Barton touched on it today when he said Rafa should now just knuckle down and work with what he has got. I think the constant negative body language may be unsettling players and fans alike. Time to draw a line under things?
He should have drawn a line before Spurs. He's put us in a tricky position and I can't see a way out.
The other thing to consider is that the players who have been told to find another club may think '**** you Rafa... I'll take my time here fella...' which may delay our recruitment. We should be looking to waive or reduce some transfer fees to get players like Colback off our books.
If you go into work every day and the boss moans about the company all the time it gets demoralising, either they get on with it or go, certainly doesn't help.
Much as I like Rafa he is political. When we had the club gripped by internal problems (Hicks vs Gillette) it became very difficult for him to manage. He went public and mentioned the lack of funds. In the end he was out of a job. I can see this happening again or him walking within 2 months.
It's a tricky one because football is not really like any other business. All managers use the media to pressurise the owners. It is part and parcel of modern football. Look at Conte, Guardiola, Mourinho. They've all been at this summer. Mourinho despite getting 75% of what they wanted, subtlety reminded them he was still one short on 3 or 4 occasions since the start of the season. I've said on many occasions I'm not rafas biggest fan but I have to defend him here and think Barton is talking rubbish (he's prone to this). In the main Rafa is also just answering the questions put to him. He has said on many occasions he'd like more players but if not will just coach what he has to best of his capability. He can't stop them asking the questions - or he can but it will only make things worse. Unfortunately the only way to stop all this is results. The media want their first boss under pressure asap. Rafa is high profile and we are an easy target as we are clearly a relegation standard squad. We also have Ashley who everyone loves to hate. Like it or not the man is hated nationwide. Every single fan from any club I met on my travels over last two weeks mentioned how they hated Ashley. The media are no different. People have genuine warmth for us as a club but there was a clear distinction between that and the owner. (Although both Villa fans I met hated us as a club for laughing at their demise - I mentioned stones and glass houses) Perhaps though he can skirt by some of it and try to get on. He is trying to get the best for the club and be open with fans. However he's paying for it somewhat. Until he engineers some results they will twist whatever he says into a negative. Win a few games, get into mid table and De Boer or the like will be next. The PL world sadly, but Rafa had been around long enough to know how it works.
I think it's your owners that are the problem here chaps, not your manager. But you already knew that.
That said I'm sure the likes of Ritchie Atsu Clark etc who will be playing most weeks are thinking the same thing as Rafa. After all most of them stuck out a season in the championship and heard Ashley would do things Rafa's way and now we don't really have much to show and still have to deal the deadwood at our club. Totally agree with ACS we should let everyone ****e go at whatever anyone wants to pay for them and not hold out for larger fees. Get them out and off the books. I can see that we need to draw a line under it but i think we all know if something isn't sorted out in the next couple of weeks it's going to be one long season. I think all this is Rafa calling Ashley's bluff. We already lost last seasons TV money and that has set us back how much more money will Ashley be happy to miss out on? And is Ashley happy with us back in the championship? Because that is the reality at the moment.
Things would be so much better if the transfer window closed before the season started. All managers who still want more players find themselves in the awkward position of wanting to keep the pressure on the owners until the window closes, and yet also needing to galvanise the players they do have for these first few games before it closes. There probably is a negative effect for some players, but in all truth those players are probably the ones that know they are the ones who are not good enough to be in the team in an ideal world.
The issue is you need it worldwide or you just end up with the PL being weak to plunder from other leagues. To be honest that would mainly hurt the top teams so who gives a ****
This for me. Again I have to raise an eyebrow in Charnley's direction. The squad is full of utter crap. Some of it Rafa bought, but they were supposed to work for one year only anyway, so Charnley should have known that Hanley et al would need shipping out pronto. I fear old Lee's fcked up again by not being what Rafa needs him to be. Mistakes have been made, not hugely costly in some cases, but we need to just be buying off cloggers like Riviere, Saivet, Krul, Colback and getting rid. Nominal fee's but put everything towards the wage bill and fill the gaps with quality loan options. All too late, though, as we have now missed the boat on Loftus-Cheek, Fosu-Mensah, Patrick Roberts, etc.. We might yet be able to pinch Batshuayi and someone from City, Utd or PSG, but as is ALWAYS the case, with Charnley's finger on the pulse I wouldn't hold my breath.
Rafa cannot and must not be excused here. I feel like it's Game of Thrones behind the scenes and we get the Night King **** sandwich slowly and inevitably lurching towards us as a consequence. We all pointed out the futility of signing championship standard players for vast sums, because we're stuck with this **** now. Sure, some have been previous regimes' mistakes, but a lot rests on Rafa. Nowhere in the world do you start with a brand spanking new 11 each year, and we've signed what, 5 now? Rafa needs to shut up or put up.
That's a tad harsh, last season we had to get promoted this season we need to stay up I think everyone knew D Murphy Hanley et al were only brought in for that purpose and they weren't going to be of much use beyond that. Murphy went for 2-3m which is perfect and I'm sure that was also the plan for the others. If you go back to when Carrol was sold I think you will find MA's total outlay in transfers has been somewhere in the region of £20-30m (you may need to excuse my poor maths and shaded transfer history knowledge) which isn't a lot (putting all other revenues to one side) and I think Rafa is just saying that unless we want to spend the foreseeable future being a yo yo club we need better players. It's particularly frustrating when Jesé and Zouma are at Stoke Herndandez is at West Ham Burnely have bought Chris Wood (who I rate) Nasri has just gone for £3m we missed Tammy Abraham, Maguire is at Leicester Jenkinson has just gone to Birmingham. All I would like to think could have been tempted with a move to us. I don't think anyone expects us to spend £50m plus but none of the above have gone for more than £20 and would all be an improvement to our squad.
However, that is to suppose those players would choose Newcastle above the others, which I doubt. Just because we get 50k plus attendances, does not mean we are a big club or should be doing better. The owner sets the ambition, and we have little other than to operate at low cost. Season after season fans bitch and moan because we haven't spent vast sums on players, when Tottenham as one example have achieved a lower net spend and they are still elite level. The possibility to do better under Ashley is real. I think there is still a hangup on former glories, and that the current identity of the club leaves fans with itchy feet. I would love for us to be able to compete financially with clubs who chuck around millions like coppers, but I can accept that for now we can't. £15 million for Chris Wood FFS. Ashley is the reason we cannot win trophies, Rafa and his frivolous waste of finances and lack of professionalism around players like Mitrovic is the reason we have not competed in the league thus far. 75 mins gone. 0-1 down. Super sub to provide attacking emphasis? Diame. I rest my ****ing case.
