Howay

He's best off praying for continued injuries to Kane and co, as them being injured is the only reason he's made the squad. Getting his excuses in when he walks off at the end of the season mind, imagine the fucking plight of the mackems without his goals man.

I think if we're in a position of strength come January we wont be buying anyone.

Thauvin is already sold iirc. I wish we could get him back though, he barely had a chance here and Rafa would 100% get more out of him than Pardew did and he has been quality this season.

Honestly man. I've no idea how these people have come to expect so much of Rafa, for a fan base that witnessed what we've witnessed for the last 3-4 years, sides that cannot score, sides that leak goals. We've finally got a team stable enough to absorb some actual pressure and are able to create enough chances to win the vast majority of games we've played this season. How is a bloke meant to take a side that is as bad as last seasons side, lose a bunch of players (regardless of your views on them) and then be not just good enough to have the side top of the table with the best GD, hammering many sides, but he also has to get a side that regularly forces him to play Colback, Anita, Gouffran, Dummett, etc playing Barcelona style football the brass neck on some of these people man. "weyy look man, I kna we're top of the league and that reet but aaaaahl ahm sayin is wuh need to be lookin betta when we dee it man" The best bit about that article is he's essentially saying look Benitez is a top manager and these shit managers did similar jobs playing better football (in his opinion, I skimmed it mind he may not have said that exactly) but then spends the next 4 paragraphs sounding like the mackems did when we hired him, "ahh well he got sacked by Madrid, his time at Inter wasn't amazing". So which is he? a top manager that you're expecting a load more from because of what other lesser managers have accomplished, or a bloke past his best that you're implying isn't up to snuff? What a shambles, just get rid of him now and get some utter fucking twat like Allardyce, Kinnear, McClaren, Pardew, etc in and we can all go back to getting battered 3-0 every week. I also mentioned above the players we lost, that to me is something people don't bring up much. I know Sissoko is wank and Janmaat isn't doing well at Watford but Wijnaldum is quietly having a cracking season at Liverpool (he played an utterly quality lofted pass to Firminho against Man City that should have resulted in a goal for Lallana) and he's exactly the player we've been missing in the number 10 role. I know he was a bit lackluster at times for us and seemed frustrated by what was around him at times but Rafa would have definitely got him closer to the level he's playing now than what McClaren got out of him. Instead Rafa couldn't hold onto him and had to replace him with whatever he could attract, which ended up being Diame who as we all know isn't really doing it despite a good season for Hull last season. This bit man: "Whilst I’ve been impressed in the past with his tactical re-organising after every goal instead of celebrating or enjoying the moment, that always working, always focussed attitude has slowly dehumanised the man. We are watching a team in his mould and without true success I’ll always be somewhat cold to someone who views the game as an event on the Krypton Factor" Jesus wept, so this bloke would prefer that utter cunt Pardew samba dancing after a goal? attacking officials? headbutting opposition players? Pashhhun. What a crock of shite man, who is this manager he is implying he wants? Because I'll tell you now the only level of manager above Benitez is managers currently at CL sides, and I'd probably put him above a few of them in all. He also goes on a weird tangent about sides having the ball are the ones that usually win, haven't we controlled the ball in the majority of games? It seems to me he's restricting his sample size to Huddersfield, Brighton and Reading games, he should also bear in mind that we won 2 and drew one of them all away from home. Long fucking post I know but honestly man I'm sick to my back teeth of hearing the nonsense that is being spouted along these lines. I've always defended our fanbase against that deluded tag but people like that make me finally think that must be the bloke these people that think we're deluded have met. He also claims Armstrong has 4 goals during his little rant about our lot not being good enough (again how is this Benitez's fault? and why are we moaning about an issue that hasn't even came to pass yet?) but Armstrong has 5 goals and 3 assists from 19 starts, do I think he'll cut it for us long term? nah but the bloke could at least get the lads goals right if he's going to write an article slagging him off. Tldr, fans like that are why we don't get nice things.

Aye world class is a really subjective term. I've always took it to mean a player that could get into the starting 11 of the majority of the top sides, I think Shearer in his prime would have filled that category but I understand some people have a stricter meaning for world class. Some people seem to think anyone that is a top player is instantly world class, I saw a bunch of people having a pop at Ryan Giggs recently as he said the PL only has 2-3 world class players, he's right imo but clearly some people also have a much looser definition. As for comparing players from different eras like Pele, Maradona, Zidane, Messi etc it's something that I've never personally saw the point in. The game is very different in each era, the training conditions, nutrition, etc, all that makes it impossible to make fair comparisons. I have a mate that's one of them that constantly compares Messi and Ronaldo, he favours Ronaldo and it's to such a point that the way he talks about Messi you'd think Messi was average. I know this bit isn't that relevant to this discussion but I've always just thought it's best to enjoy players like that as they only come along rarely. I suppose that could apply to Beardsley and Shearer, some here were fortunate enough to see both whereas some of us only saw the tail end (or nothing at all) of Beardsley but at least we got to see players like that. Poor Haydnator caught only the tail end (if any) of Shearer, in fact the poor lad was probably only about for Sholas twilight years, I suppose he has got to witness Jack Colback in his prime mind.

I guess but we still got Ben Arfa, Tiote, Perch, Campbell, and Gosling in. Hughton wasn't sacked until December iirc when we were doing well and in a fairly strong position (Stupid aye but I just mean we were at least comfortable rather than allowing Rafa to walk at the start of the season). I get your point though but I think he's been stung by being a tight cunt in the PL during the recent hike in money enjoyed in the league, I think it's more likely to become an issue in January if we're in a strong position and Rafa wants to spend to kick on.

As Haydnator says I think the minute we've locked up an automatic spot the press are going to go mental with rumours that he's away. The issue of him staying or not imo is down to if he feels he is backed and has the control he wants, I'm not worried about another club nicking him away as I think he genuinely wants to be near his family and is happy enough to stay at NUFC as it allows him to do that. I reckon he'll get the backing, I have nothing but disdain for Mike Ashley but I can't see him putting Premier League status in jeopardy by not allowing the club to spend much AND have the manager that got them up walk out, that would be fucking chaos and have us among the favorites to go down before a ball was kicked.

I was being far too generous like.

Or alternatively we could go back to utter fucking useless wankers like Steve McClaren and Alan Pardew. Both would have us below Norwich at this point imo.

Agree with Strawb, most of our players aren't exactly brilliant and our best two players weren't up to starting. We could have been like Huddersfield and got battered 4-0 to the side 19th in the league...

Fully agree.

aye howay man Noelie we're fucking top man.

That would make sense tbf. It's probably similar to Chelsea in that they have quality kids but can't give them chances. Like Chelsea have that defender Christensen (however you spell it) who has been quality in the Bundesliga this season. Guardiola will probably be more likely to give them chances in the first team than most in the near future.

I don't understand Anita constantly getting back in the side, the bloke is complete and utter shite. Mbemba seemingly got dropped for one shocker meanwhile fat arse has nightmares every game and starts constantly. Hopefully he gets himself a straight red in the 95th minute when we're 3-0 up so we don't have to suffer him for a bit. Shame Shelvey is unwell, that makes this a tougher game.

It'll be flapping about big style tomorrow after we give Aston Villa-lite a good hiding.

Mackems have a 4 page thread about this game on their forum. Huddersfield have 'gifted' us promotion apparently, I suppose that's true by virtue of the fact they're not as good as us, fucking obsessed idiots.

2-0 Bristol good finish by Abraham. 3-0 now, that should be it. Huddersfield were fucking dogshit today. 4-0 now , can we stop worrying about these utter useless bastards now.

Good goal by Bristol who have been the better side since I started watching this, Huddersfield's defence was like watching Bramble and Boumsong.

Jonathan Hogg being stretchered off with what looks like a pretty bad head/neck injury, his momentum carried him into his teammate and he had his head turned looking at the ball. Hope it's nowt serious for the lad like but doesn't look good.

That title is reserved for Gabriel Obertan tbh.

I'd genuinely read those. Your IQ would drop reading them mind.

Thick as whale spunk that lad. I hope he gets to play against them next season.

May as well have been a fucking penalty .