One fact seems to have been overlooked in all of the above. The squad Benitez inherited and which has been weakened by extracting from it £45 million (or whatever the figure is) was a squad that wasn't good enough to stay in the Premiership. If you accept the common wisdom that you have to spend £20 million or so a season to standstill, the only really surprising thing is that we are worried about being relegated to the Championship and not from it.
Our squad as a whole is ****. Our first team GK is quality Our first team defence is good Our first team midfield is average Our first team strikers are non-existent Our back up GK is good Our back up defence is average (CBs good, full backs non-existent) Our back up midfield is non-existent Our back up strikers are the worst in PL history. Personally I don't give a **** about net spends or how much we spend so long as the quality of our squad is at bare minimum average in departments which should keep us up. As it is, we are substanitally below average and that is why there is only Huddersfield and Cardiff ****er than us.
Hughton had us 11th when he went, did he not? Not too dissimilar from where Rafa ended up last year, and with a tiny budget... Hughton didn't even get a say in who came in... I get we bum Rafa because he has the best CV of any manager to ever come to the club, but don't feel too sorry for him, because he has had it no worse than our other managers. He also was getting a bit of a rep for being unwanted...
No, wrong again. We were actually 12th when Hughton was sacked and it was in December not even half way through the first season back in the PL and with a team that essentially were not a Championship team who had not been invested in for a season and a half or three transfer windows. In reality he had a bigger budget than Rafa and do you really think Rafa has selected these players. They may be on his list but do you really think he would have bought most of these players if he was at say Brighton or Huddersfield? But let’s not let facts get in the way.
well I just checked about 6 articles from the day he got sacked and they all say 11th, just one says 12th, and that was dated April 2017... But I mean, my main criticism of the bollocks you're posting, is that a championship team is a championship team. We got relegated back then for a reason, the players weren't good enough, and Hughton didn't suddenly make them good enough, nor did the pittance we spent when we got promoted. Benitez has spent more money... I know bla bla net spend... But I expect Rafa to sell players for more in this market 8 years on... I just think you are brainwashed into loving Rafa and are unwilling to see he is too busy playing games with the owner to actually get his team playing as well as last year.
You shouldn't believe everything you read on the internet. Hughton was able to get rid of the freeloaders who were there just for the money. He bought, I think from memory, Tiote and Ben Arfa who quite simply are in a different class to what Rafa has been allowed to buy. Net spend is relevant as it generally shows the net effect on the squad's ability overall and definitely does in this particular case, as Rafa has had to scrape the bottom of the barrel. He inherited a relegated squad and the general standard is now significantly worse because of our transfer policy. I'm not saying he hasn't made mistakes. I've mentioned them before. I would have kept Mitro, I would have kept M'Bemba. Some of the substitutions baffle me and picking Joselu and Perez absolutely amaze me. The one thing that stands out though is that where we are is purely and solely down to Ashley. If Rafa is playing media games with Ashley then I don't care. I initially quite liked the Silver Fox but as his reign went on I couldn't stand him as he was the mouthpiece for Ashley and would spout absolute garbage and seemingly expect the fans to accept and believe it. If playing media games is Rafa's way of trying to get a better lot then I hope he succeeds.
Those two were a different class to what Rafa has bought - combined they cost similar to Lazaar and Manquillo were bought for. Where is Graham Carr when you need him...
Two away draws and yes a defeat in the cup with a weakened team. After Man Utd is when we have to pick up points regularly up till Liverpool on Boxing Day. If we are in the bottom three at Christmas I think we are going to be in trouble.
We don't have a weakened team,we have a very poor squad as proved looking at the bench last Saturday and of that starting 11(v Forest) only 3 were reserves in Lonstaff,Sterry and Darlow the rest are regular first teamers or benchers.
These two were purchased for well below market value. We were shopping in the bargain bin then too. Tiote cost 3.5m and Ben Arfa 5.75m (Pardew), loaned initially by Hughton. Its a common theme throughout Ashley's reign bar the McClaren splurge. I don't think its fair on Hughton and Pardew to suggest Rafa somehow has it harder. Nothing seems to back this up. Rafa has spent the meagre funds he has been allowed how he has, Hughton and Pardew spent their meagre funds the way they did. I'd imagine they were virtually all in profit overall or maybe break even. Pardew didn't get the exaggerated funds incoming from a relegation. I have great sympathy with Rafa, its completely unfair to judge him based on the funds he has been allowed. The same applied to both Hughton and Pardew. Hughton went about promotion from the Championship a different way to Rafa. He spent very little and retained a few more players. He had a more championship ready squad. Rafa couldn't retain some of those who took us down but got great money for them due to one club being a complete set of mugs. I know Rafa is almighty god to some, but the reality he is working under the same constraints. I would argue Hughton and Pardew (with Carr) were far better with the funds in terms of buying quality at below market value. Rafa last season was better than them at getting more out of the squad. To be honest Pardew and Rafa had different approaches. Rafa likes numbers. Pardew basically preferred to have a quality first team and gambled he'd get enough points out of them when they were available. Both approaches worked. Look at some of the bargains we got under Hughton and Pardew: Ba - Free Tiote - 3.5m Ben Arfa - 5.75m Santon - 5m Cabaye - 5m Sissoko - 2m Gouffran - 2m Perez - 2m Remy - Loan Lascelles - 5m All well below what our competitors were shelling out. Look at the net spends since Pardew got us to 5th, we constantly operate between meagre net spends or profits, exactly what Rafa has had. All it tells you is Mr Ashley will not change his approach, the McClaren year was a one off. All in all I think it is fair to suggest every manager has been screwed bar McClaren and perhaps Rafa isn't that great on transfers. Pardew net spent approx 9m to get us to 5th. He (and Hughton though obviously the bulk of funds came from Pardew's sale of Carroll) made a 25m profit the season before. Our net spend the following season was 14m, but it was skewed by a January relegation avoidance splurge of about 18m. He paid for this the following season the greedy bastard as we made another 18m profit. It is just cyclical with Ashley. It all ends up with 0 spend or profit.
So a weakened team in the cup as you have just confirmed. The squad's not great but they are capable of winning games, especially those in the 2 months after Man Utd which are in general easier fixtures than our tough start has been.
Does anyone actually have the net spend/profit since Ashley took charge - genuinely would not be surprised if it was under £10m spent in 11 years on transfers.
https://www.themag.co.uk/2017/11/fo...ke-ashley-net-spend-players-newcastle-united/ Oh don't worry found it 2008-2015 we had a massive 700,000 net spend per annum... how are we even still a functioning club?
