Rafa Benítez (now unemployed)

[Guest]

[wormy]

I don't like that.

[CPL]

Anyone see the Crouch interview on bbc?

 

He got Rafa for secret Santa one year and bought him the Mourinho book “The art of winning”

 

[Guest firetotheworks]

Sometimes you need to remind yourself that Rafa Benitez is our manager. It's a sign of where we are that that's such a huge deal, but at the same time we shouldn't take it for granted because if he goes before Ashley does, whoever we get will be on nowhere near the same level of ability as him. In fact by comparison it'll be embarrassing in comparison. It's almost taken for granted now that defensively we're unbelievably reliable. That's at Newcastle, a team so historically poor defensively that even the least superstitious amibgst us probably thought at one time or another that we're cursed. Rafa waltzed in, sorted it immediately, and made it something consistent, even when we have nothing going forward.

 

How many top level managers really truly test themselves like Rafa has? I have so much respect for what Rafa's attempted, even if what he saw in Newcastle ended up being impossible under Ashley.

[AyeDubbleYoo]

Sometimes you need to remind yourself that Rafa Benitez is our manager. It's a sign of where we are that that's such a huge deal, but at the same time we shouldn't take it for granted because if he goes before Ashley does, whoever we get will be on nowhere near the same level of ability as him. In fact by comparison it'll be embarrassing in comparison. It's almost taken for granted now that defensively we're unbelievably reliable. That's at Newcastle, a team so historically poor defensively that even the least superstitious amibgst us probably thought at one time or another that we're cursed. Rafa waltzed in, sorted it immediately, and made it something consistent, even when we have nothing going forward.

 

How many top level managers really truly test themselves like Rafa has? I have so much respect for what Rafa's attempted, even if what he saw in Newcastle ended up being impossible under Ashley.

 

Sadly I’ve gone past the pinch yourself stage to the ‘oh shit he’s on the way out’ stage

[Paully]

How anyone could doubt him is beyond me - the bloke is magnificent!

 

It's going to be a hammer blow when he leaves in the summer 

[tmonkey]

If Pardew, Souness, et al, had had the sort of start to the season we had under Rafa, they'd have panicked, chopped and changed the team every week, utilized completely different styles of play from one week to the other, tried things we don't have the players for for 45 minutes before doing the opposite, thrown some players (the easy targets) under the bus to deflect attention, blamed someone/something/everything when losing, etc etc.

 

By contrast Rafa remains calm, composed, doesn't let the building pressure or negative voices in the media get to him, sticks by his guns, protects his players, doesn't confuse things by introducing different play-styles willy nilly, and sees his plans through.

 

Essentially the difference between a genuinely good football manager with natural competencies in the role, and those who've merely grabbed the opportunity to be a PL manager despite having few of the skills or traits required by the role.

[The College Dropout]

There's also less pressure for him to do so here. We've given him the respect to do things his way.

[r0cafella]

Without giving him a penny to do it.

 

He's exceptional and his achievements only go to prove that. This man has won major honours with outsiders on multiple occasions.

[TRon]

If Pardew, Souness, et al, had had the sort of start to the season we had under Rafa, they'd have panicked, chopped and changed the team every week, utilized completely different styles of play from one week to the other, tried things we don't have the players for for 45 minutes before doing the opposite, thrown some players (the easy targets) under the bus to deflect attention, blamed someone/something/everything when losing, etc etc.

 

By contrast Rafa remains calm, composed, doesn't let the building pressure or negative voices in the media get to him, sticks by his guns, protects his players, doesn't confuse things by introducing different play-styles willy nilly, and sees his plans through.

 

Essentially the difference between a genuinely good football manager with natural competencies in the role, and those who've merely grabbed the opportunity to be a PL manager despite having few of the skills or traits required by the role.

 

Great post.

 

Rafa has what all great managers have, absolute faith in their methods. Plus some actual football intelligence of course, otherwise Sam Allardyce would be a great manager.

[54]

Weird how we haven't heard from Keys and Gray in a while. ?

[ToonArmy1892]

His presser is usually on .co.uk by now.

[Paully]

Spot on this by Louise Taylor;

 

 

 

9) Newcastle suffer from failure to add cover

 

“For want of a nail, the shoe was lost; for want of the shoe, the horse was lost; for want of the horse, the rider was lost; for want of the rider, the battle was lost.” The nail represents the specialist left-back Newcastle’s Rafa Benítez was not permitted to sign as cover for Paul Dummett. With Dummett hamstrung – again – his inadequate replacement, Javier Manquillo, operated out of position on Saturday and came up against Robert Snodgrass. It proved an unequal duel. Significantly, the game’s best player was Felipe Anderson. During last summer’s transfer window when Newcastle made £20m and Manuel Pellegrini invested £100m, the Brazilian cost £36m from Lazio. Criticising Benítez for scrapping a back five or not playing Ciaran Clark at left-back misses the bigger picture; sometimes you really do get what you pay for. Louise Taylor

 

[astraguy]

Rafa had no idea about takeover it's utter shit

[Paully]

[Sho Time]

Dec on the illegal stream eh

[steve_69]

Dec on the illegal stream eh

 

Probably on legally in Australia

[Stifler]

Bought it.

They did the same some years ago when we were in the Europa League, they bought the Australian rights to broadcast the match in order to gain access to UEFA’s live stream.

[abertoon]

Maybe for the Europa League that was needed but in Australia you have access to every Premier League game live so I imagine it's just on their equivalent of Sky Sports & Sky Go app.

 

Saturday 3pms they have on a red button / BT Champions league style here. I remember the coverage of the Championship being pretty good too - remember they showed loads of our games live when we were in the Championship first time around.

 

Always thought that kind of access would be mint here, but would kill attendances I imagine.

[Paully]

Great thread this - some brilliant comments - this takeover better bastard happen 

 

[Raconteur]

Maybe for the Europa League that was needed but in Australia you have access to every Premier League game live so I imagine it's just on their equivalent of Sky Sports & Sky Go app.

 

Saturday 3pms they have on a red button / BT Champions league style here. I remember the coverage of the Championship being pretty good too - remember they showed loads of our games live when we were in the Championship first time around.

 

Always thought that kind of access would be mint here, but would kill attendances I imagine.

 

That was the bad old days when Rupert's Foxtel owned the rights. They're now owned by a mobile phone company, with a flat $15pm for all games (on demand) plus Champions League and Europa League. It's amazing.

 

Some compensation for the fact our local league isn't worth watching.

[54]

 

You know what to do.

[ToonArmy1892]

Done.

 

Howay Rafa la.

[Scoot]

 

You know what to do.

 

Done.

 

Isn't this where the mackems jump on board and all agree to vote for 1 other individual?

[Paully]

 

You know what to do.

 

Done.

 

Isn't this where the mackems jump on board and all agree to vote for 1 other individual?

 

 

 

100000% nailed on!