Again though Rafa isn't naive enough to think Ashley was telling the truth and changing his spots after 10 years.
You claimed we bid 20m Jorgensen. Now you claim we bid 20m for Plea. Sorry but you're making this up as you go. You have no way of knowing how much we have bid. What we can probably do is have a guess based on history. In which case we'll have bid 15m for both. Given the price was 22m, he was not a realistic target. I mean he should be under normal PL club finances, but not under this leadership. Rafa just needs to adjust his sights to slightly ****ter players.
Christ, this is probably right. Question was "where's the Jorgensen money?". Answer: Muto. The Mitrovic money was actually about £4m in the bank, probably didn't even get the first payment til September. Only spend what we have. No overdraft, no flexible loan, cash we have. The question that still hangs about is - why the **** are we accepting staggered payments yet steadfastly refusing to pay in the same way? The club is constantly hamstrung by this myopic and frankly stupid approach. Fair enough, don't stagger payments (for some unfathomable reason), but if that's the case then you can't ****ing ACCEPT staggered payments!!!
But are you accepting 'staggered' payments? Surely this is what Ashley wanted? - part of his creative accounting maybe. Is it possible - as has been suggested - that Ashley specifically requested that we pay NUFC incrementally? With the money accrued for promotion it is inconceivable that we would have been unable to pay the Mitrovic money promptly and up front. Perhaps your CEO should speak to Ashley and suggest that any money owing on transfers should be paid in full - rather than in instalments?
This all day for me, but mainly don't sell your best players and if you do don't without having a replacement lined up first. #IfRafaGoesWeDontGiveAFuckButStillFuckMikeAshley
Genuinely. I am/was in the camp that mitro was the best we had and should have been kept (I really like the crazy bastard) but it serves no purpose bringing this up every week.... Even if we were right
He served his purpose for the promotion season but he didn't have much pace about him and I think that's why Rafa replaced him.
He spent £3 million on him, he must have been 45 years old, and basically never played him... Not the lads fault at all, I think he scored a couple of goals when he got the chance, but it was a shocking purchase.
Every manager makes mistakes on players, but if they don't see them fitting with their philosophy or group, it isn't a mistake. Ultimately these kinds of decisions define the manager's tenure at a club, because it's largely a short-term position. I think Rafa has bought quite poorly, more than he has bought well. We know he doesn't get much in way of funds, but if we compare the spend over his tenure with Fulham, Cardiff, Southampton, Wolves etc, we won't be too far away when you factor in wages. Fulham and Wolves have spent over £100mil recently, but over Rafa's entire tenure it must be basically the same, and our squad isn't as good. Net spend doesn't matter. Rafa did a great job last year to finish 10th, but he is partly to blame for the set-up for a very difficult season this year. I hope we stay up and we can all wish him well as he goes one way and we go the other (down), because the fans have his back and it'd be nice to see him leave on that note. He has used the media well, used the animosity well to stoke the fans to put more pressure on the board, but this has whipped up a bit of an angry mob and a few more **** performances and results and the sharks will circle.
How is net spend not relevant? Factor in wages and our limitations on that as well. If You pay peanuts you get monkeys. Fulham and Wolves haven’t as far as I’m aware had the same restrictions on amounts being paid or wages being paid which Rafa works under. Most fans have the brains to work out that Rafa isn’t working with one hand behind his back it’s two. Amazingly it makes his job infinitely more difficult. Also consider refusals to properly man executive positions and develop infrastructure and you start to notice the additional restraints Rafa is working under which probably every other manager in the PL isn’t.
