See what Hazza says. It's not just a case of picking one example against one example. You would need to look at all examples against all examples to get a true reflection and even then other factors come into play anyway. And I'm not going to spend my life doing that.
This just sounds like an excuse for the Rafa Transfer Apologists. The bloke has spent about 75m on midfielders and attackers since arriving. Ritchie is the only real success I can think of. I did rate Merino but we couldn't hold onto him (which is Charnley's fault in some eyes - even though Rafa admitted it was the only way they could sign him) I suppose any manager who pissed off Xavi Alonso by attempting to sell him, so he could get Gareth Barry, only to end up with Aquilani, the alarm bells should be ringing anyway! To be honest there have been about 10 examples provided of players of similar ilk to Murphy who moved for the same fee around the same time (i.e. not picking someone from 1995 to compare to now!). There will be loads of others. Rafa deservedly gets cut some slack on transfers. He is getting rode hard off Ashley. However it shouldn't be a free pass from fans. When you have tight budgets you need to make your signings count more than ever - he simply hasn't done that well.
If anyone on here thinks that what we have had to watch this season is acceptable they need their ****ing head examining. Its like watching Anti-Football.
To be fair l have often wondered what our team would look like if Rafa had signed the players he really wanted and of course within reasonable financial parameters. The problem is there is so much absolute crap written every single transfer window about Rafa’s top targets, none of whom ever materialise, that it’s impossible to know which players he would genuinely have brought in. We are fed the line time after time that he settled for his fifth, sixth choice, etc due to having no money and the need for the media to continue its feeding frenzy for all things negative and Newcastle. We must also ask are we an attractive choice for players anymore. Even if we can afford them, they are genuinely available, are they going to fall over themselves to join a club in perpetual crisis. I don’t think they are and we are never going to cherry pick the crop. That must also be factored into the equation. Some of Rafa’s signings haven’t worked out that great, true, but it isn’t only at NUFC that signings don’t always come good. I can name you many other premiership teams who have spent huge sums by comparison to our spending, on players who have flopped spectacularly. Love Rafa, hate him or be ambivalent, the sad reality is that whilst Ashley remains owner of the club, we will never know the true extend of what could or couldn’t be achieved. Rafa’s arrival was meant to herald the new dawn and l like many others had such high hopes of steady progress back to something resembling a premier league football club. It isn’t going to happen under Ashley’s tenure and that is the only certainty we have.
GK Diego Cavalieri RB Philipp Degen LB Andrea Dossena CB Jack Hobbs CB Daniel Ayala CM Gareth Barry CM Gareth Barry AM Antonio Nunez RW Milan Jokanovic LW Mark Gonzalez ST David N'Gog I've included first names so you know who they are Of the 45 he signed for Liverpool, about 25 were complete and utter flops. There were about 10 really good ones and the other 10 were decent too.
Probably doesn't have to do with anything but here goes: 1995/96 season 24 wins 2015-2019 seasons 25 wins in total
Rafa's after a full back, for either side, and has bought/continued to play Javi Manquillo. Just a very quick reminder he lost Lewis Gibson and let Kevin Mbabu go. The winger situation is a joke, with bad timing and worse execution.
Just read on an article relating to Almiron and his wage demands that according to Sporting Intelligence's Global Salaries Report 2018 that we have the 4th lowest wage bill in the PL. Obviously that's only part of the story as it doesn't tell us what the average player wage is in our first team squad and how that compares to other PL teams/squads but doesn't suggest we are a "top" payer. Article is also indicating that even if we wanted Almiron then we need to get deeper pockets. I would speculate that that wouldn't be the first time we didn't get a player because we didn't pay the "going rate".
Latest ramblings from the untouchable gaffer: "The festive games are not just about managing the squad and having fresh legs for each game, it is to pick the right players for a certain game. Sometimes a player who is classed as better in theory, they can be tired. If he is tired he's worse than the other one. If you had Lionel Messi - OK, he would have to be there no matter what because he can make the difference. But if you don't have players like a Messi or players of a similar level you need players who can give you something physically in a third game in a row in a short period of time." Remind me of the scores over the festive period again?
I saw this. Then I saw the alleged 'going' rate is 100K per week For a lad who has been a big success in the MLS. I like the idea of him filling this No.10 role but 100K a week is not the going rate. To give an idea, in January 2018 the top paid player at every club was revealed by The Times, maybe not wholly accurate but they'd be in the ballpark. Interestingly out of 20 clubs, the top paid player at 10 of the PL clubs was a 100K or less. For example Stokes top paid player was Shaqiri on 65K. With all due respect to Almiron, he has achieved far less in the game than Shaqiri who had graced the San Siro and Alliance Arena before arriving in Stoke. Countless examples to suggest this is very inflated. I'm sure his agent wants a nice start to the New Year but the only place he'll get that in this country is West Ham.
Joining the party late, but if you just wanted to stay in 17th place you might as well just hire fat sam afterwards when rafa leaves. My money is on no one accepting Fat sam and his turgid footie though
Here’s another interesting stat. Dubravka 4 m Yedlin 4 m Schar 3 m lascelles 4 m Dummett free Ritchie 11 m Perez 1 m Hayden 2 m Diame 4 m Atsu 6 m Rondon free Team that started against Man Utd Total cost 39 million. Hudson Odoi is costing 35 million. What the actual ****!
When Ashley came in he fairly promptly dismissed Fat Sam from his role as our manager and the fat twat then made a point of using the pay off to buy a place in Spain which he called "St James". There's no love lost between the two and the ONLY shining light of having Ashely as an owner is the certainty that he and Fat Sam will not work with each other again.
Yeah I'm confident it is true, if anyone can be bothered to confirm/deny this for me that would be great though
