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Rafael Benitez

Jesse Pinkman

by Jesse Pinkman
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Ikon

Ikon

Posted
Posted

Way too early but I can't help thinking about what kind of players we might be able to attract with this man in charge once we're hopefully back in the Premier League again.

 

I think and hope that we will try and go for real quality instead of too many "will do OK for now" level of players. Maybe around 4. Well, time will tell, and it's too early really...

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Pilko

Pilko

Posted
Posted

I think a lot of this summer's signings were solid squad signings with the Premier League in mind, along with a few that will still probably start games in the first year or so. I'd like to think we'd add a smaller amount of quality players rather than going for more 6/10 sorts.

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loki679

loki679

Posted
Posted

Wonder if someone like Insigne, for example, becomes realistic in May.

 

If we're far out in front by January and looking nailed on for promotion I could see Rafa persuading some decent talent to join us.  A few months bedding in playing in the championship and the PL next season might have a draw.

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Bimpy474

Bimpy474

Posted
Posted

Anyone fancy c + p? I can't access it for whatever reason.

 

O0

 

Football is a chaotic game that, in spite of efforts from the richest clubs and certain cowed governing bodies to ensure otherwise, remains dazzlingly unpredictable. Except at Newcastle United. It’s all very predictable at Newcastle, which is a disturbing thing to say on a number of levels, but that won’t be the last sentence here that troubles you.

 

Had you asked almost anyone in the summer, anyone with any experience of watching football in the last ten years or so, what was going to happen at Newcastle, they would have told you this: Rafa Benitez will set about that football club like a very patient father untangling a set of long-forgotten Christmas lights. He won’t untangle them immediately because they haven’t been looked after very well, they were thoughtlessly stuffed in the attic many years ago and there are knots in there that defy physics, but if you leave him alone, keep quiet and maybe get him a cup of tea, he’ll work steadily and methodically and he’ll get the job done.

 

Last weekend, Newcastle beat Brentford 3-1 at St James Park. That is what they did. They didn’t ‘obliterate’ them, they didn’t ‘wipe the floor with them.’ They just beat them. And they beat them because they did everything neatly and properly, which is a most unNewcastley way of doing things.

 

 

 

They achieved this end largely because of the sustained excellence of Jonjo Shelvey. You see? I told you there would be more troubling stuff in here. Shelvey, whose career thus far has been so mixed that you wondered sometimes if he was only ever good by accident, is a renewed force in this midfield. He demands the ball. Literally. He actually points at his feet and tells people to pass to him. And they do so because of the things that he can do with it.

 

His early cross from the right flank is perfectly weighted and deftly nodded home by Ciaran Clark for the opening goal. Shortly afterwards, Shelvey takes the ball inside his own half, looks up and lofts it all the way to the edge of Brentford’s penalty area. Striker Dwight Gayle is beaten to the ball, but Brentford fail to get rid of it and Gayle is afforded the time to turn and blast the ball past Daniel Bentley for number two. Early in the second half, Yoann Gouffran feeds Shelvey on the left, because Shelvey v2.0 is conscientious enough to cover far more ground than before, and his cross is tapped in for the third by Gayle.

 

Benitez being the way he is (an amiable obsessive who in another life might live in a weird old house on a hill and conduct experiments with lightning) you know that he lay awake all night fretting about the way Brentford were able to score from a corner within 60 seconds of that third Newcastle goal, but as stressed earlier, this is a pretty tangled set of Christmas lights.

 

But it’s not just Shelvey who’s impressing. There’s the competence of the much underrated Karl Darlow, who claimed one evil-looking, swirling corner with the sort of assuredness that outfield players never notice, but that makes all former goalkeepers of any calibre rub their thighs in appreciation. It’s the level-headedness of Jamaal Lascelles. It’s the ball-playing of Ciaran Clark, not always perfect, but endearingly bold and actually quite helpful.

 

On the left flank, there is convention. Gouffran supported by the workmanlike efforts of Paul Dummett. On the right flank, there is invention, where utility midfielder Vurnon Anita dovetails with the hitherto inconsistent left-winger Christian Atsu. You can probably guess which flank is the most secure and which one creates the most chances. There were two occasions in the first half alone where Anita’s ambition left his side a little open. And yet that ambition would continue to pay compensatory dividends as the game progressed. Newcastle never looked like losing.

 

But don’t consider promotion a formality. The Championship is a draining division where the slightest hint of complacency is punished by sides eager to reassert the maxim that anyone can beat anyone. Newcastle supporters, hardened by disappointment, will know how quickly things can change at their club and how every previous fleeting period of contentedness under owner Mike Ashley has been followed by something ludicrously self-destructive like an unwarranted sacking, a stadium name-change or Joe Kinnear.

 

But just for now, in this moment, there they are, quietly getting on with their job. Newcastle United are an organised, well-prepared football club with a careful, clever manager who will sit there quietly undoing those knots until there’s something worth celebrating. For anyone who has watched this club for a while, it’s actually quite disconcerting.

 

 

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Wallace

Wallace

Posted
Posted

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/football-league/newcastle-united-rafa-benitez-championship-efl-vs-ipswich-town-a7374641.html

 

How Rafa Benitez reconnected Newcastle United with its city and took them to the top of the Championship

 

By showing steel in the boardroom and through acts of substance, the Spaniard has overcome the disappointment of relegation and brightened the mood of an entire city

 

Martin Hardy

 

 

They call them the cages, and they were full. Nine 3G pitches. Black and white wherever you looked. It was a Friday night.

 

The thud of ball, of people shouting, clouds of breath and sweat lifting into the darkening sky of a Tyneside night in October. Floodlights, arguments, celebrations; football being played.

 

And then a blue double door at the end of a corridor very delicately opened. One man in a tracksuit. The other in his civvies.

 

Very suddenly a growing noise throughout the pitches at Soccerworld. Shouting, banging, the realisation that less than 24 hours before Newcastle United faced Brentford at St James’ Park, the club’s captain and manager had turned up to watch.

 

A frenzy and a roar; two miles from St James’, up Westgate Road, into the heart of a different Newcastle, the cultural mix of the city, United, at quarter past seven on a Friday, by football and by the city’s club.

 

Rafa Benitez tucked his hands into his back overcoat, walked out and smiled. Beside him, Jamaal Lascelles looked more pensive. There was a lot to take in. Just over a year earlier Lascelles had made his Premier League debut for Newcastle as a substitute. They lost 6-1 at Manchester City.

 

He had been 21 then. Three games later, in another dispirited dressing room, this time at Selhurst Park, he railed against the inertia. The young substitute that day asked a sullen dressing room why no one was bothered anymore. Lascelles did not get a response.

 

He was 22 when he called out Daryl Janmatt for going off at half-time during a horrendous capitulation at Southampton, later in the season, during a 3-1 defeat at St Mary’s.

 

There was much not right at Newcastle United then, not least a dressing room that had grown hardened and cynical to the needs of the club and the city, poisonous even, with players who had not fulfilled their desire to move on, stuck on the stepping stone, left forlornly like an unclaimed suitcase on an airport carousel.

 

The unhappiness had grown, a malaise left untreated.

 

Back in October 2013, the noise had been of a lone drummer, beating a sad rhythm to a procession of disaffected supporters who walked through the streets, from the Civic Centre, up Barrack Road, past the Milburn Stand up to Leazes Park.

 

There was the odd, symbolic wave of a white hanky from those they passed. Around 400 fans, fed up with the owner and the manager and the drip, drip of ambition and hope, dragged their feet as the drummer played.

 

Newcastle drew that day, when a game of football started, against Liverpool. Everything was at odds. The local newspaper, the Evening Chronicle, was banned for what was deemed excessive coverage of the protest.

 

There was confrontation wherever you looked, conflict and no consideration. No one listened. The drummer played on, the disaffected marched off. The ban was upheld. The club’s heart bled.

 

The manager then, Alan Pardew, lost six games on the trot at the end of the season. There was a more vociferous outpouring for the final home game of the season, against Cardiff. He could not stand in his own technical area. Pardew left the following Christmas. He was not replaced with a permanent appointment until the following summer. Newcastle spent money but still limped and when Steve McClaren’s limp spell had finally reached its sorry conclusion, waiting forlornly for the executioner’s axe to fall, it seemed the club was concluding a long and weary trek to the footballing wilderness.

 

Then Benitez arrived. A light sparked. There was initial delight, but what has happened since, acts of substance, has changed the mood of a city. There was a spirited fight to stay up, a strange heady celebration of a rebirth when Newcastle beat Tottenham 5-1 four days after relegation had been confirmed.

 

Then came the u-turn.

 

Benitez called the shots in negotiations about whether he would stay. He got contractual guarantees about control and budget. The spinning doors at the front of the club finally started bringing life and hope in and firing out the malaise that had festered. The training ground was overhauled. New pitches were laid - for the first team and the academy - Benitez dropped unexpectedly into meetings of supporters.

 

Walls have come down, doors have opened, the club is calmer, less angry, the Chronicle has good access, the city has a leader, the football club, for the first time in years, has genuine direction.To that backdrop, the team has started winning and finally, after years of wait, the manager of Newcastle United is back in control, able to walk into the light drizzle of a Friday night and cause genuine delight.

 

“It costs nothing to go to an event like that so it is not a problem,” said Benitez. “The foundation is doing a fantastic job. One of the lads was from a small village near Madrid I used to play for when I was younger. Lascelles was brilliant with the lads, and for me watching and talking about football is no hardship.”

 

Four nights later, at the top of the tunnel at the side of the pitch at Oakwell, next to where 6000 jubilant and noisy Newcastle fans had filled their end, Lascelles, a tall and upright man, talked of the evening in the city’s West End, the Westgate Kicks, organised by the Newcastle United Foundation. He also spoke of unity and change.

 

“Yeah, they went nuts when we came out,” he said.  “It’s nice to go down there and see different ethnicities playing together. We know if we’re playing well and winning games the people will be happy. That is important. The away following we take to games has a massive impact on us as players. We can hear it. Credit to them, we’re very thankful. We’ll always give our all on the pitch. All we can do is keep giving good performances for them.

 

“I’ve never been involved in a unity like this in the dressing room, nothing like it. Last season was up and down. This season is completely different. Rafa has brought in some great signings and not just talented players but they’re great lads. Dressing room camaraderie is so important. It does go a long way. If you do things together away from the pitch then you’ll do it on the pitch for each other as well. That’s what we needed.”

 

Half an hour earlier, Newcastle had gone top of the Championship.

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LV

LV

Posted
Posted

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/football-league/newcastle-united-rafa-benitez-championship-efl-vs-ipswich-town-a7374641.html

 

How Rafa Benitez reconnected Newcastle United with its city and took them to the top of the Championship

 

By showing steel in the boardroom and through acts of substance, the Spaniard has overcome the disappointment of relegation and brightened the mood of an entire city

 

Martin Hardy

 

 

They call them the cages, and they were full. Nine 3G pitches. Black and white wherever you looked. It was a Friday night.

 

The thud of ball, of people shouting, clouds of breath and sweat lifting into the darkening sky of a Tyneside night in October. Floodlights, arguments, celebrations; football being played.

 

And then a blue double door at the end of a corridor very delicately opened. One man in a tracksuit. The other in his civvies.

 

Very suddenly a growing noise throughout the pitches at Soccerworld. Shouting, banging, the realisation that less than 24 hours before Newcastle United faced Brentford at St James’ Park, the club’s captain and manager had turned up to watch.

 

A frenzy and a roar; two miles from St James’, up Westgate Road, into the heart of a different Newcastle, the cultural mix of the city, United, at quarter past seven on a Friday, by football and by the city’s club.

 

Rafa Benitez tucked his hands into his back overcoat, walked out and smiled. Beside him, Jamaal Lascelles looked more pensive. There was a lot to take in. Just over a year earlier Lascelles had made his Premier League debut for Newcastle as a substitute. They lost 6-1 at Manchester City.

 

He had been 21 then. Three games later, in another dispirited dressing room, this time at Selhurst Park, he railed against the inertia. The young substitute that day asked a sullen dressing room why no one was bothered anymore. Lascelles did not get a response.

 

He was 22 when he called out Daryl Janmatt for going off at half-time during a horrendous capitulation at Southampton, later in the season, during a 3-1 defeat at St Mary’s.

 

There was much not right at Newcastle United then, not least a dressing room that had grown hardened and cynical to the needs of the club and the city, poisonous even, with players who had not fulfilled their desire to move on, stuck on the stepping stone, left forlornly like an unclaimed suitcase on an airport carousel.

 

The unhappiness had grown, a malaise left untreated.

 

Back in October 2013, the noise had been of a lone drummer, beating a sad rhythm to a procession of disaffected supporters who walked through the streets, from the Civic Centre, up Barrack Road, past the Milburn Stand up to Leazes Park.

 

There was the odd, symbolic wave of a white hanky from those they passed. Around 400 fans, fed up with the owner and the manager and the drip, drip of ambition and hope, dragged their feet as the drummer played.

 

Newcastle drew that day, when a game of football started, against Liverpool. Everything was at odds. The local newspaper, the Evening Chronicle, was banned for what was deemed excessive coverage of the protest.

 

There was confrontation wherever you looked, conflict and no consideration. No one listened. The drummer played on, the disaffected marched off. The ban was upheld. The club’s heart bled.

 

The manager then, Alan Pardew, lost six games on the trot at the end of the season. There was a more vociferous outpouring for the final home game of the season, against Cardiff. He could not stand in his own technical area. Pardew left the following Christmas. He was not replaced with a permanent appointment until the following summer. Newcastle spent money but still limped and when Steve McClaren’s limp spell had finally reached its sorry conclusion, waiting forlornly for the executioner’s axe to fall, it seemed the club was concluding a long and weary trek to the footballing wilderness.

 

Then Benitez arrived. A light sparked. There was initial delight, but what has happened since, acts of substance, has changed the mood of a city. There was a spirited fight to stay up, a strange heady celebration of a rebirth when Newcastle beat Tottenham 5-1 four days after relegation had been confirmed.

 

Then came the u-turn.

 

Benitez called the shots in negotiations about whether he would stay. He got contractual guarantees about control and budget. The spinning doors at the front of the club finally started bringing life and hope in and firing out the malaise that had festered. The training ground was overhauled. New pitches were laid - for the first team and the academy - Benitez dropped unexpectedly into meetings of supporters.

 

Walls have come down, doors have opened, the club is calmer, less angry, the Chronicle has good access, the city has a leader, the football club, for the first time in years, has genuine direction.To that backdrop, the team has started winning and finally, after years of wait, the manager of Newcastle United is back in control, able to walk into the light drizzle of a Friday night and cause genuine delight.

 

“It costs nothing to go to an event like that so it is not a problem,” said Benitez. “The foundation is doing a fantastic job. One of the lads was from a small village near Madrid I used to play for when I was younger. Lascelles was brilliant with the lads, and for me watching and talking about football is no hardship.”

 

Four nights later, at the top of the tunnel at the side of the pitch at Oakwell, next to where 6000 jubilant and noisy Newcastle fans had filled their end, Lascelles, a tall and upright man, talked of the evening in the city’s West End, the Westgate Kicks, organised by the Newcastle United Foundation. He also spoke of unity and change.

 

“Yeah, they went nuts when we came out,” he said.  “It’s nice to go down there and see different ethnicities playing together. We know if we’re playing well and winning games the people will be happy. That is important. The away following we take to games has a massive impact on us as players. We can hear it. Credit to them, we’re very thankful. We’ll always give our all on the pitch. All we can do is keep giving good performances for them.

 

“I’ve never been involved in a unity like this in the dressing room, nothing like it. Last season was up and down. This season is completely different. Rafa has brought in some great signings and not just talented players but they’re great lads. Dressing room camaraderie is so important. It does go a long way. If you do things together away from the pitch then you’ll do it on the pitch for each other as well. That’s what we needed.”

 

Half an hour earlier, Newcastle had gone top of the Championship.

 

Oh god, I can feel the passion coming back.

 

I'm a massive sucker for this talk of unity in the dressing room.  :rose:

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