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LoveItIfWeBeatU

by LoveItIfWeBeatU
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Raconteur

Raconteur

Posted
Posted

Unless people arent turning up to work, Im confused at how we're lacking senior players. We have far too many on the books.

 

That's what I'm wondering we were already full for our 25 last season.

I'm reasonably sure the arrival dates are staggered across a week or more.

 

It's also common practice that the squad is never at full size on the first day (week) of pre-season and kids make up the numbers. I'm sure most clubs in the country would have kids against men in training this week.

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madras

madras

Posted
Posted

First game of the season at 12:30pm, man.  Fuck off.

As much as I don't like midday KOs , Spurs is kind for me as I was really struggling to get time off as I start work at 4pm.

 

Self, self, self !

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Scoot

Scoot

Posted
Posted

First game of the season at 12:30pm, man.  Fuck off.

Our lack of home 5:30pm games and night time home games in August is disappointing.

 

:lol:

What? Better atmospheres.

 

Saturday afternoon games are the way forward.

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Mr Logic

Mr Logic

Posted
Posted

2 From Chronic..

 

This summer’s shortened transfer window may be consigned to history pretty quickly if the experience of Premier League chairman is anything to go by.

 

“Difficult window,” one Premier League club official – not at Newcastle – told me last week. Benitez himself said it was proving tougher than imagined. But if United aren’t talking publicly about trading conditions, they are feeling the same thing that virtually all of the rest of the top flight are: high prices, agents demanding huge fees and clubs reluctant to do business until they have another player lined up.

 

Here, there and everywhere clubs seem to be waiting for moves elsewhere to really get the ball rolling. But with players away on holiday or involved in the World Cup, it hasn’t been easy.

 

In short: they could really do with the three weeks they voted to get rid of in September at a meeting in a London hotel .

 

United were not one of the five clubs to vote against the proposals – with Manchester City, Manchester United, Crystal Palace, Watford and Swansea City understood to be the dissenting voices.

 

Rafa Benitez had been in favour of the change, as were most managers who feel that there is an inherent problem with leaving the window open while matches are being played.

 

Benitez blamed the uncertainty last season on Newcastle’s poor start to the season and said that he did not feel it was fair on clubs if they have players who are privvy to tactical meetings and planning who are then sold to a top flight rival.

 

But the reality of the situation is that trading circumstances are proving very, very tought this summer. There have only been 51 deals done so far this summer – many of those were teed up before the trading period – and six clubs have yet to do any business at all.

 

Newcastle have signed two players but there is frustration among supporters at the way the club are recruiting. But the truth is little significant business has been done. Liverpool’s move for Fabinho and Manchester United’s signing of Fred are the two biggest moves but many of the clubs United are jostling with are yet to make their moves.

 

Similarly the deal which will help trigger a lot of Newcastle’s business – the sale of Aleksandar Mitrovic – has been held up by the World Cup and Fulham’s attempts to haggle over the £20million price tag United have put on him.

 

Stoke want Matt Ritchie, of course, but their initial bid was below Newcastle’s asking price and mean the domino effect of United moving for Andros Townsend has not happened. Similarly, managerial uncertainty at Chelsea has blocked a slew of outgoings from Stamford Bridge. United are at the head of the queue for Kenedy.

 

It all means there are 32 days for several clubs to do major business and with this week again dominated by the World Cup – France is a big market for Premier League clubs, and England’s continued presence is holding up a few deals – it may be less than a month for clubs to negotiate and broker some huge deals before the season kicks off.

 

It’s understood that clubs may take another look at the decision to shorten the window again this autumn. It could end up being a short-lived innovation.

 

Rafa Benitez is spinning plates as Newcastle head towards the final 30 days of the transfer window still to answer all of the big questions of the summer.

 

It is a familiar fudge at St James’ Park. 56 days have passed since Rafa Benitez’s men signed off the season with a flourish by beating Chelsea 3-0 in a performance laced with attacking intent and intensity.

 

That night Mike Ashley released a statement saying he would do everything he could to keep Benitez at St James’ Park for the long-term. Questions over Benitez’s future loomed large – as they had done since the mid-April defeat of Leicester that prompted the Spaniard to start answering questions again about exactly what it was that he wanted to sign the contract first offered to him at the turn of the year.

 

Since then? Virtually nothing. Yes United completed the permanent deal that had been teed up in January for Martin Dubravka – and they moved quickly to secure free agent Ki , who was a replacement for Mikel Merino – the promising Spain under-21 midfielder whose departure has felt like an open secret since he was denied an exit in the January transfer window.

 

But the substantive stuff – the game changing signing – does not feel much closer than it did 50 or so days ago.

 

Instead United are edging, inch-by-inch towards the next piece of business but hamstrung by many of the issues that have been typical in the Lee Charnley era of transfers.

 

An offer for Alassane Plea was - quite simply – not enough. When it comes to Salomon Rondon, Benitez is urging United to take the plunge but is running into resistance as he asks the club to sanction a £16.5million move for a player who is 28 years old.

 

One thread of logic is that if Benitez’s contract runs out this summer, the club seem reluctant to agree a move for a player who looks more like a short-term fix. But this is the big issue for Benitez that is preventing him from signing his deal: trust. He has always said that if he is truly going to be allowed to shape the club in the way he wants, he should be allowed to spend his transfer budget how he wants.

 

Rondon may not be everyone’s idea of a marquee signing for Newcastle but Benitez likes to bring in players who fit into his way of playing. And if the success of England and Gareth Southgate has taught us nothing this summer it is how the team is more important than any individual. Rondon, to put it bluntly, could ‘do a job’ for United in Benitez’s mind.

 

But he doesn’t fit “the profile” – that need for re-sale and for players to look like an investment.

 

Compare and contrast with the swiftness that he gets deals for free agents done. Or when he floated the possibility of Sandro Ramirez in transfer meetings last season. £6million for a (then) 21-year-old? ‘Where do I sign’ was the message from Mike Ashley (although it should be noted Benitez agreed with drawing back on that deal when Everton offered him a ridiculous salary).

Video Loading

 

So Benitez’s approach is to keep spinning plates. It explains the sudden upsurge of Matt Ritchie sale rumours. The Newcastle manager would ideally like to keep him but if that deal kick starts another deal that can improve United, so be it.

 

And there are a lot of enquiries going in at the moment. When Benitez signed up for Instagram on Friday, it didn’t feel like a coincidence that his press man posted pictures of him on his mobile phone in his home office, or that one of the captions said it was a “working holiday” he had enjoyed in Liverpool.

 

Some links can now be discounted – Thiago Maia won’t be joining, Juventus’ Stefano Sturaro is also out – but there are likely to be many more before the end of the window.

 

Benitez is hitting his old contacts, ringing agents he knows and speaking to club officials too. If there is a player available in the Premier League, Benitez will know about it and it means that for all the frustration and fudge, there is still the possibility of this transfer window ending well for Newcastle.

 

Cautious optimism surrounds the deal for Kenedy which the club have talked to Chelsea about. There are other bids in too – although the mood music doesn’t feel great around Plea, the Nice striker who is also attracting interest from Borussia Monchengladbach. His representatives are known to United and seem to be doing all they can to drum up the idea that there is a lot of interest in him.

 

It doesn’t usually end well for Newcastle when we get to that point.

 

It has been a difficult market for every club in the Premier League, to be fair. None of the 20 are happy with fees, agents costs or the unwillingness of rivals to do business – which feels worrying given there are only 32 days left of a window that they mystifyingly voted to close early.

 

What should offer encouragement is that Benitez is open to everything and is absolutely determined to finish the window with a team that’s stronger than the one that beat Chelsea 3-0. The familiar frustrations might have driven him to distraction 12 months ago but this summer there is no hint of that distracting him from making the sort of big decisions he held back from last close season when he reluctantly kept Aleksandar Mitrovic at the club.

 

There may be bolder decisions this summer with a host of players possible bargaining chips to get the upgrades he wants. The club have told him things would be easier if he signs his deal but that still seems a long way off, so this third way seems the most likely route.

 

With at least four more wanted for the first team and plenty of outgoing business to be done, there’s a lot of work to do. But Benitez is getting on with it.

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polpolpol

polpolpol

Posted
Posted

I'm confused.. Is that not just a website that sells old shirts they get from the public? Why would Ashley have a random used child size Emre top to sell?

 

If you scroll down a bit you find irrefusable bargains like these slightly soiled gems:

 

https://www.classicfootballshirts.co.uk/2015-16-newcastle-staff-worn-training-shirt-excellent-322749.html

 

We seem to be the only club that has dumped so many of its own used items on the resale market (I guess most clubs give stuff like this away).

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wormy

wormy

Posted
Posted

I'm confused.. Is that not just a website that sells old shirts they get from the public? Why would Ashley have a random used child size Emre top to sell?

 

If you scroll down a bit you find irrefusable bargains like these slightly soiled gems:

 

https://www.classicfootballshirts.co.uk/2015-16-newcastle-staff-worn-training-shirt-excellent-322749.html

 

We seem to be the only club that has dumped so many of its own used items on the resale market (I guess most clubs give stuff like this away).

 

:thup: Don't know if being on my phone affected it. Just took me to page 3 of NUFC related stuff each time.

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54

54

Posted
Posted

I wonder what the likelihood off Kane, Trippier, Ali, Dier, Rose, LLoris, Dembele, Vertonghen and Alderweireld being back for the first game of the season is, given how they are all going to be playing until the end of the World Cup, and are going to have atleast a few weeks off, with the season only a month away, there is a chance a fair few of them may not start, and if they do be fatigued.

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