Rafa has said he wants written assurances over transfers. Then I read that he has been promised £70M over 3 transfer windows - looks like nothing has changed then if this is true. That is 1 striker and 5 back up squad players.
If Ashley is really giving the manager "every penny" of profit then £70m should be easily achievable. Plus player sales, of course.
Wow, Ashley splashing out big time. No doubt we will be told by someone that Rafa has agreed to this and Ashley is giving all money raised by the Club to Rafa.
I hope his contract lawyer gets a clause in there that stipulates which transfer windows or he will probably do 2020, 2024 and 2027.
If that is all we have, that is all we have. Rafa can either stay and sign up to it or see if the grass is greener. If he stays then we know he is happy to work under the constraints.
If Rafa does walk then it won't be long before the local Tyne-Wear derby is on the fixture lists again. Worst of all, this could mean that Middlesbrough may be the sole North-East team in the First Division* (*brought to you by the Campaign For Real Division Titles)
I think Rafa will stay and is happy. Mike has been good with him. He hasn’t made any murmurings about wanting out.
Really depends how much backing he gets in the next window. There are a lot more ambitious clubs looking around at present, and I would not hold it against him at all if he left for one. Based on history, we won't even have started looking for upgrades and replacements yet. Rafa is the opposite, and I can see him becoming frustrated by the system.
Up until recently l never thought Rafa would leave, not even when we were relegated. I knew the club, supporters and city had got under his skin. However, recently l have become increasingly concerned. Rafa has set out his stall and made public yet again, what it’s going to take to have him stay. He really cannot accept much less than he has asked for, and in my opinion none of it is unreasonable. He is well aware of the trust issues where Ashley is concerned. He wants to compete, he wants to win, so do we as fans. Despite reports to the contrary, we are realistic and so is Rafa. It’s a project, it’s a work in progress. Ashley has zero ambition for NUFC apart from money and advertising. Ashley has zero love for NUFC and whilst he didn’t want a third relegation, was still prepared to risk it. He gambled again, but this time on Rafa and Rafa came through. I truly feel that without Rafa it would have happened (relegation) and we were close to doing a Sunderland. Much as l hate to admit it, l think Rafa will leave for a club and owner who will at least try and support him. When that day comes, l fear for our future, we will get yet another journeyman has been, who will tow the line and be thankful for a job. Any talent we have or are likely to attract will leave too. That said l suspect it will be a kick in the teeth one to many for lots of loyal fans and they including myself will stop caring too.
Fat Mike should be handing that contract over whilst kissing Rafa's feet and thanking him for all he's done with all 5 mill of net spend
I know's it's relatively difficult as a fan, to flex expectations in line with the owner's prerogative, because no matter how little ambition or interest is ever shown, there's always that bit of hope every season that it could be our year... No matter the odds. The funny (or deeply depressing) fact is, those odds have dramatically worsened over the past decade. We do not have an especially fantastic history of bringing through youth players, we've had one or two highlights, but we are, buy and large, a buying club. A buying club, moreover, without the purchasing power of 75% of the premier league. Every year there's inflation in the market, an extra nought on the biggest club's budgets, and a comparatively modest net spend by our club, our odds to win a cup shrink, whether the bookies recognise it or not. Currently there are 5/6 clubs in England who should sweep up every domestic trophy between them, and they are currently the top 5/6 in the league. While you can only field 11 players, even financial missteps in terms of purchasing big-name players who turn out to be below-par, are not enough to realistically bridge the chasm between the haves and have nots, because the purchasing power is so lopsided that deals that would bankrupt a club like ours, can be written off as collateral damage by the haves. It would take backing on an unbelievable scale to break through for one season, never mind alter the pattern long-term. Look at Leicester. None of that is particularly revelatory, but it does mean that when Mike says that he can't "compete with countries", I have some sympathy for him. I fairly passively acknowledge the lack of ambition, because competing financially is a hopeless task. However, throughout history, victories and triumphant defeats are scored against seemingly overwhelming odds through strategy. That is my only complaint, that Mike has made the club almost self-sustaining, but toothless. Would anyone challenge my thought that we are purely going through the motions, season after season? That we have not built anything tangible since Mike's arrival, other than financial independence? It's absolutely monotonous. We've been an empty property, whitewashed inside, bare minimum refurbishment, with a for-sale sign outside for about 6 years. I mean, I'm not going to dissect the minutiae of every potential strategy we could have (for what it's worth, my preferred strategies involve 100% investment in local youth activities only (including women's football) over the next five-ten years), but I think milking the loyalty of football fans as part of an investment portfolio will eventually lead to decline in overall value of said investment. Mike can't flog us, so he might as well stop raising us as cattle, and think about implementing some kind of strategy.
Good posts from JPF and Fens lass. It's becoming nigh on impossible for any club other than the usual 6 or 7 suspects to break into that select group over a consistent period. Unless we find a generous and visionary benefactor, our only hope is to develop the club at root level. Our record in youth development has been abysmal for the past 30 years and we are years behind in ladies football.
We need to be taken over to get anywhere. We simply do not have the money to compete. Everyone is quick to moan about Ashley but he does right by the club. He doesn’t want to put anymore of his own money in but he has when it’s needed. Our youth system is disappointing but even that wouldn’t guarantee anything. We would just be ripe for picking off by the bigger clubs and country’s money which is financing them. Look at Southampton. Pochettino, Lallana, Van Dijk, Shaw, Mane etc. Even when you buy well and produce you’re own, you’re still just round the corner from a relegation battle. He has said he will give Rafa what we have and over the last three years there is no reason to doubt that. If Rafa decides it’s not enough then it won’t be Ashley’s fault or Rafas. We just won’t have enough. Our fans seem to find that difficult to fathom for some reason while everyone else outside the top 6-7 just accepts it.
Mike Ashley is quite happy as he always has been, the whole time we're in the Premier League. We are also-rans who cannot hope to compete with the new elite league (top 6) that exists now. It's been shown that Ashley will always do the bare minimum to keep Newcastle United in the Premier League. Nothing has changed in his entire 'reign' in Newcastle. The local pride will keep Ashley's 'ship' afloat here and nothing changes. Very simply, Toon fans just have to decide if they're happy watching a relegation fight every year. The Cup competitions are never even attempted with the huge pressure put on Managers to retain their Premier League status. Perhaps we need to be patient and wait for the right prospective buyer to come along, bulging bank balance in tow! As far as Rafa's contract is concerned, I have a feeling he'll be gone at the first sniff of a better offer. That is not going to be difficult for him to find. I believe Rafa when he says he's happy being Newcastle United Manager, but equally I'm sure he'd be just as happy elsewhere with a financial budget & team that can actually look to achieve something other than survival.
I could have sworn under McClaren we spent 91m, one of the biggest spenders in Europe. I could have sworn in the Championship we spent another 50m odd, one of the highest spends ever recorded in the Championship. We spent again in the summer in line with others in the division. When things got desperate in the window we loaned three players who basically helped keep us up. To suggest his entire reign suggests he will only do the bare minimum is simply not true. The 91m under McClaren burnt his fingers massively but represented significant investment in comparison to the rest of the league. There was no need to spend 50m odd in the championship but because the money was there from sales, and the manager wanted it, he allowed it. He has again allowed our budget to be exhausted this season. To be honest we have every reason to expect another 70m odd spend again this summer if we generate enough from sales.
