Match Day Thread Seagulls v Magpies

I'm not even sure it is better than the woeful opposition we faced last time. Some teams have come and played well at St James. Due to our negative set up and slow play however, I feel its impossible to judge fairly. We have the best players. We have supposedly the best manager. We have a massive crowd behind us. Yet we play one up top at all times and two sitting midfielders? Then we wonder how teams are able to deploy this counter attack where they just allow us to play in non dangerous areas.

I accept players are limited - but surely you are not suggesting they are in terms of who they are coming up against? That would be a damning assessment of Rafa's summer spend. Personally I think he spent a lot of money on a poor PL squad, but one which would comfortably get out of the Championship. Lascelles, Clark, Shelvey, Ritchie, Mitrovic, Perez, Gouffran, Yedlin, Gayle, Mbemba, Hanley, Anita, Atsu, Murphy, Hayden would all walk into 90% of the divisions first 11. I think the business was good bar a couple of nice to haves.

I don't buy the excuse of the opposition played well or they get men behind the ball. I think you have to work that out and get your team to play better than them. Its kinda what you're employed for. He isn't doing a bad job by any stretch. He could be doing a lot worse (Villa). He could also be doing a lot better - which is solely down to home form/tactics.

 

The money he was afforded ? Negative 50 million ?

 

Ah this old chestnut. I love this argument. It's just utter bollocks. They had to sell the players they did. When you are moving between divisions it's not quite the same is it.

The bottom line is he was allowed to go and buy 57m pounds worth of talent to build a team for the championship. It's an enormous budget. Especially when you are adding to the players brought down from the PL. The guy has had his job made very very easy.

Next it will be "but look at Villa". Yes that bunch of **** ups is who we should be compared to.

If anyone thinks Rafa hasn't been well looked after by Mike, they are mad as a mongoose

 

You called?

please log in to view this image

I'm not mad yet, but I'm on standby for this coming summer!!

 

That's when it will get interesting. He looked after him this year because it served his interests and he could easily pay for it with sissoko and Gini. What happens when he gets his money anyway from the tv deal?

 

I'd hope Mike has learned he'll be richer by spending enough to at least keep us up