trooper

Jamie Vardy i'd have a crack at him @ £15 million

Well surely its worth spending that £40 million because at the end of the day we're going to need the goals.

your right there probably will be, but will it be that premiership proven centre forward goalscorer ? or will it be a case of make do with Gayle/Mitrovic ?

I'm still here you bastards

Shameful that Charnley, Ashley & co haven't the same vision for the club as Rafa. Minimum outlay maximum reward it's a business not a football club. Ashley will never change absolutley shameful

Why is it unrealistic to expect super stars coming to the club ? This is what i dont understand why settle for second tier players ? there should be enough in the war chests to be able to afford a couple of these £20 million players ok they're not Pogba or Lakaku but its not unreasonable to expect that. I dont want us hanging around in the bottom 5/6 all season then clinging on in the run in for survival like Sunderland have. We should at the very least aim for a comfortable mid table finish this season with an aim to push on next season. We'll never get a better manager or chance so why not expect that.

all im doing is pointing out the bloke has given up his own personal time to get these deals done & he must be very dissapointed (as you'd expect) i suppose the press conference before friday's game should be very interesting as he's bound to be asked about the lack of signings.

Hey if your happy with the lack of signings crack on. i thought this was an open forum & everyone was allowed an opinion.

He's trying everything he can yet it seems the negotiators (Charnley etc) seem to be making a right arse of it. Giving up his holidays & his wedding anniversary, knocked back for 4 deals today. He must be getting close to tell Ashley to stick it.

I'd imagine Rafa is seething at the lack of signings especially since he gave up holidays to sort things out.

of course he has but a short press conference would have been nice to hear his thoughts on how transfers are going etc

Does anyone else find it strange that we haven't heard from Rafa since the players returned for pre season training. i was expecting something after the first training session but we got nothing. Then the signing of Lejeune i thought we'd at least hear from Rafa then but no not a sausage. Hopefully we'll here from him this week before the first friendly

Mike Ashley on Jeff Blue "You think that liar is more reliable than me"

Thats fair enough & i get people thinking its amusing. But then the more attention grabbing headlines are "Newcastle owner" not "Sports Direct owner" it does absolutley nothing but drag the good name of the club in the gutter.

surely nobody condones this behaviour. If it had been shopfloor level it would be instant dismissal & lucky to ever work again.

No wonder people laugh at this club with an owner like that it just adds more fuel to the fire.

You think 3 or 4 new faces are turning up on Monday ffs

Agreed but i would imagine Rafa's been tracking these targets for months & would have been eager to do deals as soon as the last season finished. Obviously none of us know whats happening hopefully things will be clearer if there's a press conference after Mondays training session.

he wanted the majority of signings before pre season started just like last season

The concern is Rafa wanted them in early he's obviously had targets. The fact that not one of these has been met before pre season is the worry. He gave up his holidays again to make sure things were done & so far we've seen sod all except securing Atsu.

http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/rafa-benitez-wants-business-done-13094204 This from the Chronicle on May 27th "Benitez is once again foregoing his summer break in order to build his Newcastle united squad" "Wants the majority of his Newcastle United recruits signed up by pre season - just like last season" "Benitez is in a rush to get things sorted as soon as possible" "He wants pre season to be as intense & important as it was last season" The bloke has put his cards on the table for us all to see. He's said what he wants & when he wanted it the fact that we haven't signed anyone should be a cause for concern. At the minute we have a world class manager on par with Keegan & SBR (loves the club & the fans) lets face it we've had some crap but if they're not going to back him what's the point of him staying. If Rafa does walk we all know were the blame lies.

And if we dont get any worthwhile answers we can assume they reverted to type

Fans Forum meeting tonight hopefully they'll be asked about the lack of signings, what kind of a budget has Rafa got & the clubs ambition for the coming season

i honestly thought we'd have had any signings in early doors. Pre season training starts next week & not a sausage apart from securing Atsu. At the moment Rafa seems to be putting on a brave face with the situation, but given we need more than just 1or 2 players it's starting to get a little concerning. I imagine Rafa's starting to get annoyed as im sure he'd want them training together sooner rather than later. I'm fairly sure Rafa would have identified his targets early on given that we know he gave Charnley a list in October for the January window. All i can think is a.) Charnley's negotiating skills are crap, b.) Ashley's reverted back to type were the price for the player must include his wage bill for length of contract . Either of those doesnt bode well for Rafa or NUFC. Hopefully im a million miles wrong & over the next few days we see a few players coming in (a proven prem goalscorer surely someone to partner Shelvey) our first friendly v Hearts is in 18 days time that'll soon come round

After 10 years of Ashley there's very little we should fear the club will never push on under him. We all know what he wants it for to promote SD? Shirley this must be good news there's 2 Chinese guys mentioned over on NO if either of them are behind this they are far wealthier than Ashley. Let them have ago let them bank roll the club. The alternative is another10 years of Ashley & the ìnevitability that'll he'll piss Rafa off we know the script under Ashley. Howay the Rads