The growing optimism that Benitez will remain at Newcastle is a shining glimmer of hope to United fans. More than that, it is a beacon, penetrating through the relegation fog which would have lay thick on the Tyne for months.
Meteorological metaphor aside, the importance of Rafa staying in charge has been made abundantly clear by the Newcastle fans; and Ashley, seems to have taken note.
I must admit that a few weeks ago, I just could not see Benitez remaining in charge should we fall below the relegation watershed. But all the talk following Newcastle’s incredible demolition of Spurs on Sunday is encouraging positive.
Players who I’d assumed would be fleeing the Magpies’ nest quicker than Mark Viduka are even coming out claiming they are open to staying in a bid to get Newcastle back up. Others have been a little more cryptic, expectedly so, in fairness. With relegation confirmed only a week ago, you would normally see players deflect questions of transfer to their agents, neither admitting they want a move away or committing their futures to the club until fully assessing their options. Yet all the noises coming out of St James’ Park seem to be that of togetherness.
That was certainly reflected in the performance on Sunday. This is a squad of players who should never have been relegated. For all the talk of poor recruitment, and yes much of it has been poor. Newcastle were still left with a squad good enough to go the last six Premier league games unbeaten under the guidance of someone who actually knows what they are doing.
As enjoyable as it was to watch Newcastle dismantle Spurs, it was also infuriatingly frustrating. Where has that been all season? Where has Sissoko been? Mitrovic, until his moment of utter madness, was brilliant. The whole side, even when down to ten, in fact, especially when down to ten, were together, organised and hungry. Breaking forwards relentlessly with pace and desire. Where has it been?
Yet strangely enough relegation doesn’t, at the moment, seem like the end. With the prospect of Benitez, and some of the more appealing players still with Newcastle and a humbled Mike Ashley restructuring the model, it could be the beginning. The beginning of something great. With a bit of perspective we should be looking at where Newcastle could be in three years, not where we will be next season. Hopefully next week will bring us the news we all crave and we can look forward to a summer preparing for a promotion drive, with Rafa at the forefront.
A quick personal note from me, SRF, now that the season has finished. Thank you to all you readers and bloggers who have taken the time to read my articles, comment on and discuss them. I have really enjoyed writing for this site since February and hope you have enjoyed reading them.
Remember, we are the fans. We have fans all over the UK, indeed, all over the world. Players, managers, directors and owners will come and go. The club will remain. We are Newcastle, we are United. HTL
Could take another week at least of finger naill biting.
Stuart79(Quote)
I hope I’m not jumping the gun here but I believe Rafa will be staying. I would like TDSarf to explain his previous comments
that the only reason we managed to get good managers in the past was because of an emotional attachment to the club, in fact because of our backwater location and mediocre status it would be impossible to attract a world leading manager unless he had connections to the North East. Answer before July if that’s ok!
jail for ashley(Quote)
Blimey, are Liverpool and Manchester throbbing metrpolis’ these days?
Stuart79(Quote)
Reminds me of when we were in for Smichael (know not spelt right) and the Bronby manager advised him against Newcastle as to much of an industrial town with cobbled streets, so he went to the totally beautiful and picturesque Manchester instead
Simon(Quote)
Thanks SRF – much appreciated.
Staring to look now as if Ashley and Charnley are hammering out the fine details of how to keep Rafa in terms of his budget requests. Talk of SD finally paying for advertising, new overdraft, and a couple of player sales. Looks like they mean business in the same way Rafa probably does. He’ll walk if they can’t cobble it together.
Georgio(Quote)
JfA
Waaaah? You stored something up from ages ago to reuse at some point in the future???
I have said that the only truly top manager we have hired in (most people’s) living memory would be SBR, and I don’t believe he would have joined us if he wasn’t a fan. I sure as hell never used words like “backwater” and “mediocre”!
As if you weren’t as shocked as the rest of us when Rafa joined us…and as if you’re not staying shocked when he says he might stay!
This job for Rafa just seems like the perfect storm. He wants to come back and manage in England. He wasn’t going to go back to Liverpool or Chelsea, couldn’t see him going to Man Utd or Everton because of his Liverpool connections, doesn’t look like the Spurs or Arsenal jobs would be available any time soon and Pep is off to City, so who else? It’s not often that combination of factors exists! That’s probably the 7 biggest clubs now in the PL all ruled out.
We’re in England, we’re a big club with potential, we’re known all over the globe and (most crucially now we’re in the Championship), Rafa knows first hand how amazing the fans are.
Count your blessings on the other factors. We always knew we have fantastic fans who show their love to the right players and managers.
ToonDarnSarf(Quote)
Cheers SRF, nice read, keep em coming 🙂
Dare I say it’s all looking positive on the Rafa front?, Desperately need him to stay with us as I really fear for us if he goes, the sense of deflation will be palpable.
Kimtoon(Quote)
TDS, he has said that when he was at Liverpool he would say to colleagues that Newcastle would be a great club to manage as it’s very similar to Liverpool and it’s fan base.
Kimtoon(Quote)
Like I said on the FB status – great news if it is indeed confirmed, but I will still wait until the end of August.
All of our managers (except Schteve) have had the rug pulled from under them – all have been desperate for a job though and they’ve been willing to graft until someone more reasonable and trustworthy came along who’d also pay them more. Hoots and Pardew needed the work, as did Carver. So did Schteve, but he had 80 mil of some top talent (some duds, but Gini, Mitro, Mbemba are not bad players – the others need looking at and he may have just mismanaged them)
Benitez however will jump ship quicker than Keegan if his demands aren’t met – and rightly so – he is a better manager than this joke of a club deserve in fairness!
Newkie(Quote)
Kim
I can well imagine that. He loved the passion of the fans at Liverpool and we did have some great games against his Liverpool team. Passionate fans obviously tug at his heart strings!
If we were within touching distance of Europe, I’d have been predicting he would come and manage us at some point, but joining us when we were fighting against relegation was enough of a shock. Staying in the 2nd tier? If any of us had suggested that would happen, we’d have been shouted down!
But, this would be a great opportunity for Rafa to become a Toon legend. Not many managers have become legends at TWO English clubs…and I can’t think of any foreign managers who have.
The sooner this is confirmed the better. Anything else is unthinkable now…
ToonDarnSarf(Quote)
Kim
And if he did say something like that in the past, that kinda actually proves my point too right? He already had an emotional attachment to the club and the fans even before he joined us! Thanks! 🙂
ToonDarnSarf(Quote)
I think Daniel Agger could be a good free signing at 29. But I seem to remember him struggling with injuries when at Lpool. I could be wrong on that though.
I think if we keep Mbemba & Lascelles & get rid of Saylor & Colo, we will need some experience in that area.
I’ve always been a fan of Carrick as well. He might not have the legs, but he’s intelligent and always moves the ball forward.
I would also go after the young lad who’s looking to leave Spurs – Nathan Oduwa. I saw him a couple of times when he was on loan at Rangers and he looked to be a decent winger. He’s only 20 and doesn’t have a great deal of experience. But he could be a steal.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Shamrock: I quite like Mark Douglass’s writing as well. He seems to get past the Chronicle police and state what he thinks. However, that only adds to the contrast with Ryder. If Douglass can say his piece then why not Ryder? It suggests that Ryder really thought Carver and Schteve were good managers and good enough for NUFC. Which they weren’t.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
You would think that The Chronic would have caught on by now? Ryder puts out about 10 articles a week and on at least half the readers comments are something like “Lee, you are an idiot”. I know it is the nature of blogs and comment sections to be a bit caustic but I have never, ever seen anybody say to Lee – good article mate, well written and well researched! Now what was that you were saying about wanting to keep Carver and that Schteve would have been successful if only he wasn’t let down by Carr? No he wouldn’t…
Eric Sykes(Quote)
The one thing about Lee Ryder, Eric is that it’s obvious that one person at the club briefs all the journo’s or certainly most of them. For instance on Monday evening within 5 mins of each other George Caulkin, Craig Hope, Luke Edwards and Louise Taylor all put up an article regards Rafa and all the articles said more or less the same. Same again yesterday but then Lee Ryder comes out and contradicts what the rest have said. That suggest he has a different source at the club or he’s just wanting to be awkward, which I can’t believe.
Stuart79(Quote)
AND… Pards finished 15th with Palace but is in the FA Cup final. However, who would have him back apart from The Troysta? Dire football and death spirals.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Stuart: I think Ryder is just a bit bad at his job. He never does any research, any journalism. He writes in an extremely simplistic style that I think he thinks is what his audience can understand. He gives no credit to his audience and, in a way, belittles them by doubting their intelligence. I could write a Ryder article as they are all so formulaic. He is dialing it it now, but I also think he never had it in the first place. I really think he is the worst sports writer I have ever read. I have said this many times before but he should take a few lessons from Barney Ronay at The Guardian.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
And should journalism be copying the press release? And then supporting idiots like Ugly John? That is mainly what Ryder does, Stuart. He does make up his own mind about his favourites (John, Steve, Fat Sam) but he is invariably wrong.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Eric. I could do a better job than Ryder and I have no training in that field. I wonder how much he gets paid? I have probably written more actual researched articles than he has.
Prem used to write here regularly. His stuff sh@t all over Ryder’s.
Shamrock(Quote)
Shamrock: you DO do a better job than Ryder!!!
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Definitely the academy has to be rebuilt. The whole club had a horrible season at every level. I’m not sure you can leave too much dead wood lying around so I would expect us to see some quiet resignations by June. That’s if Rafa stays of course. Otherwise it will probably just continue to be the same shambles. What are they going to do at Board level? That’s another huge question. And can Ashley satisfy Rafa with enough spending when he’s already said the cupboard is bare.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
G2 – The new training ground will get built I have been told. Actually it will be sponsored so the money won’t come from within the club’s coffers.
Stuart79(Quote)
I see us as a five year project for Rafa:
Promotion back to the Prem: by year 1 or 2.
Mid table form with at least one decent cup run: by year 3
Academy rebuilt: by year 3-4.
Serious contention for top5 and all levels of club performing well: by year 5.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
G2: Moncur was just making up the numbers on the board in my opinion. Carr will be gone so that leave Charnley and Rafa. A finance man and a football man. Not a bad thing as long as they both stick to their knitting.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
The entire plan has to be solid Stuart mate. That’s how great clubs sustain excellence over years and years. We can be that way with the right people. And once Rafa leaves get him to recommend his successor. And so on……
GeordieTwo(Quote)
Ashley is slippery about money Eric. Rafa will have to be very careful. I’m sure Ashley is counting on getting a nice pot of cash from player sales straight away. If we can get somewhere around 25-30M for 4 players and use most of the parachute payment we should have a very decent war chest.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
G2: promotion in the 1st year, man. There is no way we can be in The Championship for more than a year.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
G2: you said the other day that we would only get about 22m for almost all of our better players!
Eric Sykes(Quote)
I think you’re dead right about Moncur Eric. He was picked up to give the club a bit of a winners flavor from his playing days. But really he has no useful function. The Board isn’t there to look good. It’s there to promote the club and make good football decisions.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
If we win the championship next season does that count as winning something ? It’s probably the only trophy he’ll ever see again. Go out a winner not a loser.
Terry(Quote)
I felt we could get 20-25M for four or five players Eric and I’ll stick with that. I don’t remember my exact numbers but I roughly I think I said Krul: about 5M (keepers always seeming to be undervalued)
Janmaat: 3-5M at best
Sissoko: in another league might be worth 6M
Wijnaldum: again probably another league and possibly still worth about 8M?
That adds up to 22-24M. If they can get more for this lot then more power to them. Every penny will help.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
What’s it called now Terry mate? The Johnson’s Paint trophy or something. I definitely want it in wor trophy cabinet by the end of next season. 😀
GeordieTwo(Quote)
Make no doubt about it. If Rafa stays some heads are gonna roll. It’s stompin’ time!!!
GeordieTwo(Quote)
The sad thing is that some of what should have been our best players disappeared in almost every away game we played this season. That’s not acceptable. Sissoko started to pick it up once Rafa got hold of him but I was shocked by Wijnaldum. And we knew Janmaat was a classic wing back with no interest in defending. But some of these players have definitely reduced their own valuations with their overall play this year.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
G2: I think you have the players correct mate, but not the valuations.
Krul – 7m
Sissoko – 10m
Janmaat – 6m
Wijnaldum – 14m
So, that’s about 37m.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
I hope you’re right Eric. Rafa could definitely use the money. It will depend on who comes in for those players. There are some shrewd eyes for talent out there. And some managers will think they can get much more out of those players than McLaren did. And they’re probably right. 😀
GeordieTwo(Quote)
I see Villa have been bought by a Chinese Billionaire. They’ll be going big next season I reckon.
Stuart79(Quote)
G2: if we have the Wijnaldum and Sissoko of Sunday we can get some money for them 🙂
My only real disappointment with Rafa so far is that he stuck with Cisse. I know he went with PL experience and Cisse is a maverick who can score from nothing sometimes, but when he is not good he is ****. Does that make sense? He is a one trick pony. He offers nothing else to the team except goals and when he doesn’t score he is useless.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Eric – I’m not sure he’ll sell Krul personally. But I think that £7m could be got from the combined sale of Tiote & Cisse.
I’m interested to see what future Thauvin & Saviet has at Newcastle – if any.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Stuart: we only need to play Villa twice so I think we will be OK. Plus, they don’t have a manager and we proved that spending 80 fckn million doesn’t guarantee success 🙂
Eric Sykes(Quote)
So whoever says Billionaires don’t lose money by cutting their losses are wrong! We can’t be worth much more than Villa currently?
Stuart79(Quote)
Sharpy: they bought Saivet because other teams were supposedly interested and they didn’t want to miss out. I think Rafa didn’t play him because he went with experienced PL players. I could be wrong though and maybe he thinks Saivet is ****.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Have to agree about Cisse. I hoped the club would sell him off a couple of seasons ago. I think Rafa hoped to use him to tire out defenders and then throw Mitro on to batter them. It worked now and then. But we need a proper striker up front alongside Mitrovic. Somebody with pace to create space for Mitro to come into. I hope Armstrong can do that. I worry about Perez. He didn’t get a lot of playing time but he wasn’t great. I’m not sure what his best position is anymore. And we had better hope Shelvey plays well next season for what we’re reportedly paying him.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
Typical, Villa get bought by a billionaire, why don’t Jabba just sell up. That’s just made getting back up harder.
Kimtoon(Quote)
That is what I was trying to say about Cisse. He only has 2 gears. 5th and 1st. Nothing in between.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Eric – the thing for me was that I don’t think he was ever used as a sub under Rafa – if so it wasn’t often. I know he wanted to use PL experienced players, but if Saviet had the quality you would have thought he would have got some game time.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Villa’s owner has already stated he plans “to make Villa the biggest club in China with a huge fan base.”
Stuart79(Quote)
You are probably right about Saivet, Shapy. That Rafa just doesn’t fancy him. I am trying my best to remain upbeat after relegation 🙂
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Let’s just hope this billionaire is at least as bad as ours has been.
Stuart79(Quote)
I’m not overly concerned about the Villa buy out personally.
I think that club is a mess and there squad is poor in my opinion. I think the takeover has probably stopped the slide coz I could have seen them as a Wolves or team that dropped again to be honest. Mid table for Villa I reckon while they sort their problems out.
Sharpy17(Quote)
I can’t see any source that shows what the new Villa owner or owning company is worth. I would not be too concerned. If they were serious billionaires looking at striking it big with a club – they would not start in the Championship with a club that basically needs an entire new squad IMO. More Carson Yueng than Roman Abramovic would be my bet.
Shamrock(Quote)
Eric – weirdly I am more upbeat at going down & retaining Rafa then sneaking survival with Carver last season.
I think Rafa has probably had a good stint at looking at the squad and deciding who he wants to keep & let go.
The fact he got rid of Marv & Oba and give Dum a new contract would suggest that.
I’m just interested to see if he makes wholesale changes this summer, or with him having a small budget, will certain players like Thauvin & Saivet get a second chance.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Sharpy: can you name anyone in the Villa team apart from Agbonlahor? I was thinking about who they have and couldn’t come up with a single player. Even after just watching them a week ago they all seem anonymous. Really, I cannot think of anybody else that plays for them except Agbonlahor.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
West Mids radio apparantly reporting villas new owners worth about £150m…
I’ve read nowt about his alleged billions apart from their supporters, Their local rag are referring to him as a multi millionaire
CC(Quote)
“Everywhere I go in Hong Kong people want to talk to me about [Birmingham],” Yeung says. “The same in China.”
Yueng after he purchased Birmingham. He also said he would make them huge in China. That worked out well…. The top sides have had their claws in the Chinese market for years including multiple summer tours there. Villa has no chance of monopolising that market for a long time.
Shamrock(Quote)
Eric – I know Lescott, Richards, Scott Sinclair & Jordan Ayew were in there. But I only know that coz when they signed them I remember thinking, they are coughing up a lot of money on very average players.
The only one I thought we maybe should have went for was Richards – but as he’s been dogshit, I’m pleased we didn’t now.
Sharpy17(Quote)
The “other” Ayew Sharpy. I knew there was a reason I couldn’t recall any of the Villa players, ‘coz they are all *****. That will take a big overhaul.
Here’s a quote from Randy Lerner’s press release:
“Randy Lerner has sought the right new owner for Aston Villa who would take great care of the Club and restore its fortunes. He believes that Tony Xia is an excellent choice.”
Would you trust Randy Lerner’s football acumen and to select a new owner 🙂 🙂 🙂 He basically has said he has no idea about football and just wants out 🙂 🙂 🙂
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Eric – aye Swansea got their Ayew for free, Villa paid £9m for theirs 😯
I don’t imagine he’ll be there next season either.
Scott Sinclair was good for Swansea but his time at City seemed to stop his career in its tracks really.
I wouldn’t mind taking him on the left & Andros on the right if he could re-find his Swansea form though.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Aarons on the left Sharpy. Thet boy has so much talent!
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Everton and Man City rejects, well past their sell by date. No wonder I couldn’t remember them!
Eric Sykes(Quote)
He does indeed mate, but thus far he has also had many injuries. Townsend has highlighted in a big way just how badly we have missed natural wide men at the club.
I’d like us to have cover for both Andros & Arrons personally.
I hope Arrons can stay fit, coz him & Townsend in the same side would be seriously dangerous I reckon.
If Armstrong can come in and bang the goals in as he did at Coventry, then it should be a fun season I reckon.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Thanks for your vote of confidence, Shamrock
premandup(Quote)
And I bet Sturridge doesn’t do that at the Euro’s!!!
Not bad forward line for Roy to choose from if Sturridge is on the bench…
Stuart79(Quote)
Stuart: I agree with you that Mr. Roy has good forwards. Central defenders 🙂 🙂 🙂 And Roooooooney 🙂 🙂 🙂
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Premandup: you have my vote as well. I always liked your stuff. And Shamrocks.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Going pear shaped now for Liverpool. Right decision for that goal too as it came off a Liverpool player.
Stuart79(Quote)
**** from Mignolet though.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
yep not going well for Pool tonight
Kimtoon(Quote)
Istanbul people!!
Sharpy17(Quote)
Only Rafa can pull that off, Sharpy! 😀
Stuart79(Quote)
Why is Emre Can crying because they lost the Europa League final?
Stuart79(Quote)
Because they would qualify for the CL if they won it.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
The Express reporting that Arsenal are after Sissoko for £10m.
I know that’s an old one, but with them loosing Arteta & Flamini this season, there could be legs in it this time round.
Personally I’d say £5m plus Joel Campbell. I reckon him & Townsend could tear it up as well.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Tough loss but Seville really showed their quality in that second half. Some brilliant football from them. Made Liverpool look quite pedestrian.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
I’d say 10 mil plus Campbell. Campbell hasnt started that many games, reckon Wenger doesnt fancy the kid much.
Sissoko could easily pull 12-15mil
Gashley(Quote)