Summer transfer windows under Mike Ashley for Newcastle fans are always a torturous process. Will he invest even the bare minimum? Will Charnley dither again in securing targets? And now we have Rafa, will he stay if it looks like we still aren’t ‘doing things right’?
It may be a bit early and it could also be tension from the past, as the window is not really in full swing yet, but I worry already the warning signs are there that Newcastle will make the same mistakes this summer as they did last.
What new and familiar factors is Rafa working against to get what he needs this summer?
World Cup year – holds up deals?
We have he added pressure of it being the World Cup, which is great as a football fan but transfer wise, it unquestionably holds deals up. The top players will of course be playing at the tournament and often banned from National coaches from discussing deals with clubs until their national stint is over. Although Newcastle won’t be in for the likes of Griezmann – it sometimes takes the big deals like this to start and then filter down the rest of the market.
We also may be trying to sign players who play for some of the smaller World Cup participants and like us with Mitrovic, clubs rightly won’t sell until after the tournament in case they do well and suddenly see their value rocket.
Window set to shut earlier – more need for early business
Complicating this further, Premier League clubs voted in favour of shortening the summer transfer window – meaning the window will now shut early August, a few days before the new season kicks off. It means two weeks less of player trading and is good in many respects as it means starting with a settled squad. However, add the World Cup in the mix and Newcastle need to do business and quickly. Ashley won’t spend big money as we know, but that’s more reason to act fast on the targets we’ve been identifying for goodness knows how long. We can’t afford to keep standing still yet you get the feeling he constantly ignores Rafa’s wishes.
Feels like we’re having to sell before we buy…
Already the Ashley machine seems to pushing out our high wage bill and it seems shifting the likes of Mbemba, Sels and Mitrovic is needed before we can bring fresh faces in. This is frustrating.
With us having the full effects of TV money now after a full year back in the top flight, cash flow should not be holding Rafa back. We need to get rid of deadwood, that is clear – but it should not be driving our ability to recruit as much as it appears to be.
Slow to secure targets? (again)
Rafa always states he wants business done early, a clear warning after the slow antics of Charnley and co. that cost us some top targets last summer (Abraham and Cabellero by all accounts). Have we learnt from those mistakes? I’m not sure sure – especially after claims that Ashley won’t back Rafa until he agrees to a new deal, coupled with the fact Benitez won’t entertain any new contract until Ashley proves he’ll show ambition this summer. So, another impasse where we’re wasting time and frustrating Rafa?
In amongst all this, it is reported Benitez wants a minimum of four signings tied up quickly to get some real momentum this summer – and knowing the Ashley/Charnley combination, this seems so unlikely.
With Spain sacking their manager today, another clear threat has resented itself to us and the very real chance Rafa will leave and say enough is enough.
Let’s hope our owner finally learns from his mistakes and secures the long term of the biggest asset we have.
Walker you ****, what was he thinking there?!?!?!!!
Although I have this one 2-1 England so ??
Sharpy17(Quote)
Rugby tackle on Kane before that Stones miss. As usual Ref is inconsistent and VAR not catching it.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Walker… what a stupid ****… and so many missed chances we could’ve been 4-1 up… we really keep kicking ourselves in the guts don’t we?
Surely that was also a penalty to us for the rugby tackle on sir Harry. …. ?
Dubai Toon(Quote)
It really narks me that there are 2 mackems in the England side as well
Dubai Toon(Quote)
Right half time rant, Walker is an idiot and Var seems to have broken as I cannot see for the life of me how that wwe move on Kane was not a pen.
kimtoon(Quote)
**** sake Kane pushed to the floor again
kimtoon(Quote)
So another rugby tackle on Kane… no VAR… it seems clear now that we are not going to get decisions
Dubai Toon(Quote)
Started well but this is a bit dull.
Shamrock(Quote)
This ref has previous
https://www.express.co.uk/sport/football/975830/England-vs-Tunisia-Referee-VAR-controversy-World-Cup-Wilmar-Roldan
kimtoon(Quote)
I really thought with VAR in place we wouldn’t get any nonsense with penalty shouts.
kimtoon(Quote)
Penalties aside though, we have been pretty dull. Lack of a plan B.
No creative midfielder to ping the ball around.
Shamrock(Quote)
**** free kick
kimtoon(Quote)
Ashley Young on free kicks!
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Shelvey would of been a good shout tonight if he’d gone.
kimtoon(Quote)
Clearly there are different VAR rules when England are playing… we will not get anywhere in this WC….
Dubai Toon(Quote)
get innnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn
kane
kimtoon(Quote)
Jeez. By hook or crook! That’ll do.
Shamrock(Quote)
Well done Kane. Where was the marking.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
tfft
kimtoon(Quote)
Get innnnnnn Harry Kane…. get the **** in!
Dubai Toon(Quote)
Everybody played OK. Bad miss by Stones, good finishes by Kane. Ashley Young is a red card waiting to happen with VAR. He has gone in 2 footed in a couple of friendlies and deliberately elbowed someone in the head today that was missed by the Ref/VAR. Hopefully Rose will be fit for the next game.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Happy to win of course, but my 2 main concerns… we were total ***** in the second half and bereft of ideas, and 2… where was the VAR when Kane was rugby tackled twice in the box? ???
Jesus my head is pounding… need another shot…
Dubai Toon(Quote)
Oh, and my boss is Belgian…. ?
Dubai Toon(Quote)
christ 😆
kimtoon(Quote)
I know people are blaming VAR and with all the focus being on it I understand. But how come the linesman didn’t see that Kane suplex. All that was missing was a leg drop from the crossbar and it would have been Royal Rumble.
Sharpy17(Quote)
But 2-1 got me 5 super 6 points and some beer tokens via sky bet, so I’m a happy puppy.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Can The Chronic please shut up about loaning Ruben Loftus Cheek now. He was only on for 10 minutes but it was never going to happen in the first place. Same with Rashford and Golovin and they are still referencing that dumb article of 8 players NUFC might get from WC teams. I would take that down if I were them.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
It’s the first time I’ve seen England play for a couple of years. They seem to be a bit more savvy than usual, even if it did take 2 corners to get the goals, and maybe the Tunisian bus allowed them a bit of room in their approach play. Though there’s not a lot of creativity there in the final third.
Empathise with Tunisia. So close yet so far – a familiar feeling.
Interesting to see VAR comments when you have some investment in the game.
Brisvegas(Quote)
I wonder if Mr. Roy will look back on the fact he had Kane taking corners and think it might have been a mistake?
England should actually do a bit of a modified Bog Fat Sam since Stones, Walker, Kane, Loftus Cheek and especially McGuire are very dangerous from set pieces. Still try to play good, fast paced football but accept the fouls and corners.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
I don’t think we will get a fee for Colback so what do we do with him? A couple of months ago his wages were said to be 35k but now 40k has been repeated so much it is the accepted amount. He is in the final year of his contract.
Should he take a pay cut for a new contarct? He could probably get a 5 year deal at 25k.
Or should he wait to become a free agent and possibly get a signing bonus. Who would pay it though?
Does he accept the fact he is Championship quality or does he think he is PL?
Do we loan him just to get the wages off the bill? Or…
If he gets a decent offer from say Forest and refuses to go, do we threaten to let him rot in the reserves to fck up his future prospects?
I would put him in the reserves at least until the last week of the transfer window to test his nerve. NUFC will probably loan him to get some of his wages off the books though.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
the guy a **** get him oot,give the **** away for nowt just get him oot let him stuff someone elses team
icedog(Quote)
The Chronic are at it again doing their little transfer fund speculation. They say Rafa had a NET spend of 46 million last year and add that to what he may get from sales. Anybody that follows NUFC would be suspicious of that NET spend and may even think the Chronic financial illiterates were confusing GROSS and NET. Sure enough they are.
I checked on transfer mrket and they had our net spend as 22 million. This did not include the final signing figure for Merino which would take it to about 28 million.
Most NUFC fans get their news from the dunces at the Chronic so it might be good if they got something right for a change.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
big Al stuck it up mr roy last night on tv about him taking corners
icedog(Quote)
Ryder couldnt get out of bed right never mind anything else,got to be something ganning on there for him to keep his job imo
icedog(Quote)
Having looked at the figures and seen that NUFC did spend about 30 million NET last year, you would think there would be a bit more available this year. So, let’s say 40 million, plus sales. Plus there are some instalments from past sales coming in to the tune of 10 million-ish NET. So that’s about 90 million which is not a lot in this market but does give Rafa something to play with.
The books also showed that we are not paying cash up front anymore so can balance instalments in with instalments out. There is a budget, I am just wondering why we are not spending it. Maybe it is the Rafa contract impasse and Fatty really is not releasing any funds until Rafa signs?
Eric Sykes(Quote)
That’s a silly game if true Eric, only the team/club lose in that scenario . Would he really withhold funds and put our PL status at risk ? Pathetic if he does that but wouldn’t surprise me one bit as he comes over as a playground bully who takes his ball home when upset.
kimtoon(Quote)
I will take that from England. Thoroughly deserved. Energetic, quick, thoughtful with plenty of movement. Only negative was the chances we missed. Was always the worry, if Kane doesn’t score who will?
Stuart79(Quote)
Ashley will only sanction buys late in the window.
While that was a decent England performance yesterday I’ll reserve judgement till we play a good team. Loftus Cheek and Rashford looked our best players when they came on. I’m not convinced by Maguire, Lingard, Young or Sterling. Shelvey would have been ideal last night.
georgio(Quote)
Macbeth at the RSC was very good as well, again they missed a few opportunities to make it very special
PremAndUp(Quote)
I think Lingard and Alli play in the same space but Alli has a knock so Loftus Cheek or Rashford can be played instead. Chris Waugh can then watch them to see if they are possible loan deals for NUFC 🙂 The only one I would drop is Young, and that is partly because Rose is better and left footed. Sterling deserves to be persevered with – it took him a while to find his shooting boots with City.
I didn’t think McGuire did that badly and him, Stones and Kane give us a massive threat from set pieces. These later games are often won by the odd goal so that could make a difference. Having size and speed is a good thing 🙂
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Southgate has already surpassed Mr. Roy’s record at the WC where we only got 1 point in a dead rubber against Costa Rica.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Sterling is surrounded by world class players at City which is why he got 20 plus goals, his record with England is very poor but he doesn’t have the players around him he has at City. Lingard was also guilty of missing chances though, so it would be wrong to single out Sterling. Rashford and loftus cheek gave us more pace and impetus once they came on I thought.
Deli Ali was left on far too long at 70 odd mins, he clearly wasn’t moving properly and should of been hooked sooner imo.
That ref should not be allocated any further matches either, he has form for making mistakes as well.
Forget VAR, both Kane fouls should of been seen by the ref AND the linesman, that they weren’t or were and not acted on is disgraceful .
kimtoon(Quote)
Need to sort out our free kicks too, woeful last night.
kimtoon(Quote)
Shelvey would of been perfect last night in that second half.
kimtoon(Quote)
Fans down at Ashton gate were loving it, apparently they have the biggest indoor screen in the country .
kimtoon(Quote)
That would be a benefit of replacing Young. I just cannot see why he was given free kick duty. His corners were OK but I think Henderson takes an OK corner.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
England started very well and their high energy press was good to see, but were wasteful early on so made it overly difficult in 2nd half as they faltered.
Thought tunisia were snidey little ***** so very pleased england won and should win easily against Panama.
After the fuss over shelvey not going, does anyone think he would have galvanised england 2nd half as a replacement to Henderson, who started brightly but faded
GlosMag(Quote)
https://twitter.com/BristolBestof/status/1008805789094547456
Beer shower 😆
kimtoon(Quote)
I really want us to get to the quarters to break the press cycle of building the team up and then tearing them down. You could see they were setting up for this when they started to put on their rah rah skirts a week or so ago.
I didn’t think Southgate was qualified but I was behind him after a couple of games. Not sure if I ever could have got behind Big Fat Sam whatever he achieved. Even if he won the WC you just know it would have been with anti-football. What am I on about, we wouldn’t have got out of the group. Fingers crossed we will now.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
yep
kimtoon(Quote)
So, a full 2 hours after The Chronic said last year’s NET SPEND was 46 million they put up an article from finance experts they have quoted before saying it was 19 million. It took me 2 minutes on transfermarkt to figure out. Do these idiots ever do any fact checking?
But we should believe them on transfer rumours 🙂
Eric Sykes(Quote)
I know I bang on about the finances but that is what is going to determine whether Rafa stays and the quality of player we get, which in large part will determine the quality of football and league position.
I also trash The Chronic but that is where most fans get their news and if they write total uninformed rubbish and misinformation then I have to call them on it. They should have much better information than me but they keep fcking up in their assessments and do in-depth dives into the finances that are just wrong.
Even when they get “experts” in they get accounting wonks who know nothing about economics or human nature and greed.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
“I really want us to get to the quarters to break the press cycle of building the team up and then tearing them down. ”
You don’t need the press to do that, Eric. All you need is a last minute win over Tunisia 😛 😛
Brisvegas(Quote)
Wrong link earlier
https://www.facebook.com/ITVWestcountry/videos/1992572944108644/
kimtoon(Quote)
red card for Columbia and a pen, exciting start
kimtoon(Quote)
This accounting firm that The Chronic quotes say there should be about 45 million of extra cash to spend on tranfers. I don’t know if I believe them and they have a very convoluted explanation of how they get to this figure. BUT this does not include sales so it should be a total budget of 80-90 million if we sell Mitro.
Whether Fatty releases this to Rafa is a different matter. This was my guess earlier without doing a stupid analysis. But they got there in the end !
Eric Sykes(Quote)
That’s thrown a cat among the pigeons as Japan were the underdogs in that group. It will probably effect who England play.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Eric, This could be a WC where it’s better to not win your group. If Germany don’t win their group and Brazil do then I’m sure they play each other in the 2nd round…
Stuart79(Quote)
England were excellent in the first half, but need Lingard and Sterling to be more clinical to stand a chance in this tournament. Can’t miss chances like that against the bigger teams.
Seemed to slow down when Ali got his knock, and I think Loftus Cheek should have been introduced sooner for me coz we picked up again when he came on.
I’d like to see 2 changes though. Firstly, I’d put Cahill in CB – I think hes the best defender we have and will organise the other 2 better.
I’d also have Rose at LB – Young did alright, but as a wing back I’d prefer a left footed player out there.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Ozyakup looking very likely now we’ve met his release clause – need to get that done and done quickly I think.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Toon have Not bid for any players the king of the Chonc mr Ryder himself says and he would know wouldnt he
icedog(Quote)
Who?!
Shamrock(Quote)
Sharpy, you on about the Turkish midfielder here ?
It’s a bloody forward, 10 and winger we need 👿
kimtoon(Quote)
site not letting me post
KIMTOON(Quote)
Ah it’s the link i tried to post it doesn’t like ! very odd
KIMTOON(Quote)
Message to site owners
Are we not able to post links anymore then ? Can’t even post a link to a chronicle article about player we are linked with or a link about him from another site.
kimtoon(Quote)
Mark DouglasVerified account @MsiDouglas · 2h2 hours ago
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“Benitez has opted against taking a summer holiday and is instead staying in the UK to work on transfers.”
Lets hope it’s worth it.
kimtoon(Quote)
Senegal Poland is boring as hell…
Dubai Toon(Quote)
Kid from Besiktas
Sharpy17(Quote)
Kim, your Facebook link posted ok…
Dubai Toon(Quote)
Kim – it says he plays no. 10 like ??♂️
Says he’s got 27 goals and 50 assists in 200 games for Besiktas. 25yrs and is there captain.
Sharpy17(Quote)
I take it back… it’s not boring any more. ?
Dubai Toon(Quote)
I like that Cheryshez and Golovin for Russia like. Tidy players in a very poor team.
Sharpy17(Quote)
agee
icedog(Quote)
Golovin, were we not linked with him ?
I thought he was a holding mf sharpy, don’t really know much about him to be fair.
kimtoon(Quote)