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Rafa Benítez (now unemployed)


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"Our reality is if you want to buy a striker that scores 20 goals every year then you have to pay £40m.

 

"An average striker is £15m, £20m, or £25m. If he kicks the ball forward it's £15m, if he scores it's £25m. We didn't do that and that's it. (NB: Joselu cost £5m).

 

"We need to know who we are, and where we are. It can be worse if we start questioning everything, the reality is the reality.

 

"You can lose against the top teams, we have to compete against Huddersfield, Brighton, or Burnley, but we couldn't sign players that they signed. We couldn't pay the wages that they paid, so that is what we have.

 

"I can tell you a couple of players in each team that maybe we could have signed, but we couldn't pay the wages, or we couldn't pay the transfer fee, or whatever.

 

"That is a message for our fans - so stick together. We have to support our team, we have to support our players, so stick together."

 

"The top six teams are the higher wages - the top six are the top six in wage bills. The fans have to realise that it could be worse."

 

"We will be better in the second half of the season. We aim for 20 points in the first half of the season, so if we win some games in between, that will make things easier.

 

"A message for our fans - stick together. You see what we have and the players are giving everything. They can manage if we stay calm.

 

"We have to support our team; to support our players. If they make the worst mistake in football history, we stick together."

 

"What is our target? To stay in the Premier League. Nobody said it would be easy. I have confidence. Sometimes you will win, sometimes you will lose."

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Can 100% see him getting sacked if we don't pick up soon, like. Never underestimate Ashley's stupidity.

 

Yeah I'm sure he's that daft to risk relegation and the last chance to sell the club for a decent price.

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Don't you's remember how many years it took him to sack Pardew?  :lol: A few weeks bad form is nothing compared to what he put up with off McClaren and Pardew.

 

Not that I think it would happen but his reasons for dismissing Rafa would be completely different from any previous sacking tbh. He'd probably quite like Rafa to be gone if Ashley was sticking around.

 

Their relationship is not, nor would it ever be, sustainable.

 

The only reason Rafa is still here is because of the takeover talks. On both sides. Rafa staying because of what we could be, MA keeping him because he's a hugely valuable asset to any potential buyer.

 

If MA changes his mind, Rafa will be down the road. Just a question of which one blinks first.....

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Look at you all, underestimating Ashley's stupidity.

 

If the takeover collapses and we're at risk of relegation by March, it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if he sacked Rafa.

 

And yeah, like Minhosa says, their relationship isn't sustainable.

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I think Benitez holds a lot of the cards here.  He is a huge asset, we will be less valuable without him, we are much more likely to be relegated without him, the supporters love him.  He is actually adding value to the club

 

He can and is exerting pressure

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I don't know about that, the club is worth less without him so from a business perspective it would be stupid to get rid of him or force his hand to leave.

 

Imagine the scenario, Benitez walks, how much is NUFC worth?

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Rafa is sticking around because of the potential takeover that's obvious, he may feel a sense of loyalty towards the fans that will make him stay till the end of the season when the takeover inevitably collapses. Right now though I do think he's under performing, his game planning during this run we are on has been extremely poor, his team selection has been stupid and the lack of changes he's made during games when we've fallen behind has been very alarming, something we were told from many Liverpool fans was a strong point of his.

 

Having said all that any chance a Ashley owned NUFC has to stay in this division lies solely on Rafa being in charge, Ashley may not know that and his advisers have fed him so much crap over the years might well tell him to change the manager if things don't pick up post January (where he is safe while the takeover is in process), assuming we are off the market again and Ashley is still in charge. 

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"Our fans, they know where we are and why we are here".

 

Pretty damning statement against Ashley there.

 

Just have an image of Charnley sat quivering away in the corner of the press conference awaiting the impending call from the Fat Lad.

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"Our fans, they know where we are and why we are here".

 

Pretty damning statement against Ashley there.

 

As long as Ashley is wanting to sell the club to PCP, there's fuck all he can do about it other than fume silently at Rafa publicly calling him out.

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Don't you's remember how many years it took him to sack Pardew?  :lol: A few weeks bad form is nothing compared to what he put up with off McClaren and Pardew.

 

Not that I think it would happen but his reasons for dismissing Rafa would be completely different from any previous sacking tbh. He'd probably quite like Rafa to be gone if Ashley was sticking around.

 

Their relationship is not, nor would it ever be, sustainable.

 

The only reason Rafa is still here is because of the takeover talks. On both sides. Rafa staying because of what we could be, MA keeping him because he's a hugely valuable asset to any potential buyer.

 

If MA changes his mind, Rafa will be down the road. Just a question of which one blinks first.....

 

I see what you're saying, but the only reason that eventuality would be the case is out of pure spite. There's no benefit to his business position by letting go NUFC's biggest and most important asset. I'd personally say the club would be worth 10s of millions of pounds less and be far less attractive if the manager wasn't there. I know you can't put it past Ashley to act out of pure spite, but if I had to guess, I'd say the chances of him sacking Rafa this season are extremely slim.

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There's no benefit to his business position by letting go NUFC's biggest and most important asset.

Ashley is a petty man with a thin skin. I believe he'd rather 'win' an argument with someone like Rafa, rather than see past it and do whats best for him financially. Rafa's words yesterday will have upset him.

 

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There's no benefit to his business position by letting go NUFC's biggest and most important asset.

Ashley is a petty man with a thin skin. I believe he'd rather 'win' an argument with someone like Rafa, rather than see past it and do whats best for him financially. Rafa's words yesterday will have upset him.

So will have his words post QPR last season and his patter in the summer. And he's still here. As if he'd get sacked ffs.
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