http://www.skysports.com/football/n...nts-change-at-newcastle-to-stop-him-suffering Basically, if he gets the kind of money to keep us just surviving then he's probably going to **** off. Couldn't blame him like, if he achieves his objective two seasons running he clearly deserves the funding. Most managers barely last two seasons these days full stop. But will he get the funding to turn us top 10? Looking at it we'd need to spend a considerable amount to both make up for the difference in teams this season AND keep up with others spending there TV money again next season. If MA is still here I honestly think it will be another frustrating summer that starts with promising promises and ends with Charnley's 'target' being Matt ****ing Targett. The only hope to stop this is a takeover. If it was me I'd give him whatever the **** he wants, but that's why I'm not an owner. "You want to spend all season wearing a sombrero on the touchline and sign Vladimir Smicer? Crack on lad!"
There should be at least £60m plus player sales so Rafa should be able to target some quality this time round. Quality players won't work for peanuts, though, so, like I've previously said, the wage structure will need looking at. The danger with Ashley is he'll be looking to subsidise any sale with that money in the bank. We'll spend under him but it'll probably be a half-arsed, stingy approach again or let's just say less than we could have done. You can never underestimate Ashley's propensity to **** things up.
The fat man will go in the summer. The gap seemed to be £50m with Staveley linking it to survival. If survival is assured then she will put that on the table without conditions. Effectively giving the fat one his £300m. With the new TV deal flat, then all other things are relatively equal. I wouldn't put it past the tubbster to flog Lascelles at the last minute to squeeze every last drop out of the club though.
It is actually totally resting on wages. I'd be hoping we could pick off a few out of contracts or something, naturally coming in on a bigger wage, because realistically we will never get that AND a good transfer spend If you look at the team that finished 5th, the season most worried about lack of spend in transfers, we had Ben Arfa, Ba, Santon, Colo, Marveaux, Cabaye and even Obertan would have come on some healthy wages. It continued mostly that way until our second relegation and, since then, the wage bill has literally become his fixation. Maybe because then we had Riviere, Thauvin, Krul, Tiote, Sissoko, Wij, still Colo and a host of other overpaid players. Why Benitez is still paying for the mistakes of Carr god only knows. So we went down and halved the wage bill. Sadly I don't see change in that either, I think it was proven at the end of the summer window. Shifted aload of wgaes off the books to the end to sign nobody. Fast forward to Jan and we're only interested in players wages that we don't have to commit to for more than 6 months. If a sale doesn't happen this summer we're pretty ****ed. In an era where wages going up astronomically, we're halving our bills.
Rafa has said previously he doesn't have a fixed wage structure. He has said previously he has a pot of money to get his transfers and wages (and any other spend) from, I don't think he'd lie. I am sure certain fans will hold onto the fact that Mike Ashley is clearly the orchestrator of all evil in the world and therefore there is some crazy conspiracy to risk relegation and prevent Rafa from spending money. I don't buy it. If he wants to spend his entire budget on the fees and wages for 4 players he can do based on what he has said. I think we have spread our money too thinly so far under Rafa. Three things need to happen for us to progress from what I can see: The first stage is stay up and access the TV money - I think we can do this The second stage is for Ashley to release as much of that money as possible to Rafa - I think this will happen as Ashley has released everything so far. Fans have to realistic though, what the club generates will have to be spent on more than just transfers/wages in order to maintain our PL status. Rafa knows that too and will want to see investment in infrastructure. This comes from the same pot. The third stage is for Rafa to target quality rather than quantity and do better in the transfer market. It will be easier with more money. If he had a budget similar to what he had in the Championship (65m ish) then I think he would instantly find it easier to spend on better quality due to PL status This can all change though with a takeover. As Rafa could then find himself able to target a quantity of quality. Without that takeover I have some sympathy with him. He will still find himself in charge of a PL also ran in terms of finance, and still find himself waiting for players/agents to assess if there is better options before signing. Hopefully the fans are learning too, and can show understanding for him and the board of where we are as a club. The jump people want is all about money. You can't make the top 10 jump without it - or at least its very very hard on all known evidence. A takeover is the only way round that unless Rafa manages to do something stellar on a budget (a la Southampton or Leicester). The key for me is we need to make as few mistakes as possible in the market as we don't have the budgets to sustain too many mistakes. Of course we are in the same boat as about 10 others in this regard. I think without a takeover, a good season would be just under mid table without having had to look at relegation too closely. That would be the minor step forward to make through good management of the club.
Whilst coaching, tactics and infrastructure contribute, the ability to find and integrate players who belie their cost is the key to football success. Liverpool have done it a few times, with Mane, Salah, Coutinho, Firmino all complete snips in the current market. Spurs are similar, more often than not buying well - Son, Alli, Eriksen, Dier far outweight the mistakes of Soldado. Man U & Chelsea are not great, they tend to buy players for more than they are worth or can contribute. Always exceptions, they throw a lot of money so some **** must stick. Man City have bought more duds than the EFL have paid for in players, but spend such insane money success is inevitable. The difficulty is looking at the likes of Palace, Everton and Southampton. Paid big money, we were very envious of their positions yet they've had terrible seasons and will struggle to spend again. Big names have turned up and been rubbish. Being savvy with money is the holy grail and even then it's just not enough 'cos you have to sustain that year after year.
As long as its not spent on more dross like: Manquillo, Gamez, Lazaar, Joselu, Sels, etc. give him what ever money he wants. Been critical of Benitez this season but I do also appreciate the level of players at his disposal although I stand by criticism of the game management and subs - some of that has been shocking. i don't think we need masses through the door we have a good starting XI - predicted this team as it stands would come 13th begining of the season and I think it will end there or there about. Need those 3/4 quality players through the door to push us into top half. Imgaine if we had players like Arnautovic instead of Gayle or Shaquiri instead of Perez, players who can win points on there own, no disrespect to Gayle or Ayoze (love Ayo but he hasn't developed as well as I'd have thought) Also it is imperative to get rid of the deadwood, not some of it, ALL of it. The saving on wages and the pennies bought in from knackers like Joselu could be vital to securing decent players to push on. If we had a team capable of finishing top 10 we could surprise a few teams or go on a decent cup run. 4 I'd get would be: 1st and foremost my mancrush Kenedy - loan or buy - £15m would be a snip 2 Shaquiri - operate on either wing or in the hole 3 CM - not sure who I'd go for but just a bit more quality while retaining the 4 cm's we currently have 4 LB - Love dummy and I'd want him to spend his entire career here but a different option at LB someone with a bit of pace and attacking intent. Dummy can play CB as well.
To be fair to Benitez though, if they are ****e, why would someone else buy them? Shifting players out is not always easy. I know he bought a lot of that ****e in the first place but there is no point moaning about split milk. The reality is we have these players and I personally don't think its going to be easy to get a reasonable fee for many of them.
Agreed although I think if we could get anywhere near £10m to put towards new players on top of "what the club generates" and getting rid of the associated wages for Sels, Gamez, Haidara, Manquillo, Colback, Saviet, Joselu, Lazaar (1.4m per player + wages) that could be the difference between a good and a great signing. If we'd had £15m to spend on a striker in the summer as opposed to £5m on Joselu I think we'd be a few points better off.
Looking at our transfer spend against what we have recouped in his time here, it would appear we've spent everything we have generated (plus a little bit more). I think this is where most fans are going wrong, they don't seem to get the basic math. Running costs, transfer fees, wages, money spent on training facilities, revamping the scouting system - our fans seem to just be making up imaginary figures. A brutal in and out on transfers registers about 8m profit which includes sales like Sissoko and Gini. Benitez was fortunate in that he got money from assets due to relegation. Relegation costs you money - you don't make money out of it. So if you add whatever it cost (I think the last time it was around 30m odd), the money spent on transfers, the costs put towards getting infrastructure how Rafa wants it - I can't really see where there can too much more in terms of money. I suppose our accounts will tell us when the time comes - I'd be extremely surprised if they show the club making huge profit and just retaining it in their accounts. The only thing it could show is Mike having his loan paid back which is fair enough.
The problem is a good manager like say Pochettino will do a good job of spending your money. Everything will look rosy. Then he'll be poached just like the players. If you don't have money you are just constantly accumulating risk in the PL from what I can see. Its a very difficult balancing act for clubs like ourselves. I can see why fans get frustrated because they just want their club to be the best. It isn't possible.
No it doesn’t. We have a profit on deals whilst Rafa has been in charge. Don’t we also generate gate receipts? Don’t we also generate TV money? Don’t we also generate money on advertising? Don’t we also generate money on selling strips? Don’t we also generate money on strip sponsorship? Etc, etc... I am aware of wages, other staff salaries, running costs etc but I’m not blindly accepting Ashley isn’t getting/has got something out of being in charge or that he is putting everything back into the Club and not directly or indirectly getting something for his “troubles”. I don’t have a problem with him getting something as he owns the Club and it’s his money which is at risk. Just don’t take me for a sap and just tell me the truth (Ashley not Pouchy).
Gut feeling is that he will not sell up. Just one massive smokescreen. He will no doubt have one final nasty trick up his sleeve. Never forget what a horrible **** he can be!!
The worry for me is the last 2 windows where we haven't spent everything we had in the bank. If they couldn't find the players then fair enough, but with Ashley looking to sell there is a danger he doesn't want to spend much in order to fatten the goose for market. It would be a shame if that were the case and we didn't give Rafa everything we had available because it's going to be a considerable amount of money come July. There was £10-15m by all accounts at the end of August, then allegedly £20-£30m in January. In the January window in the Championship I think we genuinely didn't have anything to spend because we were losing money and Ashley had to put £15m in to keep the club afloat. The 3 windows before that the managers were allowed to spend what we had in the bank. If Rafa gets it all, then fair enough, Ashley is still keeping his word and sticking to that strategy; there's just a bit of doubt that he has changed tack again and tightened the purse strings. The encouraging thing is that Rafa seems to be looking to the long term and I don't think he'd stay if he didn't think he was going to get substantial backing from the owner. What he thinks will happen and what actually happens could be two different things though. We'll find out in time I guess.
One of the issues with buying players, as someone else has mentioned, is wages. Players can be identified and assuming we get to talk to player option 1 or 2 as opposed to player option 4 or 5 we still have to agree wages. If we don’t pay the wages, and we don’t, we still won’t get the preferred players. Combine that with the time it will take for the club to be sold and/or Ashley’s sale of Club housekeeping and the shortened transfer window and the World Cup and we will need to keep more than our fingers crossed for a successful window.
