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What's Craig Hope going to write about now that Rafa has confirmed he's happy and 100% committed?!

Same as Ryder, '10 things we have learned from Rafa's interview' article, followed by '10 things we have learnt from the 10 things we have learnt article'.

 

Sounds like neither of you know who Craig Hope is, tbh. Rafa's quotes tonight pretty much prove he's been right every step of the way.

 

You're right, I don't.

 

But for some reason I'd probably believe the words coming from Rafa's mouth tonight about his current situation at NUFC rather than Hope's article from 2 days ago which suggested a completely different mood at the club.

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Guest chopey

What's Craig Hope going to write about now that Rafa has confirmed he's happy and 100% committed?!

Same as Ryder, '10 things we have learned from Rafa's interview' article, followed by '10 things we have learnt from the 10 things we have learnt article'.

 

Sounds like neither of you know who Craig Hope is, tbh. Rafa's quotes tonight pretty much prove he's been right every step of the way.

 

I thought you said we would get relegated by october if we didnt buy 10 £20millon players

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"The transfer window is too long, we wanted to do business early, we finished in May, I had my targets straight away"

 

"We have to move players out, that means we're losing targets, we've lost our first targets, it's not easy"

 

"You will not believe the commission, the wages, I cannot attract the players I want"

 

"I wasn't happy at the start of this window, I'm happy NOW, you have to analyse things propley, we weren't doing things the way I wanted"

 

Doesn't make the media stories untrue then. That's pretty much exactly what they were saying.

 

Very positive stuff on the whole though. Rafa. :love:

 

I think the whole 'Rafa on the brink' stuff was hyperbole mind. He was unhappy clearly but I don't think he'd have walked unless it got to the end of August and nothing was happening. He seems very aware of how tough things are and how the market has changed.

 

:thup:

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What's Craig Hope going to write about now that Rafa has confirmed he's happy and 100% committed?!

Same as Ryder, '10 things we have learned from Rafa's interview' article, followed by '10 things we have learnt from the 10 things we have learnt article'.

 

Sounds like neither of you know who Craig Hope is, tbh. Rafa's quotes tonight pretty much prove he's been right every step of the way.

 

Agree with Ronaldo for once. Craig Hope is a Newcastle fan, he doesn't print shite in general and his articles RE:NUFC are normally quite accurate.

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And professional misery merchants like Craig Hope are more than happy to play along. Honestly, the only time he ever appears on the radar is when spreading gloom.

 

Just doing his job. Negative headlines get hits. Especially when there's not a lot happening.

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Nice insight to how he's thinking, I genuinely feel like he was frustrated and maybe still is but I don't get the feeling that comes close to equating to he's leaving at any stage this summer.

 

Hopefully we can finish the summer off strong and look forward to the season.

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Listening and reading to Hope he's always come across as a fan to me and has correctly called Pardew, McClaren, Carr and Ashley out repeatedly and broken loads of news first. Like a lot he seems to want the best for the club and not mediocrity.

 

What Rafa has said has matched the, admittedly sensationalist, headlines but if it forces action which is probably the point then it's win-win.

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It was really interesting tonight.  Saw a really different personality to the one we see in interviews.  Very smiley, very comfortable with his audience and very funny at times.  And boy can he talk!  You can see why people say he will talk football for hours with anyone.

 

I felt though that he had his own agenda and there were specific points he wanted to get across so he didn't really answer Mick Lowes' questions.  He'd start off and then drift off back to other subjects such as transfers and the importance of the fans supporting the players and that he could go to China for big money (mentioned more than once) - none of which had been subjects raised by Lowes. 

 

He was talking about formations and then asked who had been at the Bradford game and starting asking them about what formation, they thought they played last night and whether they were playing deep or advanced.  There were a couple of times when he stepped down to walk through the fans to ask their opinions.

 

He is also very aware of what fans are saying e.g. he said that fans thinking that we were saving our money for a £30m striker would be very disappointed. 

 

FWIW, I thought he said he was happier now rather than happy but I might have misheard but he was very positive and talked about how the team would improve over the next few seasons which gave the impression he was planning for the long term.

 

I think his main message though (mentioned several times) was that it was really important to be united next season because it will be tough and the players will need our support and not be criticised if things are not going well.

 

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It was really interesting tonight.  Saw a really different personality to the one we see in interviews.  Very smiley, very comfortable with his audience and very funny at times.  And boy can he talk!  You can see why people say he will talk football for hours with anyone.

 

I felt though that he had his own agenda and there were specific points he wanted to get across so he didn't really answer Mick Lowes' questions.  He'd start off and then drift off back to other subjects such as transfers and the importance of the fans supporting the players and that he could go to China for big money (mentioned more than once) - none of which had been subjects raised by Lowes. 

 

He was talking about formations and then asked who had been at the Bradford game and starting asking them about what formation, they thought they played last night and whether they were playing deep or advanced.  There were a couple of times when he stepped down to walk through the fans to ask their opinions.

 

He is also very aware of what fans are saying e.g. he said that fans thinking that we were saving our money for a £30m striker would be very disappointed. 

 

FWIW, I thought he said he was happier now rather than happy but I might have misheard but he was very positive and talked about how the team would improve over the next few seasons which gave the impression he was planning for the long term.

 

I think his main message though (mentioned several times) was that it was really important to be united next season because it will be tough and the players will need our support and not be criticised if things are not going well.

 

 

Recurring message from last season that is often falling on deaf ears. Hopefully the new singing section will help this.

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I think those comments are aimed at people complaining about his tactics without saying it outright, tbh, which I agree with.

 

Don't think there's any hidden message tbh - he's been telling fans to get behind the team ever since he joined, and last season certainly didn't have a shortage of raucous groans. It's one of the reasons why we were average at home; players were nervous and Rafa wants to nip it in the bud.

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I think those comments are aimed at people complaining about his tactics without saying it outright, tbh, which I agree with.

 

Don't think there's any hidden message tbh - he's been telling fans to get behind the team ever since he joined, and last season certainly didn't have a shortage of raucous groans. It's one of the reasons why we were average at home; players were nervous and Rafa wants to nip it in the bud.

 

I dont remember the crowd being too bad last year to be honest, as patient as I remember the crowd for a long time.

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Well he did have a joke saying it isn't his tactics that are always flawed it is the players attitude . I may have heard that wrong though .

 

Ha ha he did!

 

I can't believe how open he was mind!

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Aye, you'd swear most people just turn up to the match so they can moan and have a very cynical 'i told you so' attitude. An absolute shadow of the 'loyalist football supporters the world has ever had' self-acclaimed title.

 

Fact is, it will be considerably tougher this coming season. I feel we could be lacking goals as I don't think Gayle/Mitrovic/Perez have the ability to score consistently at this level, so home games will be absolutely crucial. I also think that at home there will be plenty of 'sitting in' as such as a team, letting the oppo. have the ball and trying to break us down in our half; our crowd can get very agitated over this sort of thing (I can understand why, sort of), but everyone needs to understand that its for a good reason. The fact that we have the likes of Diame, Colback, Dummet still in the squad shows that we are a couple of injuries/suspensions away from a really challenging season.

However, I think Rafa's conservative methods will suit us more in the PL rather than the Championship. I think with the creativity of de Jong, and the additional pace of Murphy we will be more of a threat on the counter attack. Hopefully Lejeune will give us a bit more at set-pieces, and I'm sure will be better in the build up phase than Lascelles.

 

Whatever your thoughts, we have no better man for the job. We have a man that so many clubs in the country would have in a heartbeat. People need to get into the mindset of not being moaning cunts, and unify with Rafa and the players, as we know they all want the best for the club. Go to the match, sing your lungs out, and give as much abuse to the oppo as is physically possible. St. James' needs to be a fortress! As said, hopefully the singing section gets people going.

 

What a man, though! :) Totally agree with Dan in that in 10 years it really should be the case that he's mentioned in the same breath as our all time greats.

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