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Rafa Benitez


Anorthernsoul
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Aye, can't be overstated how important Lascelles is for us. Great to have such a likeable player as captain.

 

Also, encouraging that Rafa and Ashley are now speaking? All this talk of Benitez leaving at the end of the season may not come to fruition, hopefully. And the longer he stays, the more you expect he won't want to go - especially if we are still making progress.

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Yeah but if promises being broken was going to be an issue he'd be out the door at the end of the season anyway. It's not like he hasn't been lied to already.

 

If Ashley sticks to this "the club can spend what it generates" bit, then at least that's something.

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Come on lads has 10 years under Ashley taught us nothing he's a proven liar & untrustworthy. He's clapping his hands now that survival looks more than likely & it's cost him next to nothing. Yeah it's good him & Rafa & talking but he's still not to be trusted.

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13 minutes ago, trooper said:

Yeah Rafa will know the craic by now. i suppose it's up to his judgement wether he thinks he can take the club any further under Ashley's restrictions

 

I reckon he can - I don't think there's any way of us breaking into the top with Ashley there, but I think Rafa can make us a solid top ten side.

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5 minutes ago, Rayvin said:

 

I reckon he can - I don't think there's any way of us breaking into the top with Ashley there, but I think Rafa can make us a solid top ten side.

You see i think we'll see scenarios similar to this season with the financial restrictions. All other clubs spend money & upgrade players obviously Rafa supports this & yet Ashley opposes this.

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I suppose it depends to some extent but realistically we should be able to improve assuming that a full year of the TV revenue being behind us is actually making us profitable. I can't think of any of our players that would be losing value at the moment, based on recent buys anyway, so any sales should be at profit also.

 

I think the thing with Rafa is that he seems to be able to positively develop players in a way that managers like Pardew, Allardyce, the usual shite, don't seem to be able to. Those managers need to keep buying to improve. Rafa can improve just by continuing to work with his team. So while it will be a slow process, I think we can assume that players will be sold at profit from the first team, and that this means we are able to buy better 'base' players for Rafa to develop into an improvement on the ones we sold.

 

Yeah it relies on the manager being here for the long term to be sustainable, but I think that has to be the hope.

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The big worry for the summer window for me would be us keeping hold of Lascalles. He's the only player left were Ashley would get a massive profit. I've heard talk of £50+ million for him Ashley would have the helicopter on stand by but what kind of lower grade replacement would Rafa have to get in his place.

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6 minutes ago, Alex said:

Don't know if it's been mentioned but it's two years to the day since he was unveiled as manager.

The times flown by i didnt realise it was 2 years.

Edited by trooper
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Just now, trooper said:

The time flown by i didnt realise it was 2 years.

It feels longer in some ways given the rollercoaster ride of relegation, promotion then this season's ups and downs.

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4 minutes ago, trooper said:

The big worry for the summer window for me would be us keeping hold of Lascalles. He's the only player left were Ashley would get a massive profit. I've heard talk of £50+ million for him Ashley would have the helicopter on stand by but what kind of lower grade replacement would Rafa have to get in his place.

 

If we sold Lascelles for £50m, we could get a decent replacement with that. Probably two. I don't want to see the lad go but £50m, even in today's market, would be a good deal for us. Also, tbf to Ashley, if we end up signing the loan players we brought in at the end of the season (Slimani aside) then I'm tempted to argue that the 'try before you buy' deal is actually a good arrangement. We brought in good players in positions that we needed.

 

Ashley just needs to keep hold of Rafa. If he can do that, I'm confident we'll be ok, short, medium and long term.

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rafa knows the craic with ashley now. the big question is whether the takeover will go through and, if it doesn't whether he's prepared to continue to operate under ashley's financial constraints. i suspect he might. he seems to have bought into the project and i sense he knows how much of a legend he'd be here if he were to ever manage to win a cup. turning us into a top half side under ashley would rank among his best achievements as a coach. he'd obviously like more money, but i imagine ashley will loosen the purse strings a fraction next summer if we stop up, not that he's ever likely to throw loads of money around. 

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15 minutes ago, Rayvin said:

 

If we sold Lascelles for £50m, we could get a decent replacement with that. Probably two. I don't want to see the lad go but £50m, even in today's market, would be a good deal for us. Also, tbf to Ashley, if we end up signing the loan players we brought in at the end of the season (Slimani aside) then I'm tempted to argue that the 'try before you buy' deal is actually a good arrangement. We brought in good players in positions that we needed.

 

Ashley just needs to keep hold of Rafa. If he can do that, I'm confident we'll be ok, short, medium and long term.

The trouble with a team like Newcastle losing a player like Lascelles is that a player of his quality probably won't come in because he'll have better options.

 

Agree about being able to get two solid defenders in in his stead though.

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21 minutes ago, Alex said:

It feels longer in some ways given the rollercoaster ride of relegation, promotion then this season's ups and downs.

If Ashley cuts him some slack in the summer & provides Rafa with sufficent funds. i can see him signing a new contract. But until he sees money spent he'll probably hold off.

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4 minutes ago, adios said:

The trouble with a team like Newcastle losing a player like Lascelles is that a player of his quality probably won't come in because he'll have better options.

 

Agree about being able to get two solid defenders in in his stead though.

 

Aye but Lascelles is the player he is thanks in part to Rafa. If we get another decent young prospect for him to develop then who knows. Or two.

Edited by Rayvin
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