Brighton 1-1 Newcastle: NUFC throw away 2 points in a game of two halves

A dominant first half display was not enough to see off the Seagulls in this one, with a sloppy second 45 seeing us drop two points and waste a big chance to earn a third successive Premier League win.

It really was a game of two halves, with Brighton’s woeful start likely to leave Benitez kicking himself here. Failure to make it two and a drop off in intensity allowed them to come back into it – although this team is bound to struggle without both Almiron and Perez (the latter limped off on the half-hour mark).

The first half was an absolute walk in the park from our perspective. We passed the ball about nicely and took our goal well thanks to some lovely link up play between Rondon and Perez, but it was appalling stuff from Brighton.

Cardiff’s defeat at Fulham earlier in the day may have eased their relegation fears, but in a game where a win would’ve sent them SIX clear of the drop zone and made them all but safe, their approach was shameful. They gave us a ridiculous amount of space on the ball, sat 20-30-yards too deep, invited pressure and showed no interest in getting forward or getting into tackles. In the circumstances, I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a shambolic approach from an opposing side – and thankfully we took advantage of that, going in at the break 1-0 up courtesy of a brilliant Ayoze Perez strike.

We are already safe, yet we out-ran them, made more sprints and had a whopping 62% possession – a stat we rarely tend to excel in – showing just how awful they were in the opening 45.

That said, we were very good in the first half, with us looking slick on the ball and disciplined off it. Hayden was sharp in the tackle, Shelvey pulled the strings, Schar made several trademark bursts forward, Ritchie was typically tenacious and Rondon and Perez linked up perfectly again, with the Venezuelan’s chest down being smashed home by the Spaniard – his 12th goal in all comps this season (see goal above).

The second half was poor and pretty frustrating. Losing two points doesn’t mean a great deal at this stage, but it was disappointing to see against a team that was there for the taking.

I thought Manquillo defended well, stopping crosses into the box down their left, while Schar, Hayden and Rondon all put in decent shifts – although the latter did look a little lost after Perez went off, with Kenedy being so wasteful and wayward in his place. Shelvey showed his class at times, picking out the odd lovely passes, but he’ll be wishing he made a bit more of an impact given the amount of time he was afforded in the middle of the park.

Here’s how the bottom half of the table looks after today’s results:

Elsewhere today, Cardiff suffered a devastating 1-0 defeat at Fulham, Southampton confirmed survival with a 3-3 draw at home to Bournemouth, West Ham pulled off a shock 1-0 win at Spurs, Palace and Everton were involved in a stalemate and Selhurst and Wolves won 2-1 at Watford in the battle for 7th.

TWO games left to play for us now, with the title-deciding clash with Liverpool in the Toon next weekend followed by a final-day of the season trip to Fulham:

  • Liverpool (H)
  • Fulham (A)

A game of two halves. It was lovely to watch in the opening 45 but the second half was a reminder of how much we struggle without one or two of our star men in attack.

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.

95 thoughts on “Brighton 1-1 Newcastle: NUFC throw away 2 points in a game of two halves

  1. It really shows how shallow our squad is… first 11 are quite ok most of the time but below that first 11 we have nothing. Kenedy should not have even been on the bench. Shelvey looked like he didn’t care a jot and was going going through the motions. He just passed backwards or to the opposition which only the rare cracking pass… Muto, did he even touch the ball? Very disappointing second half. Gutted at how we threw that away

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  2. Dubai, agree mate. Losing Perez didn’t help either, with so many good players missing we just don’t have good enough back up.
    Should of had a pen also, possibly two.

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  3. It wasn’t a hailstorm, it was 3 hours of Global Warming Stuart Bitching snow. I walked home from the pub in it.

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  4. So, I tried to watch the game again because you don’t really see the full picture in a pub. Only managed to get through 55 minutes and then deleted it because it was so boring. The TV then switched to the sports station that I recorded NUFC on and they were showing swimming. After 15 seconds of that I was left wondering why they even televise swimming? It must be the most boring spectator sport ever. Even worse than NUFC / Brighton.

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  5. Why did BT choose NUFC/Brighton? On the face of it it doesn’t seem like the a game that you would have as the feature game on a Saturday. Maybe they thought it would be a relegation 6-pointer?

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  6. DT: at least Muto is not being paid 500k a week. There was a stat doing the rounds showing Sanchez’s contribution when he came on against Man City. In 12 minutes he had 1 touch.

    I think it is Sanchez’s salary that has screwed up Man U. The players see him doing nothing and wonder why he gets paid that much. Players like De Gea and Pogba think they should be the highest earners and use Sanchez as the benchmark and their Agent’s conveniently forget that the reason he is overpaid is that Man U got a supposed bargain on the transfer fee. The knock-on effect is a problem for all clubs though, including us.

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  7. I mean, Rashford is now wanting 200k a week. Not long ago that would have made him the highest paid player in the PL.

    And The Chronic are also getting on board. They spent 3 years telling us that Shelvey was the highest paid player at NUFC on 70k a week. Then, last week, they decided he was on 90k a week. No change in his contract, I just think The Chronic thought 70k was too low a number nowadays and Rafa had been talking about salaries so they INVENTED a new number.

    They did it with Ginger Jack as well saying he was on 35k a week and then suddenly he was on 45k and sometimes 55k depending on which of their 7 (SEVEN) writers were at work that day. None of them seem to read what the others write – AND CAN YOU BLAME THEM 🙂

    That’s why they have 7 (SEVEN) staff writers – to mak **** up.

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  8. I don’t think Brighton’s revival in the second half was so much the result of them upping their game but more due to Newcastle coming out for the second half sitting back to defend what we had. They did exactly the same thing against Southampton. No doubt Rafa is a great manager and we are lucky to have him but it mystifies me sometimes how he persists in sticking by certain players.

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  9. The one thing that I noticed when I moved to the United States 28 years ago was that people talked about money all of the fckin time here. It is an obsession. I have been back many times to the UK and it seems that the obsession has taken hold there as well, especially in the South, especially in London.

    What am I on about?

    You can’t pick up a paper or click on a back page without hearing about how much people make. I actually could not give 2 sh!ts about how much Marcus Rashford makes but The Daily Mail tell me in every story they write. What is that about? Shallow. Worthless, tripe – I probably shouldn’t read

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  10. Never knock an away point as they say. Although it does expose our current squads limitations. Anyway, we are only really interested in Rafa now aren’t we? Oh and stopping Liverpool from winning the league.

    Rafa says he wants 6 new players. I’d say that’s about right. Two full backs, a striker, a winger and a couple of centre mids. That will take our club about 3 transfer windows though!

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  11. Stuart79:
    Never knock an away point as they say. Although it does expose our current squads limitations. Anyway, we are only really interested in Rafa now aren’t we? Oh and stopping Liverpool from winning the league.

    Rafa says he wants 6 new players. I’d say that’s about right. Two full backs, a striker, a winger and a couple of centre mids. That will take our club about 3 transfer windows though!

    Stu – keeping Rafa is all I care about now mate. Who wins the league, who gets relegated or finishes 3rd or 4th will be interesting as a football fan – but as a NUFC fan primarily, Rafa is all that matters.
    I agree with your assessment of what we need – however I would say we only need 1 forward IF we keep Rondon.
    I expect we will sell Gayle – especially if Fulham offer in the region of £15m. So without him or Rondon, I think we need 2 forwards – along with the rest you’ve mentioned.

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  12. Just looking at who’s out of contract in the summer and there’s Welbeck and Sturridge as forwards and Moreno at Lpool and Soare at Palace as LBs. Of those there is only Moreno who is under 27 y/o so wouldn’t fit Ashley’s model – but let’s say Ashley drops that in order to keep Rafa … would we take any of those?

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  13. Eric Sykes:
    It wasn’t a hailstorm, it was 3 hours of Global Warming Stuart Bitching snow. I walked home from the pub in it.

    Eric – a large portion of Americans don’t believe in global warming mate. They think it’s a political myth in order to get money out of their pockets – largely thanks to Al Gore. Trump is a non believer too, so isn’t working to change minds out there. If climate changing can’t get Countries like America on board, then protesting in London is futile really.

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  14. Olly I see that in the players ratings you gave Kenedy a 3. You were obviously feeing in a generous mood.

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  15. Groucho:
    Olly I see that in the players ratings you gave Kenedy a 3. You were obviously feeing in a generous mood.

    Groucho – it’s a real shame Murphy and Roberts are out on loan at the moment coz I’d be using these last few games to give them a run out and see where they fit in the squad – or if they still do?! – we know Kenedy won’t so why waste competitive game time on him?!.

    I’d also be using the games to look at the likes of Sorensen and Toure from the youth team.

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  16. Sharpy17: Eric – a large portion of Americans don’t believe in global warming mate.They think it’s a political myth in order to get money out of their pockets – largely thanks to Al Gore.Trump is a non believer too, so isn’t working to change minds out there.If climate changing can’t get Countries like America on board, then protesting in London is futile really.

    Stuart: Joe Biden is running at age 76. There is no way he will get the Democrat bid but they will probably put up someone younger and worse. Like kicking out Teresa May and substituting Emma Thompson ( is Emma Thomson younger? She seems to have been around since the dinosaurs).

    Next election in US MIGHT be septuagenarian with the worst hair plugs against septuagenarian with the worst comb-over.

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  17. Does any team want this 4th place Champions League Trophy? I am going to be really upset if Man Fckn United steal it.

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  18. Sharpy17: Groucho – it’s a real shame Murphy and Roberts are out on loan at the moment coz I’d be using these last few games to give them a run out and see where they fit in the squad – or if they still do?! – we know Kenedy won’t so why waste competitive game time on him?!.

    I’d also be using the games to look at the likes of Sorensen and Toure from the youth team.

    Sharply I agree in giving others a run out st this stage. Roberts is not on loan having been recalled from Colchester. He played last Tuesday for the under 23s against Leeds in the under 23 semifinal. He won a penalty then scored the second goal. He played once for the first team in the FA Cup scoring with an excellent volley. Someone remind me how many goals Atsu has scored this season probably the same as Kenedy.

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  19. KIMTOON:
    Arsenal are a bloody mess .

    They overran us. Probably could have scored 6. What the hell were we doing? They have played shyte ever since.

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  20. Eric Sykes: Stuart: Joe Biden is running at age 76. There is no way he will get the Democrat bid but they will probably put up someone younger and worse. Like kicking out Teresa May and substituting Emma Thompson ( is Emma Thomson younger? She seems to have been around since the dinosaurs).

    Next election in US MIGHT be septuagenarian with the worst hair plugs against septuagenarian with the worst comb-over.

    Eric – if it’s any consolation May will be handing her notice in soon and theirs not one of them I’d trust to come in and do better – and that’s certainly not a compliment to May!!.

    It was my Gmas birthday last week and I was over visiting her. The news was on with Farage promoting the launch of his new party and my Gdad said ‘is this what we fought a world war for? – it was heartbreaking to hear the disappointment in his voice, but World politics is a mess at the moment.

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  21. I am really looking forward to the weather warming up in the UK so Pep can put that bl00dy cardi-hoody/ hoodi-card in his basement.

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  22. Groucho: Sharply I agree in giving others a run out st this stage. Roberts is not on loan having been recalled from Colchester. He played last Tuesday for the under 23s against Leeds in the under 23 semifinal. He won a penalty then scored the second goal. He played once for the first team in the FA Cup scoring with an excellent volley. Someone remind me how many goals Atsu has scored this season probably the same as Kenedy.

    Groucho – ? I didn’t realise he was back. He should definitely at least be on the bench – send Kenedy back for me!!.

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  23. Burnley are playing quite well. Don’t want to jinx it but it could set up nicely for next week against the Red Bin-dippers if it carries on.

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  24. Sharpy17:
    So Norwich and Shef Utd take the automatic spots and will be in the PL next season.

    mackems in the playoffs and Ellis Short has dibs on the parachute payments. Mackem fans do not realise the sort of shyte they are in if they do not get promoted.

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  25. Sharpy17
    April 28, 2019 at 14:25
    So Norwich and Shef Utd take the automatic spots and will be in the PL next season.

    Really thought it would be leeds automatic this season.

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  26. Dyche is doing something really interesting against man City.

    He is not playing a mid-field. He is doing the high press against their defenders and then 7 at the back and only bringing the forwards back after about 5 seconds.

    That was Scheve’s masterplan for us. To press high and if we didn’t win the ball back after 6 seconds to man the pumps at the back.

    Dyche’s plan is different because it is hoof it with players actually ready to receive the ball.

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  27. ****. Aguero,

    I don’t know if anybody can remember but the idiot pundits were saying that Pep would sell him only about a year and a half ago. Rio, yes you!!!

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  28. May as well go for it Burnley. Safe.

    Man City will just pass it amongst themselves so get (more) stuck in.

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  29. Eric Sykes: mackems in the playoffs and Ellis Short has dibs on the parachute payments. Mackem fans do not realise the sort of shyte they are in if they do not get promoted.

    Eric – my dad and father in law are mackems. I said to them at Xmas they needed rid of that manager coz he was never gonna take them up. Then they got into their Mickey Mouse cup final and had games in hand – both came back with ‘don’t you look stupid now?!’ – no. I said they’d get beat in the final & wouldn’t get promoted. He has the defence trying to play out from the back like they are Man City – they aren’t good enough & it’s the wrong league for that. They are in real trouble – but then again, I don’t they are stable enough to start climbing back up the leagues.

    Eric/Kim – the Championship will be very interesting for the play offs – Leeds, Villa, WBA and either Derby or Boro. Five big teams playing for just 1 place there. I think Leeds and Villa desperately need it – Villa financially, and Leeds coz I don’t see Bielsa sticking round for another Championship season. WBA are between managers just now, but they will have players who won’t stick around for another Championship season. Boro and Derby seem to have a default setting for the play off places before a season even starts – but they will desperately want to succeed and get promoted from the play offs rather than just constantly making up the numbers.

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  30. It would be great to have a good team in Yorkshire and the Midlands again (do Leicester count?). Villa and Leeds in the PL would be much better than Watford, Bournemouth, Palace, Brighton, Cardiff, Norwich.

    Bournemouth have a 13,000 seat ground FFS. They should be playing Sunderland and Boro.

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  31. So City win by one crappy goal, typical.
    Liverpool have only lost once all season, City 4 times, seems wrong if city win title.

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  32. KIMTOON:
    So City win by one crappy goal, typical.
    Liverpool have only lost once all season, City 4 times, seems wrong if city win title.

    Kim – 5 mins to go and Pep is saying ‘play it in the corner’ – not often you see that!! and Bernardo Silva celebrating a 1-0 away to Burnley as if it was a decisive win – 4 CBs for City in the end ?. Pep obviously saw this one as the banana skin.

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  33. Eric Sykes:
    Let’s see if Chelsea gift Man U a CL spot? Hope not.

    If Man Utd loose they are out I reckon – win and goes to the last game of the season I reckon coz there will be 4 points between all of them – and Man Utd look to have the easier final games, and no CL to consider. Spurs probably have the hardest.

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  34. Eric Sykes:
    It would be great to have a good team in Yorkshire and the Midlands again (do Leicester count?).Villa and Leeds in the PL would be much better than Watford, Bournemouth, Palace, Brighton, Cardiff, Norwich.

    Bournemouth have a 13,000 seat ground FFS. They should be playing Sunderland and Boro.

    Eric – yeah 5 big midlands clubs all competing for that 1 spot there. I can’t say I like Leeds or Villa much to be honest – of the 5 I think I’d like to see either Derby or Boro come up – but I think either will struggle to stay up – as will Norwich and Sheff Utd imo.

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  35. I hate seeing that!!!

    These players are about to play a competitive game of football that could go a long way to seeing either get a CL spot – and they are stood in the tunnel shaking hands and hugging?!?!?!!!

    And what’s this Martin Tyler … AND ITS LIVE thing all about???. I know it is, I’m watching it!!

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  36. Sharpy, mate:

    I am more about wanting a Yorkshire and Midlands team competing and not just the NW and London lot.

    I don’t care about Villa or Leeds but they have passionate fans who are fun to be around. Watford??? Fck off. Nothing team and nothing fans.

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  37. Same for Norwich, Bournemouth, Brighton and Cardiff.

    Good luck with your rugby and yachting coz football is not your sport.

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  38. Well that was a horrible game of football – and the way the fight for top 4 is going, it was always gonna be a draw.

    I know he’s been getting a lot of stick, but I think he deserves it – if Paul Pogba is World Class player, I’ve still got a chance!!!. He done absolutely sod all again today & if he ends up getting a big move to Real Madrid they are mad.
    If I was at Man Utd I’d be working on that deal day and night to get him out the club – if Bale came the other way, what a deal that would be!!.

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  39. Was Pogba even on the pitch in the 2nd half?

    Most overrated player since jack Wilshere and Roy Keane.

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  40. Most overrated players in the history of football:

    Jack Wilshere

    Roy Keane

    Paul Pogba

    Danny Welbeck

    Amdy Faye ( we all knew was shyte, but not THAT shyte).

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  41. KIMTOON:
    Sharpy17
    April 28, 2019 at 16:55
    Eric – did you see this nonsense between Villa and Leeds

    https://youtu.be/iUAxqig6GQE

    I didn’t know that went on, only saw the score line

    That was nuts, strangest carry on .

    Kim – it’s a stupid play this putting the ball out ****. It’s up to the ref to stop the game – and wasn’t it only ever meant to be for a head injury?.

    Enforced sportsmanship is not sportsmanship really. I wish the Leeds CB had kicked the ball into row Z when they were going through to score ?. I’m pretty sure that if Leeds won they were still in with a chance of automatic promotion – that could be a very expensive free goal!! ???‍♂️

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  42. All players with the first name DANNY:

    Ings (middle name “injured”)

    Welbeck

    Mills

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  43. I knew I had missed a player off the all time most overrated players list. NUFC’s. England’s and BT’s very own:

    Jermaine Jenas.

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  44. Jenas must have been very good in training because there is no other explanation why Bobby Robson played him. He was shyte on the pitch. England played a game in Chicago and I went to see it. Was thinking Jenas would be better in the flesh than on TV, because he couldn’t be that bad, could he? He was worse. It was like seeing Kenny Warton reincarnated, just twice as bad a bit blacker.

    Talks a good game though.

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  45. So PSG want Rafa. Would make sense and if I was him I’d be off. However, I wonder if Jabba’s ignorance of Rafa at the moment is due to him actually in the final throws of selling the club? Maybe too optimistic but you never know. Nothings in the media so that’s a positive.

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  46. Stuart79:
    So PSG want Rafa. Would make sense and if I was him I’d be off.However, I wonder if Jabba’s ignorance of Rafa at the moment is due to him actually in the final throws of selling the club? Maybe too optimistic but you never know. Nothings in the media so that’s a positive.

    Stu – I saw that link too, along with Marseille. I don’t think Rafa would fancy PSG – positives are clear in terms of winning trophies and money to spend. But I think he would clash heavily some of their big stars – I think Neymar would give him heartburn. But I think the big thing Rafa is looking to do is build a club – leave a legacy behind, and he won’t do that at PSG – he may get 2-3yrs and they will change managers again. He might get his project at Marseille – but even then, I think he wants to stay in England and avoid long periods away from his family.

    I think despite all of Ashley’s mucking around, his preferred choice would still be to stay at NUFC. It is absolutely mental that this hasn’t been sorted out yet!!.
    OGS needed about 10 games to get the contract and backing of the Man Utd board. Rafa has more than proved himself over the last 3 seasons, and yet these clowns can’t get the deal done – utter incompetence personified.

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  47. The whole Rafa contract thing is blown way out of proportion. He’ll sign, Ashley will appear for a pic with Charnley and him. That will be that.
    Latest from Rafa is hardly militant is it.

    “What do we want to do in the future? That is the key.

    “If we have different visions, then we have to find a point in between where we are happy with that.

    “If not, then we have to talk, and then try to move forward as soon as possible.”

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  48. Georgio – Ashley is hardly renowned for finding a point in between though is he mate? – if he was, the club would have been sold by now. If he was, that point with Rafa would be found by now and a deal sorted and signed.
    Why else leave it this long when Rafa has made it clear he wants to sign?.
    Clubs sign managers up so the work behind the scenes can get done – There’s no transfer window we have to wait on for these deals.

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  49. Stuart79
    April 29, 2019 at 10:16
    So PSG want Rafa. Would make sense and if I was him I’d be off. However, I wonder if Jabba’s ignorance of Rafa at the moment is due to him actually in the final throws of selling the club? Maybe too optimistic but you never know. Nothings in the media so that’s a positive.

    We should be so lucky . 🙄

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  50. Really angry at Jabba, we have a very short window this summer and we need a manager in place getting ahead with transfers and what have you.
    If he doesn’t want Rafa then just come out and say it.
    Of course he won’t do that. He will just let his contract run down to 30th of june, giving any new coach less time to get transfers in and a backroom team sorted out, not to mention time to instill his ideas to the squad. 👿
    Cannot wait till that fat **** sells up or drops dead, either will do me, i’m not fussy.
    Disgusting way to treat a world class coach, doesn’t deserve him one iota .

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  51. Players, ex players, fans, opposition fans and coaches, television pundits, radio pundits, the dog next door all see the benefit of Rafa staying with a promise to build. Not our excuse for an owner though. Nah, why engage in a meaningful conversation and try to achieve something when you can blank the guy who’s saved us and bought millions of tv cash for you . Leave it to the tea boy, who will get the flack cause you’re too much of a coward to do it yourself.
    Horrible, cancerous leech , just **** off for ffs .

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  52. Icedog
    April 29, 2019 at 19:19
    Could nt put it better myself KIM

    Ice, it’s boiling my wotnot now, he’s blanking him on purpose.

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  53. It’s hard to believe what is going on with Rafa and the club. How can they treat an absolute icon like this. Absolutely everybody loves Rafa. There again remember how Ashley treat another icon that everybody loves . . . Alan Shearer, who didn’t even get a call to say they didn’t want him.

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  54. Georgio , Shearer, as interim manager , took the club on an eight game run from relative safety to relegation.
    Did he really need to be told he wasn’t going to get the job on a permanent basis ?

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  55. Sidekick, It’s disrespectful not to of even made a call to Al to say thanks but no thanks. This is his way though, no regard for anything or anyone unless it’s his baby SD and his pile of cash.

    Someone needs to tell him that a little good will gets you a very long way.

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  56. KIMTOON:
    Sidekick, It’s disrespectful not to of even made a call to Al to say thanks but no thanks. This is his way though, no regard for anything or anyone unless it’s his baby SD and his pile of cash.

    Someone needs to tell him that a little good will gets you a very long way.

    dito mate

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  57. Dun, dun de dun de da, dun dun de dun de da…

    Ole’s at the wheel, he’s got a baby’s heed, and a **** football team.

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