Newcastle United transfer rumours in the press

[Hughesy]

Few random unrelated points:

 

 

 

Rafa isn't great in the transfer market, that's clear to see from his time at Liverpool and with us, he does strike gold sometimes though but we need some buffer built into our budget to allow him to mess up or shorten the odds on signing that quality we desperately need.

 

 

 

This is wrong. He bought and built really well with us, and also at Napoli where the team he built is the one doing so well now. I thought he bought well for you for last season. Maybe not so much for this, but he wasn't given loads and he found you a bargain in Merino.

 

Yes, he buys a few players at lower prices who don't work out, but then that applies to all who rummage at the bottom end of the market. The problem is when you only have a few quid, nearly every buy has to work out.

 

Totally agree - https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/rafael-benitez/spielertransfers/trainer/1522

 

Particular highlights being:

 

Napoli -  Higuain, Callejon, Jorginho, Mertens, Koulibaly and Ghoulam

 

Liverpool - Torres, Mascherano, Alonso and Reina

 

 

He's definitely bought a few duds in his time, but the list above is pretty impressive work.

[joeyt]

He didn't buy Coutinho fwiw

[Yorkie]

Yup. He had a budget last year and even though he signed a few duds in Sels, Gamez and Lazaar (Hanley too, but he served a purpose and his fee was easily recouped) - he made several massive signings that effectively secured promotion. Gayle, Ritchie and Clark were brilliant signings and probably our top three key players. Then there was Hayden, who played a big role, and Yedlin, Atsu and Murphy - all of whom were useful.

 

It's not his fault that those key players remain three of our most key players. To say they're not good enough for the Premier League shouldn't be a stick to beat Rafa with. They were necessary for promotion and should have been built upon as the foundation of the squad.

 

As for the likes of Manquillo and Joselu - it's simply what you get for the budget we were working with. No blame there (although he needn't bliddy play em so much).

[joeyt]

I'm not sure if he bought him for Inter either Wiki says he was bought by Inter in 2008, when Rafa was at Liverpool, but he had to remain in Brazil until he was 18

 

EDIT: Ah, post has been deleted

[Hughesy]

I'm not sure if he bought him for Inter either Wiki says he was bought by Inter in 2008, when Rafa was at Liverpool, but he had to remain in Brazil until he was 18

 

EDIT: Ah, post has been deleted

 

yeah - had a mare with Coutinho there...!  Didn't seem like he bought anyone of note at Inter at all.

[joeyt]

His Napoli transfers look really impressive now definitely.

 

Been linked with a centre back called Jack Hendry in the Mail fwiw http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-5148255/Southampton-Newcastle-Palace-keeping-tabs-Hendry.html

[TheDonis]

I'm not sure if he bought him for Inter either Wiki says he was bought by Inter in 2008, when Rafa was at Liverpool, but he had to remain in Brazil until he was 18

 

EDIT: Ah, post has been deleted

 

yeah - had a mare with Coutinho there...!  Didn't seem like he bought anyone of note at Inter at all.

 

Hence the reason he called out Morratti and got himself fired.

[Guest chopey]

In the summer when he was looking for an experienced keeper I was saying that our priorities should lie elsewhere because we had Elliot, Darlow and Krul I was proved totally wrong and our keepers have looked so ordinary

[Optimistic Nut]

I don't understand why anyone thought otherwise.

[TRon]

I'm not really looking beyond one big signing at this stage, and I'm not too hopeful even if we get that. I don't think £15m buys you a proven striker unless he's over 30, which we'd never sanction. We paid £13m for Mitrovic before the prices doubled, are we likely to get anyone better?

[sempuki]

Gayle linked with Wolves in a brummie paper.

[joeyt]

He'd probably sit on their bench too

[loki679]

In the summer when he was looking for an experienced keeper I was saying that our priorities should lie elsewhere because we had Elliot, Darlow and Krul I was proved totally wrong and our keepers have looked so ordinary

 

It was stupid.  Reina would have been perfect for us and not only improved the first team but he could have worked with Woodman in preparation for his transition to no.1 too.

[afar]

Few random unrelated points:

 

 

 

Rafa isn't great in the transfer market, that's clear to see from his time at Liverpool and with us, he does strike gold sometimes though but we need some buffer built into our budget to allow him to mess up or shorten the odds on signing that quality we desperately need.

 

 

 

This is wrong. He bought and built really well with us, and also at Napoli where the team he built is the one doing so well now. I thought he bought well for you for last season. Maybe not so much for this, but he wasn't given loads and he found you a bargain in Merino.

 

Yes, he buys a few players at lower prices who don't work out, but then that applies to all who rummage at the bottom end of the market. The problem is when you only have a few quid, nearly every buy has to work out.

 

No it's not. His record with us is rank average really:

 

Good

Merino (though still very early days)

Clark (Did a great job in the Champo but jury very much out on PL ability)

Ritchie (Same as Clark, outside the Brom game he's been downright awful during this run)

Gayle (as Clark again)

Yedlin

D. Murphy (short term, low risk that worked but hardly the single reason for us getting back up)

Atsu (could still go either way, but cheap and done OK job)

 

Bad

Sels

Lazaar

Diame

Gamez

Manquillo

LeJuene

J Murphy(still early days and may turn out great but not the player we needed to blow half our budget on)

Joselu  (we overpaid at 5 million !!)

 

The biggest issue we've had this summer with his dealings is he's wasted the bulk of our budget on trying to enhance areas of the team that weren't the most pressing need, instead of wasting 20 million or so on Murphy and LeJeuene he should have spent that money on a number 10, a striker or whatever. I also still think the GK situation was poorly handled, I still refuse to believe Krul wasn't our best option at the start of the season. Yet he makes easily our worst keeper our number one. His original solution to the GK situation was atrocious and is out on loan back in Belgium.

 

Like I said he does uncover the odd gem, but there is a lot of crap too to wade through, that's why I said he needs a buffer, 20 million in today's market is nowhere near enough as he would have to guarantee to hit on the one or two players you could get for that and his record is 50% hit at best with most of those hits still having huge question marks against them.

[Optimistic Nut]

Luke Shaw had a good game last night by all accounts.

[Yorkie]

Builds an entirely new squad effectively from scratch in the space of a month, and wins the league = 'rank average transfer record'.

[Sho Time]

Some of our 'fans' man, still fucking eating out of the palm of Ashley's hand.

 

Lists the players that were bought in the Championship and responsible for winning us that league, then goes on to state 'OK job' and 'jury is still out', then lists Lejeune and Murphy as bad buys when they haven't even played for us for 6 month and we're deep into a poor run. Honestly man, maybe Rafa did misuse his budget but remember - he never got his top targets e.g. Caballero/Reina/Abraham because the club went back on their word, refused to back him early on and let us slide into August before doing any business - no wonder Rafa felt he needed to splash £12m on Murphy.

 

The issue with Rafa is absolutely not his transfer record, if we give him a fair* amount of money to spend he will find us the perfect players to suit his game because that is what he does and always has done. The issue with Rafa is his stubbornness and persistence to play the likes of Manquillo & Joselu with seemingly no consequence to their fucking appalling performances.

 

*By fair I don't mean Man City money, I mean Bournemouth, WBA, Stoke money.

[HaydnNUFC]

Some of our 'fans' man, still f***ing eating out of the palm of Ashley's hand.

 

Lists the players that were bought in the Championship and responsible for winning us that league, then goes on to state 'OK job' and 'jury is still out', then lists Lejeune and Murphy as bad buys when they haven't even played for us for 6 month and we're deep into a poor run. Honestly man, maybe Rafa did misuse his budget but remember - he never got his top targets e.g. Caballero/Reina/Abraham because the club went back on their word, refused to back him early on and let us slide into August before doing any business - no wonder Rafa felt he needed to splash £12m on Murphy.

 

The issue with Rafa is absolutely not his transfer record, if we give him a fair* amount of money to spend he will find us the perfect players to suit his game because that is what he does and always has done. The issue with Rafa is his stubbornness and persistence to play the likes of Manquillo & Joselu with seemingly no consequence to their f***ing appalling performances.

 

*By fair I don't mean Man City money, I mean Bournemouth, WBA, Stoke money.

 

TBF to Manquillo he was bought as a reserve RB and has had to play LB since Yedlin came back from injury. My only slight gripe this season is his refusal to start Mitrovic, but Rafa knows what he's doing. Hate to think where or what we'd be if he hadn't came here.

[madras]

Napoli is his best transfer showing imo. Higuain, Koulibaly, Mertens, Jorginho, Callejo, Ghoulam, Gabbiadini

 

Edit: what Hughesy said

The Napoli fans weren't to miffed at him going iirc . Surprising considering he improved them so much 😎

[afar]

Some of our 'fans' man, still f***ing eating out of the palm of Ashley's hand.

 

Lists the players that were bought in the Championship and responsible for winning us that league, then goes on to state 'OK job' and 'jury is still out', then lists Lejeune and Murphy as bad buys when they haven't even played for us for 6 month and we're deep into a poor run. Honestly man, maybe Rafa did misuse his budget but remember - he never got his top targets e.g. Caballero/Reina/Abraham because the club went back on their word, refused to back him early on and let us slide into August before doing any business - no wonder Rafa felt he needed to splash £12m on Murphy.

 

The issue with Rafa is absolutely not his transfer record, if we give him a fair* amount of money to spend he will find us the perfect players to suit his game because that is what he does and always has done. The issue with Rafa is his stubbornness and persistence to play the likes of Manquillo & Joselu with seemingly no consequence to their f***ing appalling performances.

 

*By fair I don't mean Man City money, I mean Bournemouth, WBA, Stoke money.

 

 

STFU dude, what do you know of me ? I was perhaps the first on here to be openly critical of Ashley while others were still sucking on him for saving us from Shephard and Hall.

 

Rafa is fanstastic but not perfect, if he was he wouldn't be managing us right now that's for sure. He is not above critic, you're right he's not been supported anywhere near well enough, his work last year with transfers was excellent by in large for the short term, but a lot of those signings seem to have one thing in common (great for the champo, just not good enough for the PL), he's also spent the ridiculously limited amount of money poorly his summer signings have be poor and he's focused on the wrong areas.

 

Give the man 40 million or so and we'll survive, 20 million is much more of a gamble based on his record so far finding PL quality for us.

[HaydnNUFC]

Some of our 'fans' man, still f***ing eating out of the palm of Ashley's hand.

 

Lists the players that were bought in the Championship and responsible for winning us that league, then goes on to state 'OK job' and 'jury is still out', then lists Lejeune and Murphy as bad buys when they haven't even played for us for 6 month and we're deep into a poor run. Honestly man, maybe Rafa did misuse his budget but remember - he never got his top targets e.g. Caballero/Reina/Abraham because the club went back on their word, refused to back him early on and let us slide into August before doing any business - no wonder Rafa felt he needed to splash £12m on Murphy.

 

The issue with Rafa is absolutely not his transfer record, if we give him a fair* amount of money to spend he will find us the perfect players to suit his game because that is what he does and always has done. The issue with Rafa is his stubbornness and persistence to play the likes of Manquillo & Joselu with seemingly no consequence to their f***ing appalling performances.

 

*By fair I don't mean Man City money, I mean Bournemouth, WBA, Stoke money.

 

 

STFU dude, what do you know of me ? I was perhaps the first on here to be openly critical of Ashley while others were still sucking on him for saving us from Shephard and Hall.

 

Rafa is fanstastic but not perfect, if he was he wouldn't be managing us right now that's for sure. He is not above critic, you're right he's not been supported anywhere near well enough, his work last year with transfers was excellent by in large for the short term, but a lot of those signings seem to have one thing in common (great for the champo, just not good enough for the PL), he's also spent the ridiculously limited amount of money poorly his summer signings have be poor and he's focused on the wrong areas.

 

Give the man 40 million or so and we'll survive, 20 million is much more of a gamble based on his record so far finding PL quality for us.

He signed the players last summer to get us out of the Championship, which they did. He then expected another similar summer, ship out the players he doesn't need, want or whatever and replace them with PL calibre equivalents. The fat bastard who owns us thought he knew better, or wanted to limit spending to the bare minimum as he doesn't want to make any more investment into the club he's been trying to flog. You can't give any manager £20m and find PL quality players. Wages also played a key in the summer. Merino is the exception.

[triggs]

Napoli is his best transfer showing imo. Higuain, Koulibaly, Mertens, Jorginho, Callejo, Ghoulam, Gabbiadini

 

Edit: what Hughesy said

The Napoli fans weren't to miffed at him going iirc . Surprising considering he improved them so much 😎

He didn't really improve them much. They came second the year before he arrived.

[Greg]

Few random unrelated points:

 

 

 

Rafa isn't great in the transfer market, that's clear to see from his time at Liverpool and with us, he does strike gold sometimes though but we need some buffer built into our budget to allow him to mess up or shorten the odds on signing that quality we desperately need.

 

 

 

This is wrong. He bought and built really well with us, and also at Napoli where the team he built is the one doing so well now. I thought he bought well for you for last season. Maybe not so much for this, but he wasn't given loads and he found you a bargain in Merino.

 

Yes, he buys a few players at lower prices who don't work out, but then that applies to all who rummage at the bottom end of the market. The problem is when you only have a few quid, nearly every buy has to work out.

 

No it's not. His record with us is rank average really:

 

Good

Merino (though still very early days)

Clark (Did a great job in the Champo but jury very much out on PL ability)

Ritchie (Same as Clark, outside the Brom game he's been downright awful during this run)

Gayle (as Clark again)

Yedlin

D. Murphy (short term, low risk that worked but hardly the single reason for us getting back up)

Atsu (could still go either way, but cheap and done OK job)

 

Bad

Sels

Lazaar

Diame

Gamez

Manquillo

LeJuene

J Murphy(still early days and may turn out great but not the player we needed to blow half our budget on)

Joselu  (we overpaid at 5 million !!)

 

The biggest issue we've had this summer with his dealings is he's wasted the bulk of our budget on trying to enhance areas of the team that weren't the most pressing need, instead of wasting 20 million or so on Murphy and LeJeuene he should have spent that money on a number 10, a striker or whatever. I also still think the GK situation was poorly handled, I still refuse to believe Krul wasn't our best option at the start of the season. Yet he makes easily our worst keeper our number one. His original solution to the GK situation was atrocious and is out on loan back in Belgium.

 

Like I said he does uncover the odd gem, but there is a lot of crap too to wade through, that's why I said he needs a buffer, 20 million in today's market is nowhere near enough as he would have to guarantee to hit on the one or two players you could get for that and his record is 50% hit at best with most of those hits still having huge question marks against them.

 

So much nonsense in here.

 

Sels - agreed.

Lazaar - agreed.

Diame - did a job to get us out of the Championship, now a back up. You need more than 11 players. His legs have gone but not a failure signing.

Gamez - back up, Rafa's lieutenant, cost very little. Not a total failure.

Manquillo - is back up, not a great player, but is back up, in many years we've not had backup at all and been totally fucked. Does a job. Need more than 11 players.

LeJuene - too early to call.

J Murphy- too early to call, has looked promising in last few games.

Joselu - does a job for Rafa, can't finish to save his life. Not yet a total failure.

 

It's not Football Manager either, and working for Mike Ashley with Justin Barnes putting blockers in the way, he was pretty much working with his hands tired behind his back and with a blindfold on, so you can't just say should have spent this money on that, when he's working in the uncertainty and madness of Ashley's NUFC.

 

Tim Krul can't get in the Brighton team, so it's not just Rafa that sees it, and bear in mind he was pretty crap before his injuries and on a very high salary. Clearly Rafa wanted Pepe Reina or Willy Caballero and from what's been said it seems like deal for both were pretty much in place but Charnley and Barnes wouldn't sanction and in the case of Reina became too late in window and in case of Caballero he took the offer he had on the table.

 

He's got some wrong, but he's working with fucking nothing man. 

 

[mighty__mag]

It doesn't really matter what we think of past or last seasons transfers and this seasons, and the current squad.

 

The fact right now is, there isnt one player now we are in the premier league who you could argue is an absolute asset,high value or a must who you would build a squad around.

 

I mentioned this in a different topic, not one of them is indispensable. If the right kind of offer came along and you have a small budget for squad improving you would simply have to consider flogging any of them if the risk to stay in the league is of most importance.

 

Id stick my neck out and say Jamaal Lascelles is our most valuable player based on him being English(on the crust of international call up),young,already a captain and signed on a new long term deal helping to push his value.

 

The only way Raffa is getting a big budget is to flog a high value player, or hope someone wants to purchase dregs like Haidara Saivet Colback etc. I mean seriously that could take you all window to shift those shithouses on.

 

If chelsea came in with 25/30m for Jamaal, would Rafa be tested?

[The College Dropout]

N’zonzi