If he's as good as his uncle Obafemi I'd take him.
Hope he's not half as lazy
If he's as good as his uncle Obafemi I'd take him.
Great Grandad more likely.If he's as good as his uncle Obafemi I'd take him.
Yeah like it was ever going to happen,buy 3 players for that.I just had a thought,Slimani fs
I knowStruggling in Turkey. Shows you how **** Slimani actually is.
We aren't signing anyone. Same ****, different year. It will be the same next year when we have Simon Grays on as manager.
remember wasn't fit for 2 months,had an assist against Arsenal and classed as master stroke.Two?From the first time Martins was flagged up as of interest to NUFC, it was also clearly reported that it would be hard to make this proposed loan happen, because the player wasn’t keen on the move.
As soon as an alternative presented itself, he chose them over us.
Let’s face it, Monaco or Newcastle, bet it took him all of two seconds.
Rafa's transfer record has always included some duds and some gems... Like most managers. Certainly not his greatest strength, but neither a resounding weakness. Like you say is mostly down to MA again. Unfortunately if Benitez is handing a list of targets to Charnley and the top 100 choices for each position get ignored every time as he goes straight to number 101 before attempting a transfer... Well, that's obviously going to further scew things against in terms of successful aquisitions. No argument with some of our sales - can only be described as disappointing to see us sell some of our more promising youngsters like Mbabu and Abeid. They were still limited, but must have been better options than the likes of Hayden and Manquill, and would have been money saved too.We seem to spend all our time trying to replicate what Graham Carr did - try to find players with weird clauses, cheaper-than-expected fees then go for them. Seems to have fck all to do with actually scouting and finding decent players.
Gelson has a weird situation where he's potentially a £50m footballers, Atletico paid nothing, he's not good enough for them so they're letting him go because his salary is probably huge. We're only loaning him because of the salary, it was a way of getting a probably-good footballer in on a steal. Sadly, Monaco will simply offer him a massive salary. And warm weather. I don't think we need or want players like that, and I again must question the scouting/player selection process of NUFC.
Rafa says it's all his, so again I'm wondering why a name like Gelson has come up? It's shopping around for obvious bargains, rather than seeming to scout and find gems. Leicester, Watford, Everton, Southampton, Burnley, Bournemouth. In fact, EVERY PL club seems to have this ability to find decent players and bring them in without a fuss. Players from lower leagues, Ireland, France, Belgium, Holland seem to appear, improve and be stars or then be sold for huge profits which is surely worth replicating?
Honestly, I know Ashley's to blame, but some of it is a real head scratcher. Surely when you have knowingly small player budgets, you'd spend a relatively large amount of money getting around Europe? I look at players like Mbabu and Abeid, who have improved and improved. Yet I look at NUFC and we've been playing Manquillo or Hayden. I just don't get what Benitez is looking at and to a very, very, minutely small degree agree with Ashley that simply letting Rafa overspend is not a guarantee of much success, if history is anything to go by. I think you can build a decent group of players constantly bringing in guys at £5-£15m. Will Hughes, for example. Look at the extreme examples - Coutinho, VVD, Josh King, Richarlison, Lewis Cook, Harry Maguire, Jamie Vardy. A lot of clubs are getting this right, yet we're throwing our toys out the pram because we refuse to break a transfer record.
It's like Almiron. Seems ok, but we're bidding for him AFTER he's won the MVP award for MLS, on the back of his best season - why aren't we there before that season?
Our scouting and player selection is absolutely ****ing abysmal. I have no idea what Steve Nickson does, why he's in that position, but I'd have Graham Carr back in a ****ing heartbeat - at least with him we were bringing in occasional gems. The steals with Ben Arfa, Tiote, Cabaye, Cisse, Ba, etc., are long gone. Now we're staring at Gayle - whom we all knew wouldn't be a PL striker. Ritchie, a Championship winger. Murphy, a league one winger. Atsu, Manquillo, Joselu. I get there's budgets, but if we're honest that's not the true picture and a lot of money has been spent poorly. We've brought in three ****ing wingers since Rafa arrived and made an offer for Gelson....a winger. At what point would YOU, as owner, say "something's not quite working here".
Rafa's transfer record has always included some duds and some gems... Like most managers. Certainly not his greatest strength, but neither a resounding weakness. Like you say is mostly down to MA again. Unfortunately if Benitez is handing a list of targets to Charnley and the top 100 choices for each position get ignored every time as he goes straight to number 101 before attempting a transfer... Well, that's obviously going to further scew things against in terms of successful aquisitions. No argument with some of our sales - can only be described as disappointing to see us sell some of our more promising youngsters like Mbabu and Abeid. They were still limited, but must have been better options than the likes of Hayden and Manquill, and would have been money saved too.
To cheer you up a bit, a BT Sport pundit who covers French football has stated that the Monaco left back we are supposed to be after has been performing worse than Manquillo did when he played in France. Sounds like another gem.
I disagree. Its a resounding weakness for me looking at his career. His strike rate is alarming if you are the owner of a club. Just run through his Liverpool transfer work. Mind it does tell you how good he is at coaching, and how good his tactical acumen must be that he can have such a ****ty transfer record, yet still win the CL. A lot of his Napoli work was decent but otherwise he is very miss miss hit. You need deep pockets if you have him as manager and are going to give him the backing he requests.
Personally, and I know he would probably not accept it, but I think he is tailor made for a Director of Football. Someone who can control the scouting and signing of players, while syncing it with his requirements.