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Rafa Facts

Discussion in 'Newcastle United' started by Albert's Chip Shop, Mar 10, 2020.

  1. Albert's Chip Shop

    Albert's Chip Shop Top Grafter
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  2. Delusional Full Stop

    Delusional Full Stop Here to serve all your counselling needs.
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    Cue Ashley’s son’s rant...

    :)
     
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  3. Charlie Dogscock

    Charlie Dogscock Well-Known Member

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    I don't recall Rafa getting slagged off by the media tbh.

    Fulham managers didn't get slagged off cos there were 3 of them to divide the blame between, and Villa's manager is so dull and forgettable that the media probably don't even remember his name, let alone slag him off.
     
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  4. Southerner

    Southerner Active Member

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    Usual net spend bollocks. Not even going to bother.
    Rafa has found his level - Park football in China performing miracles to finish 1 place better than when he got there having only spent 30 million on Rondon.
     
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  5. Welshie

    Welshie Chavcunt fanboy dickhead

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    Cannot recall a single media outlet ever saying a bad word towards Rafa. I remember distinctly that BT Sport were particularly defensive of Rafa, they heavily reported on the perceived messiah job he was doing at Newcastle.
     
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  6. RobEllious

    RobEllious Well-Known Member

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    Rio Ferdinand told Rafa to put his own money in to transfers and stop moaning. Humphreys, in fairness, tried to call him put on it. Can't say I saw a messiah interpretation of his time with us.

    Gary Neville was hyper critical of his defensive displays against big opposition, which is particularly hypocriticial watching him cream his pants over Manures similar displays this season.

    Rafa did a good job considering net spend. Think everyone can agree on that except the poor Pouch imitation.
     
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  7. Roland Deschain

    Roland Deschain Well-Known Member

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    Here's another way to spin it - NUFC survive comfortably 3 years on the spin without spending massive money. In fact, we can even throw £40m in the bin and survive.

    I'm really worried that all of this makes Ashley's model of employing one senior individual, and "being the best we can be, pound for pound", the standard by which all other clubs should be measured.....
     
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  8. Welshie

    Welshie Chavcunt fanboy dickhead

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    Rio wasn't talking about Rafa. He was talking about Jake's spending stats, it was Humphrys himself who was critical of the board, not Rafa. If I recall correctly, Rio was in fact telling the FANS to shut up or spend their own money. Not Benitez.

    And yeah, that was right after the Man City game a game we seemed to accept as a loss and didn't even attempt a goal. I agreed with Rafa honestly, it was a lost cause so who cares. Neville will say anything to look controversial.

    But even so, two examples of debatable insults towards Rafa from a 3 year period. Barely an onslaught.

    I think anyone who keeps us in the prem is doing good job. It's hard with our set up.
     
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  9. RobEllious

    RobEllious Well-Known Member

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    Aye was off there, all I can see is him saying fans should be saying thank you for MA spending his own money (50m) when we made transfer profit in the Championship, it was actually Keys who told Rafa to spend his own money.

    Neville is more respected for his opinions than a majority of pundits to be fair. I can't remember every negative comment like, never said there was an onslaught mate. I just disagreed with the messiah thing and haven't seen any comments to that effect through the media. Ultimately it was neither, it was messages of both support and complaint.

    Agreed. As much as I'm not a fan of Bruce, he's done a good job to keep us up this season.
     
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  10. Albert's Chip Shop

    Albert's Chip Shop Top Grafter
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    Adrian Durham on Talksport didn't stop slagging him.
    Richard Keyes too.
    Luke Edwards from the Tele too.

    All three blow Bruce off regularly for his 'big' achievements.
     
    #10

  11. Welshie

    Welshie Chavcunt fanboy dickhead

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    I thought we were talking about journalists here, or people who know something about football atleast.
     
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  12. Albert's Chip Shop

    Albert's Chip Shop Top Grafter
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    Good point. we should exclude the bell whiffs.
     
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  13. cronemeister

    cronemeister Well-Known Member

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    What makes it even more worrying is that Ashley is seeing all of this and sitting with a big ****ing smile on his fat face and saying, "See lads...my model works" and he'll be sticking to it for as long as he's here....like you said, if we can spunk £40m up the wall and still be ok then he'll start to wonder what the hell the point in having a transfer budget is before long, we'll just tie everyone down currently at the club to 15 year deals....sorted.
     
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  14. Welshie

    Welshie Chavcunt fanboy dickhead

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    How d'ya think it would have went if Ashley never came? I often bounce between us being in league 1 with Sunderland or us maybe being bought by a ****ing wealthy Arab.

    It's a thing to ponder over.
     
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  15. Roland Deschain

    Roland Deschain Well-Known Member

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    I wonder more what would have happened without the internet. Would we have such vitriol towards Ashley without the web info overload?
     
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  16. Warmir Pouchov

    Warmir Pouchov Better than JPF

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    I think you will find I said on several occasions he did a good solid job considering the constraints. Indeed I think this was repeated in recent days. I just don't buy into the whole he's a messiah, he performed a miracle, no one else could have done the same job rubbish. Don't let that get in the way of your storytelling though...

    Terrible to watch but got the job done he was asked to. Can't say you ever saw any messiah like description of his time here? <laugh> Pull the other one. There were banners in the ground, sky sports saturday pundits saying it weekly, and this board which you do frequent probably had one thread a week devoted to the messiah like job he was doing. As it has turned out having watched the distinctly average manager that is Bruce outstrip his performance so far this season, playing equally negative football, it was as I said all along just a good solid job. Which is what we needed and what his career badly needed. Thus he got a ridiculously well paid job off the back of it.

    Perhaps you'd be better looking at your own inaccurate assertions now we've the chance to compare Rafa with both Pardew and Bruce. I think we all know Bruce and Pardew are extremely limited managers. So either they've both fluked matching/surpassing Rafa, or Rafa's performance has been greatly exaggerated. I do note you've downgraded Rafa's performance to good now in an admission you maybe got carried away at the time. Very good of you.
     
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    Last edited: Mar 11, 2020
  17. RobEllious

    RobEllious Well-Known Member

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    <laugh> Read it again, I said the poor Pouch imitation, which would be Southerner. You don't actually do that anymore, now you flit between sucking Rafa's knob and Brucie's depending on which argument you wish to have.

    Rafa did a great job, far better than Brucie because he took us up and then kept us up for two seasons. Brucie's done one. I. Fail to see how that's been downgraded? Anyway you say some fans had a messiah banner, your referencing the forum, that's not the media. People did praise the job he was doing on SkySports, as others criticised, to say they made messiah comparisons is absolute nonsense.
     
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  18. Albert's Chip Shop

    Albert's Chip Shop Top Grafter
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  19. Warmir Pouchov

    Warmir Pouchov Better than JPF

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    It infers that he is akin to me because he doesn't rate the job Rafa did. I do rate it, I just don't think he did anything out of the ordinary.

    Phil Thompson did liken it to a messiah on several occasions, so again you're wrong. He regularly also commented how our fans viewed him as a god for the job he was doing and felt it was justified. Madness of course, but that was his take nevertheless. Most of the SS panel concurred also, Matt Le Tissier in particular. Of course online publications fed this narrative also. As did Rafa himself! Those soundbites from Rafa went through just about every newspaper here and in Ireland - as Mr Benitez knew they would. You'd have to be a Nigel Pearson Ostrich to not think this happened.

    https://cominghomenewcastle.sbnation.com/2019/5/2/18525702/rafael-benitez-miracle-worker
    https://www.shropshirestar.com/spor...newcastle-he-cannot-keep-performing-miracles/

    Rafa spent an absolute fortune getting out of the championship. Even after this season with escalating spend, I'd imagine our spend that year is still one of the top 5 of all time. We weren't exactly impressive in winning the championship either! It was again a poor watch with lots of negative approaches to games and far worse than the previous promotion. Now I know the Rafa Boys like to say "but but but net spend, we only spent that much to replace players" but its just throwing up smoke to mask the fact he spent an absolute fortune to get out of that league, wasn't very impressive in doing so and many argue lumbered us with a number of poor players. Not me on the last point I have to say - although I would say his supposed magic touch in the transfer market is also somewhat exaggerated. He has a pretty typical record and he wasn't finding the players anyway. Bottom line is the bloke had the best squad in the league by quite a stretch and the only thing that makes him look better is Villa completely ****ing up the same foolproof approach! Hardly a ringing endorsement.

    So the Championship work is nothing to write home about.

    The two years in the PL were good solid jobs from Rafa, finishing 10th exceeded expectations. Bruce has done a very similar job to Rafa's year two. Slightly better but the season isn't over and Rafa had a strong finish. Bruce has certainly slapped a bit of reality round the chops of those who claimed no one else could have managed what Rafa did. Clearly they can and already have the very next season after he left. So to suggest Rafa did a far better job than Bruce, there isn't any evidence to support such a statement. Each to their own, like Rafa, I prefer the facts though.
     
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  20. Roland Deschain

    Roland Deschain Well-Known Member

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    Coronavirus o'clock and you're still banging on about Rafa?

    I must say, our fan base is the ****ing worst when it comes to looking back, or referencing past players/managers.
     
    #20

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