It's the same amount as was quoted a year or two ago for Rafa to walk away. The whole story is probably bollocks tbf.
Did anybody else read the Ashley statement after the Chelsea game and think the bit at the end about "hoping Rafa would stay" was a bit of a 'come and get him' type of comment?
So what does he get paid a year then? I can see Ashley using the "you finished tenth" line,you don't need players
If that happens I'll be changing my name to Sad Ken aswell mate. The confusion could cause the death of not606. We can only hope to god the future of cross-board forums is a large part of Rafa's decision making. Seems to be the generally accepted release clause in his contract. 6 mill would be good business for a year's contract, sadly. Whilst West Ham will consider that peanuts. It's nearly half a Snodgrass. I don't reckon anything will happen, but it remains a possibility.
Most managers would request a break clause in case a big club came calling. If Arsenal, Liverpool etc had come to us, Rafa wouldn't be feeling some unique loyalty, he'd be off. It only comes into effect if Rafa wants to leave and its generally accepted to be 6m. I wouldn't have thought West Ham will be enough to tempt him. However if he decides the money we can afford to make available isn't sufficient, and they tell him he can spend loads, he may decide the grass is greener. Its no ones fault, its just the nature of the beast.
So the compensation is the same regardless how long left he has on his contract?That's the bit that I couldn't get,I was always under the impression only remaining part of his contract gets paid ie in Rafa's case 1 year.
He's on 4.2m a year anyway. It was about 13th highest in Europe when we signed him in 2016 (further evidence we do pay the going rate...) I think its a break clause as opposed to paying up a contract.
Pay the going rate. Wonder how Penfold compares. Important position, he must be up there with other CEO's or whatever he gets called these days.
Ashley broke the bank and paid an absurd figure for a Championship manager. Give some credit where its due. We pay our manager more than most of the division. We have a wage budget in line with our status in the division. Our transfer business stacks up also in net or gross spend. We pay agents more than most. Where exactly are we not paying the going rate? Charnley? That is simply down to promoting from within. I would prefer we were spending our money on managers and players than a chief executive to be honest. Charnley has done a good job over the last 3 years so I couldn't really knock him.
I wouldn't disagree with your first point and would and have in the past given credit to Ashley and Penfold for managing to get Rafa to be Manager. Disagree with your comment about our transfer business as to progress any business needs to invest and Ashley clearly doesn't but at least he's not pretending to. Rafa can have every penny the Club generates is literally not true and is nice and vague so as to illicit a number of interpretations as to what is meant. I'm not expecting Ashley to tell the world what is in our transfer kitty but it would be nice if he got round to mentioning an actual figure to Rafa. From the media, and that's all you or I can go off, it would appear he hasn't been clear with Rafa on that point . Also would Rafa have been asking for a £5M striker in the last summer transfer window to lead us into the new campaign? Don't think so. Why was the transfer business in the last window all done so late? Again not what Rafa was wanting. Just 2 recent examples. Penfold has done a good job over the last 3 years...hmmm. That period you do realise starts with the appointment of McClaren and the failure to get rid of McClaren well after he should have been sacked. If that's what you call doing a good job then all I can say is that my dictionary has a different definition for "good" than your dictionary clearly has.
I wouldn't disagree on McClaren. Many others however thought he was a good appointment. Many thought sacking him wasn't the right option. I'd have never have appointed him as I said at the time, but many fans and people in the game thought we'd done well. They then went and delivered his targets spending big money in the process. As it now turns out it was an error but hindsight is very easy. In terms of what the club is generating, all we can actually go off is what the books tell us. What Rafa tells us, Charnley tells us, Ashley tells us or the papers tell us is actually not relevant at all because they all have an angle. The fans seem to think Rafa wouldn't spin it for his advantage - this is naive in the extreme to be honest. The books tell us Newcastle have spent everything they've generated. Until we have the new accounts and the accounts the year after, some of the fans assertion we haven't is pure hearsay and not based on any factual information. Rafa may not have wanted to spend 5m on a striker. However if he has spent the rest of the budget on other purchases, that's something he has to answer to. Rafa admitted he had a figure in the summer. We don't know if he exhausted all that budget or not so I'm not keen to slate either party. Looking at it though, we look to have spent what we generally generate (a net figure of 25m based on 3 yr spend and the books telling us we are spending it all over that period as far as we can tell) It took him a while to get the figure for January (due to external issues beyond anyone's control). How much of that was used again I don't know. The business in the last window was done so late for very obvious reasons. We had a potential takeover looming. Our targets were not available at the start of the window (Slimani), the holding club weren't sure if they were releasing another (Kenedy), I can't comment on the Dubravka one. The striker we wanted to buy was valued at allegedly 25m. If that is true the club did exactly the right thing. Not only was he not worth it, it would have been a risk too far which was unnecessary. One thing I do know though is the squad was strengthened, Rafa got what he wanted and we stayed up as a result. There seems to be some illusion that all clubs are busy and get their business done early. I'm not really sure where you or others have got this from. They aren't and generally deals are done late (bar the big clubs). It is generally accepted this is is due to players and agents waiting for the best deal, and smaller clubs waiting for the big clubs to kickstart business and a domino effect ensuing. I'm not sure why some of our fans think we should be exempt to this. In the summer Rafa moaned about Cabellero and Abraham according to the Chronicle. Both have admitted they preferred Chelsea and Swansea. Not sure why Rafa would whinge about players choosing other clubs. I suspect he didn't. He just didn't correct the paper as it served his needs. What we do know is the club got a number of deals done early in the summer window which is again to their credit. As I say its time for the naysayers to bend the knee to Sir Michael and Sir Lee.
Wet Spam have said an announcement is imminent. About two days ago Rafa said “I’m only talking to Newcastle”. He’s not a liar. The media just love to stir up **** particularly for us. Not one spineless journo really pushed Southgate on Shelvey. Nobody even mentioned Lascelles. But Rafa to Wet Spam? Back page headlines. ****ing pathetic.
I can actually see Rafa going you know. He has done what he set out to do and would leave us in a better shape than when he took it on. Ashley should have got the deal done for Rafa and everything already instead of gambling with this one.
Gold knows what he's doing mind. Read the statement and it was the footballing equivalent of a blurb on the back of one of his porno's. Feel sorry for those Hammers fans when they read that then end up with someone like Di Matteo
Ashley paying rafa £4.2m a year,if that's true the world has gone mad. I reckon since Rafa left the scousers he's probably earned about £50m between sackings and short term contracts f#ck me.
