Polarboy

Isn't Shelvey on 80 or 90k? I know he's young and inexperienced, but the potential is there, and sometimes you just have to take the chance that young players will fulfil that potential. A player is basically worth how much the next club is willing to pay them, and then you have to make the decision if you agree.

The notion of home advantage is a bit of a weird one when there isn't going to be fans in the stadium's. My concept of home advantage was primarily that having the greater number of fans you create a hostile environment for the opposition team. The way players are generally pampered now it's not as if they are shooting down the motorway to an away ground in a clapped out bus, and in any case the opposition team will likely have a similar distance to travel, depending on how they work it.

Is that an excerpt from Adam Johnson's dairy?

It was a tad hyperbolic, but I couldn't think of another collective noun to describe the cavalcade of people coming out of the woodwork to object to the takeover. Although in fairness I just did when I wrote cavalcade

If the report was given to the premier league earlier this month, then why didn't they fail the consortium's fit and proper test there and then. Surely we'd have heard about it from the buyers side by now if their approach for the club had been failed by the premier. Unless the premier wanted look into the report themselves, but surely if the report proves clear links, then it wouldn't have taken them that long to follow all the claims up. Fingers crossed this is just a last ditch throw of the dice from the cabal who are trying to prevent this takeover.

There was quite a lot of dry ice, I suppose it's possible Edit. That Eurosport France journo Manu has said that an announcement could happen in the next 24-48 hours. As far as I recall he's been pretty reliable, but I could be wrong. But as some others have said, if you consistently keep saying it's going to happen you'll be right eventually. https://sportslens.com/report-newcastle-united-takeover-could-be-completed-soon-and-announcement-could-take-place-within-24-to-48-hours/298154/

John Stones and Ross Barkley, two of the most overrated English footballers of all time. Slightly hyperbolic, but not far off the truth. In fairness it likely is complete bollocks. That is unless this journalist has literally hacked Rafa's phone and or computer, which I suppose isn't that far fetched when you see what that Financial Times journo got caught doing, and every other hacking scandal.

The Telegraph are reporting that Benitez wants to come back, and that he wants to sign Ross Barkley and John Stones. If this happens to be true, and it's a big if to be fair, can we agree that Pochettino signing Sissoko is something that can no longer be held against him when comparing him to Rafa https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2020/05/24/exclusive-rafael-benitez-wants-make-second-coming-newcastle/

A mackem would need to tempt Brian Clough out of the grave, to have any hope of tangible success for your club for the foreseeable.

Weird? Says the person that wrote Irony? and then Time Machine? You were being weird so I gave you a weird response. And in fairness I only meant to question the position of your panties once. I wrote the comment without quoting you, another comment was made in between, so I deleted it and quoted you so there was no confusion. And if it's normal for you to wear woman's panties I'm not here to judge To be clear though I'm not trying to be a dick, it's just banter as Richard Keys would say. Others can have an opinion and so can I, and I'm baffled that some on here don't seem to grasp that, but their fanboying for Rafa seems to have blinded them. Not that I don't understand the love for Rafa, I loved him when he was here as well, but I don't like looking back. It's a partially subjective assessment when you get to the top end of coaches in any case. It depends on what style of play you prefer, and if people on here like Rafa's style of play fair enough, but that doesn't mean I'm wrong for preferring another style, again it's just a preference. As for having a hard on for him, it's no more pronounced than the one for Rafa on here, and I would argue bit less so given I haven't said anything that hasn't already been said about him in the media and elsewhere. As for Pochettino's time at Spurs, as I've already said his tenure always has to be seen in the context of Levy's penny pinching. Spurs had one of the lowest net spends in the entire league over his tenure there. I would argue that at crucial times he wasn't given the funds that say Klopp spent on Van Dijk and Alisson, to take them to the next level. Consistently qualifying for the Champions league and nearly winning it is nothing to be sniffed at given the aforementioned. As for Eriksen we have no idea what was going on in his head. He may have just had his head turned as opposed to having fallen out with Pochettino. Even if he did fall out with Eriksen it may have been case of Eriksen just being dick, who knows. And to be clear I'm not trying to start this whole debate over again. I think it's clear that I'd prefer Pochettino and why, which funnily enough isn't a crime

Didn't need one. I never have worn panties for them to be in a twist

I don't wear panties.

It was a joke. Untwist your panties

Nah, he had to be referring to me

Mourinho also got criticised for his tactics by Ronaldo, but perhaps he was better at playing the political game behind the scenes to keep his job for longer. https://www.theguardian.com/football/2011/apr/28/cristiano-ronaldo-jose-mourinho-defensive

I'm going by what I remember, but I did also link three articles a page ago or so to back up my claim that players and Spanish pundits criticised his tactics specifically. Class of course could also have played a part, who knows.

We have Sheffield Utd (H), Aston Villa (H), Bournemouth (A), West Ham (H), Man City (A), Watford (A), Spurs (H), Brighton (A), Liverpool (H). This is assuming that they scrap the neutral venue thing, which seems to be the way it's going given all the clubs are against it. I'm not going to say anything stupid to jinx it, but I'd like to think we could muster 3-6 points out of that list. I wasn't even slightly worried until you reminded me that we actually have to play games soon, as weird as that sounds, tooner, so thanks a lot Although I'd feel better if we had a Palace, Everton or Burnley on there. Of the winnable ones they will all be fighting for their lives. Edit. Funnily enough Spurs and Sheffield Utd might end up being two of our "easier" games. But maybe I'm giving too much credit to teams like West Ham, Watford etc in terms of how much they'll fight. Hopefully more than a few will go down, or just play out the season, with a whimper.

37 points has been enough to stay up 16 out of 23 seasons. We'll probably be fine with even three more points.

Yeah, maybe she is. The annoying thing is that even if the sale is confirmed next week, we likely won't have a new manager until they complete the season. I think I've already used up all my allotted space both in my mind and on here for debating who it should be though

Again it wasn't just the fans who were critiquing his approach and tactics, it was the pundits over there as well. And you're perfectly entitled to your opinion on who should be the next manager, just as I am. And yeah Staveley is supposedly a fan, but Rafa's contract in China seems pretty airtight in terms of having to pay a ridiculous amount to get him, which the new owners could obviously do, but Rafa's not really one for not seeing out a contract unless he's pushed. Also it could be the case that there are other managers she and the rest of the consortium like equally or more so, who weren't available until relatively recently, such as Pochettino, or Allegri etc. Her fondness for Rafa has been long reported going back to her first attempt at buying the club.

He actually got very good results for a long time until it fell apart a bit towards the end. It was specifically his style of play that they had a problem with.

You said he only takes a cautious approach when the players he has make it sensible to do so, you were wrong. The players and pundits referred specifically to his overcautious approach and tactics, not how disciplined they had to be in carrying out said tactics. And other managers have succeeded at Real, so are you saying he wasn't up to it given he failed to get them in line?

You haven't a clue what you're talking about. I literally linked three articles about the Real players and Spanish pundits opinions on his playing style. How many times do I have to say it. He had some of the best players in the world and still took a cautious approach. Edit. Actually to be more precise he had literally the best players in the world, including perhaps the second best player of all time, and he still took the cautious approach.

I think you might be being a tad biased in your assessment.

What are you on about? Where have I said that that players should be given free reign to do what they want. The point I made about Rafa at Real was clearly a hypothetical used in order to emphasise the difference in class between Real and most of the league.