Rafael Benitez

[shintonsghost]

Why would an operations manager, regardless of whichever operations he's managing, have any idea about the transfer talks between the football manager and the owner? In which walk of life would an organization share such information between such unrelated duties?

 

Edit: Does this mean Rafa also knows the OPEX & CAPEX for day to day operations? I mean, surely information must be shared both ways.

 

 

Guess its like a few workers within the club, they hear things, fuck me i dont know if its true, just passing on what he heard.

[shintonsghost]

Eight.

 

name them then, actual bids this summer

 

Please name every single players we've bid on and how much. Actual bids. This summer.

 

 

How am i supposed to know that you kipper

[Odear]

So Ashley has stepped in to assure that he is indeed backing Rafa as promised.

 

So as expected, the media reports were total bullshit.

[Nobody]

So Ashley has stepped in to assure that he is indeed backing Rafa as promised.

 

So as expected, the media reports were total bullshit.

What? You're going to believe the Ashley hoop licking article instead of the ones that very obviously were leaked from the Rafa camp.

[Dave]

So Ashley has stepped in to assure that he is indeed backing Rafa as promised.

 

So as expected, the media reports were total bullshit.

 

Top satire, Sir.

[Guest neesy111]

So Ashley has stepped in to assure that he is indeed backing Rafa as promised.

 

So as expected, the media reports were total bullshit.

 

[AyeDubbleYoo]

When was the frustration reported?

 

Yes, I am too lazy to read back.

[Odear]

I don't think Rafa leaked anything.

 

Journos had nothing to write about so make up a nonsense article, and the rest follow.. then suddenly it's a story.

 

There's nothing in this.

 

If the club were really fucking with him, it would be breach of a very solid contract.. he would have no qualms about leaving.

 

Now not commenting on bullshit reports is another thing.

 

He never put this out there though.. the reporters involved don't have nearly enough access to be "in the know"

[Guest neesy111]

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2008/05_04/035ostrich_468x538.jpg

 

[Odear]

It's happened often enough so I can't blame the tinfoil hat brigade to be out in force on this one but there really isn't anything to worry about.

 

Ashley isn't thick enough to have a full scale riot on his hands if Rafa was to walk.

[thomas]

I don't think Rafa leaked anything.

 

Journos had nothing to write about so make up a nonsense article, and the rest follow.. then suddenly it's a story.

 

There's nothing in this.

 

If the club were really fucking with him, it would be breach of a very solid contract.. he would have no qualms about leaving.

 

Now not commenting on bullshit reports is another thing.

 

He never put this out there though.. the reporters involved don't have nearly enough access to be "in the know"

Very true. If there's one profession I would label as not being able to develop a network of sources from various levels and use non-official channels of communication to get information, it would definitely be journalists.

[Guest neesy111]

Ashley isn't thick enough

 

Pardew, Carver and Kinnear say hi.

[mrmojorisin75]

I'm expecting at least 2 or 3 players in by the end of next week. If that doesn't happen then I'll be starting to have doubts.

[Odear]

Ashley isn't thick enough

 

Pardew, Carver and Kinnear say hi.

 

Not giving us a team to be proud of makes him a cunt, not thick.

 

Very naive to mix up his vindictive nature with a lack of intelligence.

[afar]

I'm expecting at least 2 or 3 players in by the end of next week. If that doesn't happen then I'll be starting to have doubts.

 

I agree, with pre-season training on the horizon, he'll obviously want the bulk of the signings through the door, so he can prepare properly. It looks like that's unlikely to happen, but if the only new recruit is Atsu when they all report back it's hard to see how Rafa can be anything other than pissed off and rightly so.

[mrmojorisin75]

I'm expecting at least 2 or 3 players in by the end of next week. If that doesn't happen then I'll be starting to have doubts.

 

I agree, with pre-season training on the horizon, he'll obviously want the bulk of the signings through the door, so he can prepare properly. It looks like that's unlikely to happen, but if the only new recruit is Atsu when they all report back it's hard to see how Rafa can be anything other than pissed off and rightly so.

I think we'll have players in tbh, but I think as fans we're going to be rather underwhelmed.

[Altamullan]

I guess the Ostrich thing is entertaining, given the typical lack of June activity (18 prem transfers to date, including tying-up loans and stuff). However if we are going to fully bite the journos' dangling bait, perhaps we need another 'camp' I vote for either the Gump-dump or Urine Drenched Gussets, as in 'Ah the fabulous stench of UDG in June, how I have missed that (not)'

 

[Scoot]

So Ashley has stepped in to assure that he is indeed backing Rafa as promised.

 

So as expected, the media reports were total bullshit.

 

Where has Ashley said this?

[ohmelads]

I'm not panicking yet but I'm getting a bit concerned. Rafa was silent in January and is again now in spite of local and national papers suggesting he may walk. Add to that a decade of Mike Ashley and everything he's done and you'd put your money on there being some truth to these stories.

 

It makes no sense comparing our transfer activity to established PL sides who don't need the complete overhaul that we do.  This squad lost 10 games in the Championship - it'd get murdered in the Premier League. Rafa built a squad for that division on the understanding he could make widespread changes once promotion was assured. There is a long time left, but he'll want at least some in time to train them up for the Spurs game. We can't afford another slow start, especially with the fixtures getting harder towards Christmas.

[Wallsendmag]

So Ashley has stepped in to assure that he is indeed backing Rafa as promised.

 

So as expected, the media reports were total bullshit.

 

Where has Ashley said this?

 

He hasn't. It's just media reports.

[mighty__mag]

Media runs a story. Several days later media run another story.

 

Lets just wait to actually hear from Rafa himself before acting like a bunch of fairy's.

[Altamullan]

Good article by Carragher on Rafa from April (just found it). Apols for the length but only my phone is able to navigate the site, so didn't want to inflict link on others. Also of Rafa's 59 Liverpool signings, "only 4 arrived in May or June."

Rafa Benitez will not change and he will never quit... conflict follows him but the Newcastle boss loves a fight!

By Jamie Carragher for the Daily Mail

21:31 28 Apr 2017, updated 23:27 28 Apr 2017

 

He won't quit. He never quits. That is something Newcastle United fans should remember as another storm starts to blow around Rafa Benitez.

It should have been a week of celebration on Tyneside, the club having secured an immediate return to the Premier League, but instead a group of supporters who have so often had to endure disappointment find themselves confused by the uncertainty that has followed.

Benitez has indicated he will only stay on at St James' Park next season if he feels that Mike Ashley, Newcastle's owner, shares his vision for what is needed to be successful back in the top flight but he is confident that 'everything will be fine'.

Watching the episode unfold brought some memories flooding back. Everything I've seen and read in the last few days had me thinking of many things, from our time together at Liverpool. He had three different sets of people to answer to at Anfield and fell out with them all.

Rafa is an excellent manager and one of the biggest influences on my career — perhaps the biggest in terms of actually being on a pitch. I played my best football under him and many of the things he taught me I still bring in to practice, whether it is on these pages or with Sky.

But he is, without doubt, the most political figure I've come across in football. I saw what is going on at Newcastle happen at Liverpool. It happened at Valencia, too, where he famously said he 'asked for a sofa and they gave me a table leg' during a row over transfers.

This posturing has a purpose. Benitez wants the maximum amount of money he can get ahead of the transfer window in order to keep Newcastle competitive. If he doesn't get the funding that he feels is necessary and next season goes badly, he can turn around and say: 'I told you so.'

He raised the prospect of leaving Liverpool many times, suggesting he could go to Real Madrid, Juventus, Bayern Munich and even England! He seems almost as popular in Newcastle as he was at Anfield. He aligns himself with the fans and they are hard people to walk out on.

I'm sure the soundbites will continue and the sense of drama will heighten but this is part of the Benitez package. People talk about managers having certain styles and philosophies... well, Benitez manages by conflict. Look right through his career and you will see it everywhere.

From his time coaching the youth team at Real Madrid, where he clashed with director Jorge Valdano over the selection of certain players, conflict has followed him. At Liverpool and Valencia, that method brought him great success.

At Inter Milan and Real Madrid, however, it led to him getting sacked. Sometimes he will win the battles and get the things that he wants but it doesn't always lead to him winning the war and it is an approach that puts a strain on relationships with owners, chief executives and players.

I'll come back to the issue of being sacked in a minute but, for a moment, there is one critical question that needs to be answered, when you think about the possibility of him resigning: where exactly is he going to go?

What job in the Premier League outside the elite is bigger than Newcastle? At this moment, I find it difficult to see any of the top six clubs taking him. So what else is out there? Maybe West Ham if Slaven Bilic were to leave. But would that represent a bigger step up than Tyneside? No. He is working at a club with a brilliant stadium and a huge fan base that has potential. He is also being handsomely rewarded for it.

This, though, is a dangerous game he is playing. Ashley has been subjected to huge amounts of criticism during his period of ownership but if he feels Benitez oversteps the mark, have no doubt that he will fire him.

Why wouldn't he? Ashley wasn't afraid to axe club legends and local heroes Kevin Keegan and Alan Shearer, so why would he think twice about pulling the trigger on Benitez? You don't amass the business portfolio and personal fortune Ashley has by shying away from big decisions.

Newcastle fans don't like Ashley. There have been disastrous appointments, such as Dennis Wise and Joe Kinnear and a fiasco with the renaming of the stadium but he isn't bothered about being popular with them.

So if Benitez continues to challenge him through the Press — there was an episode in January, remember, when he never got his wish to sign Andros Townsend — you could see it ending only one way: with Ashley deciding enough is enough and Rafa getting sacked.

Yet the thing is they both need each other right now. Rafa is back working in the Premier League, the domestic competition he loves more than any other, and Ashley has a manager who represents his best chance of winning a trophy.

It should not be forgotten that there are few better managers in world football than Benitez in preparing a team tactically for a one-off game and there is no reason why Newcastle cannot win, for instance, the League Cup under him.

Ashley, ridiculously, has never regarded cup competitions as being important to Newcastle even though they haven't won anything domestically since 1955 but Benitez excels in them and — with the exception of Real Madrid — has won silverware at every club he has managed since Valencia, including Napoli and Chelsea.

He has met his target for the year, which was to secure promotion for Newcastle, but that was to be expected, given the money they laid out last summer to buy players such as Matt Ritchie from Bournemouth.

But the thing with Rafa is he always wants more. And that is why the agenda that has been set this week, from talk of ambition and transfers and net spends, will continue until the day this chapter in his career reaches an end.

 

[Odear]

So Ashley has stepped in to assure that he is indeed backing Rafa as promised.

 

So as expected, the media reports were total bullshit.

 

Where has Ashley said this?

 

He hasn't. But that's not stopping the media running with the story.

 

The same way there was no quotes from Rafa about his "frustration"

 

My point is that the press are fucking clueless and seemingly a lot of people on here are easily led.

[Greg]

Yes Neesy!

[DJ_NUFC]

So Ashley has stepped in to assure that he is indeed backing Rafa as promised.

 

So as expected, the media reports were total bullshit.

 

Where has Ashley said this?

 

He hasn't. But that's not stopping the media running with the story.

 

The same way there was no quotes from Rafa about his "frustration"

 

My point is that the press are f***ing clueless and seemingly a lot of people on here are easily led.

 

Shit. You might be into something here. Never thought about it before but is there a possibility of news, potentially, being, you know, fake? Maybe you should start a hashtag for a newly coined phrase, like #FakeNews or something along those lines? It's only natural after that to apply that theory to every single news article ever written where you read something you don't like.