Rafa Benítez (now unemployed)

[La Parka]

Aye I think stability has a lot going for it. Look at Burnley, Bournemouth. Spent fractions of other clubs but competing all the same.

[tmonkey]

Football is getting really weird man ... so many teams are just spending money without the right manager in place, or on the wrong type of players that don't fit their team.

 

I look back over the basic business we did and we ended up so much better than loads of teams that spent so much money on players that we were quite envious of at the time, and they are a bloody mess.

 

We have such a fantastic manager in place right now that I would back him to very competitive with solid backing over the summer. Doesn't even have to be anything extraordinary IMO.

 

I mean we just handled Arsenal fairly well with a championship team for goodness sake.

 

After promotion I felt that all we needed was 3-4 "good" first team starters added to our Championship squad to be a decent PL side. Initially Merino was one of those players, Lejuane has turned out to be another, but we managed to get the remainder in the  January window (less so for Slimani so far, but certainly huge impactful additions with Kenedy and Dubravka).

 

The reason for only needing a handful of new starters as opposed to an entirely new team is that the Premiership has always had at least 7 or 8 dire teams who play even worse football, with one of the factors behind there being teams like that at all times being the "revolving door" policy prevalent at the lower end of the Premiership when it comes to giving garbage managers like Pardew, Moyes, et al the gig. As you've said they also waste alot of money on mediocre players or have the wrong managers in charge. It really doesn't take all that much to make a Championship squad be able to compete (or even better) the majority of those dire teams and dire managers. In the past for some teams just adding someone who can stick the ball in the back of the net (e.g. Jermaine Defoe) has been all that's needed to compete or escape the relegation pack.

[AyeDubbleYoo]

Panicking without real knowledge or strategy I suppose. Clubs have more money than ever, they know they need to invest to keep up but they lack the knowledge and ability to get the most out of it.

 

How many owners or chairman have comprehensive knowledge of the available managers for example? Probably about 10% if that.

 

Big Mike and Lee got lucky that Rafa fancied a project in the north of England.

[Dontooner]

The most likely reason is to give any of those sinking teams Rafa's coaching for 2 years , they would probably survived like we did.

 

The current crop of Newcastle players are still too inexperience and largely relied on Rafa's strong mental methods to re enforce a tough will.

 

The difference between the managers ability(experience) in a dog fight is still the key to surviving as we have seen under Pardew and many old school managers they lose they team when things become too overwhelming.

 

This current Newcastle team is one of the few that punches above its weight, it fairly obvious it all come down to knowing what they have to do during the game.

Credit to Rafa making it simple for them.

[Jimburst]

Aye, I think a relegation fight plays into Rafa's hands the same way his tactics work at the top. His overall knowledge of the game and a clear well drawn out plan allow the players to trust his methods and get behind something. A whole squad believing in a system has obvious benefits therein. I suppose a lot like pep or Klopp, in that regard. It takes a while for the whole squad to buy into it and see the fruits of their labour, but once they have, they've got a conviction behind their play, and a manager who believes in it.

 

Someone like Pardew, when the chips are down and he hasn't got conviction in his ideas (or doesn't even truly have ideas...), the whole thing just collapses.

[Paully]

Someone post Caulkin's latest offering please for us peasants!

 

 

[Tiresias]

I just use my one free article a week on his column (or maybe its one free a month or something). I won't post whole thing cos feels a little unethical really. It basically seems to suggest Rafa isn't going to walk to be unemployed but he has grown ever more frustrated with transfer windows and doesn't believe promises from Ashley. He seems to basically say Rafa is unlikely to sign a new deal before either proper investment or a takeover and may just see out his contract. I'll post the lovely ending.

 

Yes, Sunday was fun. It was fun because in a sense it did not matter, because the pressure was off and politics and tension could be ignored for 90 minutes and a game football enjoyed on its own merits. In another respect, it mattered like hell. It mattered like breathing, like life itself. Newcastle United beat Arsenal at St James’ Park, just like they beat Manchester United, and the ground shook. If they only realised it, this is what Rafa’s Newcastle could be.

[Stottie]

'With right backing, Benitez won't fancy Arsenal as Newcastle can overtake them'

 

no shit, they've just spent +£100m on two strikers though, it would take man city levels of backing for us to be able to overtake them anytime soon i'm afraid because it's not like they're going to stand still

 

As Vidic said the other day, the problem is their defence. They've conceded three more goals than us. Their goals for is only three fewer than Man U, but is being undermined by their defensive woes. I don't like to downplay the FA Cup where they've been very successful, but without it, they have been effectively standing still for a long time.

 

If Dyche goes to Arsenal, he needs to take their keeper. Like de Gea, he's been playing out of his skin.

[mrmojorisin75]

is dyche to arsenal being  talked about seriously?

[TK-421]

Someone post Caulkin's latest offering please for us peasants!

 

Here yer gan..

 

GEORGE CAULKIN | THE GAME DAILY

april 19 2018, 12:00pm, the times

Newcastle United must act like a big club to keep Rafa Benítez

 

In retrospect, the beauty of last Sunday was the sense of freedom. It was not until Arsenal had been bested that Rafael Benítez accepted Newcastle United were safe and although that caution was understandable and that drive for more is an indelible part of his identity, St James’ Park knew. It is rare for this grand, compelling and perpetually baffling institution to escape the tension it routinely creates for itself and it revelled in the occasion.

 

Football is devious because while the table suggests comfort — Newcastle are tenth — discomfort has been a theme. Their form in 2018 has been excellent, but when they drew 1-1 with Burnley on January 31, they were a point above the bottom three and had not won at home for eight matches. Before kick-off, supporters hoisted a banner featuring a noble quote from Kevin Keegan in protest at Mike Ashley’s ownership. “Don’t ever give up on your club,” a section of it read.

 

On a training camp in Alicante a month ago, Benítez put a season of toil in context. “Have I enjoyed being Newcastle manager? I enjoy it when we are winning,” he said. “I like to do things well and when you see something is right, I’m really proud. But it’s difficult to enjoy it when you are suffering all the time because you have to win and then you lose. Have I enjoyed this season? No, but maybe the word ‘enjoyment’ is different in English.”

 

This context is important, not to wee all over the delight of four victories in succession, but to offer a reminder; it feels good because it has been worked for, because Benítez’s “suffering” has been worthwhile. The same applies to last season. The records show that Newcastle, the favourites for promotion, went up as champions, but they were not lifted to the Premier League on the wings of angels. Every game, every week, brought struggle.

 

You wonder what Ashley makes of it all. When a senior figure at Newcastle — no longer there — was asked about their previous promotion campaign in 2009-10, the achievement was all but dismissed. With that budget, with that help, anybody would have taken them up, he said. Yet Chris Hughton and his squad had taken the initiative where chaos reigned. It was only in late October that Hughton was appointed permanent manager, that the club were taken off the market.

 

Newcastle are for sale again. That point is worth remembering, because if a failed takeover really was a distraction for players when they lost eight of nine games at the back end of last year, it was one invited by their owner. Does Ashley believe that? Does he look back to last summer when, on his authority, Benítez was not permitted to sign a goalkeeper and accept that was an error or does he look at their league position and smile at his own infallibility?

 

Already, there are signs that history is being reshaped by the club. This is Benítez’s squad, his players, a result of his decisions, it is said. True, up to a point. No player has been forced on the manager, but he felt forced to sign Javier Manquillo and Joselu, for example, because he sincerely felt the alternative was signing nobody. “I am signing the players that I can not the players that I want,” he said in late August.

 

The hierarchy’s reluctance to sanction the free transfer of Willy Caballero from Manchester City produced a ripple effect of frustration. Benítez would not allow Karl Darlow to join Middlesbrough because, without a replacement, he could not risk it. Perhaps it was only when Martin Dubravka arrived in January that Benítez’s logic became apparent — Dubravka has been faultless, spreading calm, changing the way Newcastle play — but he should have been trusted.

 

Ah, but Benítez got the three new players he wanted in January, didn’t he? Again, a partial truth. The manager and his staff put weeks of effort into scouting and targeting and setting up deals and then heard nothing until the middle of the month when Ashley suddenly became visible. They should have been clearing up a mess but now they were playing catch-up, too. Dubravka, Kenedy and Islam Slimani have sown improvement, but there is no provision for the latter pair to be signed permanently.

 

Benítez does not hide his impatience. He never has. Like all managers of substance and ambition, he constantly strives for better, but the 58-year-old has found the past three transfer windows exhausting. They have felt like a battle and, after each of them, trust has been eroded. When the market has closed, he has parked his anger and got on with what he excels at, tutoring his players, but it has taken a toll.

 

They say it with the benefit of hindsight (and acknowledge it), but those close to Benítez muse about where Newcastle stand now, the quality of this season’s Premier League, and wonder if they could have been Burnley had their man been listened to in July and August. They certainly believe that the club put themselves under needless pressure, but then this is now engrained as par for the course under Ashley.

 

Yet there is a dual narrative taking place. Since Ashley emerged from hibernation four months ago — he has since returned — there has been a concerted effort to tie Benítez to an extended contract. Initially, the timing was peculiar because Newcastle were the midst of a tussle with relegation and Benítez argued that the best way to show commitment would be to sign the players he wanted. He would not negotiate then, but the wooing has continued.

 

The love-bombing is both eminently reasonable and dripping with irony. Benítez is adored by supporters. He feels his responsibility keenly. He knows what he stands for; hope. That is both a privilege and a burden, because he carries the club on his shoulders. As far as Ashley and his cohorts are concerned, Benítez is the nearest you can get to a managerial guarantee and they are willing to pay for it, but they have also made his existence more difficult than necessary.

 

They are pressing, but the situation is nuanced and complex. Benítez still has a year left on his contract. The £6 million get-out clause is still there and the club would want a version of it to continue. Benítez desperately wants to “compete,” — he is a Champions League manager — but he loves the Newcastle fans, the welcome he has received, the proximity to his family home in Merseyside, the theoretical potential. And where are the “better” options?

 

It is not correct to say that Benítez will leave this summer if a takeover by Amanda Staveley, the businesswoman, does not proceed. What he recoils from more than anything else is the prospect of unemployment. Benítez is key to what Staveley hopes to put into practice at Newcastle — him staying was enshrined in each of her three previous bids for the club — but the same would apply to other prospective owners, Ashley included. He is an enormous asset.

 

It is entirely possible that Benítez will end up staying by default, but you would hope that Newcastle would have the wit to recognise what they have at their fingertips. It is not just about offering Benítez a bigger salary or the promise of transfer funds because those promises are no longer enough. They have been worthless. The club is aching for renewal at every level — the training ground, the academy — and that takes money, commitment and ambition.

 

Newcastle patently know what they have, which is why they are pursuing their most gilded employee with such vigour, but to be a big club, to be what Benítez thinks they can be, they have to truly behave like one. Is their goal to be “pound for pound,” the best they can be, as they once stated — that awful, pen-pusher’s phrase — or is it to win something, to stand for something, to strive and keep striving?

 

Yes, Sunday was fun. It was fun because in a sense it did not matter, because the pressure was off and politics and tension could be ignored for 90 minutes and a game football enjoyed on its own merits. In another respect, it mattered like hell. It mattered like breathing, like life itself. Newcastle United beat Arsenal at St James’ Park, just like they beat Manchester United, and the ground shook. If they only realised it, this is what Rafa’s Newcastle could be.

 

 

[54]

Just got an article through FotMob saying that if Rafa walks we are lining up Luis Enrique.

[xLiaaamx]

Can the doom please wait till summer?

[Si]

Someone post Caulkin's latest offering please for us peasants!

 

Here yer gan..

 

GEORGE CAULKIN | THE GAME DAILY

april 19 2018, 12:00pm, the times

Newcastle United must act like a big club to keep Rafa Benítez

 

In retrospect, the beauty of last Sunday was the sense of freedom. It was not until Arsenal had been bested that Rafael Benítez accepted Newcastle United were safe and although that caution was understandable and that drive for more is an indelible part of his identity, St James’ Park knew. It is rare for this grand, compelling and perpetually baffling institution to escape the tension it routinely creates for itself and it revelled in the occasion.

 

Football is devious because while the table suggests comfort — Newcastle are tenth — discomfort has been a theme. Their form in 2018 has been excellent, but when they drew 1-1 with Burnley on January 31, they were a point above the bottom three and had not won at home for eight matches. Before kick-off, supporters hoisted a banner featuring a noble quote from Kevin Keegan in protest at Mike Ashley’s ownership. “Don’t ever give up on your club,” a section of it read.

 

On a training camp in Alicante a month ago, Benítez put a season of toil in context. “Have I enjoyed being Newcastle manager? I enjoy it when we are winning,” he said. “I like to do things well and when you see something is right, I’m really proud. But it’s difficult to enjoy it when you are suffering all the time because you have to win and then you lose. Have I enjoyed this season? No, but maybe the word ‘enjoyment’ is different in English.”

 

This context is important, not to wee all over the delight of four victories in succession, but to offer a reminder; it feels good because it has been worked for, because Benítez’s “suffering” has been worthwhile. The same applies to last season. The records show that Newcastle, the favourites for promotion, went up as champions, but they were not lifted to the Premier League on the wings of angels. Every game, every week, brought struggle.

 

You wonder what Ashley makes of it all. When a senior figure at Newcastle — no longer there — was asked about their previous promotion campaign in 2009-10, the achievement was all but dismissed. With that budget, with that help, anybody would have taken them up, he said. Yet Chris Hughton and his squad had taken the initiative where chaos reigned. It was only in late October that Hughton was appointed permanent manager, that the club were taken off the market.

 

Newcastle are for sale again. That point is worth remembering, because if a failed takeover really was a distraction for players when they lost eight of nine games at the back end of last year, it was one invited by their owner. Does Ashley believe that? Does he look back to last summer when, on his authority, Benítez was not permitted to sign a goalkeeper and accept that was an error or does he look at their league position and smile at his own infallibility?

 

Already, there are signs that history is being reshaped by the club. This is Benítez’s squad, his players, a result of his decisions, it is said. True, up to a point. No player has been forced on the manager, but he felt forced to sign Javier Manquillo and Joselu, for example, because he sincerely felt the alternative was signing nobody. “I am signing the players that I can not the players that I want,” he said in late August.

 

The hierarchy’s reluctance to sanction the free transfer of Willy Caballero from Manchester City produced a ripple effect of frustration. Benítez would not allow Karl Darlow to join Middlesbrough because, without a replacement, he could not risk it. Perhaps it was only when Martin Dubravka arrived in January that Benítez’s logic became apparent — Dubravka has been faultless, spreading calm, changing the way Newcastle play — but he should have been trusted.

 

Ah, but Benítez got the three new players he wanted in January, didn’t he? Again, a partial truth. The manager and his staff put weeks of effort into scouting and targeting and setting up deals and then heard nothing until the middle of the month when Ashley suddenly became visible. They should have been clearing up a mess but now they were playing catch-up, too. Dubravka, Kenedy and Islam Slimani have sown improvement, but there is no provision for the latter pair to be signed permanently.

 

Benítez does not hide his impatience. He never has. Like all managers of substance and ambition, he constantly strives for better, but the 58-year-old has found the past three transfer windows exhausting. They have felt like a battle and, after each of them, trust has been eroded. When the market has closed, he has parked his anger and got on with what he excels at, tutoring his players, but it has taken a toll.

 

They say it with the benefit of hindsight (and acknowledge it), but those close to Benítez muse about where Newcastle stand now, the quality of this season’s Premier League, and wonder if they could have been Burnley had their man been listened to in July and August. They certainly believe that the club put themselves under needless pressure, but then this is now engrained as par for the course under Ashley.

 

Yet there is a dual narrative taking place. Since Ashley emerged from hibernation four months ago — he has since returned — there has been a concerted effort to tie Benítez to an extended contract. Initially, the timing was peculiar because Newcastle were the midst of a tussle with relegation and Benítez argued that the best way to show commitment would be to sign the players he wanted. He would not negotiate then, but the wooing has continued.

 

The love-bombing is both eminently reasonable and dripping with irony. Benítez is adored by supporters. He feels his responsibility keenly. He knows what he stands for; hope. That is both a privilege and a burden, because he carries the club on his shoulders. As far as Ashley and his cohorts are concerned, Benítez is the nearest you can get to a managerial guarantee and they are willing to pay for it, but they have also made his existence more difficult than necessary.

 

They are pressing, but the situation is nuanced and complex. Benítez still has a year left on his contract. The £6 million get-out clause is still there and the club would want a version of it to continue. Benítez desperately wants to “compete,” — he is a Champions League manager — but he loves the Newcastle fans, the welcome he has received, the proximity to his family home in Merseyside, the theoretical potential. And where are the “better” options?

 

It is not correct to say that Benítez will leave this summer if a takeover by Amanda Staveley, the businesswoman, does not proceed. What he recoils from more than anything else is the prospect of unemployment. Benítez is key to what Staveley hopes to put into practice at Newcastle — him staying was enshrined in each of her three previous bids for the club — but the same would apply to other prospective owners, Ashley included. He is an enormous asset.

 

It is entirely possible that Benítez will end up staying by default, but you would hope that Newcastle would have the wit to recognise what they have at their fingertips. It is not just about offering Benítez a bigger salary or the promise of transfer funds because those promises are no longer enough. They have been worthless. The club is aching for renewal at every level — the training ground, the academy — and that takes money, commitment and ambition.

 

Newcastle patently know what they have, which is why they are pursuing their most gilded employee with such vigour, but to be a big club, to be what Benítez thinks they can be, they have to truly behave like one. Is their goal to be “pound for pound,” the best they can be, as they once stated — that awful, pen-pusher’s phrase — or is it to win something, to stand for something, to strive and keep striving?

 

Yes, Sunday was fun. It was fun because in a sense it did not matter, because the pressure was off and politics and tension could be ignored for 90 minutes and a game football enjoyed on its own merits. In another respect, it mattered like hell. It mattered like breathing, like life itself. Newcastle United beat Arsenal at St James’ Park, just like they beat Manchester United, and the ground shook. If they only realised it, this is what Rafa’s Newcastle could be.

Love his writing, nails it every time.

[Mr Logic]

Someone post Caulkin's latest offering please for us peasants!

 

Here yer gan..

 

GEORGE CAULKIN | THE GAME DAILY

april 19 2018, 12:00pm, the times

Newcastle United must act like a big club to keep Rafa Benítez

 

In retrospect, the beauty of last Sunday was the sense of freedom. It was not until Arsenal had been bested that Rafael Benítez accepted Newcastle United were safe and although that caution was understandable and that drive for more is an indelible part of his identity, St James’ Park knew. It is rare for this grand, compelling and perpetually baffling institution to escape the tension it routinely creates for itself and it revelled in the occasion.

 

Football is devious because while the table suggests comfort — Newcastle are tenth — discomfort has been a theme. Their form in 2018 has been excellent, but when they drew 1-1 with Burnley on January 31, they were a point above the bottom three and had not won at home for eight matches. Before kick-off, supporters hoisted a banner featuring a noble quote from Kevin Keegan in protest at Mike Ashley’s ownership. “Don’t ever give up on your club,” a section of it read.

 

On a training camp in Alicante a month ago, Benítez put a season of toil in context. “Have I enjoyed being Newcastle manager? I enjoy it when we are winning,” he said. “I like to do things well and when you see something is right, I’m really proud. But it’s difficult to enjoy it when you are suffering all the time because you have to win and then you lose. Have I enjoyed this season? No, but maybe the word ‘enjoyment’ is different in English.”

 

This context is important, not to wee all over the delight of four victories in succession, but to offer a reminder; it feels good because it has been worked for, because Benítez’s “suffering” has been worthwhile. The same applies to last season. The records show that Newcastle, the favourites for promotion, went up as champions, but they were not lifted to the Premier League on the wings of angels. Every game, every week, brought struggle.

 

You wonder what Ashley makes of it all. When a senior figure at Newcastle — no longer there — was asked about their previous promotion campaign in 2009-10, the achievement was all but dismissed. With that budget, with that help, anybody would have taken them up, he said. Yet Chris Hughton and his squad had taken the initiative where chaos reigned. It was only in late October that Hughton was appointed permanent manager, that the club were taken off the market.

 

Newcastle are for sale again. That point is worth remembering, because if a failed takeover really was a distraction for players when they lost eight of nine games at the back end of last year, it was one invited by their owner. Does Ashley believe that? Does he look back to last summer when, on his authority, Benítez was not permitted to sign a goalkeeper and accept that was an error or does he look at their league position and smile at his own infallibility?

 

Already, there are signs that history is being reshaped by the club. This is Benítez’s squad, his players, a result of his decisions, it is said. True, up to a point. No player has been forced on the manager, but he felt forced to sign Javier Manquillo and Joselu, for example, because he sincerely felt the alternative was signing nobody. “I am signing the players that I can not the players that I want,” he said in late August.

 

The hierarchy’s reluctance to sanction the free transfer of Willy Caballero from Manchester City produced a ripple effect of frustration. Benítez would not allow Karl Darlow to join Middlesbrough because, without a replacement, he could not risk it. Perhaps it was only when Martin Dubravka arrived in January that Benítez’s logic became apparent — Dubravka has been faultless, spreading calm, changing the way Newcastle play — but he should have been trusted.

 

Ah, but Benítez got the three new players he wanted in January, didn’t he? Again, a partial truth. The manager and his staff put weeks of effort into scouting and targeting and setting up deals and then heard nothing until the middle of the month when Ashley suddenly became visible. They should have been clearing up a mess but now they were playing catch-up, too. Dubravka, Kenedy and Islam Slimani have sown improvement, but there is no provision for the latter pair to be signed permanently.

 

Benítez does not hide his impatience. He never has. Like all managers of substance and ambition, he constantly strives for better, but the 58-year-old has found the past three transfer windows exhausting. They have felt like a battle and, after each of them, trust has been eroded. When the market has closed, he has parked his anger and got on with what he excels at, tutoring his players, but it has taken a toll.

 

They say it with the benefit of hindsight (and acknowledge it), but those close to Benítez muse about where Newcastle stand now, the quality of this season’s Premier League, and wonder if they could have been Burnley had their man been listened to in July and August. They certainly believe that the club put themselves under needless pressure, but then this is now engrained as par for the course under Ashley.

 

Yet there is a dual narrative taking place. Since Ashley emerged from hibernation four months ago — he has since returned — there has been a concerted effort to tie Benítez to an extended contract. Initially, the timing was peculiar because Newcastle were the midst of a tussle with relegation and Benítez argued that the best way to show commitment would be to sign the players he wanted. He would not negotiate then, but the wooing has continued.

 

The love-bombing is both eminently reasonable and dripping with irony. Benítez is adored by supporters. He feels his responsibility keenly. He knows what he stands for; hope. That is both a privilege and a burden, because he carries the club on his shoulders. As far as Ashley and his cohorts are concerned, Benítez is the nearest you can get to a managerial guarantee and they are willing to pay for it, but they have also made his existence more difficult than necessary.

 

They are pressing, but the situation is nuanced and complex. Benítez still has a year left on his contract. The £6 million get-out clause is still there and the club would want a version of it to continue. Benítez desperately wants to “compete,” — he is a Champions League manager — but he loves the Newcastle fans, the welcome he has received, the proximity to his family home in Merseyside, the theoretical potential. And where are the “better” options?

 

It is not correct to say that Benítez will leave this summer if a takeover by Amanda Staveley, the businesswoman, does not proceed. What he recoils from more than anything else is the prospect of unemployment. Benítez is key to what Staveley hopes to put into practice at Newcastle — him staying was enshrined in each of her three previous bids for the club — but the same would apply to other prospective owners, Ashley included. He is an enormous asset.

 

It is entirely possible that Benítez will end up staying by default, but you would hope that Newcastle would have the wit to recognise what they have at their fingertips. It is not just about offering Benítez a bigger salary or the promise of transfer funds because those promises are no longer enough. They have been worthless. The club is aching for renewal at every level — the training ground, the academy — and that takes money, commitment and ambition.

 

Newcastle patently know what they have, which is why they are pursuing their most gilded employee with such vigour, but to be a big club, to be what Benítez thinks they can be, they have to truly behave like one. Is their goal to be “pound for pound,” the best they can be, as they once stated — that awful, pen-pusher’s phrase — or is it to win something, to stand for something, to strive and keep striving?

 

Yes, Sunday was fun. It was fun because in a sense it did not matter, because the pressure was off and politics and tension could be ignored for 90 minutes and a game football enjoyed on its own merits. In another respect, it mattered like hell. It mattered like breathing, like life itself. Newcastle United beat Arsenal at St James’ Park, just like they beat Manchester United, and the ground shook. If they only realised it, this is what Rafa’s Newcastle could be.

 

Thank you.

[Rich]

Caulkin is the boy.

[gazza ladra]

It mattered like breathing

[Guest Howaythetoon]

Probably the best thing about Rafa is that he doesn’t just see NUFC as a pay day, a job or a stepping stone or a Job to get himself back into English football and back on the map so to speak which has been levelled at him. He sees the club as his life while he is here and that means putting his all into every aspect of the club.

 

The reserves losing upsets him because it effects him, the club, the way we go forward or not. Poor training facilities bother him because again that effects him and the club. He isn’t a Geordie or a supporter, but he may as well be because like us all, he cares about the club from top to bottom.

 

It’s rare to find a manager like that and while I think he’d be like that at any club in terms of his job as manager, we get that much more from him. Largely because he connects with the fans and the area and we are in a way to thank for that because as much as he has persuaded us to keep supporting and backing even during defeats, poor performances, poor to average players pulling on the shirt and the fact our owner is a cunt, we have persuaded him this club is worth fighting for, worth sticking around, worth working away even if it seems pointless or has become tiresome.

 

We are worth it and he knows it and he is too and we know it. A match made in heaven. Now we need an owner or owners much like our manager as together, owners, manager and fans, we can go places. We need what we had in Sir John Hall and KK, a United team of the pitch and on it. We will be there regardless and support donkeys. But give us something to believe in, something to really shout about.

[Guest Howaythetoon]

I don’t think any manager in the top-flight does more and gives more for the cause than Rafa. As an example... Hughes at Southampton obviously wants success and will put in a shift, but does he care about the under 8s fixture at the weekend? Does he care about grassroots football in the area to go and attend 5 aside pitches? Does he care enough to hold training sessions with academy coaches?

 

To be honest, why should he. His job is to train the first team, select a team and to get points. Doing enough keeps him in a job, the club e ploy others for that stuff. For Rafa it’s about the whole shebang or nothing. Even at Chelsea which was an interim job he had his team monitoring the reserves and academy sides, he’d instruct scouts to check on players at other clubs and so on. It’s not about level of detail or being a control freak.

 

It’s because he knows a football club is more than the 11 players he picks on a weekend or about 3 points. There are more people behind the scenes than footballers and then there are the tens and tens of thousands of fans or in our case a whole City who do care beyond the players on the pitch.

 

Why does he hold a training session for say the midfielders that focuses on looking over the shoulder? Because he wants to improve the players as much as he can. It may or may not work or improve them, it may only improve them 1%, but he feels duty bound to try.

 

That’s what pisses me off about Ashley because Rafa can transform NUFC massively in the way he himself transformed Sports Direct. Rafa can elevate NUFC to the kind of heights SD has enjoyed on the retail world. Look what he has already achieved. On a shoe string comparatively and at a club which was basically broken. I’ve been critical of Rafa this season and do you know what, on reflection, I feel like an idiot all because I didn’t like a certain performance or how we set up or how we performed. More fool me. More fool Ashley. Hopefully next season sees the end of Ashley and the start of the real Rafalution. Can I say that? It’s not too Rawk is it? I now understand why he’s idolised there, the trophies helped, but I think even without the, they would regard Rafa just as highly.

[Twinport53]

@OptaDave -

737 - HTTs previous posts continue his form as poster with most lengthy replies in all threads since 2004-05. Concise.

 

 

[Guest firetotheworks]

[Paully]

Someone post Caulkin's latest offering please for us peasants!

 

Here yer gan..

 

GEORGE CAULKIN | THE GAME DAILY

april 19 2018, 12:00pm, the times

Newcastle United must act like a big club to keep Rafa Benítez

 

In retrospect, the beauty of last Sunday was the sense of freedom. It was not until Arsenal had been bested that Rafael Benítez accepted Newcastle United were safe and although that caution was understandable and that drive for more is an indelible part of his identity, St James’ Park knew. It is rare for this grand, compelling and perpetually baffling institution to escape the tension it routinely creates for itself and it revelled in the occasion.

 

Football is devious because while the table suggests comfort — Newcastle are tenth — discomfort has been a theme. Their form in 2018 has been excellent, but when they drew 1-1 with Burnley on January 31, they were a point above the bottom three and had not won at home for eight matches. Before kick-off, supporters hoisted a banner featuring a noble quote from Kevin Keegan in protest at Mike Ashley’s ownership. “Don’t ever give up on your club,” a section of it read.

 

On a training camp in Alicante a month ago, Benítez put a season of toil in context. “Have I enjoyed being Newcastle manager? I enjoy it when we are winning,” he said. “I like to do things well and when you see something is right, I’m really proud. But it’s difficult to enjoy it when you are suffering all the time because you have to win and then you lose. Have I enjoyed this season? No, but maybe the word ‘enjoyment’ is different in English.”

 

This context is important, not to wee all over the delight of four victories in succession, but to offer a reminder; it feels good because it has been worked for, because Benítez’s “suffering” has been worthwhile. The same applies to last season. The records show that Newcastle, the favourites for promotion, went up as champions, but they were not lifted to the Premier League on the wings of angels. Every game, every week, brought struggle.

 

You wonder what Ashley makes of it all. When a senior figure at Newcastle — no longer there — was asked about their previous promotion campaign in 2009-10, the achievement was all but dismissed. With that budget, with that help, anybody would have taken them up, he said. Yet Chris Hughton and his squad had taken the initiative where chaos reigned. It was only in late October that Hughton was appointed permanent manager, that the club were taken off the market.

 

Newcastle are for sale again. That point is worth remembering, because if a failed takeover really was a distraction for players when they lost eight of nine games at the back end of last year, it was one invited by their owner. Does Ashley believe that? Does he look back to last summer when, on his authority, Benítez was not permitted to sign a goalkeeper and accept that was an error or does he look at their league position and smile at his own infallibility?

 

Already, there are signs that history is being reshaped by the club. This is Benítez’s squad, his players, a result of his decisions, it is said. True, up to a point. No player has been forced on the manager, but he felt forced to sign Javier Manquillo and Joselu, for example, because he sincerely felt the alternative was signing nobody. “I am signing the players that I can not the players that I want,” he said in late August.

 

The hierarchy’s reluctance to sanction the free transfer of Willy Caballero from Manchester City produced a ripple effect of frustration. Benítez would not allow Karl Darlow to join Middlesbrough because, without a replacement, he could not risk it. Perhaps it was only when Martin Dubravka arrived in January that Benítez’s logic became apparent — Dubravka has been faultless, spreading calm, changing the way Newcastle play — but he should have been trusted.

 

Ah, but Benítez got the three new players he wanted in January, didn’t he? Again, a partial truth. The manager and his staff put weeks of effort into scouting and targeting and setting up deals and then heard nothing until the middle of the month when Ashley suddenly became visible. They should have been clearing up a mess but now they were playing catch-up, too. Dubravka, Kenedy and Islam Slimani have sown improvement, but there is no provision for the latter pair to be signed permanently.

 

Benítez does not hide his impatience. He never has. Like all managers of substance and ambition, he constantly strives for better, but the 58-year-old has found the past three transfer windows exhausting. They have felt like a battle and, after each of them, trust has been eroded. When the market has closed, he has parked his anger and got on with what he excels at, tutoring his players, but it has taken a toll.

 

They say it with the benefit of hindsight (and acknowledge it), but those close to Benítez muse about where Newcastle stand now, the quality of this season’s Premier League, and wonder if they could have been Burnley had their man been listened to in July and August. They certainly believe that the club put themselves under needless pressure, but then this is now engrained as par for the course under Ashley.

 

Yet there is a dual narrative taking place. Since Ashley emerged from hibernation four months ago — he has since returned — there has been a concerted effort to tie Benítez to an extended contract. Initially, the timing was peculiar because Newcastle were the midst of a tussle with relegation and Benítez argued that the best way to show commitment would be to sign the players he wanted. He would not negotiate then, but the wooing has continued.

 

The love-bombing is both eminently reasonable and dripping with irony. Benítez is adored by supporters. He feels his responsibility keenly. He knows what he stands for; hope. That is both a privilege and a burden, because he carries the club on his shoulders. As far as Ashley and his cohorts are concerned, Benítez is the nearest you can get to a managerial guarantee and they are willing to pay for it, but they have also made his existence more difficult than necessary.

 

They are pressing, but the situation is nuanced and complex. Benítez still has a year left on his contract. The £6 million get-out clause is still there and the club would want a version of it to continue. Benítez desperately wants to “compete,” — he is a Champions League manager — but he loves the Newcastle fans, the welcome he has received, the proximity to his family home in Merseyside, the theoretical potential. And where are the “better” options?

 

It is not correct to say that Benítez will leave this summer if a takeover by Amanda Staveley, the businesswoman, does not proceed. What he recoils from more than anything else is the prospect of unemployment. Benítez is key to what Staveley hopes to put into practice at Newcastle — him staying was enshrined in each of her three previous bids for the club — but the same would apply to other prospective owners, Ashley included. He is an enormous asset.

 

It is entirely possible that Benítez will end up staying by default, but you would hope that Newcastle would have the wit to recognise what they have at their fingertips. It is not just about offering Benítez a bigger salary or the promise of transfer funds because those promises are no longer enough. They have been worthless. The club is aching for renewal at every level — the training ground, the academy — and that takes money, commitment and ambition.

 

Newcastle patently know what they have, which is why they are pursuing their most gilded employee with such vigour, but to be a big club, to be what Benítez thinks they can be, they have to truly behave like one. Is their goal to be “pound for pound,” the best they can be, as they once stated — that awful, pen-pusher’s phrase — or is it to win something, to stand for something, to strive and keep striving?

 

Yes, Sunday was fun. It was fun because in a sense it did not matter, because the pressure was off and politics and tension could be ignored for 90 minutes and a game football enjoyed on its own merits. In another respect, it mattered like hell. It mattered like breathing, like life itself. Newcastle United beat Arsenal at St James’ Park, just like they beat Manchester United, and the ground shook. If they only realised it, this is what Rafa’s Newcastle could be.

 

 

 

Cheers mate!

 

Just give the man a 30 year contract!

[Odear]

Any manager would be daft to take the Arsenal job. It would be exactly like the Fergie hangover at Man Utd.

 

Rafa wouldn’t falter like most but for a manager like Dyche, it would be career suidice. You go in after the guy that goes in after the guy who tries to replace Wenger, not directly after. Just ask Moyes.

 

One week you’re shooting for the stars, next thing you’re managing Sunderland..

 

Rafa will stay because he loves us.

[Collage]

Any manager would be daft to take the Arsenal job. It would be exactly like the Fergie hangover at Man Utd.

 

Except Arsenal have been under-performing for years.

[NEEJ]

@OptaDave -

737 - HTTs previous posts continue his form as poster with most lengthy replies in all threads since 2004-05. Concise.

 

 

[Guest Howaythetoon]

I bet I’ve posted less words on here than most.