Assuming that Amanda Staveley in the guise of her business becomes the new owner of NUFC her priority will be, I assume, to preserve the value of her investment which means staying in the PL. I assume too that she'll provide Rafa with funds to buy new players for that purpose.

But here's the rub. I think she'll also give him a fixed number of games to turn results round, a sort of probationary period. Those who post on this board may regard Rafa as some sort of idol and hero-worship him but she's a hard headed, shrewd businesswoman and whilst she'll hope he'll succeed ( don't we all because if he succeeds NUFC succeeds ) she'll focus exclusively on results and not on past history, under-investment, what happened in the 2016 or 2017 transfer windows etc. Her view of him, I would guess, would be similar to mine: he's a man doing a job not some sort of God who's descended from heaven to St James' Park. If results don't improve, then whether it's fair or not, Rafa will suffer the same fate as other managers who get bad results. If this happens, all those who wanted a new owner -and don't we all -will be torn because the new owner will have sacked their hero.

No doubt this post will provoke lengthy screeds about what has happened in the past but to a great extent the past is now irrelevant. Analysing it doesn't solve the problem of Dec 2017. There'll be many too who'll say we couldn't get a better manager. My guess is that a new owner will reason that results coudn't get any worse under a new manager but there is a prospect of them improving. For instance, if the position at the time is 1 point from, say, 39, then he'll go.

I do hope he can turn around the results but for his fans get ready for the emotional trauma if he can't.