Bournemouth 2-2 Newcastle: From dreamland to disaster as NUFC blow it at the death

79 minutes on the clock and we could and should have made it 3-0, but ten minutes later and we were fighting for our lives to get a point.

What was so nearly a polished performance and a huge 3 points turned into a bad result – let’s just hope it’s not one we live to regret in a few months time.

It’s a game where you’d probably have taken a point before hand, but when you’re two nil up with ten minutes to play, it really is gutting to come away with a draw.

It’s another point towards safety, but it’s not been a good day for us down at the bottom as a result. Brighton saw off Swansea, whilst Huddersfield took all three points at West Brom (all but sending them down), which means we’ve actually dropped from 13th to 15th – despite being 10th in the table on 31 points at half time.

Don’t get me wrong, it feels like a defeat but it isn’t. We’d have bitten your hand off for 4 points against Man Utd and Bournemouth away, so let’s try and take the positives.

It’ll be little consolation for most, but there were plenty good performances out there today and it was generally a very dogged display. If Shelvey takes that big chance and we come away 3-1 winners then we’d be sat here lapping it up – and that so nearly happened.

We had the rub of the green to hold onto our lead against Man Utd, but we didn’t get those breaks today.

At two up we were cruising, but some missed chances to make it 3-0 and a late capitulation meant we now end the day in worse position than we started in.

On the plus side, Gayle got two badly needed goals and the likes of Lascelles, Lejeune, Ritchie and Dubravka put in strong displays, with Diame and Shelvey also getting the better of another midfield battle for the vast majority of the game (See player ratings here).

We ran out of steam and will be left to regret some massive missed chances. A really tough to take, but we move onto Liverpool next weekend.

(Fancy writing for us? Send any articles/ideas over to us at [email protected] & we’ll get back to you!)

About Olly Hawkins

As a Junior Magpie since birth and season ticket holder, I eat, sleep and breathe all things NUFC! Here at the blog, I aim to bring you news, views, match reports and transfer exclusives as and when I get them.

67 thoughts on “Bournemouth 2-2 Newcastle: From dreamland to disaster as NUFC blow it at the death

  1. Raffas fault that one poor substitutions and game management,on top in a game,take away the attacking intent and invite the opposition on to you.Reverted to a back 9 ffs

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  2. i think the key is we are short of quality players.

    Kennedy was off. Nobody can hold the ball for Gayle in the front so he became useless. it made sense to take him off and send Hayden on to strengthen the midfield. Unfortunately we still lost the midfield. If we have another player at Kennedy’s level or a strong holding midfielder we could have keep the 3 points.

    But no worries. we are on the way to survive. But the sad thing is, survival is the only thing we can do under Ashley.

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  3. I rarely criticize Rafa but I think he got that wrong today, Manquillo ? and Hayden ? I would not of taken off Gayle who was having one of his better games. He obviously thought we couldn’t possibly throw away a 2 goal lead but all it did was remove the attacking threat and invite pressure. Our shape went to pieces and nerves set in.
    I don’t rate Manquillo and thought that little experiment was done.

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  4. kimtoon:
    I rarely criticize Rafa but I think he got that wrong today, Manquillo ? and Hayden ? I would not of taken off Gayle who was having one of his better games. He obviously thought we couldn’t possibly throw away a 2 goal leadbut all it did was remove the attacking threat and invite pressure. Our shape went to pieces and nerves set in.
    Idon’t rate Manquillo and thought that little experiment was done.

    After Gayle was taken off we still had counter attack, right? Jonjo’s best chance was after Gayle was taken off. The key was we lost midfield afterwards, and no body can hold the ball in the front.

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  5. We went too defensive too early and it backfired. We have done that time and again with Rafa. D’oh! Went from having clear daylight, dragging B’mth to our level and breaking into Top 10, to only 2 points above relegation zone and 1 loss from bwing in the zone.

    **** poor management from such a good position really. And by management I mean Rafa AND the players.

    Ah well. Goal difference still looking good but it’s gona be tight all the way to the seasons end because we keep making these stupid mistakes.

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  6. Dropped from 10th to 15th in 10mins. We are just so lucky that there is bad teams in the league that are worse than us

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  7. Funrafa,I get what you are saying but Gayle would of been busting a gut to get a hatty and taking him off made no sense to me, the minute Hayden came on and manquillo we fell apart.

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  8. kimtoon:
    Funrafa,I get what you are saying but Gayle would of been busting a gut to get a hatty and taking him off made no sense to me, the minute Hayden came on and manquillo we fell apart.

    Gayle is the same Gayle as in last half season. He will struggle if no body holds the ball for him, especially when it was about 70 minutes he was running out of gas. I am sure he wanted a hatty but i doubt he has the ability. Remind you he did not even have a hatty in CL.

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  9. Gayle scored anhat trick in September against Norwich and another hat trick against Birmingham in December.

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  10. Funrafa you clearly enjoy and knowledgeable about football – but the way you see no fault ever in Rafa undermines your credibility.

    We had counter attack whilst we played defensively for too long and invited pressuree on ourselves, but we had no natural goalscorer to put thee ball in the net. Rafa took off the guy that was in form, on the day. D’oh!

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  11. Maybe are right. Apparently Gayle was complaining of tightness in his hamstring – so I guess he had no choice but to take him off. Shame the changes were so negative, so early though.

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  12. funrafa: Gayle is the same Gayle as in last half season. He will struggle if no body holds the ball for him, especially when it was about 70 minutes he was running out of gas. I am sure he wanted a hatty but i doubt he has the ability. Remind you he did not even have a hatty in CL.

    Didn’t he score 4 against Norwich?

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  13. shamrock:
    Gayle scored anhat trick in September against Norwich and another hat trick against Birmingham in December.

    was it 3? Can’t be borthered to look it up so I will take your word for it.

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  14. Sorry lads and lasses, I have to do this. Where is Troy? Tick tock, tick tock. Will he finally admit Pardew is ****. Tick tock, tick tock. Where are you Troy, I know you still read this blog? He even defended Ugly John to me, who admittedly was dealt a bad hand but that didn’t make him any less of a bad hire or less ****. Especially since the whole point was that he was keeping the seat warm for Schteve.

    I know, I know water under the bridge now but I had a running argument with Troysta for months about these two so it is time he admits he was wrong.

    I wasn’t the only one either. He would ridicule and denigrate anyone who didn’t hold the same view as him. Remember woo hoo, get on the reality train.

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  15. I still think this one is on Rafa despite it being that Gayle felt his hamstring. It was in putting on 2 defensive players where we fell down. It is probably time for him to accept that we are bad at shutting up shop and should play our game for the full 90 minutes. Yes, let players run it into the corners but no more sit back and invite the other team on with 9 behind the ball, unless they force us into it.

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  16. Rafa shouldn’t be immune from getting stick. Mourinho has probably had more success and has (rightfully) been raked over the coals for his set up against Sevilla. Some of his own fans have even turned against him. He was very lucky to get a draw and we were probably unlucky not to win but it was the same ultra safe mentality that led to the results.

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  17. Mitro Watch – scored again as Fulham beat the leaders Wolves. Also, their first goal came from a Mitro parried shot. Looks like they will at least make the pay-offs and the team is playing well which can only benefit Mitro and NUFC. All he needs is a good World Cup and he will be worth 30 million (don’t laugh, Sissoko was valued at 12 million until the Euros).

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  18. Mitro scored a great goal today. Good hold up play, passing, movement and placement from outside the area.

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  19. What was that World Cup game where both teams just needed a draw to progress from the group stage and they just passed it about in their own halves and made no attempt to score? Could that be Mourinho/Conte tomorrow? Just change the name of Old Trafford to NCP Bus Park.

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  20. Nah, I really think Conte will want to stick it to Mourinho. I think they have decided that they are NOT going to shake hands. Conte had previously said he would meet Mourinho in a room and they could “discuss” it. The drama (queens) might be more exciting than some of the football they have played lately.

    I know they are both better than us but we didn’t spend 600 million quid.

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  21. Watched a replay of Liverpool/WHam and we better hope that Liverpool have an off-day next Saturday. I really think they have a better squad than Man U. I thought they would finish second when looked at the top 6 at the beginning of the season and still do. I think they are a goalie shy of challenging Man City next year.

    You know the way the papers love to do them combined 11s. I thought about Liverpool and Man U and the only players to get into the Liverpool side would be De Gea and Pogba. That’s a pretty damning indictment of Man U’s recruitment if anybody agrees with me.

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  22. Anybody can call me out on this is the future but I don’t think it will be a City dynasty. I think Klopp has the hang of the PL league now and they have Keita coming in. I think it will be a City and Liverpool duopoly with Man U and Chelsea taking a back seat and Spurs losing their best players.

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  23. ok so gayle had a tight hammy, so why not bring on the hoss. We had the game won playing the way we were. Like for like sub, but no once again try and keep what we had and totally fail yet again.
    Keeping manure out was more than just lucky, it was actually unbelievable, a fluke even. Certainly not the norm.
    9 defenders and a goalie and we were taken apart.
    The writing was on the wall when shelvey wasted his golden opportunity to put the match to bed.
    Seriously how the F do you miss from 6 yards. #clown.
    Don’t understand Rafa getting rid of mitro. He is supposed to be a world class coach. Clearly the lad needs coaching. But Rafa just spits his dummy instead. Now we have another sicknote to replace him and he goes on to score goals for Fulham.
    Beggars belief.

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  24. Thrte is a player in Mitro. He proved it in his first PL season.. I still think he is a better option than Joselu, even with his temper.

    Nice to have you back on bybthe way, BB.

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  25. BB, yes , was thinking Joselu might have been a better option for Gayle, as much as he doesn’t get on the score sheet, his hold up and defensive play is pretty good.
    Knew the minute we tried to shut them out we would concede, especially after Perez and then the awful miss from Shelvey happened.

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  26. Watching MOTD and Lamps highlighted Shelveys poor defensive work late on in the game. Twice he is stood still with hands on hips at critical points defensively in the game. He needs to improve his defensive workrate if Rafa is to keep faith in him. Also Diame very close to a red card after a terrible tackle late on in the match.
    I still say we were better than them in both encounters, we should of been out of sight 3 or 4 .0 , but the subs changed us for the worse yesterday.

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  27. Sham, I like Mitro and still hope he has a future with us. There was talk he was not following Rafa’s diet instructions and wasn’t fit. Apparently has a liking for bananas dipped in nutella !. All the same if he is assisting and scoring I don’t see the problem . Ba never trained like the rest of the team cause of his knee , it didn’t stop him scoring.
    Maybe they had words in training , who knows. The fact that Rafa used him as a sub says that bridges were not totally burnt, I mean look at Colback he was persona non grata after words were exchanged.

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  28. Mark Douglas‏Verified account
    @MsiDouglas

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    NUFC have conceded six goals in the final 10 minutes this season. Cost them a point in losses v Bournemouth (h), Leicester (h) and all three in draws v Bournemouth (a), Burnley (h). Hope they don’t rue them

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  29. Those last ten minutes totally pissed me off. This ploy of bringing Hayden on to shore things up plainly does not work. Instead of defending deep we should have brought Merino on to hassle the hell out of their midfielders and stop any supply forward. Quite how Shelvey managed not to just toe poke that chance in but managed to lift it over the bar. 3-0 crowd leaving game over.
    I think Rafa got it wrong today with Manquillo and Hayden. Very disappointed.

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  30. Although i am disappointed we threw away 2 points, if we got offered 4 points from man utd and Bournemouth a would have took that

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  31. Still pissed off! With ten players defending how come Gosling was totally unmarked when he scored the second – from 6 yards! Nobody near him.

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  32. I watched their 2 goals and we had at least 6 in the box as well as players trying to block the cross. I don’t see how Lampard can blame Shelvey. You need someone as an outlet to relieve the pressure and my guess is he has been told to be that on set plays by Rafa. He might have been bent over, but he was watching the play unfold. I think it is a bit unfair to blame Shelvey.

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  33. We were actually lucky with our 2 goals as well. The keeper made mistakes on both so we may have conceded two soft goals but so did they. Still think Rafa went too defensive and was very surprised not to see Joselu for Gayle or even Ritchie. Again, for that outlet ball to relieve pressure.

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  34. Got to agree of all the late losses/ draws this season this one rankles most.

    Really should have had six points from bmouth this season so having only one is frustrating.

    Not sure many managers would have failed to go conservative yesterday if they were in our league position but the way it was done seemed odd.

    Mind you the manager can’t be blamed for a professional player to fluff the chance shelvey

    4 points from the last two keeps us on track to survive but we’re doing it the hard way

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  35. A lot of people seem to believe that the only way to stay up is to take maximum points from our relegation rivals. These are probably must not lose games but we are NUFC and there will be slip ups so we will not win them all. However, Arsenal have been **** away from home and who knows which team will turn up. Looks like they will finish 6th so they are not the power they once were. Similarly, Everton have a lot of decent individuals but not a team. If we get at them at Goodison their fans will turn as they already are fed up with Fat Sam.

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  36. What is the point of the League Cup? It was introduced in the early 60’s to take advantage of floodlights to play more midweek games. Remember back then the weekend games were all played at 3pm on a Saturday. The Cup Winners Cup/ Europa League did not exist. There were no European Group stages. The prize money is 100k.

    The bigger clubs do not even take it seriously until the quarter finals. I can see it as possibly a money maker once in a while for a smaller club drawing Manu U or NUFC away in the quarter finals but that is about it.

    Of course I would still like us to win it as it will give Charnley to polish in our empty trophy cabinet (do we have the Championship Trophy in there or do they just parade it around and have to give it back?)

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  37. That brings me to another point. Do they have tours of SJP. If so, has anybody been on one? Do we have a trophy cabinet and what is in it?

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  38. I admit to being a big fan of Mbemba. I accept that Rafa has probably very good reasons for not picking him in the starting eleven. He knows a lot more about football than I do. I would have have thought that Mbemba would be an ideal man for the bench as he can fill any of the back four positions and could even take Diame’s place if needs be. I admit to being biased in his favour but surely he must be better than Hayden and Manquillo. Mbemba has never had a stinker but Hayden and Manquillo have had several. I miss Merino too and think we may be missing the opportunity to develop him. Prefer him to Shelvey but needs playing time.

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  39. Groucho – I agree mate but Rafa seems to have taken against both Mbemba and Mitro. We’ll probably never know why. Mitro’s hold up play, passing and striking even, is way better than Joselu or Perez. He would have been ideal in those vital last ten minutes in keeping the ball in their half. Mbemba is a far better option than Hayden or Manquillo. I just don’t get it.
    Also where the hell was Lascelles when Gosling scored. Gosling was exactly where the captain should have been. Still smarting at the two dropped points!

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  40. I agree with those who say Rafa went too defensive too soon.
    With Slimani out and no real return date yet (which is bloody frustrating), I understand him taking Gayle off if he was struggling – loose him & Slimani at the same time and we’d be screwed.
    But I think going without a forward lost the balance and shape of team.

    To loose a 2 goal lead away from home – it felt like a defeat for me on Saturday & even yesterday, hugely disappointing. Definitely 2 pts dropped – and we can’t afford to do that. I’m hoping that result doesn’t deflate the players too much.

    I never expected much from the top 6-8 teams this season. But our record against the bottom end clubs really isn’t very good at all this season.

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  41. Liverpool are playing great but they do have a few weaknesses as well as strengths:

    They have the best front 3 in the PL, even better than Man City

    Karius has improved but he is still dodgy

    Their full backs are young, inexperienced and better going forward than defending. Klopp has even admitted this.

    Central defense has been a problem. Van Djik may have improved this but nobody has really tested them.

    They have a lot of samey midfielders – Milner, Can, Gini, Henderson. They are all good, but none are exceptional. Their role is to get it to the front 3 and maybe we can shut that down. Milner played great in midfield against WHam but he isn’t always that good. Same with the others, I have seen each of them go missing.

    So, just a 4-0 loss then 🙂

    They are in such good form and so full of confidence we have to be a bit worried.

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  42. Oh, and Wilshere SHOULD have been sent off. He was a c@nt all game constantly haranguing the Ref. He pushed an opponent at a free kick and then sarcastically clapped the Ref for not doing anything about the opposition. He was then booked for more backchat. This was after the Ref was incredibly lenient in the first half for not booking him for an obvious dive.

    If this was a regular PL game and not a Cup Final he would have been gone. Maybe not, he is Jack Wilshere, the player who has done nothing but is still a media darling. I thought he was picking up a bit but maybe Roy Keene is right. I have also seen him lauded for his passion by the papers but there is a difference between passion and being a tw@t. In an Arsenal team where their players have no balls the player with one ball is king.

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  43. Just saw Dennis Wise on Sky and he now looks exactly like a puppet from Thunderbirds, his head movements, even the non-expressions on his face. Watch him. Maybe not Thunderbirds, but one of the other 60’s/70’s puppet dramas – he is Captain Black, all he needs is the cap.

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  44. Eric Sykes:
    Just saw Dennis Wise on Sky and he now looks exactly like a puppet from Thunderbirds, his head movements, even the non-expressions on his face. Watch him. Maybe not Thunderbirds, but one of the other 60’s/70’s puppet dramas – he is Captain Black, all he needs is the cap.

    I had to suffer the little worm on Bein sports along with Dutch wonder,what a creep **** licking **** he is

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  45. I’m going to chose to look at this a bit differently. Basically every week that we play, the objective has to be to finish the weekend outside of the relegation zone.
    So long as we do that, I will be content. No getting worked up or expecting much.

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  46. shamrock:
    I’m going to chose to look at this a bit differently. Basically every week that we play, the objective has to be to finish the weekend outside of the relegation zone.
    So long as we do that, I will be content. No getting worked up or expecting much.

    Whatever works for you mate

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  47. shamrock:
    I’m going to chose to look at this a bit differently. Basically every week that we play, the objective has to be to finish the weekend outside of the relegation zone.
    So long as we do that, I will be content. No getting worked up or expecting much.

    Tend to agree Sham, sadly it will always be thus until fatty sells up.

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  48. Colback is feeling the love at Forest as well. The niggly fouls around our box were what really annoyed me, even beyond the always passing backwards or sideways. If the Refs are now giving him some leeway on these he could be effective as he has a lot of energy and does hassle to opposition into mistakes sometimes. His level is definitely the Championship and if the Refs give him a break we may be able to offload him.

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  49. kimtoon: YES, he is Dennis wise, you are spot on .

    If Shelvey did half what Dele Alli does, including the dives, he would be suspended for most of the season. Same with Wilshere who is a snide, argumentative, diving, pointing little rat who hardly gets called for anything. Is it a coincidence that they are the English darlings and playing in Norf Landan? Harry Kane, great player, I have seen at least 2 horror tackles (Lejeune) from him this season that should have been sendings off but he is Harry Kane. Can’t suspend him when he could break Shearer’s calendar year record or be Europe’s top scorer.

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  50. It used to be the same with Steven Gerrard. He could go in 2 footed at the knees and would only get a yellow.

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  51. Icedog: I had to suffer the little worm on Bein sports along with Dutch wonder,what a creep **** licking **** he is

    Ice: you won’t need to wait much longer until you see Pards on there again. Judging from the past, my guess for the World Cup line up will be Gullet, Hoddle, Wise, Pards and Big Fat Sam.

    You might get Christian Vieri who at least has fun.

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  52. Ice: you get different pundits on BEin to what we do. I think you get the Middle East feed and I get the LA one. Occasionally, when they are on their Hols in LA, I will see Gullet etc but usually not unless the WC is on or on Keys and Gray which is only on for an hour a week (mercifully, although I watch it just to see what **** they are talking this week 🙂 ). BEin don’t have the PL so concentrate on Spain here which means fewer of the PL has-beens.

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  53. You know all of these finance professors that the Chronic and The Mirror uncover to give a price for NUFC, where do they get their figures from? They usually come up with a value of about 225 million. Stavely supposedly bid 250 and Fatty supposedly would settle for 300 million.

    I have said before that they are low because they are not considering the scarcity value because there is basically only us and Stoke up for sale. Maybe one of us goes down, making the other more attractive. But consider EVERTON:

    This dodgy Iranian buys 49% for 89 million 2 years ago. Cheap, you say considering what we are priced at. But…

    Since then they have spent 250 million on players. You can look it up. Are they any further forward? Even 27 million Cenk Tosun is struggling because Fat Sam says it is too cold for him. And, they got planning permission for a new stadium. Great, new stadium, will bring in a lot more revenue from all of those corporate types on Merseyside!!! Are there that many? And the COST…

    500 MILLION POUNDS. YES 500 MILLION. They have been approved a 270 million loan by the council but it is still a loan. The club funds the rest.

    NUFC already have the stadium. Everton’s will probably seat 60k but really how much more money will 8,000 seats bring in? The main money is in TV and commercial now. I don’t get the Maths:

    89 million for 49% = 180 million for 100%
    250 million for **** players (last legs Rooney, Schnederin etc)
    500 million for a stadium

    That’s a total cost of 930 MILLION POUNDS. How are we only worth 225 Million Mr. Professors? The Everton owner is an accountant. Maybe he can explain it to me.

    And Everton are the second club on Merseyside and probably always will be. This new owner is rich but not Man City rich. I think he is about Ashley rich and the Fatman probably rightly says that he cannot compete with State/Arab Royal Family funding.

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  54. I am not really saying the Professors are that far off, but they do pick their comparisons. Something has gone horribly wrong at Everton. They needed the plan to go perfectly to justify the outlay. They got Steve Walsh and needed him to duplicate what he did at Leicester. They assumed that if they gave Koeman the money/players he didn’t have at S’ton then he could make them Ajax/Barcelona on the Mersey.

    How the hell can you finance a 500 million stadium in Liverpool if you are not in the CL. Arsenal spent 350 million and have stagnated ever since. And they are 1 mile from the City of London with its obscene wealth. Everton are building on the Liverpool docks.

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  55. What I am saying is that we are probably on a par with Everton if we stay in the PL. The big difference is that we have a stadium and they intend to pay 500 million for one. In addition, they have already blown their wad on iffy players for 250 million.

    So their current owner has spent or will spend close to 1 BILLION POUNDS on Everton. When you look at Fatty’s asking price of 300 million it doesn’t seem that crazy. Of course we could end up blowing 250 on Rooney and Sigurrdson type deals but you would hope not. I doubt PCP would give Rafa that sort of money in the first place.

    I think I am trying to convince myself that this deal will be done if we stay in the PL and we can kiss goodbye to Fatty forever 🙂

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  56. Apart from the initial outlay Ashley’s main concern is retaining the free advertising at SJP. Doesn’t give a **** about football.

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