Newcastle United - 2014/2015

First appointment i've ever really been happy with. Ever since Robson we've been fixated on British plodders, i've always felt we've bunched below our weight when hiring managers. We paid Blackburn millions for Souness when they were close to sacking him for being shit, Roeder, Allardyce, JOE KINNEAR, Pardew, and tufty, wtf have we been doing.

Rafa goes from managing Real Madrid, to managing in the Championship, that's a weird transition, like Goal! in reverse.

Holy holy holy holy holy holy holy!... what a coup by Newcastle.

Rafa has 11 games to beat Sunderland (Fat Sam) and Norwich (Alex Neil) this season, and then next season try to bring back Newcastle where they belong - very high in the EPL table fighting for CL places.

Kimbo can't believe his fucking luck!

Di Caniooooo! wrote:Rafa goes from managing Real Madrid, to managing in the Championship, that's a weird transition, like Goal! in reverse.

I like how so many think we're already down, with 1 point from 17th with a game in hand.

We're just used to Newcastle mucking it up.

Kimbo, when was the last time St. James' Park was sold out? What's the reaction of the Toon Army?

Expect Rafa to get the most out of Coloccini, Janmaat, Taylor, Sissoko, Tioté, Shelvey, Pérez, Townsend, Mitrović, Rivière, Wijnaldum. He's got some good players to work with and keep you in the EPL.

Fucking hell! Rafa at Newcastle. WHAT. A. COUP.

The last game against Bournemouth was the highest attendance this season, everything was grim.

Kimbo wrote:The last game against Bournemouth was the highest attendance this season, everything was grim.

Rafa's already coaching them, did you see the expression in the face of Coloccini, Janmaat, Sissoko etc?

They love Rafa.

Well if the lazy c**ts don't listen to a big name like Rafa they won't listen to anyone, all they need to do is put the work in, this squad is easily more talented than Sunderland or Norwich.

Di Caniooooo! wrote:Rafa goes from managing Real Madrid, to managing in the Championship, that's a weird transition, like Goal! in reverse.

never mind, turns out he's got an escape clause in his contract, can leave if they're relegated.

Feckin hell, big name, though a tainted one by now. Rafa cant work at the top anymore. But on the other hand 3 months ago he still worked with Ronaldo and now with Wijnaldum...

Fey wrote:Feckin hell, big name, though a tainted one by now. Rafa cant work at the top anymore. But on the other hand 3 months ago he still worked with Ronaldo and now with Wijnaldum...

Ofcourse, only won 17 of 25 games at Madrid, that club is mental.

Big coup for Newcastle.

From Real Madrid to Newcastle - it's really the craziest season ever

Would be very interesting to see Benitez turn Newcastle around.

Very few pundits seem to think it's possible to make up the 1 point gap, so maybe it's over. Some of the fucknuttery in the media over this has been embarrassing.

I have no doubt that Rafa is a much better manager than someone like Allardyce... but have to admit that I am on the fence of this whole "he has/he has not relegation fight experience".

Not sure how does it translate between players and managers - for example based on talent someone like Jonjo Shelvey IMO deserves to play on Premier League level. But he is the last player I would ever like on my team when fighting to avoid relegation.

Wondering if there's something like this regarding managers (and no, I am not comparing Shelvey to Rafa, former was just the most extreme example I could use). Did Rafa ever have team in situation like current Newcastle?

I guess we will find out soon enough.

He managed teams at the bottom before he went to Valencia. The relegation experience thing is ridiculous IMO, they said this about Sam at West Ham last year, they needed him to stay up and would be lost without him(now look at them), now Sunderland need him to stay up, maybe there's a reason why people like Sam are so experienced in relegation battles. We'll have to see how Rafa does, but I'd put my faith in him before someone like Pearson any day. especially as we'd have to go through this all over again anyway next season if we made that appointment and stayed up.

I don't think Allardyce from last year is a good example - they were basically safe around January and nobody really cared about results for the rest of the season since it was clearly his contract won't be extended.
I like Bilic, but Moyes to Martinez transformation in Everton taught me to wait more than a season before judging successor.

Regarding Rafa - yes, he did it before Valencia... and was relegated. Difficult to see how many times based on Wikipedia, but looks like at least twice (once from Primera, once from Segunda Division). Did amazing things with Tenerife directly before Valencia though.

Personally I wanted both Sunderland and Newcastle to stay (and Bournemouth or WBA to go down), but it no longer seems possible.

Well we've been on the British manager merry-go-round for over 10 years and it hasn't gotten us anywhere, something had to change eventually, and the timing isn't perfect due to the relegation battle, but f**k hiring anymore Island monkeys.

btw Sunderland have to go down, not just for football reasons, morally they're the worst club in the league.

Kimbo wrote:Well we've been on the British manager merry-go-round for over 10 years and it hasn't gotten us anywhere, something had to change eventually, and the timing isn't perfect due to the relegation battle, but f**k hiring anymore Island monkeys.

True, despite what I have written before you really have given yourself a chance to turn things around with Benitez

Kimbo wrote:btw Sunderland have to go down, not just for football reasons, morally they're the worst club in the league.

Last season they played Johnson in the knowledge that he had been grooming a child, they deserve the relegation they should have got last year.

Kimbo wrote:Last season they played Johnson in the knowledge that he had been grooming a child, they deserve the relegation they should have got last year.

It's easy to call out some other club on their low morals, but are you sure Newcastle would not do the same? Look how you treated Jonas last season, maybe you should be relegated because of it.

Football is a disgusting business with some PR action here and there to make them look better. Could see many other clubs doing exactly the same.

Clubs have no morals, but protecting a nonce is on another level, with the fans chanting "Adam Johnson, he shags who he wants". It's one of the worst things i've heard of in sports, and they've gotten off lightly due to people in the south not knowing they exist. Maybe other clubs would do the same thing, but it was Sunderland that did it.

Hope you guys get the new manager bounce

FFS! first EPL match I watch in a long long time (two seasons).

Rafa with the tough task to spark Newcastle's revival, and lead them to the Promised Land.

Newcastle didn't look bad at all after only one and a half practices with Rafa. They should be all right after this result. The biggest improvement will be seen between the first and second games, then after that Rafa will fine tune his latest team.

Rafa left Real Madrid trailing Barcelona by only two points, and now look at Zidane trailing by a country mile. Florentino's a Barcelona fan in disguise.

They looked better defensively and worked harder, Leicester didn't create much and needed an offside goal(though reading Graham Poll's piece in the daily mail today offside basically doesn't exist anymore). But in the final 3rd the quality was shit, people need to be closer to Mitrovic, he's only 21 and he gets so much shit for not scoring, but he's been on his own all season. If we win against the mackems everything will look much better, watch the officials f**k us in that one though like they did earlier in the season.

Farewell Newcastle! Rob Elliot out for the rest of the season, knee injury. Newcastle down to 2 young keepers, 1 start amongst them.

Darlow is 25, how young is young? Whether we stay up or not won't be decided by Rob Elliot being injured.