mrmojorisin75 Posted January 30, 2017 Share Posted January 30, 2017 mental to think there's either not a loan available that's better than the likes of colback/gouffran or more mental to think that we probably won't pay loan fees for them Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianovthetoon Posted January 30, 2017 Share Posted January 30, 2017 If we win our game in hand there will once again be a 9 point essentially 10 point gap between us and third place. We beat the team currently occupying 3rd spot 4-1 and comfortably beat the team in 4th away from home. From 18 games remaining those teams have to get better results than us in 4 games to get above us. I just can't see it as long as we keep our focus. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SEMTEX Posted January 30, 2017 Share Posted January 30, 2017 We also lost at home to 5th, 6th and 23rd. All teams involved will lose some games, including ourselves. Some teams will go on good runs of form. Our form right now is something like 6th or 7th in the league. If it continues as such, we won't finish in the top 2. If anything happens to Shelvey, we're screwed. We need to push on, but we're clearly not arsed about doing so. It's a very dangerous game. As it stands, I imagine we'll finish 2nd, but I'd be much happier if we strengthened and fought for 1st. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leazes_End_Mag Posted January 30, 2017 Share Posted January 30, 2017 If we sign Townsend, i'd be fully confident of us winning the league. If we sign nobody and Shelvey and/or Gayle get injured/banned then i'd have serious doubts about us finishing top 2. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scoot Posted January 30, 2017 Share Posted January 30, 2017 We need to take a step back here like. So we're not in the Premier League, so it's going to be difficult to attract players of the calibre we will covet once promoted. It's hard to see who we could bring in who wouldn't want big money over and above what we can currently afford. Clubs don't want to loan out players who they might need when they are trying to get the odd extra million or so in TV money by finishing 14th. It's very much a sellers market. I'm also in no doubt that when we go up Rafa will be given what the club can realistically afford to give him. Rafa may be ambitious but he will also be pragmatic. He won't be expecting Chelsea levels of investment - for now. There will be a plan to be a near top half team next year with year on year improvement. He will also have cast iron assurances in writing I'm in no doubt. If Ashley reneges on these it will cost him just as much to let him leave. I have a feeling he's learned a lesson and he's been given a chance to keep the fans off his back for good. The bit in bold gives me a bit comfort t be honest. It was widely reported in the summer just before we got Rafa permanently that he was getting assurances written into his contract. I doubt he would have signed if he hadn't. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
UncleBingo Posted January 30, 2017 Share Posted January 30, 2017 Just spoken to my man when I was picking the kids up, tried to get some info out of him.....pretty much backs up what the papers have been saying. There won't be any money spent tomorrow. Townsend is wanted by Rafa and wants to come back, but the stumbling block is Mbemba who doesn't want to go to Palace apparently. Unlikely to happen were his words. With regards Ashley, he has had discussions with Rafa/Charnley about not spending anymore money, and his reasoning was that the club had the best/highest paid manager/squad in the division so need to get on with it. Benitez wanted a couple of new faces in but had to agree with him, and there is no major issue there. For now. Benitez really disappointed with the contributions of Colback, Perez and Mitrovic among others. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRon Posted January 30, 2017 Share Posted January 30, 2017 Just spoken to my man when I was picking the kids up, tried to get some info out of him.....pretty much backs up what the papers have been saying. There won't be any money spent tomorrow. Townsend is wanted by Rafa and wants to come back, but the stumbling block is Mbemba who doesn't want to go to Palace apparently. Unlikely to happen were his words. With regards Ashley, he has had discussions with Rafa/Charnley about not spending anymore money, and his reasoning was that the club had the best/highest paid manager/squad in the division so need to get on with it. Benitez wanted a couple of new faces in but had to agree with him, and there is no major issue there. For now. Benitez really disappointed with the contributions of Colback, Perez and Mitrovic among others. I'll bet he's disappointed. Everyone assumed they'd be fine in the championship, but other than Perez I'm not that surprised. Colback can be dominated by any midfielder who can run basically, and Mitrovic might be big and hard, but there's plenty of big hard defenders in this division. You need more than that to raise yourself above the competition. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
NG32 Posted January 30, 2017 Share Posted January 30, 2017 Just spoken to my man when I was picking the kids up, tried to get some info out of him.....pretty much backs up what the papers have been saying. There won't be any money spent tomorrow. Townsend is wanted by Rafa and wants to come back, but the stumbling block is Mbemba who doesn't want to go to Palace apparently. Unlikely to happen were his words. With regards Ashley, he has had discussions with Rafa/Charnley about not spending anymore money, and his reasoning was that the club had the best/highest paid manager/squad in the division so need to get on with it. Benitez wanted a couple of new faces in but had to agree with him, and there is no major issue there. For now. Benitez really disappointed with the contributions of Colback, Perez and Mitrovic among others. Colback, Perez and Mitrovic haven't really stepped up to the plate. Tho I do still feel there are decent players inside Perez and Mitrovic. Colback I would get rid of asap. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRon Posted January 30, 2017 Share Posted January 30, 2017 Perez has the ability to have walked this league. Really disappointing he hasn't shown up in a lot of games. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
xLiaaamx Posted January 30, 2017 Share Posted January 30, 2017 Yet he keeps giving Colback games. Go figure. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr.Spaceman Posted January 30, 2017 Share Posted January 30, 2017 Yet he keeps giving Colback games. Go figure. Colback was nowhere to be seen for the Rotherham game. It isn't too unrealistic to think that the penny may have only just dropped. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AyeDubbleYoo Posted January 30, 2017 Share Posted January 30, 2017 If we sign Townsend, i'd be fully confident of us winning the league. If we sign nobody and Shelvey and/or Gayle get injured/banned then i'd have serious doubts about us finishing top 2. Haven't they both just been injured/banned? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
KaKa Posted January 30, 2017 Share Posted January 30, 2017 Well if Mbemba stays I hope we at least give him a crack at the midfield position. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Figures 1-0 Football Posted January 30, 2017 Share Posted January 30, 2017 We don't need to make a single signing and we'll still comfortably be promoted. Sign Townsend and we may as well just be given the trophy for 1st place now. It's quite refreshing not selling players during January though. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
xLiaaamx Posted January 30, 2017 Share Posted January 30, 2017 Yet he keeps giving Colback games. Go figure. Colback was nowhere to be seen for the Rotherham game. It isn't too unrealistic to think that the penny may have only just dropped. He later confirmed that it was Illness and not being dropped Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AyeDubbleYoo Posted January 30, 2017 Share Posted January 30, 2017 It would be very strange if Rafa didn't think Colback was absolute shit. It's so obvious. He just doesn't have any better options. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leazes_End_Mag Posted January 30, 2017 Share Posted January 30, 2017 If we sign Townsend, i'd be fully confident of us winning the league. If we sign nobody and Shelvey and/or Gayle get injured/banned then i'd have serious doubts about us finishing top 2. Haven't they both just been injured/banned? Aye and look how awful we looked without Shelvey. If we were to lose him for a lengthy spell then I would have major doubts about us. Same with Gayle. Murphy is doing a job right now but whether he would be able to keep it up with limited service for a lengthy period of time would again be questionable. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AyeDubbleYoo Posted January 30, 2017 Share Posted January 30, 2017 If we sign Townsend, i'd be fully confident of us winning the league. If we sign nobody and Shelvey and/or Gayle get injured/banned then i'd have serious doubts about us finishing top 2. Haven't they both just been injured/banned? Aye and look how awful we looked without Shelvey. If we were to lose him for a lengthy spell then I would have major doubts about us. Same with Gayle. Murphy is doing a job right now but whether he would be able to keep it up with limited service for a lengthy period of time would again be questionable. Oh, you mean if we lose them both for the rest of the season? What I'm getting at is that we have lost Shelvey for quite a while and we're still comfortably in automatic promotion. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
toon25 Posted January 30, 2017 Share Posted January 30, 2017 Yet he keeps giving Colback games. Go figure. This. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leazes_End_Mag Posted January 30, 2017 Share Posted January 30, 2017 If we sign Townsend, i'd be fully confident of us winning the league. If we sign nobody and Shelvey and/or Gayle get injured/banned then i'd have serious doubts about us finishing top 2. Haven't they both just been injured/banned? Aye and look how awful we looked without Shelvey. If we were to lose him for a lengthy spell then I would have major doubts about us. Same with Gayle. Murphy is doing a job right now but whether he would be able to keep it up with limited service for a lengthy period of time would again be questionable. Oh, you mean if we lose them both for the rest of the season? What I'm getting at is that we have lost Shelvey for quite a while and we're still comfortably in automatic promotion. Aye, if we we're to lose them for a large number of games then i'm not sure we would have the team to consistently pick up results. We may still be in the top 2 but we won only 2 of the 5 games and we didn't look convincing in any of them. I'd simply feel a lot more confident if we got Townsend in but what will be will be. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
xLiaaamx Posted January 30, 2017 Share Posted January 30, 2017 If we sign Townsend, i'd be fully confident of us winning the league. If we sign nobody and Shelvey and/or Gayle get injured/banned then i'd have serious doubts about us finishing top 2. Haven't they both just been injured/banned? Aye and look how awful we looked without Shelvey. If we were to lose him for a lengthy spell then I would have major doubts about us. Same with Gayle. Murphy is doing a job right now but whether he would be able to keep it up with limited service for a lengthy period of time would again be questionable. Oh, you mean if we lose them both for the rest of the season? What I'm getting at is that we have lost Shelvey for quite a while and we're still comfortably in automatic promotion. Aye, if we we're to lose them for a large number of games then i'm not sure we would have the team to consistently pick up results. We may still be in the top 2 but we won only 2 of the 5 games and we didn't look convincing in any of them. I'd simply feel a lot more confident if we got Townsend in but what will be will be. Was 2 in 4, not 2 in 5 to be fair. Unless you count Birmingham where he likely wouldn't have played anyway Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parsley Posted January 30, 2017 Share Posted January 30, 2017 https://twitter.com/CaulkinTheTimes/status/826102086693695488 https://twitter.com/CaulkinTheTimes/status/826108716357410817 https://twitter.com/CaulkinTheTimes/status/826112273634693122 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
U2 Posted January 30, 2017 Share Posted January 30, 2017 Oh dear. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheHoob Posted January 30, 2017 Share Posted January 30, 2017 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SEMTEX Posted January 30, 2017 Share Posted January 30, 2017 If we sign Townsend, i'd be fully confident of us winning the league. If we sign nobody and Shelvey and/or Gayle get injured/banned then i'd have serious doubts about us finishing top 2. Haven't they both just been injured/banned? Aye and look how awful we looked without Shelvey. If we were to lose him for a lengthy spell then I would have major doubts about us. Same with Gayle. Murphy is doing a job right now but whether he would be able to keep it up with limited service for a lengthy period of time would again be questionable. Oh, you mean if we lose them both for the rest of the season? What I'm getting at is that we have lost Shelvey for quite a while and we're still comfortably in automatic promotion. Aye, if we we're to lose them for a large number of games then i'm not sure we would have the team to consistently pick up results. We may still be in the top 2 but we won only 2 of the 5 games and we didn't look convincing in any of them. I'd simply feel a lot more confident if we got Townsend in but what will be will be. Was 2 in 4, not 2 in 5 to be fair. Unless you count Birmingham where he likely wouldn't have played anyway So whether through suspension or not, when Shelvey doesn't play, we are far worse as a team. If our form without him was stretched to the end of the season, it would lead to us not being in the top 2. Playoffs anyone? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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