Huddersfield 0-1 Newcastle: Rondon fires Rafa’s Mags to massive 3 points

It wasn’t pretty (and that’s probably the understatement of the year!), but a second half goal from Salomon Rondon was enough to give us an absolutely massive three points over relegation rivals Huddersfield – taking us SIX clear of the drop zone. 

We ground out the win in the end, defending admirably and seeing out the game well against a toothless Huddersfield side, however it could have been very different if they had a decent striker or that little bit more quality in the final third. 

The first half performance was absolutely atrocious. Lascelles could and should have been sent off, Kenedy struggled to complete a pass and there was only one side looking to score – and it wasn’t us. We’re just lucky Huddersfield were so wasteful, however it was a real worry to see them be the only side with any urgency and buzz about them in what was such a big game for BOTH sides. 

As bad as we were early on, it’s worth mentioning that it should’ve been 0-2, with Perez scoring a perfectly good goal – only to be told he was ‘offside’ when replays showed he was level. 

Player performance wise, Kenedy had a real stinker. He struggled with simple passes, allowed their full back to get far too many crosses into the box in the first half and just did not look comfortable both positionally or on the ball as a left-wing back. That said, we worked our socks off in the second half and he kept going in his defence. Rondon took his goal well (his 5th of the season and perhaps his most important yet), Lascelles, Schar and Clark stood strong and Atsu played his part once again, with him often at the heart of the few positive bits of play we had going forward. 

Here’s how the table now looks after today’s results (*BEFORE Fulham vs West Ham at 5.30pm*):

Burnley lost what would’ve been a precious point in the 91st minute at Wembley and Cardiff were beaten 3-2 at Watford, so today’s win over Huddersfield combined with those two results mean it’s been a VERY positive day for Newcastle. 

Another huge game now awaits us next Saturday – especially when the fixtures are set to get VERY tough for us after Christmas and into the new year:

  • Fulham (H)
  • Liverpool (A)
  • Watford (A)
  • Man Utd (H)
  • Chelsea (A)
  • Cardiff (H)
  • Man City (A)
  • Tottenham (A)

HWTL! 

(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.

106 thoughts on “Huddersfield 0-1 Newcastle: Rondon fires Rafa’s Mags to massive 3 points

  1. kimtoon

    December 15, 2018 at 17:24

    Well, the weather was gash so not conducive to attractive football, chuck in the fact both sides struggle to score then it was never gonna be a thriller to watch.
    All the same, I will take an ugly win all day long given the circumstances.

    Also, can someone explain where the 4 mins added time came from ?

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  2. Well Done RAFA not attractive but 3 points, really need some money spent in Jan. I also think Lascelles will manage Mitro better next week for three more points!!

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  3. YESSSS….

    Snodgrass.

    That was the name of my dog 🙂 when I grew up.

    I wanted to name my Jack Russell Kevin (after Keegan) but my ex-wife wouldn’t let me. But I got a canary and named it Alan Shearer.

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  4. Oh God. they just showed a close-up and it is Mike Dean. Fat, slow, bald and stupid is no way to go through life.

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  5. Cracking result that, not the best we’ll play all season but I said it was a tough one.
    16pts so far – I think most said around the 18pt mark through December so we are on track for that at least.

    I do love that shirt as well though!!.

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  6. Sharpy17:
    Cracking result that, not the best we’ll play all season but I said it was a tough one.
    16pts so far – I think most said around the 18pt mark through December so we are on track for that at least.

    I do love that shirt as well though!!.

    A point a game Sharpy man, and we will stay up.

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  7. I think that was a quote from Tommy Boy (minus the bald bit)

    Fat, Slow and Stupid is no way to go through life, my friend.

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  8. I really hope we DONT spend money on Kenedy. I really don’t rate the lad highly enough. He seems to have ok games or stinkers – today was a stinker on par with the Cardiff game. I know we were quoted around £25m to buy him in the summer – he’s certainly not worth that. But even if Chelsea took £12m for him, I’d rather take Victor Moses off their hands for that money.

    I think Dubravka certainly proved his worth on loan and justified making that move permanent – and Rondon is going down the right track too. But Kenedy can go back for me. I wouldn’t mind seeing him getting dropped in favour of Murphy for a few games personally- give him a run of games to settle into the team and see what he can do – can’t be much worse than Kenedy if it doesn’t work out.

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  9. Sharpy17:
    I really hope we DONT spend money on Kenedy.I really don’t rate the lad highly enough.He seems to have ok games or stinkers – today was a stinker on par with the Cardiff game.I know we were quoted around £25m to buy him in the summer – he’s certainly not worth that.But even if Chelsea took £12m for him, I’d rather take Victor Moses off their hands for that money.

    I think Dubravka certainly proved his worth on loan and justified making that move permanent – and Rondon is going down the right track too.But Kenedy can go back for me.I wouldn’t mind seeing him getting dropped in favour of Murphy for a few games personally- give him a run of games to settle into the team and see what he can do – can’t be much worse than Kenedy if it doesn’t work out.

    Agree 100% mate

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  10. All the game proved is that Kenedy is no full back. He’s so much better higher up the field but really Rafa’s style doesn’t suit him. He was poor but so was Lascelles again and he should have seen red!
    I like Schar and for once Clark was excellent. Ki hardly touched the ball and we definitely need a replacement for Diame. His touch is terrible, he gets caught on the ball continously.
    Perez Rondon and by surprise Atsu work well together.
    By the way I did predict the result. First time for everything!

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  11. I saw the highlights and they lasted about 2 minutes. I felt like my first girlfriend!

    Great to get a win and a great team goal but is anybody else getting just a bit bored with this turgid football? We have no choice, I suppose. But how much more of this can we take? Football is supposed to be fun and hanging on for dear life against Huddersfield, yes Huddersfield, is not fun.

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  12. I know we are told to take it 1 game at a time but I have decided we need to play 6 centre halfs against Liverpool. If we can only manage 26% possession against Huddersfield…

    A 6-1-2-1 changing to 8-0-1 when Lascelles finally manages to get himself sent off so he can spend New Year with his family.

    Dubravka

    Schar Lascelles Lejuene Fernandez Clark Dummett

    Ki

    Ayoze Atsu

    Rondon

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  13. Georgio Kenedy hasn’t had a decent game all this season even when played in an advanced position. I wouldn’t take him on a free. Not worth the wages. Doesn’t seem he wants to be here and certainly doesn’t put in the effort needed.

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  14. Look at their bench:

    Pogba 90 million
    Mata 45 million
    Martial 50 million

    Even Valencia was 25 million all those years ago.

    And they are still totally shyte.

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  15. Commentator over here saying “another slide rule ball”. I am not sure if I have ever seen a slide rule never mind used one.

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  16. Canny game this like, but the Pool goalie was utter ***** for the Manure goal… these players are like a different planet to our team… they can pass to each other… ???

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  17. Can see jose getting the boot after that display and don’t get me started on that saints result. 😡

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  18. I know we play really boring football but after the Man U gloating for 30 years this is quite funny. Plus, Liverpool are a fun team to watch.

    Some FACTS, revisiting Rafa’s supposed RANT from 20 years ago:

    * Man U have now conceded more goals before Christmas than in the whole of last year.

    * The Liverpool fans were singing “Don’t Sack Mourinho” to the tune that Chelsea and Man U have sung “Jose Mourinho” over the years.

    * Man U had 36% possession.

    * Gary Neville and Roy Keane were b!tching before the game that Jesse Lingard had a party last weekend to introduce his own clothing line. They said it was inappropriate before the Liverpool game and the team would lose focus. It was a week before guys. And who in their right mind wants to dress like Jesse Lingard?

    * I wonder what the “Official Man U Tractor” and “Official Noodle of Manchester United” are thinking now?

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  19. Every time I read NUFC news I end up with more questions than answers.

    How can Rafa not know his transfer budget with only 2 weeks to go? They say there will be a transfer meeting this week but will Ashley be involved? We know he has to sign off on any deals so it would make sense for him to be there.

    Muto is not going to this Asian Cup and according to the Chronicle it is because he is deemed to be not fully fit and is on a training regimen. He’s been here for 6 months, how can he not be fully fit?

    The Chronic also say that Hayden will not be allowed to leave unless we sign cover. Who in their right mind thinks he is good enough to start regularly for NUFC? Which other PL club would take him especially since he is limiting his options by wanting to move South.

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  20. The Chronic are doing an OK job of giving us basic information but they never go deeper. They say Diame has a clause in his contract that will trigger an extension if he plays a certain number of games. What is that about? Our only other defensive mid is Hayden who we want to sell anyway. He is getting on but has been first choice all season – wouldn’t we want to at least keep him as backup?

    He is being overplayed anyway because of our lack of cover in that position.

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  21. Here in the US we get fed a steady diet of Liverpool and Man United. I don’t really mind because Liverpool are fun to watch and it is good to see the Manc plastics wallowing in self-pity that their birthright of winning the league every season has been so rudely taken away. Including their manager. Welcome to what the rest of us have had to deal with for a lot of the past 50 years.

    Seeing so much Man U got me thinking about how immature some of their players are. Rashford is 21, so fair enough. But Lingard is 26, older than Lascelles and the same age as Dummett. Same with Pogba. They don’t seem to have grown up at all.

    Maybe I am jealous 🙂 But they act like children, or at least like spotty teenagers. There’s the stripes in their hair, the posting of stupid hand gestures on Instagram the choreographed pathetic dances and playing video games 4 plus hours a day. Don’t get me wrong, I like to see players celebrating but a lot about this “look at me, aren’t I cool and brilliant” attitude seems childish. I have a feeling if Pyscho Keane or Sourness or Shearer were in the dressing room they would give them a slap.

    It doesn’t really upset me it is just an observation. I suppose Peter Crouch had his robot dance but it wasn’t frivolity 24/7. I suppose Lingard doesn’t have a care in the world so maybe I am being an old grump. The youth (well not quite, he’s 26) of today, eh.

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  22. Mourinho sacked.
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/46603018

    Now lets think .. where on earth could manu find a top class manager who demonstrates he can restore a sense of unity among a team and comes with masses of premier league experience?

    Let’s hope a sale goes through for toon and Benitez affection for lfc holds sway

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  23. How about this for a conspiracy. Kenyon buys NUFC and appoints Jose as a replacement for Rafa? Did they work together at Chelsea?

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  24. Stuart79:
    How about this for a conspiracy. Kenyon buys NUFC and appoints Jose as a replacement for Rafa? Did they work together at Chelsea?

    Stuart, that thought occurred to me too… especially given Jose’s affinity to SJP and Sir Bobby! Whilst I hope Rafa stays on, I would not be unhappy if Jose arrived. ?

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  25. kimtoon:
    They could of waited till after we played em

    The rumour is Carrick as caretaker. No experience and the only thing he has going for him is that he is not Jose. They still have problems. Sanchez feels like he has given up, Pogba is a spoilt brat and they need to design a system that suits Lukaku.

    Their players are still a lot better than Jose was getting out of them.

    Ancelotti makes the most sense to me but taking Pochetino from Spurs would be good as I think he has them punching over their weight and they cannot afford new players with that stadium to play for. Probably off to Madrid though.

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  26. More pressing than anything at Man U is this Muto situation. I wondered earlier in the week how he could still be “unfit” after 6 months. Sure enough Japan go and call him up. So that is him and Ki gone for a month for this Asian Cup thingy, whatever it is.

    It is in the UAE so sounds like a money spinner for the Asian FAs. But then again all of the tournaments are money spinners for the Federations and FIFA. Can they not get their act together and not put it in the middle of the European season. Even the African Cup of Nations managed that.

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  27. What will be the impact of losing Muto?

    * He hasn’t played much anyway, but at the very least he could have been a sub instead of Joselu.

    * He’ll probably get more playing time now in the games remaining before he leaves.

    * Makes the acquisition of a number 10 in January even more essential. Rafa sees Muto as an alternative to Rondon I think, but from the little I have seen it looks like they could play together.

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  28. Guess who is probably out for the rest of the season – Jack Wilshere. Most overrated player in the PL.

    Next is probably Pogba. He is not a bad player but is a luxury. And that price tag is probably at least twice what he is worth. He has all of the skills but can’t tackle and doesn’t track back at all. He gives the ball away which was OK at Juve because they had the defenders to cover for him but unless you set up your team for Pogba he is mostly a passenger who shows the odd bit of great skill but will never get you many goals or assists.

    I don’t think Man U will fix their problems before they face us but they do have some very good players. I don’t know what Jose did to them to make them play so ****. On paper, their squad is as good as Spurs, Arsenal and Chelsea.

    I do agree with Kimtoon that it would have been better for us if they kept Jose as probably the tea lady could have got more out of that squad than him.

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  29. Eric Sykes:
    Guess who is probably out for the rest of the season – Jack Wilshere. Most overrated player in the PL.

    Next is probably Pogba. He is not a bad player but is a luxury. And that price tag is probably at least twice what he is worth. He has all of the skills but can’t tackle and doesn’t track back at all. He gives the ball away which was OK at Juve because they had the defenders to cover for him but unless you set up your team for Pogba he is mostly a passenger who shows the odd bit of great skill but will never get you many goals or assists.

    I don’t think Man U will fix their problems before they face us but they do have some very good players. I don’t know what Jose did to them to make them play so ****. On paper, their squad is as good as Spurs, Arsenal and Chelsea.

    I do agree with Kimtoon that it would have been better for us if they kept Jose as probably the tea lady could have got more out of that squad than him.

    100% agree on jack waste-of space,you make some good points on the rest of your comment

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  30. Icedog: I know I bang on about some players but I really don’t have anything against them. It is the pundits and journalists with their Emperor’s New Clothes mentality that gets to me. They repeat something so often that it becomes a fact to them and they never change their views even given the evidence of their own eyes.

    Wilshere was/is always England’s Most Creative Player they say. No he isn’t. His injuries deprived him of pace and he can’t make the passes and runs that he did for a very short period at the start of his career. He has done nothing in 5 years and they still call for him to be in the England squad.

    And Rooney, they called World Class 5 years after his prime. No he wasn’t and anybody could see it unless your name was Roy Hodgson.

    And now Pogba. Another they all repeat saying he is World Class. No he isn’t. In 4 out of 5 games he is a passenger and a show pony. He has a pea for a heart. If things aren’t going exactly his way he gives up. More time for Instagram that way! Hopefully this will not come back and bite me on the **** and he will be MOTM against NUFC 🙂

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  31. I think there are parallels between Rafa/Mitro and Jose/Pogba. This will become topical as the Fulham game gets closer but I think there was more than meets the eye in both cases. I really think there was something that happened between Mitro and Rafa that we don’t know about and not just the incompatibility and failure to push himself in training. Mitro has a screw loose and Rafa couldn’t deal with it. You can see it every time he scores with his celebrations and how he throws his teammates around. There is something not right there and Rafa didn’t want to have to deal with it.

    Pogba and Jose were a clash of egos but more than that, I think Jose just didn’t rate him as highly as everyone else did and struggled to fit him into a system.

    This will all come out when they write their next biographies 🙂

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  32. Dubai Toon: Stuart, that thought occurred to me too… especially given Jose’s affinity to SJP and Sir Bobby! Whilst I hope Rafa stays on, I would not be unhappy if Jose arrived.

    Dubai – I saw those comments from Jose too. I was talking to one of the lads I work with and I think there are comparisons with Jose at Man Utd and Sir Bobby at NUFC. Both had a squad of talented players who should have achieved so much more but most were too busy are/were a bunch of self obsessed, over paid morons who have totally let down the best manager they are ever likely to work under.

    I feel sorry for Jose, not coz he wasn’t backed financially – coz he was – massively. But he was let down by the players and the board.

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  33. ERIC you don’t bang on imo there’s nowt happening anyway,better than a blank page plus I enjoy them and harming no one

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  34. I know I’ve been critical of Rafa and his approach and tactics at times this season – but I wouldn’t swap him for Jose.
    Don’t get me wrong, Jose is world class and few can go into a club and win things the way he does, but I just think Rafa is a better fit for us. I think Rafa has our long term in mind, where Jose tends to be a short term wonder.

    I’m disappointed to see Jose sacked because chances are he’ll be off to a different league now. I don’t see which other team he goes to now – but I’d like to keep him in the PL. He makes our league better – even with the under performing Man Utd.

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  35. Sharpy: do you think Jose has lost touch a bit? He used to be able to manipulate the media but it seems to me in the last few years they have consumed him and spat him out. It is about the 24 hour news cycle and fame for fame sake. Footballers have always had fame and fortune but it that times 100 now. Pogba is more useful to Man U than Mourinho because of his social media presence because that sells shirts and official noodles. I think Jose finally got sick of it like Ferguson did with Beckham but Pogba and Lingard are 10 times worse.

    But eventually they have to start winning again and that was in part why Mourinho had to go. Even more than that, it had to be fun again.

    You could see he was tired. It was in his face, in his dealings with the media. If he was that testy in public, imagine him on the training pitch and in private. He used to be funny and charming and for the last few years he has just been a grump.

    He needs a long, long holiday. Probably a year and to stop living out of a hotel.

    I have to admit I don’t understand all of this social media ****. Who would EVER want to FOLLOW Piers Morgan, or look at 20 pictures of someone’s cat.? I am not that old either and am young enough to buy a digital camera 20 years ago and the first iPhone. But some of this has just become so tedious. The selfies. The NOT living in the moment, missing everything because you would rather be on your phone seeing what everybody else is doing.

    Kids nowadays, eh. Seriously, I am not sure if I could take the immaturity of Pogba and Lingard even though they seem nice enough.

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  36. Eric – I think Jose has suffered with Pep, Poch and Klopp becoming media darlings and promoting total football. Jose has always been more tactical – which isn’t as ‘sexy football’ as those 3.
    But I also think his position was brought into question by the board. If Fergie didn’t want a player to stay at the club, the board moved them on – simple as that. It started with Lee Sharpe and progressed through his whole tenure – the likes of Beckham and Stam.
    Jose did not have that with Woodward. I think Jose would happily have seen the back of Pogba, Martial and Shaw – getting rid of a high profile player was always one of his things – like a ‘I’m in charge’ thing. I’m also not sure the signings were entirely his either – I’m not sure he wanted Sanchez, Fred or Lindelof.
    I think anyone going into Man Utd is on a hiding to nothing if the board put shirt sales and players profiles ahead of the manager and what he wants.
    City and Pool have clearly backed and put their managers first. Spurs, whilst they haven’t bought, they’ve made sure they have kept the players Poch wanted to.
    If Man Utd don’t do that, it doesn’t matter who comes in.

    Basically mate, I think the next manager will suffer in a similar way to Jose, where I reckon Jose will go on to another club and win trophies.

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  37. Sharpy: I agree with what you said and that exacerbated Mourinho’s frustration and I just think he is burnt out now. I am pretty sure he has been trying to get himself fired in the last few months. I don’t blame him either. If they are stupid enough to give him that contract and not back him then they got what they deserved.

    What are the press going to write about now 🙂

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  38. Eric – sorry mate but one final point.

    With Sir Bobby at NUFC, the board done a similar thing. Rather than taking on a group of spoiled brats in the likes of Dyer, Bowyer, Bellamy and the rest of them – they threw Bobby to the dogs – unforgivable imo. All they needed to do was shift Dyer which would have sent a message to the rest that Bobby was in charge – cut the head off the snake. But no, they stuck with the brats and tried to get a disciplinarian in instead in Souness. That resulted in on pitch fighting and setting the club backwards.

    I think a similar thing has just happened with Jose.

    Winning the league has never been harder with the likes of City, Pool, Spurs, Arsenal and Chelsea being stronger than ever. But Jose won them trophies and got CL football – which is success.

    I don’t think Jose has lost something, I think Man Utd have through some of the duckeggs now calling the shots.

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  39. I also have Jose off to Monaco at 10/1. There is a sky pundit presently doing an awful job there right now.

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  40. Sharpy17:
    Eric – sorry mate but one final point.

    With Sir Bobby at NUFC, the board done a similar thing.Rather than taking on a group of spoiled brats in the likes of Dyer, Bowyer, Bellamy and the rest of them – they threw Bobby to the dogs – unforgivable imo.All they needed to do was shift Dyer which would have sent a message to the rest that Bobby was in charge – cut the head off the snake.But no, they stuck with the brats and tried to get a disciplinarian in instead in Souness.That resulted in on pitch fighting and setting the club backwards.

    I think a similar thing has just happened with Jose.

    Winning the league has never been harder with the likes of City, Pool, Spurs, Arsenal and Chelsea being stronger than ever.But Jose won them trophies and got CL football – which is success.

    I don’t think Jose has lost something, I think Man Utd have through some of the duckeggs now calling the shots.

    Agree totally Sharpy.

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  41. I have’t seen Jose smile for years now. He should retire with his stock still high. See Ole Gunnar’s got the job. Big surprise after his flop time at Cardiff.

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  42. georgio:
    I have’t seen Jose smile for years now. He should retire with his stock still high. See Ole Gunnar’s got the job. Big surprise after his flop time at Cardiff.

    They wanted Carver mate but he’s doing Panto ?

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  43. Surprised at OGS getting the Manure job like. He was rubbish at Cardiff and got them relegated. I’m surprised they didn’t ask sir Alex to come out of retirement for a half season and sort them out…

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  44. So WBA are saying if we want Rondon it’s gonna cost £16.5m or Gayle plus cash.
    Rondon has been very good for us in the main, but I wouldn’t be shelling out £16m on him unless he retires from international football – which I know is unfair to ask him to do, but at 30, he can’t globe trot the way he does.

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  45. I know they may not be the quality signing people may hope for, but I like Neals Maupay and Ollie Watkins at Brentford – if Rafa is looking for a forward and winger, both are 22, work their socks off and have a real quality that could be developed to show them as PL players.
    If he’s after a LB, I’d like to see us get Kieran Tierney from Celtic. I think he’d be perfect for this 3 CBs system he seems to be favouring at the moment.

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  46. Craig John and Chris “the intern” Waugh just finished up a Q&A at The Chronic and when asked about Ki leaving for this Asian Cup nonsense they replied that with Longstaff possibly making his debut, Shelvey returning in January and Isaac Hayden that NUFC were “WELL STOCKED” in midfield. I have another word for it FCKED.

    We need a midfielder/number 10 in at a minimum after the Man U game, hopefully Almiron.

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  47. How do these people at The Chronic have jobs:

    Shelvey – they are implying that he is still injured and is due back in January. He already came back and then went out injured again Craig and Chris. There are no guarantees here.

    Longstaff – looks good but hasn’t played a game for NUFC. The U23s are different to the PL guys.

    Hayden – wants away, and he looks like his head is not in it.

    “WELL STOCKED”, you couple of clowns.

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  48. And that’s without getting into the fact that with Man U on Jan 2nd Mo Diame will have played 5 games in 17 days over the festive period. If picked.

    I read their stuff in The Chronic and some of seems well reasoned and that they actually have contacts and then I scratch my head when they come out with absolute rubbish. It makes me question everything else they say.

    The correct answer would have been we are desperate for another midfielder and Ki will be sorely missed. It is essential we get an upgrade on Hayden in the first week of January and we are hoping and praying that Jonjo will be fit. It is not ideal, because I am sure Rafa would like to ease him in, but young Longstaff will see some minutes from the bench. Good for him but it is more out of desperation than planning. The truth is that the NUFC owner has left us so short in central midfield that we may have to play Schar or Lejuene there.

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  49. I was making a point and used my disdain for Chronic journos to use it – we have no cover for Ki in January and unless you count Joselu we have no cover for Perez or Rondon either.

    And we have some difficult games – Man U, Chelsea, Cardiff, Man City, Spurs.

    Maybe we are just writing 4 of those off as losses so it doesn’t matter that we won’t have Ki or Muto.

    OR, that we don’t do any business in EARLY January AGAIN. It is quite possible there will be 4 losses given our home form and no signings as the window closing nears. Can you imagine the mood then?

    Let’s look on the brightside though. Almiron is having a break and if we are willing to stump up the money he could be available for all of those games. It also shouldn’t be difficult to find a left back to loan in Europe and Lejuene will be back.

    That’s probably what I expect to happen as a sale is looking less and less likely. I think the US money want assurance of PL football and I would too.

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  50. Further to Sharpy’s point above: what the hell are Man U doing? OGS sent Cardiff down and manages Molde in the Norwegian League FFS. They have appointed Mike Phelan as well. He was Lord Ferg’s assistant but subsequently basically took Hull down.

    I know they won some trophies after Ferg but not the ones they wanted. They want the PL and Champions League and spent accordingly. Per the Guardian it has be 750 million pounds since Ferguson left.

    Caretaker managers can very occasionally work but are often lame ducks as they have no authority with the players who knows they are leaving. What is the best case scenario? That he gets them to the semi-finals of the Champions League or 4th in the table by some miracle. Then there would be calls for him to be the permanent manager 🙂

    Given how much money they have spent, they are probably challenging NUFC and SAFC for worst run clubs in the country.

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  51. Quiet on here again so…

    I would believe Simon Bird over anybody at the Chronic so there may be something to Olly’s story about 3 possible European recruits.

    Since Solskjaer was sacked by Cardiff in 2014 he went back to Molde in Norway and has won the square root of F-all. What are Man U thinking? He’s not that young either despite his baby face. He is 45, Poch is 46 and Pep is 47.

    If this works it will be a miracle even though they definitely have the players to finish top 6.

    I am not even sure if this would be acceptable at NUFC. It is a massive gamble and seeming acceptance of their fate of treading water until the summer. It is sort of like appointing John Carver to keep the ship afloat until summer. And how did that work out?

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  52. How ironic it would be if Jabba’s last act as owner would be the break the transfer record on Almiron.

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