1. Yes 2. So we just sign players on a 1 year contract to go back to back with it? Narrows the market somewhat. 3. Always said the same. £400m if true is high. The offer received was incredibly low. They didn't want to pay anymore, end of discussion. 4. Already addressed. The lack of motivation to go big is borne out of the fans attitude towards him, the current managerial contract scenario, and the reward and risk scenario involved. All completely understandable. Also a silly comment because we're not doing nothing. Indeed we have been trading and improving the squad. 5. He is trying to employ someone and trust them. When he employed Rafa, nobody can suggest seriously he didn't trust him. He allowed him record breaking spend only bettered by Villa in the Championship. Now we are down to the final year and he'd like some trust back. Its not forthcoming and is the main reason for this difficult window.
So what you are saying is Mike isn't interested in making Newcastle Utd the best it can be because he doesn't want to own it any more. I think we can all agree that this correct. But you can't complain about fans moaning about Mike Ashley and the way he is running the club because of this. This whole Rafa's contract situation and transfers is a red herring. Rafa could sign a new contract and still move to a new club after the transfer window shuts. The only benefit to the club at that stage would be a bit of additional compensation. You can't base your transfer strategy on the fact that the manager that bought the players is still going to be there when the player's contracts end. What you've got to do is assume the current manager knows what he is doing and that any new manager you might have to bring in is good enough to work with what he's got until he can build the team up how he want it. That's the way I see it anyway.
I don't think its that with the fans. He made a statement a long time ago (not pissed up ones about winning something) basically saying he had listened after the fans abused him (his family) and wanted him out. If you do that as a fanbase you have to accept he can reserve the right to act in kind. Whereas contracts are less important now, they still have value in terms of committing to a club. If that is the case as you state, why doesn't Rafa just sign the contract? Its pretty obvious why as he knows come the end of the season he will be in a strong position to assess interest in him. The red herring is he is doing it to see if the club commit funds. He already knows what money is available the way he is talking so this appears to be a selfish move. The transfer strategy probably isn't being massively impacted by transfer spend as much as everyone thinks. Its probably more affected by Ashley trying to keep the club operating within its means. Looking at the accounts, (which have been fraudulently produced according to conspiracy theorists - because big accountancy firms are happy to do this all the time...), we didn't look in great shape. Even with the money which has come in since you'd have to imagine we are back to no better than a middling situation. It seems likely we are keen to ship out players to keep the wage budget under control. As players go we seem to be replacing them fairly quickly. We appear to be doing this in a frugal manner. I don't see the problem as long as we keep the numbers up and improve the squad. I think we have done. We've sold Mbemba and replaced him with Schar who Rafa is happy with. Mbemba he wasn't. So upgrade regardless as hes willing to use this guy. We are selling Mitrovic and replacing him with Muto - same scenario. We sold Merino as we had no choice, we've signed Ki who at this stage is probably better than Merino (Merino may well end up better). We've got Kenedy for a whole season instead of half. Same with Dubravka who replaces Sels. Is it all really that bad?
All I see is almost every PL team spending more money than us. Can any Toon fan honestly say they trust the integrity of Mike Ashley & Lee Charnley? Ashley does not want to sell the club - anybody still believing that tired old excuse is deluded - it's the same thing every year. Expectations lowered, disappointing transfers... etc The club is in genuine danger of getting relegated this season, Rafa is in his final year (what possible motivation has he got to sign a new deal?) and the same old rubbish comes out of the club about how skint we are. Answer me this: If Newcastle United finished 10th in the PL last season, how is it that all the teams promoted from the Championship have more money than us?
Perhaps they didn't have the massive revenue drop, debts or wages issues we had after relegation... We spent our way out of the championship despite that but you have to pay the piper at some stage unless you have a sugar daddy willing to foot the bill.
Not really. He threw 77m at it and a manager many thought was a good option at the time. He found out the PL is cruel unless you throw 100m plus at it and even then you have to be able to draw the talent.
I don’t know “many” who thought a made up ‘board’ of Schteve, Lee, Bobby and Graham was anything but farcical! The spend I can’t argue with, and only one of those players was questioned at the time (Thauvin). However, it was reaction to relegation threat, not pro action to improve the club.
Its not that good either. We are a reasonably solid team but we are toothless. Should be throwing everything we have at getting a proper striker and a number 10. Spent almost nothing so far, the club must have some money to buy the players we obviously need. Yes it was right to replace Mbemba (people would moan of we didn't), same with Merino but we have just replaced players really. Its obvious we need more attacking threat and appear to be pissing about again
