's coaching set-up. I believe any gun being held to hos head, mindgames to force him into committing, doesn't solely apply to closing permanent transfer deals.

[Darth Crooks]

I am shock

[Stottie]

Interesting to hear on the TF podcast that Rafa was more wound up by Penfold etc.'s inability to sign players rather than any lack of a transfer kitty. He made it sound like there was money there, but the club was too busy with petty haggling battles to get the business done.

[Tiresias]

I kinda think that's the ploy though, pretend there's money but fail to spend it and blame it on the plonker. If ashley wanted to spend money he would. He doesn't.

[DJ_NUFC]

Interesting to hear on the TF podcast that Rafa was more wound up by Penfold etc.'s inability to sign players rather than any lack of a transfer kitty. He made it sound like there was money there, but the club was too busy with petty haggling battles to get the business done.

 

No shock there either. One of the major attributes of the Ashley regime, alongside malice, is incompetence.

[Unbelievable]

I kinda think that's the ploy though, pretend there's money but fail to spend it and blame it on the plonker. If ashley wanted to spend money he would. He doesn't.

 

[afar]

Don't think it's anything new to worry about here. Of course the club will play that card, that a manager with just a year left on his contract is not going to be as appealing to prospective transfer targets than one with 3 or 4 years left. It's true and a logical step to take in negotiations.

 

Don't think there is much of a story here, we all know Ashley is a cunt and will drive a hard bargain. We also know Rafa is not a first timer here, he'll have seen all this before.

 

The proof of their intentions will come out soon, if Rafa signs then they've obviously given him enough assurances to satisfy him, if that the case then rejoice (until of course Ashley breaks his promise), if he doesn't get those assurances then he won't sign and it'll be a matter of when not if he leaves.

[Darth Crooks]

Expect the absolute worst and you can only be happy with any slight positive.

[AyeDubbleYoo]

Expect the absolute worst and you can only be happy with any slight positive.

 

Definitely the way I’ve been for quite a long time.

[HaydnNUFC]

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/sport/newcastle-are-again-on-the-precipice-mike-ashley-knows-rafa-benitez-is-vital-now-he-must-show-it-8jdql6vpq

 

Newcastle are again on the precipice – Mike Ashley knows Rafa Benítez is vital, now he must show it

 

Some issues are so complex and so subtle, their scope and meaning so vast, that solving one problem merely opens the door to another. We are talking about Brexit, the Middle East or Russia and we are talking about that other great imponderable of the modern age: Newcastle United, WTF? Potential is a constant at St James’ Park but so, too, is uncertainty, a place where glory lies just beyond the fingertips.

 

This should be a moment of luxury, a top-half place in the Premier League a fine reward for the mountainous efforts of Rafa Benítez and his players, capped off by their stirring 3-0 victory over Chelsea. Not bad for a club marking their return to the division, where the manager is revered and a team has coalesced around admirable qualities like effort, youth, resilience and a hunger to improve. But there is always a but on Tyneside.

 

Supporters want Benítez to stay, the club want Benítez to stay and Benítez wants Benítez to stay, yet somehow the unknown clings to Newcastle like a Monday morning hangover. Picking away at positivity is that weary concern about ambition, about Mike Ashley’s confounding ownership model and whether it allows Benítez to transform Newcastle into the pulsing, driven institution it could be. Beyond that, there are complications with contracts and a prospective takeover.

 

At the heart of the matter is trust. For three transfer windows in succession, Benítez believes months of work in identifying players and setting up deals was wasted. Last January, he wanted a couple of new additions to guarantee promotion and got nothing. Last summer, he wanted Newcastle to act quickly to bring in a goalkeeper and a striker. Four months ago, he wanted to clear up that mess and was restricted to loans.

 

The record books show that Newcastle went up as champions and have now finished tenth, yet Benítez would argue that both accomplishments were jeopardised by the club’s lack of action. Why take that risk? And why make life more difficult for yourself, when some prudent investment would remove that stress and give you something to build upon? The table says one thing, but this has been a season of toil and it has taken a toll.

 

In a PR statement released on Sunday night — the sportswear retailer is away on holiday — Ashley was quoted as saying, “I will continue to ensure that every penny generated by the club is available to [benítez].” Full disclosure was assailed by a drive-by shooting. Every penny is impossible to quantify if Benítez is not told what that budget is (reports he will be given £80 million are laughed off by his advisors), nor if he cannot control when it is spent.

 

To re-tell a story for the umpteenth time, when Benítez attempted to sign Willy Caballero on a free transfer from Manchester City last summer, the club demurred. Newcastle already had too many goalkeepers. Benítez pushed and eventually Lee Charnley, the managing director, took it up with Ashley. No dice. Yet when they brought in Martin Dubravka in January, the manager’s logic immediately became obvious. Dubravka has changed the team.

 

At the same kind of time as Dubravka’s arrival, Charnley (for which, read Ashley), became fixated with extending Benítez’s contract. The timing was perplexing; the window was still open and was clearly the priority, Newcastle had relegation to avoid and, in any case, there was still 18 months remaining on his deal, which contains a prohibitive £6 million release clause. Benítez rebuffed those talks; let’s wait and see, he said.

 

With safety secured, negotiations have begun in earnest, but what should be a straightforward situation has become the opposite. There are dual strands, Benítez’s long-term future and the question of Newcastle’s goals, their end-game. Benítez does not want a repeat of this season, but how can he be persuaded things will be different? It is impossible to put a guarantee of funds into a contract, let alone a guarantee that he will be listened to. How can he trust them again?

 

From the club’s perspective, Benítez is Newcastle’s superglue, a manager of substance who will make his players better and keep them in the Premier League. But he wants to kick on. “It’s not enough just to finish 10th with four or five teams around you,” he said. “What I would like is to be sure the team is able to compete to finish above tenth. That means having the right quality, the right mentally and the right level through the whole season.”

 

Ashley may have made Newcastle financially self-sufficient, but there has been no investment on infrastructure. “If we want to achieve something, we have to understand the way to do that,” Benítez said. “You will need some money and you will need a way to spend that money. That is the way to improve things. The transfer window is now very expensive and you also have to invest in the academy and the training facilities. All these things to enable you to attract players.”

 

Through his representatives, Benítez has told Newcastle to demonstrate their commitment by showing they mean business this summer; do that and he’ll sign. Newcastle tell Benítez that unless he extends his deal they will struggle to convince players to join them, a claim that is undermined by the fact they are still up for sale. In those circumstances, what would Benítez be agreeing to?

 

Ah, the takeover. So where does that stand? Since Amanda Staveley’s three bids for Newcastle last year, an Ashley-sanctioned denunciation of talks being “exhausting, frustrating and a complete waste of time,” and her response in The Times, things have gone quiet. Once any prospective buyer could not influence January, it made sense to wait until Newcastle’s league status was determined.

 

There are a couple of other interested parties, it has been reported, but for now they have melted away. It is understood that Ashley has been attempting to drum up interest in the United States, but nothing has materialised. Staveley has been getting on with her life and business while keeping an eye on Newcastle, speaking to investors, drawing up proposals and talking to people who would become involved if her purchase ever went ahead.

 

There is an acceptance that after the acrimony of the winter, any new bid must be the right bid. There has been contact between members of Ashley’s and Staveley’s inner circle, but the message is confused. Ashley is desperate to sell one minute and then putting the price up to £400 million the next, according to a “source” who (again) spoke to Sky Sports News. Even allowing for an improved television deal, that figure is prohibitive. More limbo.

 

Meanwhile, a number of clubs in the Premier League are in the process of jettisoning managers and Benítez will be in demand, even at a cost of £6 million. Napoli, his old club, are interested, but he prefers to stay in England, close to his family. Newcastle should be the ideal outpost, a beacon for the city, where football is sacred, a place of history and tradition and yearning for better and where there is mutual adoration, but they are mired in contradiction.

 

A logjam can always be broken and perhaps one phone call is all it will take; more talks are scheduled for this week. Creative tension has been a theme over the past two years and in the end, Benítez has always stayed. To repeat: he is still under contract. Yet they stand again on a precipice and, as usual, they have been pushed there by Ashley, who has the wit to recognise that Benítez is vital but cannot make the next big leap. If the manager is so important, then prove it.

[Unbelievable]

[Twinport53]

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/sport/newcastle-are-again-on-the-precipice-mike-ashley-knows-rafa-benitez-is-vital-now-he-must-show-it-8jdql6vpq

 

Supporters want Benítez to stay, the club want Benítez to stay and Benítez wants Benítez to stay

 

Loved that line