He was right to sell him, the problem is that we've not replaced him with a player of similar potential. Rondon is by no means awful, but we needed to have 2 solid signings up front or a proven mid-PL striker to really claim to have made an improvement. As usual it's down to spending limits and a ****ty approach to transfer negotiations. Still think if we'd acted decisively we could have got Bas Dost when he was threatening to leave Sporting.
Happy with Rondon, just think we needed someone better as well. Rondon looks to me like an upgrade on Joselu for cover, not a starting CF. Happy to be proven wrong though.
That's what we should have done with Mitrovic. I'm struggling not to be part of the "I told you (not you personally) so" brigade but I always rated him and wanted him to stay. That said, I will attempt to move on as it is proving nothing posting every time he scores. Also I was, and still am, of the opinion that if it is between Rafa or Mitrovic i'd sooner keep Rafa.
Rafa CANNOT be right on this - that's just ****ing ridiculous. WTF are you people talking about??? We could have kept Mitro AND Gayle for £0.00 not ended up with ****tards like Rondon and Joselu playing upfront for us. Rafa has let the club down letting Mbemba and Mitro go. Nothing to do with the funds not being reinvested just poor judgement on Rafa's part I'm afraid.
You can add Mbabu to that list aswell as Merino (I know he wanted to go back but that was because he wasn't playing)
Of course he can still be right. If he doesn't rate him and isn't going to use him, then he is right to sell him. We can think his opinion of Mitro is wrong, but if we want him as manager then we have to back him to do what is right in terms of player trading. It has nothing to do with funds though I agree. People raise that as a defence but in the case of Mbemba and Mitrovic it is purely about his assessment of their ability and usefulness to him.
Nope. Rafa wanted him from the start of the summer and has admitted as much. He wanted Plea too but we were never going to get that as he has made it clear since he wanted the Borussia move all along. Indeed Borussia suggested he wanted the move "at all costs". We were not alone in missing out with Borussia suggesting he rejected Spurs to go there. If he is rejecting Spurs then we are not even part of the discussion.
There is little point in keeping players who do not fit into the perceived style that is Rafa's. Did Rafa identify Mitro's strengths and make any attempt to play to them? We have a manager who has identified Mitro's strengths and the club are reaping the benefits - this however brings it's own problems. Down here we do not expect Mitro to end his career with us, in fact we will be lucky to get three years before the big clubs come calling,and this is where NUFC can benefit. If your man Charnley has done his job and negotiated a decent sell on package say 20% and Mitro is such an asset that his value is between 80/100 mil NUFC could reap a dividend of between 16/20 mil. Not bad business!
I don't rate Rafa or his opinions on assessing players talents and honestly couldn't care less if he was here or not. He does not deserve backing on player trading because quite frankly its been the worst out of any manager under Ashley. He's not as good as people make out. Good manager YES but not the be all and end all. If I had to pick on manager in the Ashley tenure I'd back and have back over Rafa it'd be Hughton, won more and loss less Championship games than Rafa with a "weaker" squad - well it didn't cost as much. He didn't moan about anything just got on with the job at hand, developed the youth players like Carroll and Ranger etc played good football and "got" the fans/club/area. Shut up you - you just don't want us to want him back! As I've said Mitro could have, with the correct coaching/slight alteration of tactics, fitted perfectly into the system.
Moot point though because he is. I think he genuinely does like the lad. I think Rondon may surprise people if we give him a run of games. He's a decent player.
Looks like he will compete with CBs and give them something to think about and his hold up play seems to be decent. I don't expect a ****load of goals but he will play the target man role in our system better than anyone we have (or had).
He didnt reject Spurs, they never had a bid accepted or made an offer. The Borussia stuff is just pure PR guff to me. He may well have wanted Rondon and Plea mate, but we were after Plea first as we made a bid for him first. When you think Mitro for Plea and Rondon for Gayle, I'm not sure anyone would be arsed Mitro left. As it happens we have Muto filling about 3 positions instead.
I am going to go out on a limb here and honestly say Muto scores less than 5 goals for us this season!
Simple fact is he wasn't allowed to spend the money we got for Mitrovic. Why was Rafa after Rondon? - because he had to find someone who was going to be available on loan.
Spurs is one thing. We couldn't compete with Borussia either IMO. Bottom line is Plea was never coming and was never a realistic target. Looking at our spend he was way way out of our price range. Rafa will have known that of course but I can see why he'd still put him on the list in hope.
