Good job too, he doesn't want to be seen as moaning. Someone should tell him there are still 5 weeks to go!
I have a really nagging suspicion that he is being forced out and we will end up with Steve Claridge as manager.
Some say "have patience", and fair play to those that can. But something's not right. We're too 'obvious' in the market to keep secrets. Looks to me like we're shopping at Lidl expecting to find Wagyu beef.
We need another CM desperately. I have faith Hayden will come along great, but I think a Shelvey and Hayden partnership would get SLAUGHTERED in the premier league. Hayden should be a cover. I wont mind having Shelvey as first choice creative mid, but we need an enforcer or a big physical presence next to him.
Was told today by the usual friends mate who has something to do with the club strip media advertising blah blah... That the Delph, townsend deals are all but tied up..... Don't shoot the messenger..... Time will tell I guess.. Ktf
I think there will be absolute hell on if Benitez left and I mean mass protests outside SJP and season ticket cancellations in the thousands.
I hope your right as need a bit of a lift. Sick of refreshing twitter at work every 5 minutes hoping for a transfer.?
There's a rumour going round the ladies section in our golf club that I'm hung like a Canadian Moose, can lick my eyebrows and breath through my ears. I started it.
I haven't sat down and looked at the CM partnerships of our all of our direct competitors for relegation, but are they that much better? Who is playing CM for Bournemouth, Brighton, Huddersfield, West Brom, Swansea? I agree we need to bring in someone but I don't think Shelvey and Hayden are that bad. Plenty of time to improve the squad, though, so we'll just have to wait and see what happens.
Bournemouth have many under-rated players who do a great job for them, Harry Arter is head and shoulders above anyone we have. West Brom - Nacir Chadli and Claudio Yacob urinate precociously over our comparables. They are not really a relegation candidate, did you see them much last year? Swansea - Ki, Sigurdsson and to be honest Tom Carroll Brighton and Huddersfield we can obviously compete with. The issue though is that I think we compare poorly or at best on a par with the relegation favourites, I had sort of hoped we would be able to aim for lower mid-table but that is seemingly a pipe dream. Once you start looking at Stoke, Leicester, Watford, Crystal Palace, etc. the genuinely midtable clubs have cast-off players we would be happy to accommodate.
It feels like there's a pissing contest and whilst everyone else is seeing if they can hit the ceiling we've quietly booked ourselves in for a prostate examination.
I don't think we've moved away from that horrible statement Charnley made a few years back in aiming to "make Newcastle United the best it can be, pound for pound". It's all about value for money at Newcastle. It's awfully shortsighted - you'd think a bloke who'd been relegated and seen the dire effects twice already might learn his lesson, but we just don't. The presence of Justin Barnes isn't going to help - I imagine we're back at the "purple" players phase of things once again. One first team player, and one low-calibre player behind to cover for injuries.
I have this weird feeling the club will be sold and that it'll just come out of absolutely nowhere. I wonder if Ashley's court appearance has just stunted things. Justin Barnes is a bloke who comes in, tightens belts and gets businesses sold. It's what he does. The club have done some lovely publicity things with the kids, Rafa's nice sound bytes around the 1892 Cup for schools. We appear to have made the odd bid that doesn't make any difference to the value of the club - low-balling on Murphy, loan offers for Ojo and Abraham (non-fixed assets). And something doesn't seem quite right. It may well be just the market, the fact we're holding out for better value and there's nothing else to say. But would anyone be surprised if we had Chinese owners within a fortnight?
