Looks like Slim Jim can talk the talk but is currently limping the walk bit. https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/spo...wcastle-united-striker-islam-slimani-14329034 Hey ho we’ve still got Joselu.
****s sake. So he's probably only gonna be available for 7 or 8 games then and it'll probably take 3-4 (at least) to get match fit. Someone better find their ****ing shooting boots or we'll be in the **** !
You have to laugh at the Newcastle fans on that thread on the Chronny though. Blaming the club - er it was the managers first choice striker? Should have kept Mitro - er he would have played as much as Slimani has...0. Rafa doesn't want him or rate him. Its not ideal but I think we have to get behind the manager and the decisions he takes. We have what we have, stop whinging about the window or trying to twist it into an anti establishment agenda. We can still win tomorrow and we can still stay up. Lets think positive and show the fight we did against Man U - on the pitch and in the stands.
How do you know he was Rafa’s first choice? Hopefully not relying on an unquoted newspaper article. I have read that he was 4th or 5th choice in some articles I’ve read but then I just take it with a pinch of salt and get on with what we have. Seriously though I do agree with you, for once, play as we did last time out and I won’t have any qualms about whatever result we get.
Two separate issues here imo! 1) The transfer policy is a shambles but that aside... 2) We will support the team regardless. I just think that the fact we leave it to last minute every time to make panic loans is crazy given what is at stake. There is no reason why loan deals cannot be sorted at the start of a transfer window.
It depends if you mean realistic choice? Rafa is directly quoted as saying Jorgensen was his first choice but it was not possible. That I assume means that the 22m they supposedly wanted was too rich for our taste. I think we only offered 15m (which to be fair is probably over his actual worth). So that was never happening. Its difficult to say as neither club has confirmed, but the inkling is that the clubs were quite a way apart. I don't think anybody would blame the club for not spending 22m on Jorgensen. That's a lot of money to a club like us and his record is patchy at best in weak leagues. Rafa is also quoted as saying once that wasn't possible they moved on to players already here who he felt could hit the ground running. He liked Slimani and didn't feel it was a risk. I think we all have to back Benitez and his judgement of the situation. He felt Slimani is top striker was a better risk than the others available. To be fair to Rafa this lad moved for 30m in the summer! “Obviously we were looking for options, different options, different characteristics of players and then players, if it was possible, with experience in the Premier League or players who are fit and scoring goals. That was the striker of Feyenoord. “But then if you cannot do that, you have to go for players who know the league and who can do well from day one. “In this case, he came with a little bit of a problem in his thigh, but he has been training – and I was with him on the pitch, so he is on the pitch training – but still we will see how he is and how he feels. No [he’s not a risk]. He’s a player that they paid, I think, £30m for him,” Benitez added. “I watched him in Portugal and he did well, but he’s a player that if you have [Jamie] Vardy up front and the way he as playing, it’s very difficult to play ahead of him. “But he is a player who knows the league, he’s strong, he can run behind defenders, different things that we don’t have. We have players, one can run, one can win in the air, one can be strong, but this one maybe can do a little bit of everything. That’s another option for me. “We knew about him but, when Leicester paid £30m for him, we started thinking about other things. But then when we heard he was available on loan, he became an option. “He’s a good signing. Clubs were pushing until the last minute so we had to do it quickly and we had to do it well, it was not easy.”
Aside from the other clubs hedging their bets and not agreeing to deal? As Rafa says they didn't know he was available until late in the window. I think we have to give Rafa and Charnley a break here, they did the best they could in what is a notoriously tricky window unless you have bundles of cash. Outside the top teams, look at the deals done. https://www.premierleague.com/transfers/january/2018 Looking through those, many of which were done late, I think we did alright in terms of quality.
No but his first choice was not realistic. Keegan wanted Thierry Henry... So if players Rafa and the club could realistically get, he was first choice. But I suppose for the delusional fantasists, no not first choice
We are. You are a fantasist, I am realist. I admire your dreamer attitude but it doesn’t get the job done sadly. Rafa is a bit more realistic. He knows Jorgensen couldn’t be his real first choice because he would have had to waste 22m of the clubs small budget. Having already blown a 100m building a team to battle relegation, it appears he had learnt his lesson. And to be actually factually correct Rafa didn’t specifically say he had a first choice. He said they were looking at many options. One of which he wanted and got. #zeroexcusesforthisone
See above for direct quotes. Ambiguous at best. Typical of Rafa and his manipulating fans through media.
