Rayvin

So my prediction is that things will go quiet again for a few days, and everyone will fall back to believing that it's all a scam by Ashley, until the next small amount of progress is revealed, at which point we all start talking about how much we should be prepared to spend on Mbappe.

Does this mean it's no longer a diabolical plot by Ashley to get rid of Benitez and boost season ticket renewals?

I mean, let's not pretend that we didn't have a lot of those images all over Fist's Belta Minge thread when they came out at the time Not that I paid any attention

Has he spent £25m just to talk to Ashley yet?

Ok so, I was snooping around Red Cafe earlier to see if there was any undercurrent of support for Solskjaer being replaced by Benitez, and I came across a thread that I thought was possibly worth of some discussion. Here's a link to the thread: http://www.redcafe.net/threads/what-is-the-transfer-value-of-a-manager.448042/ So ok, managers typically cost less and are paid less than players. That's a given. But you get a manager like Benitez, and he's worth far more to the team than any individual player. It's curious that this isn't reflected in contracts and approximate value. Are managers undervalued in general? I know they all do very well out of all of this regardless, so I'm not trying to drum up sympathy, but I thought it was an interesting point. Would you choose any single player in our team over and above Benitez? I wouldn't.

The Sheikhover

I mean the takeover does add the possibility that Rafa is just waiting to see, but again, they've been pretty clear that it won't be done in time for his contract expiry... There is enough empty space in the knowledge available that I'm not totally pessimistic about this yet. Watch Rafa announce in the next 30 mins that he's off

Well aye, but we all knew that was on the cards. I doubt we'll hear anything about it either way until the final week, unless Rafa decides he's had enough. The fact that he hasn't yet decided that, makes me hopeful. You mentioned that the meetings had concluded last week or something right? If Rafa can't work with what's on the table, you'd think he would have announced it.

Rafa easily earns that £4m back for the club, you would hope Ashley is aware of that.

All I'm really saying is that I prefer them to be honest about what they're doing. So everytime someone like JRM or whoever this guy is pops up and 'tells it like it is' from the Tory viewpoint, I internally start preferring them to Johnson, Gove, May, Cameron, Osborne and all the other Tories who want the same thing but hide it in order to get votes.

Woah woah woah I said some of it wasn't crazy. It wasnt a full endorsement of his manifesto, and anything I didn't mention specifically you can file under crazy and something I'm totally opposed to. Fucking hell Renton, man.

Why? What in there looks bad?

Yes. I prefer this honesty to the current state of play

Im not talking from the viewpoint of things i would vote for personally, but what he is talking about is at least traditional Toryism. Not the weird masquerade we have these days because so many of the ideas are unpalatable. Better to have them take a principled stand for their values and be judged on those, than hiding behind all the usual bullshit.

I was thinking primarily of the house building but the vouchers to enable lower income households to attend private schools sounded interesting, not that I totally understand it or have a full appraisal of the implications. Suggestions for decluttering the NHS sound ok. He didn't mention privatisation. Scrapping HS2 sounds ok, not totally sold on Rentons vision. Abandoning political correctness and virtue signalling at least means everyone is saying what they mean again, and this ship is sailing as we speak regardless.

Not all of that is crazy. And moreover, while i would oppose a lot of it, at least they'd be being honest and transparent about conservatism.

I do, sadly. I think by October we'll either crash out or we will know for certain that we're having another vote.

I think our American friends might he doing us a favour by droning on about the NHS being part of discussions post-Brexit...

Ewerk is right that while any of them support Remain, they're the only people to vote for. But one day soon that matter is going to be settled, and I see nothing whatsoever to indicate that the centre is about to rally and come to the fore to sort the country out. What a mess. I don't know enough about Umunna to say if he's a cunt or not, but he's clearly strategically inept at a minimum.

Ok let's be honest about it, Change UK was a Blairite splinter movement that has been knocked on its arse. That's your old school centreground beaten before it even got started. I have reluctantly come around to believing that the solutions to our problems lie in the centre, but it is transparently obvious that it can't be the same centre that brought us here. The Lib Dems would be dead as doornails as well if not for the Remain surge. The window for the centre to come up with something credible is fast collapsing.

I should know by now I guess.

Not arguing with why people have doubts, but there's a frankly amazing number of people who think that just because you're a billionaire, you shouldn't have a care in the world about dropping £25m just to start a conversation about a sale...

It was mean spirited and sarcastic. I thought the next line confirmed that

Yeah I don't think this is gonna change much for them but whatever. Good luck to them for the season ahead. They can disappoint a brand new chairman now.

Yeah that's possible for sure. It would be grimly hilarious if we managed to go from Rafa staying and a billion pound takeover to Ashley for another decade and someone like Tony Pulis