Various: Mike Ashley in talks with Sheikh Khaled bin Zayed Al Nehayan

[Nobody]

I enjoyed my genuine confusion when it came to what to look at online when I couldn't get on here

The Internet is fucking shite without this place

[Altamullan]

Ah! Back in post maintenance. Glad to see I haven’t missed anything (not really).

[Guest firetotheworks]

Ashley's back from his holiday today, for the very little that that's worth.

 

[Klaus]

Everybody on Chopper watch

[Wilson]

 

He's such a fuckin cunt man.

[Collage]

Just spotted this gadgie mooching about near the ground....

 

 

We'll attract a lot of plastics from now on.

[Robster]

Everybody on Chopper watch

Might want to rephrase that.

[Klaus]

Everybody on Chopper watch

Might want to rephrase that.

 

TTJ

[Altamullan]

Everybody on Chopper watch

Might want to rephrase that.

Fear not, I understand that Quakes is taking one for the team and has put himself on chopper watch 24/7.

[Super Duper Branko Strupar]

Not heard that colloquialism in a while.

[Cristov]

For the love of Allah let this be done soon.

[HaydnNUFC]

For the love of Allah let this be done soon.

Staveley confident it'll be done by next month according to Caulkin's latest article.

[Guest reefatoon]

Next month is no good like.  Would be torture, finally being rid of Ashley, only to see us go down because we spent fuck all in January.

[RodneyCisse]

Was it under maintenance all night?   

[xLiaaamx]

Next month is no good like.  Would be torture, finally being rid of Ashley, only to see us go down because we spent f*** all in January.

I'd still prefer it over any future with him at the club.

[HaydnNUFC]

Next month is no good like.  Would be torture, finally being rid of Ashley, only to see us go down because we spent f*** all in January.

Think some fans would take relegation but new owners rather than PL with Ashley. Zero clue about what Rafa would do if the former occurred but I doubt anyone can see him doing another season in that dogshit bantz cheap lager league.

 

Either way, I think Rafa can do just enough with no additions or sales this window to keep us up. It'd be an awful, horrible slog mind.

[Darth Crooks]

I like cheap lager.

[Klaus]

If our potential new owners have no desire to spend money in this window (therefore delaying a deal until the window shuts) it doesn’t exactly smack of ambition for the mid to long term on their part.

[Charlies]

Caulkin:

 

They are as feverish as always; making and fielding calls, seeing what’s out there, working the angles, plotting how a rival club’s move for player X might free player Y. This is the grind of the transfer window and Newcastle United are grinding through it like everybody else, except in one significant regard. “David Blaine would struggle to make any magic from what we’ve got available,” says one person involved in the club’s recruitment process.

 

This is becoming an old, old story at St James’ Park, one of stasis and uncertainty. A year ago, Rafa Benítez, then leading his side in the Sky Bet Championship, held meetings, identified targets and set up the deals which the manager believed would assure promotion. Nothing happened, no explanations. Last summer, he did the same, but procrastination cost Newcastle players and from that point it was catch-up.

 

It is wearisome to relate the same anecdotes, but Benítez still mentions Newcastle’s reluctance to sign Willy Caballero on a free transfer from Manchester City. At the time, the club had four goalkeepers on their books - Karl Darlow, Rob Elliot, Freddie Woodman and Tim Krul - and Caballero’s move to Chelsea forced Benítez to block an offer for Darlow. Without a replacement, he could not sanction any departure.

 

Benítez has lined up a number of targets in recent windows but they have fallen throughSCOTT HEPPELL/REUTERS

 

From there, Newcastle’s work unravelled. Benítez was convinced he had secured Tammy Abraham on-loan from Chelsea; Swansea City offered a more attractive package and the centre forward was lost. By the middle of August, he was signing Joselu from Stoke City for £5 million, a willing striker capable of following orders and with an unquestionable attitude, but lacking a killer touch in front of goal.

 

As the season began, Benítez predicted struggle and he was right, but this is not a hierarchy which heeds its own history. At his press briefing before Newcastle’s FA Cup fixture against Luton Town last Friday, Benítez said: “I don’t know exactly what our budget is, so I don’t have any news. We have to keep working and try to make sure we have our targets, because I don’t know.” The window had already been open for five days.

 

It is said that when Benítez brings up targets with Lee Charnley, the managing director, the Spaniard is asked who he can trim from his first-team squad, the same impasse as the summer. Benítez does not wish to sell unless or until he knows he can bring in better. He has spoken to Mike Ashley, Newcastle’s reluctant owner, and warned that spending this month was the best way to protect his investment.

 

As things stand, there is no evidence Benítez is being listened to. So he and his colleagues go through the motions, sounding out clubs, speaking to agents. Newcastle need to improve and they need to be ready. Daniel Sturridge? Yeah, they’ll ask the question, but Liverpool would prefer to sell, which rules out one avenue and the striker’s £150,000-a-week wages mitigates against a loan. “Impossible,” says the source, who has asked anyway.

 

Newcastle 3 Luton Town 1

 

Similar applies to Joe Hart; on-loan at West Ham United from Manchester City and “offered” to Newcastle through an intermediary. “It’s pie in the sky stuff,” according to the man in the know, far too complex. Nobody does anybody else favours, which is why Benítez could not countenance Jonjo Shelvey leaving for West Ham, even if David Moyes hardened a vague interest in him. There would be peril in selling to a rival.

 

Newcastle continue to look at temporary solutions. Just as they had five months ago, Newcastle have a framework in place to take Kenedy on loan from Chelsea but are again at the whim of Antonio Conte. Benítez has understandable concerns about the match fitness of Liverpool’s Danny Ings, but he is another option. Ings will go eventually, they think, but for now the player is fighting for his place.

 

This is the flotsam and jetsam of the market, identical for everybody. What is different this time is the prospective takeover which looms over Newcastle. When, in the middle of last month, a jolt of progress was made, an agreement between Ashley and Amanda Staveley was in reach. Staveley had bid £300 million and there was an acceptance in both camps that money should be made available to Benítez. Agonisingly, an accord remains just beyond their fingertips.

 

Premier League clips powered by Sky Sports

 

Video highlights: Stoke City 0 Newcastle United 1

 

Staveley remains confident that Ashley will sell to her and hopefully by next month. The alternative - and the deflation which would follow hard behind - does not bear thinking about, but we have had a little taste over the past few weeks. It is said that Charnley’s instincts are to back Benítez in the market but he does not have the power to act unilaterally and Ashley, who shows little interest in Newcastle, has been on holiday. And so they drift on.

 

So far, there has been little of the frustration which Benítez showed either a year ago or last summer. He is still asking the questions, still pushing for action, still pushing for more, but he is focusing on the team and what he can control. He has to. Perhaps the logjam will end and he will get some clarity - Ashley is never less than unpredictable - but if he assumes the worst, anything else is a bonus and relegation must still be avoided.

 

“We’re determined not to get angry this time,” the source says but, in some ways, a sense of resignation is worse. In matters such as this, Ashley’s Newcastle have demonstrated repeatedly they are not the ambitious, progressive club which Benítez thought they could become and although the manager is still under contract, with a penalty clause which prevents him walking out, the realisation is dismaying.

 

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Newcastle need a fresh start, impetus, something new. It is a thought which occurred again in the wake of Peter Beardsley being placed on gardening leave. Nothing to do with allegations of racism and bullying, which the former England international denies categorically, but because of the longstanding feeling amongst substantive figures within the club that Newcastle’s academy was simply not making progress.

 

Newcastle are standing still; Benítez knows it and Ashley knows it, too. In October, the sportswear retailer’s lawyer gave an interview to Sky Sports. The club was for sale, he said, because there was “a feeling that all that can be done has been done. So it is probably just a recognition that it might be time for a change.” And if a sale was not completed by January? “Business as usual,” he said. Business as usual is right.

 

 

[HaydnNUFC]

I like cheap lager.

I can't even blame that on the autocorrect, that was just awful.

[Darth Crooks]

Caulkin:

 

They are as feverish as always; making and fielding calls, seeing what’s out there, working the angles, plotting how a rival club’s move for player X might free player Y. This is the grind of the transfer window and Newcastle United are grinding through it like everybody else, except in one significant regard. “David Blaine would struggle to make any magic from what we’ve got available,” says one person involved in the club’s recruitment process.

 

This is becoming an old, old story at St James’ Park, one of stasis and uncertainty. A year ago, Rafa Benítez, then leading his side in the Sky Bet Championship, held meetings, identified targets and set up the deals which the manager believed would assure promotion. Nothing happened, no explanations. Last summer, he did the same, but procrastination cost Newcastle players and from that point it was catch-up.

 

It is wearisome to relate the same anecdotes, but Benítez still mentions Newcastle’s reluctance to sign Willy Caballero on a free transfer from Manchester City. At the time, the club had four goalkeepers on their books - Karl Darlow, Rob Elliot, Freddie Woodman and Tim Krul - and Caballero’s move to Chelsea forced Benítez to block an offer for Darlow. Without a replacement, he could not sanction any departure.

 

Benítez has lined up a number of targets in recent windows but they have fallen throughSCOTT HEPPELL/REUTERS

 

From there, Newcastle’s work unravelled. Benítez was convinced he had secured Tammy Abraham on-loan from Chelsea; Swansea City offered a more attractive package and the centre forward was lost. By the middle of August, he was signing Joselu from Stoke City for £5 million, a willing striker capable of following orders and with an unquestionable attitude, but lacking a killer touch in front of goal.

 

As the season began, Benítez predicted struggle and he was right, but this is not a hierarchy which heeds its own history. At his press briefing before Newcastle’s FA Cup fixture against Luton Town last Friday, Benítez said: “I don’t know exactly what our budget is, so I don’t have any news. We have to keep working and try to make sure we have our targets, because I don’t know.” The window had already been open for five days.

 

It is said that when Benítez brings up targets with Lee Charnley, the managing director, the Spaniard is asked who he can trim from his first-team squad, the same impasse as the summer. Benítez does not wish to sell unless or until he knows he can bring in better. He has spoken to Mike Ashley, Newcastle’s reluctant owner, and warned that spending this month was the best way to protect his investment.

 

As things stand, there is no evidence Benítez is being listened to. So he and his colleagues go through the motions, sounding out clubs, speaking to agents. Newcastle need to improve and they need to be ready. Daniel Sturridge? Yeah, they’ll ask the question, but Liverpool would prefer to sell, which rules out one avenue and the striker’s £150,000-a-week wages mitigates against a loan. “Impossible,” says the source, who has asked anyway.

 

Newcastle 3 Luton Town 1

 

Similar applies to Joe Hart; on-loan at West Ham United from Manchester City and “offered” to Newcastle through an intermediary. “It’s pie in the sky stuff,” according to the man in the know, far too complex. Nobody does anybody else favours, which is why Benítez could not countenance Jonjo Shelvey leaving for West Ham, even if David Moyes hardened a vague interest in him. There would be peril in selling to a rival.

 

Newcastle continue to look at temporary solutions. Just as they had five months ago, Newcastle have a framework in place to take Kenedy on loan from Chelsea but are again at the whim of Antonio Conte. Benítez has understandable concerns about the match fitness of Liverpool’s Danny Ings, but he is another option. Ings will go eventually, they think, but for now the player is fighting for his place.

 

This is the flotsam and jetsam of the market, identical for everybody. What is different this time is the prospective takeover which looms over Newcastle. When, in the middle of last month, a jolt of progress was made, an agreement between Ashley and Amanda Staveley was in reach. Staveley had bid £300 million and there was an acceptance in both camps that money should be made available to Benítez. Agonisingly, an accord remains just beyond their fingertips.

 

Premier League clips powered by Sky Sports

 

Video highlights: Stoke City 0 Newcastle United 1

 

Staveley remains confident that Ashley will sell to her and hopefully by next month. The alternative - and the deflation which would follow hard behind - does not bear thinking about, but we have had a little taste over the past few weeks. It is said that Charnley’s instincts are to back Benítez in the market but he does not have the power to act unilaterally and Ashley, who shows little interest in Newcastle, has been on holiday. And so they drift on.

 

So far, there has been little of the frustration which Benítez showed either a year ago or last summer. He is still asking the questions, still pushing for action, still pushing for more, but he is focusing on the team and what he can control. He has to. Perhaps the logjam will end and he will get some clarity - Ashley is never less than unpredictable - but if he assumes the worst, anything else is a bonus and relegation must still be avoided.

 

“We’re determined not to get angry this time,” the source says but, in some ways, a sense of resignation is worse. In matters such as this, Ashley’s Newcastle have demonstrated repeatedly they are not the ambitious, progressive club which Benítez thought they could become and although the manager is still under contract, with a penalty clause which prevents him walking out, the realisation is dismaying.

 

IN YOUR INBOX

 

 

 

Daily football briefing

 

Get the latest football news and analysis plus exclusive Premier League highlights in our daily football briefing Ahead of the Game

 

Sign up now

 

Newcastle need a fresh start, impetus, something new. It is a thought which occurred again in the wake of Peter Beardsley being placed on gardening leave. Nothing to do with allegations of racism and bullying, which the former England international denies categorically, but because of the longstanding feeling amongst substantive figures within the club that Newcastle’s academy was simply not making progress.

 

Newcastle are standing still; Benítez knows it and Ashley knows it, too. In October, the sportswear retailer’s lawyer gave an interview to Sky Sports. The club was for sale, he said, because there was “a feeling that all that can be done has been done. So it is probably just a recognition that it might be time for a change.” And if a sale was not completed by January? “Business as usual,” he said. Business as usual is right.

 

 

 

[SEMTEX]

If our potential new owners have no desire to spend money in this window (therefore delaying a deal until the window shuts) it doesn’t exactly smack of ambition for the mid to long term on their part.

 

Seems far more likely that Ashley knows they'd want to spend asap, and thus, if they want to do a deal asap, he's playing hard ball and trying to eke out as much money as possible.

[Willow]

Next month is no good like.  Would be torture, finally being rid of Ashley, only to see us go down because we spent fuck all in January.

 

This is exactly what will happen and we can all see it a mile off. So frustrating when we can't do anything about it.

 

At this rate, we're going to get relegated and all the hard work done by Rafa/players in the Championship has been for nothing. That's not being dramatic, it's just very realistic.

[Zero]

Yea but that means Ashley f***ing sure PCP really wants the club at all cost. That doesn't make sense to me or to anyone. PCP can just end the discussion and walk away FFS.

[Klaus]

If our potential new owners have no desire to spend money in this window (therefore delaying a deal until the window shuts) it doesn’t exactly smack of ambition for the mid to long term on their part.

 

Seems far more likely that Ashley knows they'd want to spend asap, and thus, if they want to do a deal asap, he's playing hard ball and trying to eke out as much money as possible.

 

I prefer this scenario