I seem to remember, last season, Newcastle being in the bottom 3 well into January having not won for about half a dozen games. That's a dogfight in anyone's book tbf. If the new manager is in that position, this season, I doubt you'd be so blasé.
The new manager definitely will be in that position tbh. Half the league (or more) are relegation candidates, just the way it is now. I think I'll be ok with it in the main as unless something changes we simply have to expect to go down. Everyone else is strengthening whilst we're weakening - no point in me stressing about it.
All it takes is 2 or 3 injuries, after the 2nd window, to key players and January quickly becomes March then May. The PL is a waste of time for half the league now. Ashley knows the score and won't spend multi-millions on the stadium, training facilities, etc before he even starts on big fees and wages. 3 season of failure, by which I mean mid-table, and you're right in the clarts. Then what, spend more to try to correct things? The NE clubs have to bribe players to come here because their women aren't interested in what's on offer. If Newcastle was a London based club they'd have won loads of trophies, but it'll only happen if a rich man/consortium is prepared to keep pouring money into it. TV money, and other income, isn't anywhere near enough.
This is why we have always done well with Scottish players. Trouble is good ones are in short supply!
No wonder Ashley can't sell Newcastle ... ... who'd want a club with these mentalists constantly protesting to get their own way
Benitez really is a snake. He's now sabotaging Newcastle's pursuit of a new boss by warning off Arteta and Viera. Looks like he doesn't want anyone good there making his 'miracles' seem mere fantasy. If the Mags end up with Bruce they can lay some of the blame at the door of 'adopted Geordie' Benitez. "MIKEL ARTETA and Patrick Vieira have been warned off the Newcastle job by Rafa Benitez. Now ex-Sunderland boss Steve Bruce could be targeted." https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/football/9473386/arteta-vieira-benitez-newcastle-bruce-talks/
To be fair mate, Rafa has said enough in his interviews since his contract ran down for anyone with an ounce of common sense to give us a wide berth. You really would need to be fooking mental to want to work for Ashley regardless of how much of an attractive proposition we are. That being said, managers nowadays are on a hiding to nothing. You come in, get paid £4m-£6m a year or whatever which is decent wedge all things considered. You do a good job, you stay, you keep earning your salary. You do a **** job you get sacked and you get your contract paid off, you move on to another job...rinse and repeat. If you're not arsed about your CV/reputation then it's a no-brainer, afterall you can always blame the shackles placed on you by the owner as part reason for failure. Anyone worth their salt wanting to take the job up to further their career, or even start their managerial career...forget it, it'll ****ing ruin you very quickly. Ashley is a ****, plain and simple and we need rid of him. See you next season in the Championship lads !!
But that’s just it mate, the way you lads see Ashley and the way many managers will is totally opposite. It’s a Premier League club, with loyal, if half witted supporters. It’s in a magnificent city of music, food, culture, listed buildings, the polar opposite to how the fans have it perceived on Sky, in my opinion, and I’ll take the flack from fellow Mackems, the finest city in England to live in. With FFP some may argue it’s a club being ran ahead of the game, debt free, making money, completely against the grain. Top, top managers will say ‘**** that’ as they want to feel they can fight for trophies, but top, top managers got to top, top clubs. Big support no longer makes you a big club. It makes you a known one, a famous one. That’s what Sunderland and Newcastle are now, famous, historic clubs of note. Now, living in Newcastle I see the passion for the club every day, every bit as blind as us Mackems about ours but heavily unbalanced. There’s about 10-15 gaffers in the world who wouldn’t want that job simply because of the Lions on the sleeves. There are managers on the game that could get that club somewhere working bang under Ashley’s conditions, there are clubs doing well with far less outlay, there are clubs that have followed the Ashley route and are now self financing signings, my belief is that this is Ashley’s aim, a self financing club. There’s an argument that it’s admirable, there’s a clear vision that he’s almost achieved it, and there’s a school of thought that he’d be there already had you lot gone with him a few years back instead of deriding and calling him a fat ****, and idiot, a moron. A lot of Newcastle fans have their heads rooted in the Keegan and John Hall years, forgetting that the club racked up massive debts and with FFP would have been in major, major trouble. Does he understand the club, not one bit. Does he care about the fans? Not massively. Is he a horrific harm to the club? Is he someone that a neutral couldn’t work for? Is it him that’s killing the spirit around the place, or the group of fans driving embarrassing protests and initiatives that are a flop and a failure? Take the passion for your club aside and you’ve a club, 2 years in the Premier league, who spent £20 million plus on a player last window and have just lost a manager who’d achieved nothing in the game for 7 years, who lead you along a path having agreed to go to the hotbed of China 2 months earlier. You’re not in that bad a place. The phrase ‘reality check’ could have been coined specifically for you lads. It’s pure emotion. Emotion doesn’t run business, doesn’t run football clubs. Emotion makes bad decisons, it makes you blind. This is that on a grand scale.
Absolutely mate! He took the £6million a year in a ****ing blink knowing full well the constraints. They all casually overlook that he called them ‘the Toons’ on the way out the door, a tiny grammatical oversight that shows he had about as much bond with the club as I do with Vegan burgers.
It was for the money, pure and simple. The point when Newcastle supporters admit that to themselves is approaching much quicker than I expected tbh. I thought it would take years but it's already dawning on many people. Benitez is Spanish, has managed various English clubs and is now in China purely for the money. He's just like Advocaat who cried for Sunderland then ****ed off or MON who claimed to be a lifelong Sunderland supporter ..... will I ever see them at a match, I'm more likely to find mesel sat between Rolf Harris and Gary Glitter. Will Benitez ever appear in the Newcastle away section cheering on the Toons, Haway be honest mate. We all fool ourselves because we want these people to love our club as we do ... ... they don't.
**** off man Sid....how dare you come on this Newcastle themed thread on your board. Get back on the toon board where you belong you wummer
I agree. For me, the only reason I wanted to keep him on was because I doubt the replacement is likely to be anyone of any calibre. We are a lower mid table club (at best) so the pool of managerial talent is limited. I’m very much a pessimist mind you so hopefully I’m wrong. Rafa never was about the club. He, as most people are when it comes to work, was about himself. I’m fine with it. The revelation about him deciding to leave in May is a bit **** mind you. It is what it is though.
I was told about Staveley being kicked out of bed by Ashley, because she was ignoring the non-disclosure agreement, and posted it 8 weeks before it was announced. The same lad has just told me Bruce is in talks with Ashley and to find the best odds I can. He told me about the Luton manager leaving, last season, and I made a month's wages off that. The Luton supporters argued me to death and claimed it was nonsense. He's not saying its a done deal but it's a real possibility
I'm guessing that the price of your wedding cake is the least of your financial problems. I know how much weddings cost.
