There's a morass of factors and I would agree we had a stronger team (and squad) than you guys but both had glaring inadequacies. Since you relegated us? I thought it was all Rafa's fault...
But you just said there's a morass of factors. That's something i've never denied. It's you lot who won't accept Rafa's share of the responsibility.
Even if we'd won that game it was your result against Chelsea which stuffed us really (as for the Everton game, they looked as much at the races as Tottenham did in our game). That result was a game-changer.
I do accept his share and it's quite possible someone like Pearson would have kept us up. I just rank his responsibility in our relegation behind the manager who was in charge for 28 games that season, the owner who refused to get involved in loans or established Premiership purchases as they didn't represent the value he wanted (I still suspect he's looking for 'value' which no longer really exists rather than plugging holes which we need) and the scout who dined out for years on Cabaye/ Ben Arfa/ Ba and kept pushing players who weren't suitable. Oh and the players, they were good enough to have been doing better, epitomised by the likes of Sissoko. Was Moyes the main reason you went down this season? I don't think so, he was just the end point of a decline. Similarly we flirted with relegation the season before and I'm not going to hugely point the finger at the manager who came in a couple of months before relegation as the main cause.
Which I've also said repeatedly. You deserved to stay up and we deserved to go down. No argument there.
Our result against Chelsea was on at the same time as you were playing at Villa. I prefer to focus my attention to that instead. Sorry about the other day on that thread, I didn't realise at the time but I was going through a manic episode. Sorry again
Way I see it is Rafa left you a point further a drift then when he took over. Can't be blamng that on Tufty. Tuffty ****ed up granted, but he didn't leave you adrift without a prayer. You we right in it. You could say it's Tufty's fault you were in the relegation places, i'll buy that but I don't buy it's his fault you went down.
That day we were expecting to pull away from you guys but instead you got a result very few were expecting. I can't feel down about it all too much though as we went down fighting and although relegation is relegation it did feel better than how Villa must have felt. Don't worry about the other day mate, I can't envisage a situation in which you're likely to offend me so genuinely never worry about it. I'll gladly accept the apology but it's not needed, actually not 100% sure what you're referring to but glad you're doing better today Me and Bri have been disagreeing for the last couple of pages but I like the guy and although tone is impossible to pick up I've no doubt everything is all good natured - just can't wait until our teams actually start buying some players so we can disagree about recent things!
It's been grand, I just hope we've got some signings to dwell on in the next month. As things stand my team would comfortably get relegated and yours would have empty seats on the subs bench. I now expect both are going into the season undercooked and am hoping to be proven wrong.
We're thread bare, a month behind and on a budget. Your squad would be murdered as it stands. Busy month ahead for both of us mate.
In the 4 games prior to Villa, Benitez was lapping up the credit for 'getting the players to perform'. After the Villa game a fair number of Mags were blaming the players. This is despite the fact that Benitez started the game with Perez & Mitrovic on the bench, no wonder Newcastle only had 3 shots on goal. He also decided Shelvey should sit on the bench while Colback was running around the midfield like a ginger ping-pong ball Benitez was outwitted by a caretaker manager in charge of a team that had lost 11 on the bounce. The news coming in from Villa Park actually helped us to beat Chelsea imo. If Newcastle had been 3-0 at half time things could've been quite different.
Isn't that a pub by the arena - can't imagine there's more than Benitez in there so could be some truth in it
