wykikitoon 19293 Posted August 30, 2023 Share Posted August 30, 2023 Yeh I don't expect anyone in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Howay 12496 Posted August 30, 2023 Share Posted August 30, 2023 50 minutes ago, Dr Gloom said: i don't think anyone is arguing he is good for where we are now. but for where we were then, i thought he was alright. he worked his arse off, which stands out when you're playing in a side as as ordinary as the ones he had to. he was one of rafa's signings, wasn't he? Rafa signed a ton of absolute shite mind, good manager but he’s fucking hopeless in the transfer market. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr Gloom 21283 Posted August 30, 2023 Share Posted August 30, 2023 1 minute ago, Howay said: Rafa signed a ton of absolute shite mind, good manager but he’s fucking hopeless in the transfer market. He wasn’t exactly handed a war chest. Not easy to attract top players to play for Mike Ashley 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Howay 12496 Posted August 30, 2023 Share Posted August 30, 2023 Just now, Dr Gloom said: He wasn’t exactly handed a war chest. Not easy to attract top players to play for Mike Ashley No he wasn’t but it applied similarly for a lot he signed at Liverpool too. Very good manager just one that probably should leave the signings to a DoF Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diego21 2130 Posted August 30, 2023 Share Posted August 30, 2023 When Rafa was at Valencia, a phrase he said regarding his sports director (Jesús García Pitarch) became famous, because Rafa asked for some players and Pitarch brought totally different things: "I asked for a sofa and they brought me a lamp" 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaddockLad 16505 Posted August 30, 2023 Share Posted August 30, 2023 31 minutes ago, Howay said: Rafa signed a ton of absolute shite mind, good manager but he’s fucking hopeless in the transfer market. Some duds no doubt (see also every other decent manager) but “a ton of absolute shite” is frankly bollocks. There’s 4 still in the squad ffs https://www.themag.co.uk/2019/09/the-23-rafa-benitez-newcastle-united-signings-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Holden McGroin 6227 Posted August 30, 2023 Share Posted August 30, 2023 3 minutes ago, Diego21 said: When Rafa was at Valencia, a phrase he said regarding his sports director (Jesús García Pitarch) became famous, because Rafa asked for some players and Pitarch brought totally different things: "I asked for a sofa and they brought me a lamp" Rafa: "Can you buy me Luka Modric?" Mike: "How about Isaac Hayden?" 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Holden McGroin 6227 Posted August 30, 2023 Share Posted August 30, 2023 (edited) 2 minutes ago, PaddockLad said: Some duds no doubt (see also every other decent manager) but “a ton of absolute shite” is frankly bollocks. There’s 4 still in the squad ffs https://www.themag.co.uk/2019/09/the-23-rafa-benitez-newcastle-united-signings-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly/ Aye, you can only work under a budget with no vision to sell. He was on par with what we were as a club then. And thats probably being a bit unfair on him. Edited August 30, 2023 by Holden McGroin 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ewerk 29479 Posted August 30, 2023 Share Posted August 30, 2023 2 minutes ago, Holden McGroin said: Rafa: "Can you buy me Luka Modric?" Mike: "How about Isaac Hayden?" It was Keegan who wanted to sign Modric. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Holden McGroin 6227 Posted August 30, 2023 Share Posted August 30, 2023 1 minute ago, ewerk said: It was Keegan who wanted to sign Modric. I was just choosing a random good midfielder. I almost went Toni Kroos. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ewerk 29479 Posted August 30, 2023 Share Posted August 30, 2023 40 minutes ago, Howay said: Rafa signed a ton of absolute shite mind, good manager but he’s fucking hopeless in the transfer market. I'm not saying a lot weren't shite but they were about on par for a Championship club / relegation battlers. Does he get no credit for signing Real Madrid's current CF? 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Howay 12496 Posted August 30, 2023 Share Posted August 30, 2023 19 minutes ago, PaddockLad said: Some duds no doubt (see also every other decent manager) but “a ton of absolute shite” is frankly bollocks. There’s 4 still in the squad ffs https://www.themag.co.uk/2019/09/the-23-rafa-benitez-newcastle-united-signings-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly/ Nah it’s not bollocks at all. From that list I’d say Hayden, Clark, Yedlin, Ki, Manquillo, Joselu, Hanley, Gamez, Sels, Lazaar, and Muto were all shite. We can say the budget constraints were tough, which is true, but he spunked £13m on Muto despite all the scouting reports telling him the player was hopeless, he just liked what he saw from him in a friendly game so was adamant we sign him, Sels was also about £7m and was one of the worst keepers the clubs had. It was the same at Liverpool too, he signed some good players but he also had a lot of expensive misses like Reira, Acquilani, Dossenna, and Morientes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Howmanheyman 31578 Posted August 30, 2023 Share Posted August 30, 2023 To be fair, Rafa had to stretch the money out as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aimaad22 3967 Posted August 30, 2023 Share Posted August 30, 2023 2 minutes ago, Howay said: It was the same at Liverpool too, he signed some good players but he also had a lot of expensive misses like Reira, Acquilani, Dossenna, and Morientes. But you can say that about even the best of managers. And some that had extensive resources to work with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr Gloom 21283 Posted August 30, 2023 Share Posted August 30, 2023 Rafa worked miracles given where we were as a club then. He used to say he aimed for 70% success rate in the transfer market. He wasn’t far off that given how we outperformed while he was manager Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Howay 12496 Posted August 30, 2023 Share Posted August 30, 2023 3 minutes ago, Howmanheyman said: To be fair, Rafa had to stretch the money out as well. To a degree, he spent a fair bit mind. Ritchie, Gayle, Muto, Murphy, and Sels all had fairly sizable fees, he also cast aside Mitrovic who was far better than what we had and chucked Ivan Toney and Adam Armstrong away against the wishes of many of the other coaching staff. He had his positives as a manager but sorry I disagree that player identification wasn’t a weakness of his. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Howmanheyman 31578 Posted August 30, 2023 Share Posted August 30, 2023 7 minutes ago, Howay said: To a degree, he spent a fair bit mind. Ritchie, Gayle, Muto, Murphy, and Sels all had fairly sizable fees, he also cast aside Mitrovic who was far better than what we had and chucked Ivan Toney and Adam Armstrong away against the wishes of many of the other coaching staff. He had his positives as a manager but sorry I disagree that player identification wasn’t a weakness of his. I think at the time we worried what Mitro would do work wise with the way we played and the players we had or were going to have and his money was needed to get a squad to get us out first time of asking none of us would want to be Boro, Sheff Wed or the mackems. I have to say I wouldn't be massively confident if Rafa had a huge budget but he bought a fair few and got us up and kept us up, the latter part of second season his limited signings and what he inherited had us in very good form. Top and bottom, we'll never know. Hayden was very limited but covered some ground and that's where we were at. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Howmanheyman 31578 Posted August 30, 2023 Share Posted August 30, 2023 Merino was or would've been a good signing at the time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Howmanheyman 31578 Posted August 30, 2023 Share Posted August 30, 2023 Also, Rafa took over from some real chumps, McLaren, coach carvs, Pardew* etc and was followed by the chump of chumps, fucking Bruce so no surprise Rafa was a bit lauded. *The fifth placed season was a combination of inheriting Hughton's tight, grafting squad, sprinkled with lucking out on Cabaye and getting for our standards a very good season injuries wise. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaddockLad 16505 Posted August 30, 2023 Share Posted August 30, 2023 10 minutes ago, Howay said: Nah it’s not bollocks at all. From that list I’d say Hayden, Clark, Yedlin, Ki, Manquillo, Joselu, Hanley, Gamez, Sels, Lazaar, and Muto were all shite. We can say the budget constraints were tough, which is true, but he spunked £13m on Muto despite all the scouting reports telling him the player was hopeless, he just liked what he saw from him in a friendly game so was adamant we sign him, Sels was also about £7m and was one of the worst keepers the clubs had. It was the same at Liverpool too, he signed some good players but he also had a lot of expensive misses like Reira, Acquilani, Dossenna, and Morientes. Well yeah ok. Seltz and Muto were signed specifically for the Premier League ie after promotion? I’d maybe say that’s fair. But you’d have to also say you’re not dealing with player consistency in that price bracket. Any of them signed after relegation present Rafa’s major problem…how do you get premier league performances out of championship level players….because it’s obviously hard to sign PL standard players in the championship… all the time dealing with Ashley’s championship level budget…given all that, most of the others were decent in the championship but struggled in the PL. So there’s a bit more to it that them merely being “shite”; as someone said earlier, that’s precisely where Ashley placed the club 👍 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Howay 12496 Posted August 30, 2023 Share Posted August 30, 2023 How are they still going? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aimaad22 3967 Posted August 30, 2023 Share Posted August 30, 2023 1 hour ago, Howmanheyman said: Also, Rafa took over from some real chumps, McLaren, coach carvs, Pardew* etc and was followed by the chump of chumps, fucking Bruce so no surprise Rafa was a bit lauded. *The fifth placed season was a combination of inheriting Hughton's tight, grafting squad, sprinkled with lucking out on Cabaye and getting for our standards a very good season injuries wise. What a season that was. Ashley really could have capitalized and built on that but what did he do, signed Anita the following summer was it? 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobElliott 1417 Posted August 30, 2023 Share Posted August 30, 2023 2 hours ago, PaddockLad said: Some duds no doubt (see also every other decent manager) but “a ton of absolute shite” is frankly bollocks. There’s 4 still in the squad ffs https://www.themag.co.uk/2019/09/the-23-rafa-benitez-newcastle-united-signings-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly/ I have zero recollection of us having ever signed Ki Sung Yeung or seen him play! Is this the start of Alzheimer's? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Howay 12496 Posted August 30, 2023 Share Posted August 30, 2023 6 minutes ago, PaddockLad said: Well yeah ok. Seltz and Muto were signed specifically for the Premier League ie after promotion? I’d maybe say that’s fair. But you’d have to also say you’re not dealing with player consistency in that price bracket. Any of them signed after relegation present Rafa’s major problem…how do you get premier league performances out of championship level players….because it’s obviously hard to sign PL standard players in the championship… all the time dealing with Ashley’s championship level budget…given all that, most of the others were decent in the championship but struggled in the PL. So there’s a bit more to it that them merely being “shite”; as someone said earlier, that’s precisely where Ashley placed the club 👍 Was mostly just a throwaway comment really, I was just continuing on from the Hayden discussion since Gloom brought him up. I personally think a lot of his signings were shite but understand I’m probably one of the harsher posters when it comes to that type of judgement, I understand the constraints he was under but he did saddle us with a lot of players that were poor for a long time and while I agree it’s not entirely his fault he does take some ownership of that. Ashley ultimately is to blame for everything, but Rafa signed a number of players with a very short term mindset of just getting out the Championship (with a number of his signings not even being very good in that division). He is a good manager and did well with what he had, including a lot of the poor playing staff he had at his disposal - I just mean he did also sign a lot of that playing staff. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wykikitoon 19293 Posted August 30, 2023 Share Posted August 30, 2023 Can't believe City have allowed Palmer to go to Chelsea. What you thinking @LondonBlue 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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