Rafa Looks for Divine Intervention

With football often stated to be a religion in Newcastle and Benitez just unable to perform a premier league survival miracle at the end of last season…Rafa has turned to Jesus. That’s right, Spanish full back Jesus Gamez looks set to sign for Newcastle before the weekend. It could be a terrific signing for Newcastle as they look to replace Daryl Janmaat before allowing the Dutchman to leave for pastures new.

Benitez knows, as we all do, that Newcastle desperately need defenders. Janmaat always looked likely to leave United following the club’s demotion from the top flight and is indeed expected to go this summer. Gamez will be a good replacement, and at 31 years of age, he will provide the Newcastle back line with much needed experience. Following the departures of long serving Newcastle centre-halves Steven Taylor and Coloccini, Newcastle have only one defender on their books born in the ‘80s…Janmaat, who turns 27 later this month.

So an experienced head was very much a priority and Gamez, who will arrive from Atletico Madrid, provides just that. He may not have any experience of English football but that hasn’t put Benitez off. Gamez is a strong defender who shouldn’t struggle with the physicality of the Championship.

And at 31, he will be more than capable of playing at the top level next season should Newcastle win promotion as targeted. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves, Gamez will be seen as a key player in the promotion push as Benitez will look to his countryman to add defensive strength and knowhow at fullback. Far too often last season, Newcastle’s centre backs were left woefully exposed by marauding full backs bombing forwards under McClaren’s misguided instruction.

It is another positive move in a busy transfer period for Benitez and more incomings and outgoings are expected. More defenders will doubtlessly follow with Blackburn’s captain Grant Hanley hotly tipped to also arrive. Leadership qualities and experience of the Championship will be beneficial to Newcastle’s campaign but there will be questions as to whether he can push on and perform at Premier League level. To be fair, the future of Newcastle’s defence lies with Lascelles and Mbemba, other players will be added to provide support and depth.

With plenty more players expected to leave Newcastle, it is refreshing to see United sign replacements for players quickly or even before the outward player is allowed to leave. No more situations like the Andy Carroll fiasco where Newcastle were left desperately short in a key area. Rafa is far too shrewd for that and this summer already has a much more measured feel about it. As fans though we can look to a higher power; after all, as we pray for more signings, Jesus will be passing an angel on the A1 before arriving at our church, named after a saint.

109 thoughts on “Rafa Looks for Divine Intervention

  1. I don’t realise the deal for Gamez was only around £1.5m. I thought it was closer to £5m for some reason.
    I think it’s a cracking buy, and if Janmaat does go – which I actually hope he doesn’t – but if he does you expect it to be £5-7m so money in the coffers.

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  2. Cisse was a real enigma for me – truly brilliant or god awful.

    THAT goal against Chelsea is written into NUFC history. I think we got our monies worth for £9m personally & I wish him well.

    I’d be interested to know the fee with him going to China though.

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  3. Super read SRF, Thanks.
    Yes, what I like to date is that we seem to be building a squad with the right mixture of experience in both age terms and league terms. We now have players who have played in the championship recently and understand it well and PL players who shouldn’t struggle with the drop down having played at a higher level. Add to that Champions league experience of Gamez and some of Rafa’s tactical know how and the future should be rosy. I say should cause you can never count your chickens, but it would be failure on an epic scale if we don’t go up now with all these changes. It’s a hard league but with the right work ethic and team spirit we should do well.

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  4. Sharpy Cisse 44 goals in 131 games, many as sub, probably should of gotten more tbh but his goals kept us up season before last. I liked him, but as you say was either great or very mediocre .

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  5. Cheers SRF. Good times ahead. Cisse went for £2.5m according to a couple of rags. I think just getting him our wage bill was a major achievement because he has been useless for some time. To get a fee in top of that is good work.

    I’m concerned our squad is shaping up to be very young with this Hayden kid coming in. Would like to see more experience. Perhaps an experienced striker to come in now Cisse is off the books?

    It’s good to see the outgoings though. Now to get rid of Gouffy, Riviere and De Jong – then we have a decent shape to us with 1 or 2 additions. If Gini or Sissy go it will be for big money and I’m sure they will be adequately replaced in that event so no worries there. Would like to keep at least one of them though…

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  6. Kimtoon:
    Sharpy Cisse 44 goals in 131 games, many as sub, probably should of gotten more tbh but his goals kept us up season before last. I liked him, but as you say was either great or very mediocre .

    Kim – he really should have got a lot more, but that offside trap got the better of him far too many times. I think £9m for a 1 in 3 forward is a decent return though – and as you say, some of his goals were score at a time we desperately needed them to stay up.
    Nowhere near the greats, but far from the worst.

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  7. Shamrock:
    Cheers SRF. Good times ahead. Cisse went for £2.5m according to a couple of rags. I think just getting him our wage bill was a major achievement because he has been useless for some time. To get a fee in top of that is good work.

    I’m concerned our squad is shaping up to be very young with this Hayden kid coming in. Would like to see more experience. Perhaps an experienced striker to come in now Cisse is off the books?

    It’s good to see the outgoings though. Now to get rid of Gouffy, Riviere and De Jong – then we have a decent shape to us with 1 or 2 additions. If Gini or Sissy go it will be for big money and I’m sure they will be adequately replaced in that event so no worries there. Would like to keep at least one of them though…

    Sham – Ritchie & Gayle are mid twenties mate so not bairns, and Gamez is 31. Hayden is a young un but was at Hull last season so has some experience. But if we get Hanley, despite still only being 24 – he’s got heaps of experience with Bburn.

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  8. It would be interesting to know what the average age of our squad is compared to the other Championship and PL sides come the end of the window. We may have a 31 yo right back, but the rest of the defense is very young imo – we’ll see.

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  9. Maybe Im just sensitive to ageism, being 32 I want to see opportunities being made available for men of experience – such as myself. Where is my contract offer?

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  10. Shamrock:
    It would be interesting to know what the average age of our squad is compared to the other Championship and PL sides come the end of the window. We may have a 31 yo right back, but the rest of the defense is very young imo – we’ll see.

    Sham – didn’t Spurs have the youngest squad in the PL last season though?. They had the right leadership with Poch & I think Rafa can have our young guns organised & playing well mate.

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  11. Shamrock:
    Maybe Im just sensitive to ageism, being 32 I want to see opportunities being made available for men of experience – such as myself. Where is my contract offer?

    😆 Sham – I’m 37, give yourself 5 years mate & you reluctantly come to accept it 😆

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  12. Sham – sadly I think it would be closer to Razor Ruddock than Maldini now mate 😆 🙁

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  13. Sham, youre dead right mate, it’s never too late, except for Sharpy 17 that is ?.

    Cisse’s goals kept us up for sure, of that the is no doubt. Similarly to Collocini, a player who stayed 2 years beyond his sell by date. With them both gone thatll release another 100k a week to finance the Rafa sprog revolution. Need to get young Aarons signed up now, especially since it seems his hamstring problems are perhaps behind him…

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  14. Shut up you two, try 55, I promise you 30’s are a breeze. Got a nice letter from the NHS calling me in for a cancer bowel scope screen a few weeks back,( everyone over 55 gets it now). Went in on Thursday morning for the screen, ye gods was it painful, so just be glad your not 55 yet.

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  15. SHAM quite a few rags ect saying he went for 5 min which is pocket money for a club in China the way they are spending

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  16. Personally i reckon Sissoko plays equally as flakey for France as he does for the Toon, its just that for France he has Pogba and the other two Rottweilers to cover for him after he saunters back from his forward forays…

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  17. Munich Mag:
    Personally i reckon Sissoko plays equally as flakey for France as he does for the Toon, its just that for France he has Pogba and the other two Rottweilers to cover for him after he sauntersback from his forward forays…

    MM, agree, he does the same gut busting runs with little end product just like for us as far as I can see.

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  18. Icedog I just flew back to Istanbul at the weekend and the flight was full of players from FC Balzan from Malta… just played in the europa league in azerbaijan….

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  19. Kimtoon, I reckon Rafa wants to offload him, but is waiting on big club making a mental offer for him… we paid 2 million squids for him from what i can recall, once france win the euros hell have a 25 mill price tag on his broad shoulders…
    kerching…..

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  20. On the flip side, upon our return to the PL it would good if we had a world class manager AND a Euro Cup winner inside the squad. It would add to the pull of the club when trying to sign good players to get us up the table quickly. If Sissy and Gini go – our squad will be full of potential – but no widely known stars. Every little helps.

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  21. Munich Mag:
    Icedog I just flew back to Istanbul at the weekend and the flight was full of players from FC Balzanfrom Malta… just played in the europa league in azerbaijan….

    Know quite players over there but not from that club,they aren’t one of the better clubs but they done well as there all part timers and badly payed to boot

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  22. SRF thanks for the thread,so Cissie turned down three PL clubs to go to China must have got a bigger wage packet there

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  23. Sharpy Replays showed that a fair number of Cisse’s disallowed offside goals were indeed onside. Perhaps before age caught him up his reactions were too quick for some of the refs. Loved the fact that he played with a smile on his face which he was sometimes criticised for as showing he didn’t care. I don’t think that was the case.

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  24. Groucho:
    SharpyReplays showed that a fair number of Cisse’s disallowed offside goals were indeed onside. Perhaps before age caught him up his reactions were too quick for some of the refs. Loved the fact that he played with a smile on his face which he was sometimes criticised for as showing he didn’t care. I don’t think that was the case.

    Agree, the offside stick he was often beat with was a bit of a myth. I put stats up a long time back which showed he was off side far less than some of the so called top forwards at other clubs. When younger I think he was making runs that his team mates were too slow to exploit quite often.

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  25. Liked Cisse as a player, god knows where you fit him a system though.

    Will you children stop with ageism. Kim 55 indeed. mere stripling.

    When you get to my age all you have to look up to is Icedogs age, or Troys senility. 👿

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  26. Groucho:
    SharpyReplays showed that a fair number of Cisse’s disallowed offside goals were indeed onside. Perhaps before age caught him up his reactions were too quick for some of the refs. Loved the fact that he played with a smile on his face which he was sometimes criticised for as showing he didn’t care. I don’t think that was the case.

    Groucho – he was caught offside a great many more times than just a handful of goals though mate – and the vast majority of those weren’t officials making mistakes.

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  27. The Mag has a good video of some of Cisse’s goals. Sharpy I wouldn’t disagree. Just wanted to make the point he should have been credited with a fair few more goals. Forwards who play on the shoulder of the last defender are always going to get more offside decisions, but as Kim has pointed out he was not the worst offender in the PL.

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  28. Groucho:
    The Mag has a good video of some of Cisse’s goals.Sharpy I wouldn’t disagree. Just wanted to make the point he should have been credited with a fair few more goals. Forwards who play on the shoulder of the last defender are always going to get more offside decisions, but as Kim has pointed out he was not the worst offender in the PL.

    Groucho – my comment wasn’t to run the lad down coz as I said to Kim, I think his goal return for the money we paid for him wasn’t bad.
    But I can’t lie, there were so many games I watched him in where he’d get pulled up for offside (before he even got through on goal I mean) and it was so frustrating to watch.
    It was an obvious problem & one we all saw, and surely something that could have & should have been fairly easy to work on in training – though I never saw much in the way of improve on that aspect of his game.
    I don’t dislike the bloke, I just think he made it too easy for opposing defenders sometimes.

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  29. Icedog: Just waiting to see what kind of deal it is,talk toon will make a third bid for B/burn c/h mind that’s Ryder so will take that with pinch of salt

    Ice – they clearly want Hanley if they are going back a 3rd time then.
    Regarding Hayden, he only has a year left on his gunners contract, so if we loan him then we could sign him up on a free in Jan. Arsenal wouldn’t mind as we would have to pay them compo due to his age, so they wouldn’t miss out.
    i wouldn’t see that as developing someone else’s player, unless he signed a new deal with Arsenal whilst with us – then I’d be pissed off a bit.

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  30. Anyone else tittering else at this Pogba to Man United deal ?
    FFS the bloke was already at Man United then got lured away by some contractual anomaly I think… and now the “Red Devils” are having to break 2 banks to bring him back to the theatre of squeams. … and people criticised Penfold for that release clause in Andros Townsends contract… what about this oversight by the so called experts at Old Trafford ? Apparently Man United will have to pay Pogba’s AGENT 25 million euros to get him in…. absolute madness….excellent player though !!
    …and meanwhile in the Championship…. 🙁

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  31. Sharpy17:
    £5m for Cisse is excellent business IMO.

    Does he now need replacing though?

    You would think so Sharpy, can Mitro, Gayle, et al get us enough goals between them, you would hope so. I would worry about injury to them two, especially if Perez leaves as well, don’t want to rely on De Jong and Rivi

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  32. Premandup:
    Liked Cisse as a player, god knows where you fit him a system though.

    Will you children stop with ageism. Kim 55 indeed. mere stripling.

    When you get to my age all you have to look up to is Icedogs age, or Troys senility.

    ha, good one prem 😀

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  33. I would prefer Rafa signed a good LB and then have Dummet and Hayden to cover CB. I would split up the Lascelles/Mbemba partnership to accommodate Hanley, who some have said is no better than Steven Taylor. Yes it’s a young defence but Gamez adds experience and leadership somewhat. It’s good to see some ineffective, high earners leaving. Such as Coloccini, Taylor, Obertan, Marveaux, Cisse, Doumbia etc. That must have reduced the wage bill a fair bit. I would like to see De Jong moved on next, he just doesn’t look up to the physicality of the English game and spends half the time on the deck, grimacing in pain because someone has tackled him or gone up for a header, how will he hack it in the championship? Time to get rid of his wages also. LB/defensive cover/another proven championship striker is what I would add next. That could all be paid for by the departure of Wijnaldum/Sissoko, which wouldn’t bother me as neither are team players.

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  34. Toon sign Heydon on five year deal,that will please SHARPY no loan 😆 😆 ,Hull were just about to sign him on a years loan

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  35. Icedog:
    Talk that Hendly left out of B/burn pre-season friendly

    interesting Ice, reckon that’s a done deal too then.

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  36. Kimtoon: interesting Ice, reckon that’s a done deal too then.

    . KIM are the toon trying to get him on the cheap? first bid 3.5 mil now at 4mil seems very low he’s still only 24 and is Scottish int

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  37. Possibly ice, I know the Rovers fans see themselves as a selling club now. Was looking on a couple of their blogs today and they are convinced that the owners hate the club and are running it into the ground. Sounds familiar doesn’t it, thank god Rafa arrived to set mike straight.

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  38. I suppose it depends on how highly Rafa rates the lad, sure we’ll up it if he rates him enough.

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  39. Ice – you’re dead right mate. Well pleased with that one & he plays DCM as well so could that see Tiote on his way as well now.

    The Hanley deal sounds very close too – nee messing from Rafa like!!!.

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  40. Kimtoon:
    Which thread are we on? there is one up from nicky toon with 3 comments on ?

    This is the only one I’ve been on,didn’t know there was another

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  41. Krul on the way I think he not on the trip to Ireland yet Elloit is and he’s not fit Krul is just about fit,strange

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  42. I’d have Armstrong as one of my first team 4 strikers on rotation. Armstrong, Mitro, Gayle and one other big physical striker. Arma has proved himself at every level so far. His next step is the Championship so why send him elsewhere? Give him a shot.

    For me Perez is not a striker. He has on average 1 goal or assist every 400 minutes, which is worse than Wor Shola.

    He works very hard tracking back and is neat and tidy in possession. I think he has a place in the squad but I don’t know what his best position is. Perhaps if we are changing formation regularly he will be a good utility guy filling in as a poacher in a 433, or a wide midfielder in a 442 giving somebody more central licence to get forward.

    If somebody were to offer the previously quoted £15m for him to hen I’d say that’s good business because although steady and a good pro – I just don’t see him claiming any particular position as his own.

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  43. Devastating finishing from Arma in that vid. All types of goals too. AND – he’s one of us!

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  44. Georgio:
    Devastating finishing from Arma in that vid. All types of goals too. AND – he’s one of us!

    He needs to be part of the squad, if not now it will never happen. Should we get promoted back to PL then what part will he play? If he isn’t seen as ready now in the championship then how could he be for the PL. I would definitely keep him and try him, we can always loan him out in Jan if it isn’t working.

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  45. Think they just forgot to disable comments on that thread Ice. It was a bit of a click bait article and would have resulted in arguments.

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  46. SHAM to be honest Ime not happy with the blog lately it doesn’t seem to be aimed at the fans never known so many dam adverts appearing on the site are we a advertising board first bloggers second

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  47. Ice – I’m not getting the adverts you must be seeing. One at the top and one at the bottom is all I see.

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  48. Georgio:
    Ice – I’m not getting the adverts you must be seeing. One at the top and one at the bottom is all I see.

    There’s one for Forex then just below there six trending adverts in a group at the end of the write up

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  49. Icedog:
    There is also adverts for bookies on the side,if your not seeing them your lucky mate

    Ice – I have to agree with you mate. The lads asked for time to iron out the little gliches, but they seem as plentiful as ever.
    We have more writers which is great so you would think that putting up a new article every couple of days shouldn’t be that difficult now.

    As for the adverts – why I have to see John Terry or the cross section of a ***** or which child celebrities have killed themselves, before I get to add a comment is beyond me.

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  50. Taking a long time to confirm the Heyden deal we know he’s had his medical wonder if we are waiting for a certain player to leave??

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  51. Ice. I have 2 amazon ad bands and a 6 boxes of what’s trending now. It don’t bother me too much though as I just scroll past it. I guess it has to be done to make running the site profitable, I know Toonsy said it cost him a lot to run the blog. I’m only ever on the PC as don’t have a smart phone and threw the tablet across the room ages back. Maybe there is more on tablets or phones ?

    Well done Andy Murray, great win 🙂 though I had lew coughing all the way through it 🙄 poor thing has another cold.

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  52. Kimtoon:
    Ice. I have 2 amazon ad bands and a 6 boxes of what’s trending now. It don’t bother me too much though as I just scroll past it. I guess it has to be done to make running the site profitable, I know Toonsy said it cost him a lot to run the blog. I’m only ever on the PC as don’t have a smart phone and threw the tablet across the room ages back. Maybe there is more on tablets or phones ?

    Well done Andy Murray, great win ? though I had lew coughing all the way through it poor thing has another cold.

    KIM I cannot stand Murray the bloody snobby git,poor Lewis,if I watched Murray it would make me cough too lol,hope he shifts the cold soon

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  53. Icedog: KIM I cannot stand Murray the bloody snobby git,poor Lewis,if I watched Murray it would make me cough too lol,hope he shifts the cold soon

    Ice I only really watched to see someone British actually win something.

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