Various: N-O has lost the plot over potential end of Mike Ashley's tenure

[Judge Holden]

Wouldnt say no to Barkley but would prefer Loftus Cheek especially afer Rafa wanting him previously

 

He probably only wanted Loftus Cheek on the chance he could get him on loan as Charnley/MA wouldn't give the go-ahead for a fee big enough to get Barkley or anyone else of similar ilk.

[robm]

Can someone post the article?

 

Exclusive: Rafael Benitez wants to make his second coming at Newcastle United

 

Spaniard also keen on signing John Stones and Ross Barkley if he returns from Chinese Super League

By Matt Law, Football News Correspondent 24 May 2020 • 9:00pm

Rafael Benítez — Rafael Benitez ready to make his second coming at Newcastle United

Rafael Benítez was a hugely popular manager at Newcastle United, with both the players and fans Credit: GETTY IMAGES

 

Rafael Benítez is keen to make an emotional return to Newcastle United under a new Saudi Arabian-backed ownership with John Stones and Ross Barkley among the players the Spaniard would like to take with him.

 

The proposed £300 million takeover could be resolved this week, which will increase the speculation over the future of manager Steve Bruce and potential signings in the next transfer window.

 

Telegraph Sport has already reported that Bruce will be backed until at least the end of the season and given the opportunity to remain as manager beyond that, while no shortlists have been drawn up over possible replacements or big-money signings.

 

But it is understood that Benítez, currently manager of Dalian Professional in China, is interested in making a return under a new ownership in a move that would delight Newcastle fans.

 

Benítez was idolised by Newcastle supporters during his three years at the club before he left when his contract expired last summer. The main obstacle to a potential return would be the combined costs of his Dalian pay-off and salary.

 

Mauricio Pochettino has also been linked with the Newcastle job, but it is less clear whether or not he would accept an offer to succeed Bruce even though the Argentine has admitted he would like his next job to be in England.

 

Benítez would no doubt want assurances over receiving the sort of budget he would need to turn Newcastle into a team capable of challenging for European qualification and two players high on the 60-year-old’s wishlist would be former Everton pair Stones and Barkley.

Rafael Benítez — Rafael Benitez ready to make his second coming at Newcastle United

Newcastle supporters idolised Benítez when he was at St James' Park, in much the same way Valencia and Liverpool fans also did during his respective spells at Mestalla and Anfield Credit: GETTY IMAGES

 

Newcastle’s interest in the duo may not be reliant on Benítez returning, as Stones and Barkley would also no doubt be attractive to Bruce, Pochettino or any other potential manager.

 

Stones is likely to be allowed to leave Manchester City in the next transfer window and Benítez is a long-term admirer of the defender, having recommended him to Real Madrid in 2016.

 

Benítez had informed Madrid of the ability of Stones, then at Everton, before eventually losing his job at the Santiago Bernabéu to Zinedine Zidane and the Spanish club did not end up making a move.

 

Stones has lived up to some of the potential Benítez saw, excelling for England in the 2018 World Cup, but the 25-year-old has suffered a difficult season with form and injuries.

 

He has used the break in football to reassess his training and has insisted he feels in top shape ahead of the planned July restart.

 

But Stones faces a challenge to convince City manager Pep Guardiola that he can be relied upon as a first-choice defender moving forwards and sources believe the club will be open to offers for him.

 

Stones himself may need to carefully consider his future at the end of the season. With the European Championships postponed until next summer, he will know he cannot afford another stop-start campaign like the current one.

 

Arsenal have been linked with Stones, but Benítez would love to work with him and would back himself to rectify some of the defensive errors that his critics have pounced upon.

 

Ross Barkley produced two of his best performances in a Chelsea shirt, against Liverpool in the FA Cup and his old club Everton in the league, ahead of the suspension of the season.

 

But the midfielder could continue to face strong competition for his Blues place over the coming months with Ruben Loftus-Cheek set to return from injury after the restart.

 

Frank Lampard, the Chelsea head coach, has plenty of options in midfield and will know he will have to sell some players to help fund the kind of incoming business he would like to complete.

 

The final games of the season may be key to determining whether or not Lampard would consider an offer for Barkley, but like Stones, the 26-year-old will know that he needs to play regularly next season ahead of the Euros.

 

Benítez tried to sign Barkley for Liverpool after seeing him play for his school Broadgreen International in 2008, but the player was already committed to his boyhood club Everton.

 

It is also believed Benítez briefly looked into trying to join the chase to sign Barkley from Everton, when he was last in charge at Newcastle, but could not match the ambition or finances of Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur, who were also interested at the time.

 

Like Stones, Barkley has realised some of his vast potential at different stages of his career and, at £15m, has proved to be a shrewd signing for Chelsea who they will certainly make a healthy profit on should they ever sell.

 

Other than Newcastle, West Ham United, whose manager David Moyes enquired about him in January, would be interested in Barkley.

 

[Toonjam88]

Was gutted when Rafa left even though I’d long since stopped going to matches. He gets the place and would build the club up from bottom to top, and that’s undoubtedly what we need.

 

However, I can’t put my finger on it but Pochettino just excites me more, and I think the reason is signings. You just know Rafa’s signings would be to suit his system, even if that meant having someone like that danish kid jorgenson up front.

 

Rafa is certainly the safe pair of hands and sensible option, but big part of me would love to see what Pochettino could do.

This, not sure why but Poch excite’s me more

[madras]

Was gutted when Rafa left even though I’d long since stopped going to matches. He gets the place and would build the club up from bottom to top, and that’s undoubtedly what we need.

 

However, I can’t put my finger on it but Pochettino just excites me more, and I think the reason is signings. You just know Rafa’s signings would be to suit his system, even if that meant having someone like that danish kid jorgenson up front.

 

Rafa is certainly the safe pair of hands and sensible option, but big part of me would love to see what Pochettino could do.

This, not sure why but Poch excite’s me more

It'll be the style of football. As much as I like Rafa, given a "budget"  I want entertainment like Bayern V Chelsea which was a whole new sport, Ajax a season back, Barcelona  with the advent of tika taka, not just winning but great to watch aswell.

 

IF (?) We are to be the richest club even given FFP winning is pointless ,for me without panache.....could Rafa do this ?

[huss9]

Rafa-yes

Barkley-no

Stones-no

 

 

Although Rafa is a pretty good coach of cbs so maybe he can bring out the best in him.

 

Rafa- Yes

Whatever Rafa wants- Yes

 

bada boom!

[Gallowgate End]

Was gutted when Rafa left even though I’d long since stopped going to matches. He gets the place and would build the club up from bottom to top, and that’s undoubtedly what we need.

 

However, I can’t put my finger on it but Pochettino just excites me more, and I think the reason is signings. You just know Rafa’s signings would be to suit his system, even if that meant having someone like that danish kid jorgenson up front.

 

Rafa is certainly the safe pair of hands and sensible option, but big part of me would love to see what Pochettino could do.

This, not sure why but Poch excite’s me more

It'll be the style of football. As much as I like Rafa, given a "budget"  I want entertainment like Bayern V Chelsea which was a whole new sport, Ajax a season back, Barcelona  with the advent of tika taka, not just winning but great to watch aswell.

 

IF (?) We are to be the richest club even given FFP winning is pointless ,for me without panache.....could Rafa do this?

 

Yes.

 

Rafa Benitez is the highest goal rate Real Madrid manager in the last 60 years produced their biggest goalscoring win in Champions League history(8 v 0) and their biggest La Liga win in sixty years(10 v 2)

 

It’s just a myth that he only plays defensive football and that Poch would be more attacking than him if both had a good team/financial backing.

 

Rafa’s goal rate at R Madrid(2.76)

Rafa’s goal rate at Chelsea(2.06)

Rafa’s goal rate at Napoli(1.96)

 

Compare that with Poch’s goal rate at Spurs(1.91)

 

The only reason Poch would excite some people more is because the media describe Rafa as only a defensive manager when in fact he’s one of the most approach adaptable managers in the world he chooses the approach best suited to the group of players he has.

 

He was too attacking at Real Madrid if anything but proved he can play very attacking football with a 2.76 goal rate.

[wormy]

Rafa-yes

Barkley-no

Stones-no

 

 

Although Rafa is a pretty good coach of cbs so maybe he can bring out the best in him.

 

Rafa- Yes

Whatever Rafa wants- Yes

 

bada boom!

 

If that's what he wants give it to him.

 

Even if the takeover goes through I can't see that we'll be fighting with the 'big boys' for players yet. We'll sure as hell end up filling some gaps with the cast offs who still have potential or something to prove. And if Rafa thought they'll do a job whether short term or long term, I'd trust him. Could certainly see Stones and Barkley fit that sort of bill.

[Raconteur]

Was gutted when Rafa left even though I’d long since stopped going to matches. He gets the place and would build the club up from bottom to top, and that’s undoubtedly what we need.

 

However, I can’t put my finger on it but Pochettino just excites me more, and I think the reason is signings. You just know Rafa’s signings would be to suit his system, even if that meant having someone like that danish kid jorgenson up front.

 

Rafa is certainly the safe pair of hands and sensible option, but big part of me would love to see what Pochettino could do.

This, not sure why but Poch excite’s me more

It'll be the style of football. As much as I like Rafa, given a "budget"  I want entertainment like Bayern V Chelsea which was a whole new sport, Ajax a season back, Barcelona  with the advent of tika taka, not just winning but great to watch aswell.

 

IF (?) We are to be the richest club even given FFP winning is pointless ,for me without panache.....could Rafa do this?

 

Yes.

 

Rafa Benitez is the highest goal rate Real Madrid manager in the last 60 years produced their biggest goalscoring win in Champions League history(8 v 0) and their biggest La Liga win in sixty years(10 v 2)

 

It’s just a myth that he only plays defensive football and that Poch would be more attacking than him if both had a good team/financial backing.

 

Rafa’s goal rate at R Madrid(2.76)

Rafa’s goal rate at Chelsea(2.06)

Rafa’s goal rate at Napoli(1.96)

 

Compare that with Poch’s goal rate at Spurs(1.91)

 

The only reason Poch would excite some people more is because the media describe Rafa as only a defensive manager when in fact he’s one of the most approach adaptable managers in the world he chooses the approach best suited to the group of players he has.

 

He was too attacking at Real Madrid if anything but proved he can play very attacking football with a 2.76 goal rate.

 

Control c, control v.

 

I notice that time away hasn’t made your debating technique any less relentlessly tedious...

[Gallowgate End]

Was gutted when Rafa left even though I’d long since stopped going to matches. He gets the place and would build the club up from bottom to top, and that’s undoubtedly what we need.

 

However, I can’t put my finger on it but Pochettino just excites me more, and I think the reason is signings. You just know Rafa’s signings would be to suit his system, even if that meant having someone like that danish kid jorgenson up front.

 

Rafa is certainly the safe pair of hands and sensible option, but big part of me would love to see what Pochettino could do.

This, not sure why but Poch excite’s me more

It'll be the style of football. As much as I like Rafa, given a "budget"  I want entertainment like Bayern V Chelsea which was a whole new sport, Ajax a season back, Barcelona  with the advent of tika taka, not just winning but great to watch aswell.

 

IF (?) We are to be the richest club even given FFP winning is pointless ,for me without panache.....could Rafa do this?

 

Yes.

 

Rafa Benitez is the highest goal rate Real Madrid manager in the last 60 years produced their biggest goalscoring win in Champions League history(8 v 0) and their biggest La Liga win in sixty years(10 v 2)

 

It’s just a myth that he only plays defensive football and that Poch would be more attacking than him if both had a good team/financial backing.

 

Rafa’s goal rate at R Madrid(2.76)

Rafa’s goal rate at Chelsea(2.06)

Rafa’s goal rate at Napoli(1.96)

 

Compare that with Poch’s goal rate at Spurs(1.91)

 

The only reason Poch would excite some people more is because the media describe Rafa as only a defensive manager when in fact he’s one of the most approach adaptable managers in the world he chooses the approach best suited to the group of players he has.

 

He was too attacking at Real Madrid if anything but proved he can play very attacking football with a 2.76 goal rate.

 

Control c, control v.

 

I notice that time away hasn’t made your debating technique any less relentlessly tedious...

 

I was just answering his question.

[KaKa]

I think Poch would build a team that would genuinely win stuff Rafa would IMO would have a genuine interest in improving the whole area

Definite quandary for me. I love Rafa and I feel like a cheating lover but I can't help but lust after the type of football we would get under Poch. I think he would inspire and unite the fanbase again possibly even more than Rafa, which feels weird to say. On the flip side I see this as Rafa's swansong rather than Poch's stepping stone to Madrid or elsewhere. Rafa knows the club, area and is a dreamboat. It's unfinished business in this league, the title he doesn't have and you know he will do everything for our club.

 

Either way, what a position we could potentially be in to consider either and managers of this pedigree.

 

Rafa in charge of that Spurs team with Kane, Son, Alli, Aldeweireld, Vertonghen etc would have won something IMO. That was a fantastic collection of players. I just think Rafa is a better manager.

 

The football Rafa would have produced with that Spurs team really wouldn't have been that far off either IMO. I mean they had some fantastic attacking players period.

[Away Toon]

Well Stones isn't good enough for City and Barkley not good enough for Chelsea, so if we are going to try and compete with them they wouldn't be good enough for us. However if we just want to settle for getting closer to the top 6-8 I suppose they would do. Neither would excite me.

[Super Duper Branko Strupar]

Well Stones isn't good enough for City and Barkley not good enough for Chelsea, so if we are going to try and compete with them they wouldn't be good enough for us. However if we just want to settle for getting closer to the top 6-8 I suppose they would do. Neither would excite me.

 

Think you're bolting a bit early.

[Mole]

Pochettino's style of football being vastly superior is a bit of a myth tbh.

 

The man played two DMs and a back 5 quite often, his teams pressed quite aggressively but more did so as a defensive tactic.

 

Not to say he's defensive or anything but he's a lot more pragmatic than his reputation suggests imo.

 

[HaydnNUFC]

The football being naff under Rafa is a tad bit of a myth/misconception also. The reason why some of our fanbase have the perception of the football under Rafa being dour miss the entire point of why it was primarily structured and a bit more conservative then some would've liked: the players we had. 2017/18 and the first half of 2018/19 we had a poor squad. Put Almiron in the side in 2018/19 and we're one of the league's top scorers and most in-form teams from his debut onwards. In the Championship when we had the best squad in the league some of the football was very good, beating QPR and Preston (in the cup) both 6-0, hammering a then 6th placed Birmingham, being clearly the better side v Norwich at home despite what the scoreline showed, winning 8 league games on the bounce. The football under Rafa gets better in tandem with the quality of players.

[Guest Howaythetoon]

What I love about Rafa is he would see Stones as a challenge, a personal quest to show that he can turn the likes of him into a top-class defender, he’s already a good footballer.

 

He did the same with Torres, he told him, if he listens, learns and works hard, he’d develop into a world-class striker and would score even more goals and that’s exactly what happened.

 

He turned Carragher from an average CB into a top-class one, very consistent, rarely dominated and very commanding.

 

He turned Gerrard who at the time was a top PL box to box ACM player into one of the best all-round midfielders in the world and he did that moving him away from the centre to the right.

 

He practically invented the sweeper keeper with Reina and popularised zonal marking.

 

Knowing what I know of Rafa, I just know when his Valancia team won the title with a coward who scored less than ten league goals while other strikers were scoring double that fo their teams he got a kick out of proving having a high scoring striker isn’t essential if it’s to the detriment of everything else.

 

He once said to win we need just one goal. From anyone, anywhere, at any point in the game.

 

When his Valencia side played Leeds in the CL, he was shocked at how powerless his side were in stopping Leeds from constantly attacking. When he next played an English side, Liverpool, he stopped them by playing keep ball which he called knew would slow them down, draw them out and lay traps. This nothing football of simple sideway 5 yard passes or backwards passing was criticised by our media and the commentary team on ITV, but that day I saw a team keep the ball and toy with Liverpool who could only play one way and Rafa said if the opposition don’t have the ball, and we do, we control the game and they cannot score where as we can.

 

If they have the ball, they can’t score if we keep the ball far away from our goal.

 

They won La Liga and the EUFA Cup being able to keep the ball in possession and being just as able to keep whoever they faced when in possession out.

 

When he come to England he changed his tactics, methods and way of playing. He couldn’t play a possession game given the pace and directness of our game and the impatience of fans and lack of technical ability in our players. He could keep the opposition out though and soon learned if his team could do that instinctively off the ball, on it they again would only need one goal to win, a goal from anyone and anywhere at any time.

 

Under him when they finished second, they were clinical in front of goal, Gerrard and Torres especially. Rafa gets annoyed more not when his striker scores so few goals, but when he or anyone else when presented with a shit at goal, fails to make the ‘keeper save or fails to hit the target. That’s a waste to him.

 

Here, we were not prolific and nor were the players, but we were clinical and if we created a chance Rafa always thought we could score, and if we stopped or limited the opposition creating chances, we’d at least not lose.

 

That’s his philosophy essentially.

 

Better players and his team will invariably win because they will stop the opposition from scoring and create enough chances to put one of them away. At Liverpool Torres would score 4 if he had 5 chances or 1 if he had 1. He was so good of course, he could score from a half chance or nothing and any team needs that kind of player.

[Kanji]

Give Rafa the freedom to spend what we just did but how he saw fit this current season and we’d be in Europa league spot.

 

Give him a real competitive budget and we’d be a CL team in 3 years. 

[xLiaaamx]

Here we go then, another week. What's this one, 6?

[loki679]

Private jet left Riyadh, heading towards Europe / UK in case anyone fancies watching little planes on a screen for five hours or so.

 

https://www.flightradar24.com/GLEX/248f9845

[GWN]

Private jet left Riyadh, heading towards Europe / UK in case anyone fancies watching little planes on a screen for five hours or so.

 

https://www.flightradar24.com/GLEX/248f9845

 

 

First time ive ever looked, shoot me now.

[henke]

Private jet left Riyadh, heading towards Europe / UK in case anyone fancies watching little planes on a screen for five hours or so.

 

https://www.flightradar24.com/GLEX/248f9845

 

Yes!!!

 

I wake up, check my phone, to hell with going back to sleep let's get the coffee on and track this bastard!

[loki679]

Just hope it holds its current course......

 

[GWN]

Wraith just tweeted it’s done ?? I won’t post 

 

Click bait , hypocrite

[Whitley mag]

Imagine debating Rafa or Poch and turning our noses up at Stones and Barclay 2 months ago.

 

Hope we all remember what’s it been like last 13 years, and don’t become a bunch of spoilt little bastads once this goes through.

 

After last 13 years they could appoint Super Mac and I’d still be over the moon.

[Stuy_O]

 

When his Valencia side played Leeds in the CL, he was shocked at how powerless his side were in stopping Leeds from constantly attacking.

 

 

Rafa wasn't at Valencia when this match was played.

[Whitley mag]

Wraith just tweeted it’s done ?? I won’t post 

 

Click bait , hypocrite

 

Not sure he has it’s just a link to an interview that was on last night.