Rafa Seems Very Unhappy – Have Our Worst Fears Been Realised?

As reported by the Chronicle, Newcastle manager Rafa Benitez seems to be very unhappy with those above him, following a disappointing draw at home to QPR.

After the game, Benitez was asked about Newcastle’s lack of action in the January transfer window, and the Spaniard said: “I can’t change things now so I have to concentrate on bringing the best from my players.”

“We knew what we needed and we knew what we have so we have to bring the best from the players we have.

However, Benitez did stop to say that he was happy with his current players, adding: “I am happy with them.

“We have to try to maintain the same level we had in the second half.”

Then when he was asked if could give a reason as to why the club did not sign anyone, he simply said: “No, because I don’t know.”

“I said before I am disappointed but I have to concentrate on the players we have and try to improve them.”

503 thoughts on “Rafa Seems Very Unhappy – Have Our Worst Fears Been Realised?

  1. Brighton have gone from being 11 points clear of 3rd to 6 points clear and from potentially winning their game in hand to get a 6 point lead off us to now being behind us in the last few weeks.

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  2. Stuart79:
    I think we can chalk this weekend up as being a good one results wise…

    Would have even better if Hoots got beat

    kimtoon: Yep mate lots of error 520 coming up and long time to load posts on and off. Am having to shut down tab and re open umpteen times yesterday and today.

    I’ve had it five times today three times on laptop twice on the tablet

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  3. DT,are you in Northern Norway? if you are you stand an excellent chance of seeing the Northern lights this time of year .

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  4. What do people think of the late incident yesterday when Carson and Lascelles were grappling with each other and both went to ground? I thought Carson went to ground deliberately pulling Lascelles with him. If it was right to give no penalty then that is perhaps one of the few occasions that the ref came down on our side.

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  5. Brighton have drawn 5 more than us and that’s 5 points. We’ve won 2 more than them which is 6 points. I’d rather the wins than the draws. If we are looking at the theory of turning defeats into draws then we’d have to include the tight wins we have had and turn some of them into draws too. It’s a strange situation not drawing more games but I’m quite happy.

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  6. kimtoon:
    Crikey Leicester have really turned to ***** haven’t they.

    KIM they say one man doesn’t make a team but it can effect the moral of other players,Kanta was a star for them he’s gone now at Chelsea who are playing out their skins and was their star player y/day funny eh

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  7. Icedog: KIM they say one man doesn’t make a team but it can effect the moral of other players,Kanta was a star for them he’s gone now at Chelsea who are playing out their skins and was their star player y/day funny eh

    Very true Ice, mahrez looks a shadow of last seasons player too, maybe they should of cashed in on him when they had the chance.

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  8. Kante from Leicester to Chelsea, man he is some player !

    I’ve also had this error 520 today.

    Not a lot one can say, blogmaster it’s over to you, there is something dodgy going on with your site. Each time I log in here I get a warning this is not a secure site. I’m sure you know what is behind it 😉

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  9. The media are all out to get the toon. QPR was typical, the Sky commentator was blathering on about Shelvey’s supposed bad tackle, trying to make an issue out of it. Did the same bloke make an utterance when that 80kg defender stamped deliberately on Sammy Ameobis back ? Not a word was mentioned. Ditto when the same defender went through Yedlin later on in the game…”Yedlin trying to get the guy booked”…. same **** yesterday with Lascelles and Carson, both grappling yet the commentator came down on the side of Carson “surely that was a penalty” … tedious favouritism, the typical English way, envy, build them up to shoot them down..
    Regarding Lascelles grappling with Carson, at the end of the day that is one of the reasons why I don’t rate Lascelles, why does he need to get involved in that way, inexperience ?…. or another brain fart. Why not just get the hell out of the way or keep your arms down. The goalie probably targeted Lascelles on a tip from McLaren !

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  10. kimtoon: Very true Ice, mahrez looks a shadow of last seasons player too, maybe they should of cashed in on him when they had the chance.

    It’s funny near the end of last season a panel of pundits were asked would they pay 30/35 mil for Vardy,one said no I would pay 10 mil for him as I watched him for years and this is a one off,looks like he was spot on then

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  11. Andy the Magpie and Jake Swinburn, apart from posting new blog subjects every 4 days you are both pretty hands off as far as the blog goes ? Not much input from yous both over the last weeks… there again not a big deal…

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  12. Groucho I thought Lascelles should not have wrapped both his arms around Carson. It’s not a game of wrestling and for that reason, should have been a penalty.

    Mitro’s miss from 6 yards was shocking. He did some good knock ons and hold up play but needs to sort his shooting boots out, or he won’t last long here imo.

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  13. Delusional Jawdee:
    Kante from Leicester to Chelsea, man he is some player !

    I’ve also had this error 520 today.

    Not a lot one can say, blogmaster it’s over to you, there is something dodgy going on with your site. Each time I log in here I get a warning this is not a secure site. I’m sure you know what is behind it

    It’s not a safe site when we are on mate 😆 😆 by the way you payed off those IOU you left behind the bar in the west end 😆 😆

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  14. Sham I don’t like to see wrestling either but I thought they were equally to blame in that direction. It goes on in all games unfortunately. Carson did it again for the next corner but Lascelles did not respond in like fashion. Still with the ref we had yesterday Lascelles was rather stupid but I still don’t think it was a penalty because Carson put his arms round Lascelles neck and dragged him down.

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  15. kimtoon:
    Crikey Leicester have really turned to ***** haven’t they.

    Kim, Leicester and ‘Boro are not safe and look like they will be in the bottom three soon. The bottom three are all actually picking up the odd win, whereas those two are terrible.
    Quite a selection of teams there who I wouldn’t mind if they went down. Leicester for the comedy value of being champions + Gary Lineker is a ****** and starting to get far too political.
    Based on current form and the way it’s looking I think it will be Middlesborough, Crystal Palace and Hull who will go down. Moyes is gonna keep the unwashed up at this rate, I can see it now. We shouldn’t be surprised as it happens every season and they are just teasing us. 👿 SMBs. Somehow they find three worse teams. We need to make sure that next season we are head and shoulders above them.

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  16. DJG we can’t even get head and shoulders above Blackburn, the makkems would batter us with there current **** team 🙂

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  17. Lascelles is a liability, Rafa did good to pull him out of the starting 11 to give himself some breathing space. It’s been said many enought times the toon strip is a hard strip to wear and needs a certain character…he isn’t one of those characters..but he could develop…take the lad out and let him catch his breath I say..

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  18. Icedog, I stood a round at the Fox and Hounds when Charles and Diana got married…no need to go over the top mate… 🙂

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  19. I though Big Al, Wrighty and Gary Lineker were brilliant today on MOTD… great crack..
    Wor lass reckons Lineker is a bit top totty, and she also couldn’t believe Lineker was English cos she thought most middle aged Englishmen were baldy with tatoos 🙂 🙂
    Kimtoon will know this kind of thing, is Lineker top totty ?

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  20. Shamrock:
    Mitro’s miss from 6 yards was shocking. He did some good knock ons and hold up play but needs to sort his shooting boots out, or he won’t last long here imo.

    Thought it was typical of a player short of confidence / match practice who didn’t realise he had time. That said, yes he should’ve planted it and agreed not at the level we need our strikers to be. Shame really as I like his edginess

    The results were OK for us today esp’ Huddersfield as I believe Leeds are a bigger threat

    Nows the time to put a run of wins in place as the others continue to turn each other over

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  21. Delusional Jawdee:
    Icedog, I stood a round at the Fox and Hounds when Charles and Diana got married…no need to go over the top mate…

    😆 😆 😆 just across the from my hoose,dam missed you going in,i bought a round in 66,mind there was only me and a blind man in,he missed out poor sod 😆

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  22. I don’t believe this nonsense about Ashley being annoyed at Rafa either.
    For me that’s a case of ‘we tried with Rafa being annoyed at Ashley and that didn’t work, so let’s try the other way’.
    I think Rafa defused the whole situation brilliantly & called for unity from the club & fans – I reckon Ashley would be more grateful than annoyed … but then that doesn’t sell papers does it?!.

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  23. Delusional Jawdee:
    I though Big Al, Wrighty and Gary Lineker were brilliant today on MOTD… great crack..
    Wor lass reckons Lineker is a bit top totty, and she also couldn’t believe Lineker was English cos she thought most middle aged Englishmen were baldy with tatoos
    Kimtoon will know this kind of thing, is Lineker top totty ?

    not for me mate, not my type at all

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  24. Sharpy – History tells us that Jabba doesn’t like his managers breaking rank. He summoned KK to London after he said “we’re a million miles from the top 4” and didn’t Pardew nearly get sacked for saying Jabba knew nothing about football too and it wasn’t even in a bad way. He’s clearly not one for criticism from his employees.

    I imagine Jabba is pissed off. He won’t like Rafa going public like he has. Firstly because he’ll be bothered it could derail the promotion but also Jabba is the alpha male type.

    Funny thing I heard a Liverpool journo yesterday say Rafa wasn’t shy about “dropping little lines to journos to get a point across to the club” so maybe Rafa knows what he’s doing and Jabba will have an epiphany.

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  25. Stuart79, you’re a top manager, wouldn’t you get peeved if one of your middle managers was muckraking ?

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  26. A manager of the club (team) is the most important person at the club – hardly middle management.

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  27. Sharpy17:
    I don’t believe this nonsense about Ashley being annoyed at Rafa either.
    For me that’s a case of ‘we tried with Rafa being annoyed at Ashley and that didn’t work, so let’s try the other way’.
    I think Rafa defused the whole situation brilliantly & called for unity from the club & fans – I reckon Ashley would be more grateful than annoyed … but then that doesn’t sell papers does it?!.

    It’s all bullshit m8. But tbh. Rafa also needs to learn from previous mistakes. It’s not the first time he’s criticised his employer in press conferences. Storm in a tea cup up here, we can do without the hassle

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  28. Gashley: It’s all bullshit m8. But tbh. Rafa also needs to learn from previous mistakes. It’s not the first time he’s criticised his employer in press conferences.Storm in a tea cup up here, we can do without the hassle

    I honestly didn’t hear any criticism. He said it was no secret he wanted players in, but the window is closed now and we have to move on.

    If that upsets Ashley or Charnley, then I hope neither ever visits this site!!! ?

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  29. Sharpy17: I honestly didn’t hear any criticism.He said it was no secret he wanted players in, but the window is closed now and we have to move on.

    If that upsets Ashley or Charnley, then I hope neither ever visits this site!!!

    ? He only mentioned mistakes being made in the it was a great statement but.a sight dig at the board for not getting at least 1 player over the line

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  30. Gashley: ? He only mentioned mistakes being made in the it was a great statement but.a sight dig at the board for not getting at least 1 player over the line

    Gash – one mans dig is another mans fact ?.
    They should be as accountable as anyone else at the club. Ashley should be bollocking them not Rafa. They are there to support Rafa gain promotion by getting him what he needs (within reason) – oh wait, this is Ashley I’m talking about ?

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  31. kimtoon:
    DT,are you in Northern Norway? if you are you stand an excellent chance of seeing the Northern lights this time of year .

    Nah I’m in Oslo. Or very near it then going further south on Wednesday down to Sandefjord. Don’t think I’ll see any northern lights.

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  32. I think the pissing Jabba thing off was the way Rafa’s annoyance got into the press. It was clearly Rafa using the press to get a message to the owner.

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  33. Rafa is a very clever man. it’s clear now it was a slight dig at the heirarchy but not in the way the media rats built it up. What irks me about them is that they never include their question in the quotes and headlines. “Is your future in Newcastle in doubt Mr Benitez? Will you walk away?” “I will not quit.” On it’s own it’s a straight bald statement that made it sound much more serious than intended I’m sure. Ashleys not stupid either and he’ll have heard from Bishop about the overwhelming support for Rafa on Saturday. ‘Crisis’ over. Bollocks the lot!

    There was a resilience and determination on Sat that made me think we’ll definitely be promoted.

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  34. We probably will be promoted, Georgio but don’t think Jabba for one second will take into account the supporters views on a certain manager. He knew KK was a hero here but he wouldn’t bend for him, he knew the fans hated Pardew but stood by him so Jabba’s not looking at pleasing the fans.

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  35. I should go to Ed’s and start saying “FIRST”. Oh, that was done 8 hundred million times….

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  36. Look, Look Father Ted. Leeds are creeping up on us!!!!!

    No, no Dougal, they are Dirty Leeds and at least 7 points behind.

    But Reading, Father Ted. No, that is reading, the thing that you don’t do. And those cows are far away… far away. Perspective, Dougal.

    OK then, maybe Raphael was not a painter and is Managing Newcastle instead?

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  37. But is that his real hair, Father Ted? Nobody would have it like that in real life like? Sure, it came form the back of me couch?

    No Dougal, that’s his real hair and he combs it like that to confuse us mere mortals.

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  38. So what you are saying is that he riles the rest of the world up for fun and to benefits his friends, is totally orange and unravels everything that was good about the last 8 years in order to get Stuart’s American relatives’ votes?

    Yes Dougal.

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  39. Hey guys,

    New thread from Jake going up today. Spoken to a guy who does maintenance for the site and he says it’s completely clean – if people are still seeing funny error messages, if you could email across a screenshot to [email protected] that’d be amazing!

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  40. Sharpy17: Sham – he’s a scout for the toon ?

    Lol sorry been out of contact a bit… I work as global innovation manager for a big paint company. Global responsibility means a lot of travel. My company is Norwegian but based in our Middle East HQ

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