Speedo wrote: ↑

Mon Dec 24, 2018 7:08 pm

The transfer window is about to begin. Rafa's trying to encourage the club to invest. He (rightly) does it every window. Then February 1st will come and he'll make some positive noises about battling on together, getting behind the team etc.

Sounds like Rafa is a wee bit superficial if you ask me. Maybe a bit of honesty in his dealings with Mr Ashley wouldn't go a miss.

There's no excuse for not having a proper go at a team who were in League One last season.

We’ll need a miracle if Rafa is still in charge

Yes - dud signings are an issue. But i you're getting 4th - 10th choice players because they're cost effective choices that is what will happen.

This also doesn't account for the rug being pulled out at the same time in terms of player sales.

I've said it several times, but it's still beyond me why we took Atsu on past his loan period.

I think we've gone over the transfer argument a million times at this point ("he signed players for the Championship"/"most of them came from Premiership clubs"/"he's working to a budget"/"why sign players then don't use them") etc etc, but the important point is that for all the likes of Fulham may have spent more than us they started from a lower point, and £25m of that spend was on one of our cast offs. We should be able to compete against the lower teams, especially at home, and even if we can't we can at least attempt to. If we then get spanked 3-0 by Fulham I'll fully accept there's nothing Rafa can do and it's all on the chairman, but if we play 5 at the back and hope for a point that's on Benitez.

Clark is a solid player
but paying THAT much for Atsu?? you serious

I personally think Benitez has given sufficient funds to avoid having to play football that is this bad.

According to transfermarkt, he's spend 140M (Euros). Now, sure that's not that much these days but how many of his transfers have been hits from that 140?

Games - NO
Lazaaar - NO
Hayden - NO
D. Murphy - 1/2
Diame - 1/2
Yedlin - 1/2
Clark - 1/2
Hanley - NO
Sels - NO
Gayle - 1/2
Ritchie - 1/2
Merino - NO
Manquillo - NO
Joselu - NO
Atsu - NO
Lejeune - 1/2
Murphy - NO
Dubravka - YES
Ki - 1/2
Rondon - 1/2
Schar - 1/2
Fernandez - 1/2
Muto - ?

The obvious no's in there. Maybe some harsh ones like J. Murphy but that's because Benitez has barely used the kid. £12M down the drain. He bought Gayle for £12M to essentially do a job for 18 months. Muto, £10M to barely be used. Manquillo, £5M down the drain. Atsu, £7.5M down the drain. Joselu, £5M down the drain.

We played s**** stuff in the Championship and have done for the majority of our return to the Premier League. We need 3 miracles to stay up in my opinion.

1 - We need money to buy about 9 players. RB, LB, CB (unless Lejeune, Fernandez and Schar guarantee Lascelles stays away from starting XI), RW, LW, CM, CM, CAM, CF.
2 - We need to get rid of Benitez because if he was given money (he's been given £140m and wasted a f***ing lot of it).
3 - We need to somehow find a manager who can spend it wisely and 'naive' enough to think our team can go toe-to-toe with Premier League giants, Huddersfield. f***ing joke.

I'm surprised by the number of negative comments in response to the manager's statement here.

He finds himself manager of an underinvested squad and wants money to improve it. I'd say this is indisputable.

The team doesn't spend like every other club does in the premier league. I'd say this is indisputable.

He's frustrated because running this team for him has been difficult and different to (more or less) every other club he has - when he has managed he could bring in replacements to his standard. I'd say this is disputable, but he has certainly always been able to replace dross players.

The public utterances are a reaction to him being told that there isn't any money to invest in this window, and that he has to work with what he has.

Bringing this all into account, why would you suggest that it's his negativity that's the issue here? Would Pardew coming in and bringing with him 'spirit' make a difference in performances? Absolutely not. Would playing aggressive, attractive, attacking style football work when you have players like Perez, Rondon, Diame and Lascelles as the spine of the team? No chance. He's playing the way that he can with the players he can sign or already has, and losing by a goal to most of the top six, home and away, isn't exactly the worst result possible when they're spending 3/4 times in wages and 10 times in transfer fees.

I suspect this is down to repeat losses, but essentially fine margins in the game are the difference between results this season and last season...nothing more, nothing less. The way the team played last season it could have been relegation form.

JANUARY TRANSFER WINDOW.

PLAN A

• · LB: Achraf Lazaar.
  · MC: Sean Longstaff.
  · Winger: Callum Roberts.
  · Striker: Elias Sørensen.

PLAN B

• · LB: NO.
  · MC: Recall Henri Saivet or Jack Colback.
  · Winger: Rolando Aarons.
  · Striker: NO.

Rafa does this coming up to every window.

I sincerely doubt what he says in the dressing room is similar to what he says in the media.

He is trying to coax some money

Yeah I’ve finally lost all patience with him now. I feel we’ll be better without him

close to needing rid of this defeatist cronut.

Donkey Toon wrote: ↑

Tue Dec 25, 2018 12:37 pm

So we can add miracle to the list of words Rafa doesn't understand. Along with attack, entertainment, flair, morale, teambuilding, fortitude and reality.

I hope he soon discovers the meaning of the word resignation and puts it into practice.

ZZZZZING!

So we can add miracle to the list of words Rafa doesn't understand. Along with attack, entertainment, flair, morale, teambuilding, fortitude and reality.

I hope he soon discovers the meaning of the word resignation and puts it into practice.

Its PR genius from Rafa.

He says we need a miracle to stay up.... knowing that we probably will stay up (it's not guaranteed... but we aren't adrift at the bottom either). Therefore if we scrape through... It's a miracle and he's a miracle worker.

If we go down, he can say "I told you this month's ago. We needed money you didnt listen. Its not my fault".

He can't lose either way. His reputation with the fans stays intact.

I like Rafa, I do.... but his constant whining about money is irritating me now. We all know that we have relatively underspent to be competitive. But at the bottom of the table, it's not about money spent. It's about what you spent your funds on, and what you do with what you have.

Would he spend a 100million wisely and make a huge difference, to the squad? I'd like to think so but we will never know. He could blow the lot on crap injury prone signings or he could unearth some amazing talent for a few million and propel us up the league. It's a gamble.
Is he getting the best out of what he's got though?

Thats the one thing that worries me. His that rants like this might have an effect in the dressing room. At the bottom half of the table, determination and fight wins matches. I just worry that passing off every bad performance as "I need new players" is not likely to instill a fight and determination in the team we have and can't change.

Obviously Rafa has done an outstanding job with limited resources, but I’m definitely in the camp that saying “we’re s***” essentially doesn’t really help our cause. It won’t make Ashley spend a single penny more than he wants to and surely it’ll just demotivate the players. Also agree that regardless of what we have or haven’t spent, to not have a single shot on target at home to a team with one of the worst defences in the history of the PL is shocking.

I think we’ll stay up by the skin of our teeth. Cardiff and Huddersfield should go down, and Fulham ultimately too.

I don't think the team are thick enough to think the squad doesn't need strengthening.

The only miracle is that this team hasn’t completely quit on him yet, all he does is whine about lack of spending and tell anyone that will listen that the players we have aren’t good enough

He and Ashley are a horrible fit, there’s really no point in having him here with an owner who won’t spend

Speedo wrote: ↑

Mon Dec 24, 2018 7:08 pm

The transfer window is about to begin. Rafa's trying to encourage the club to invest. He (rightly) does it every window. Then February 1st will come and he'll make some positive noises about battling on together, getting behind the team etc.

Maybe he needs to find a new way of encouraging the club to invest, because his approach the past few windows clearly isn't working

The transfer window is about to begin. Rafa's trying to encourage the club to invest. He (rightly) does it every window. Then February 1st will come and he'll make some positive noises about battling on together, getting behind the team etc.