'The Line' Has Returned!!

It doesn't look like we will be getting any bodies in tonight................ the Townsend deal is dead apparently. 'The Line' returns!!!

I really hope this isn't Ashley sticking his beak in again. Its almost as if he feels we are a dead cert for promotion, so he is now moving the goalposts to piss off our £5 million a year manager so he will walk in the summer.

I hope I am wrong, but history tells us that Ashley simply does not learn from his mistakes.

 

Aye quite a gamble. The real Ashley. Turning up again Maybe. Glad I took my stance. Many moons ago

 

Great news like I've said from the start well win the league and can get proper players in the summer

 

I have a feeling that this could be the start of the end for Rafa. He will not be pleased by all accounts and may decide to stay in the short term then ship out if he believes Ashley is pi55ing about again like previous times.
I did predict on another forum that we wouldn't be signing anyone but not happy to be proved right.

 

The line was Pardew's and Pardew's only. Rafa has specific targets for particular roles and these were not available at a price HE thought was appropriate.

 

We'll probably not get any wingers better than Townsend in in the summer so we might as well have gotten him in now. In my opinion, like.

 

I don't agree I think he's pretty crap to be honest . He was ok for a few games and terrible in others . The summer will offer much better players at home and abroad that will be more keen on joining with Rafa as manager and the fans behind the club for the first time in a decade !!!!

Let's make sure we are

 

Agree with CC here. I don't think there was ever any intention to buy in this transfer window. Rafa was supported in Summer and did his business then. We have had a few hiccups but we should have sufficient strength in depth to get promoted and then we can start the important work of building a team to compete in the Premier League. I suspect Townsend was never available - if he had been he probably would have been snapped up by one of the other teams in mid-bottom of the Premier League with money to burn to ensure that they stay up.

 

What will happen if we fail though guys. yous know Nufc. Seasonal injury problems I am just not one of them people who say when we go up. These same people were saying we were going to get over 100. Points. Lol. Not on what I have seen

 

At our current rate we are on target for 99 which is not far off. If we can cut out the home losses to struggling sides and keep our away form going we can still get there. This season seems to have been marked by not all our better players firing on all cylinders together. If we can get that going we should be fine.

 

No deal is better than a bad deal...
Anyways it was Palace who pulled the plug so why would he be pissed off?

 

If we fail, we fail.
Rafa will go then I'm sure.
We will likely stay in the Championship for a long time.
I'll still be there home and away though.
Every season.

 

Oh.. and as for the line..... it was gang banged to within an inch of it's life in the summer so will likely be healing

 

Sleeping on it, I think there's some sensible and salient points above. Benitez wanted two players, on loan, with options to buy - Townsend and McCarthy. Understandably perhaps both Rafa and AshLee wanted to keep risk low as there's nothing certain in life. In addition, we have the ACON lads returning, have added Ameobi, El Mhanni and Barlaser in and around the first team so it's far from doom and gloom. Lazaar, Atsu, Yedlin are going to get better. I mean the bottom line is we've got a +33 goal difference in second right now.

Besides which, Palace are notoriously difficult to deal with, Everton were also not interested as they're having a decent season and Europe is possible; you need a good, deep squad for that and McCarthy may not be first name on the team sheet, but he's still got 16 appearances so far. I think it was a case of Rafa being very particular about who he wanted for the run-in, not wanting to upset the squad too much with some foreign import and so on.

It's mainly disappointing from the glamour side, but in a transaction there's two sides and if the other side doesn't want to play ball there's not a lot we can do about it. It's not like Brighton or Reading have done much. Leeds have added a couple of wingers, unproven. We've basically got Gayle, Shelvey, Atsu, Diame and Mbemba back from absences. It's the same squad that should be running away with the league - as Big Ern said, it's about Rafa's management now and rightly so.

 

in my view i watched alot of teams in the championship ... and i am very impressed with them .. brighton who just do not know when they are beat ( great attitude ) , huddesfield not a bad team .
sheff wed will scrap and scrap ... fullham not be far away .look at brentford last night looked really good ... and loads more ...this is far from over believe me ...takes a couple of injuries and we are in the play offs mark my words ..we have not the spirit these teams have when things go against them ....

i hope not but just a gut feeling .. was not really botheredf about townsend to buy ..maybe a loan , or someone else for me and c mid player ...

but its going to the wire for me guys

 

The next month is going to be telling - if we're still comfortably in 2nd after that, I think we'll be fine

 

Realistically it's only Reading or Leeds who can catch us, just based on simple maths. Both teams have failed to win 12 times out of 29 and 28 matches respectively. It's entirely likely that for the remaining 17 or 18 they will fail to win the same %age, meaning they will lose or draw 6 or 7 of the run in. As they lose the majority based on the season so far, we'll give them both an optimistic (for them) final standing of:

Reading P46 W27 D7 L12.....PTS 88
Leeds P46 W26 D5 L14.....PTS 83

These are VERY generous calculations, by the way!! It's HUGELY unlikely that either Reading or Leeds will end up anywhere near those numbers. Reading in particular have a very poor +5 GD, which indicates they are as close to losing games as they are to winning them,

Regardless, it's in our hands. If we win just 10 of our remaining matches, and we have 19 left, we go up. 10 wins, regardless of 9 losses, would give us 88 points. Given our win %age is 70% and we need just over 50%, and given statistically Rafa sides finish strongly, and given the depth of the squad with returning players, and given the fact our GD is a massive +33, I'd say "right to the wire" is hugely pessimistic.

 

Seem to remember Forest being hard on heels last time round until the last few of months of the season when they fell away sharply once injuries and suspensions started to kick in.

Putting the Oxford debacle to one side (essentially played a reserve team) we've not done too badly since Shelvey came back - 3 wins, 9 scored and 2 conceded.

 

Good Stats Roland, The issue I have is that we haven't strengthened and results wise the games against Oxford and Blackburn in particular have been quite demoralising, so with the exit of the FA compounded by the fact we couldn't sign anyone despite Rafa's wish to it obviously is going to bring out some negativity.

7 Games in feb starting today, 28 days and 7 game is a lot by anyone's standards. Man U are still in the Europa league and they have two legs this month and have 7 games and a cup final. Can Shevley play 7 games in 28 days? we aren't always going to be able to field out best team and that worries me.

My final negative point is the promises made to Rafa, Is Rafa the same as McLaren Carver or Pards, no, If he was promised control and he feels he is not being given what was promised, he wont sit there and think "well I'm just lucky to be here" He is a man of his word and has morals, he would walk

 

I think statistically we are looking good. Everyone in our league has to play at least 6, right? It's tough on Brighton if Knockaert gets Knackaert. Reading and Leeds have even less depth. Shelvey can play most of those. Gayle comes back. As does Diame. Let's just get back on here tonight and enjoy the match. If we lose, mind....

I mean I get it but it feels to me that if we'd wasted £15m on Townsend more or less everyone would be happy!! If we're one player short in the 2nd division we're doing ok. We still have Ritchie, Atsu and Gouffran on the wing. Then Sammy and El Mhanni. My only issue now is why we didn't recall Armstrong. I'd have liked Andros and McCarthy but there's probably a good reason we haven't got them.