How long has Rafa got?

[occult]

Rafa is used to being at clubs with plenty of money to spend and he's been successful at most of them. Last season, comparatively, he was at a club with more money than competitors and we got promoted. Guiding us to be champions was still a great achievement but not unprecedented because Chris Hughton, of much lesser reputation, had done the same. Now he finds himself at a club which has less to spend, or at least less money made available by the owner, and his record this season so far is no better than Pardew or McClaren. Indeed if we keep losing games the right comparison might eventually be with Carver. Unlike many who post on here I have no strong feelings about Rafa. My motto is 'by their fruits shall ye know them' i.e. by results. I hope he can turn things round because no one, or at least very few, want the disruption caused by a change in manager but if it looks like he can't I see no reason for not doing what most clubs facing relegation do and that is to gamble with changing the manager -and it is a gamble. This might seem very unfair because undoubtedly Rafa hasn't been given enough money to spend but we could debate What Ifs all day and night and it wouldn't change present day reality. We are where we are and have to look to the future not debate the past. Relegation again would be a disaster. We wouldn't come straight back up. We might even do a Sunderland. Twice we've left a change in manager to the last 10 games and it hasn't worked. I hope reinforcements come in January but whether they do or not if we're in the bottom 3 by the end of Jan and there's no sign of a turnaround that would leave 13 games to go so a decision, in my view, would have to be made. The end of Jan wouldn't leave Rafa with much time to integrate new players bought in Jan but there again to leave a new manager with fewer than 13 games wouldn't be very fair on whoever. No doubt some will say who have I got in mind as a replacement. I haven't. But I don't know all the names available. I'd like Big Al but there's little hope of that and no hope under Ashley nor might Shearer want a relegation struggle with a squad he hadn't picked. I hope that with players returning from injury and hoped-for new recruits in Jan we can pick up so the question of a new manager will be academic. But things don't look too good at the moment. Football is a cut-throat business and there's little room for sentiment. All managers know that.

[HughieG]

Who would replace Rafa? What manager that we can realistically get is better than him?

[TANYA_]

Rafa is used to being at clubs with plenty of money to spend and he's been successful at most of them. Last season, comparatively, he was at a club with more money than competitors and we got promoted. Guiding us to be champions was still a great achievement but not unprecedented because Chris Hughton, of much lesser reputation, had done the same. Now he finds himself at a club which has less to spend, or at least less money made available by the owner, and his record this season so far is no better than Pardew or McClaren. Indeed if we keep losing games the right comparison might eventually be with Carver. Unlike many who post on here I have no strong feelings about Rafa. My motto is 'by their fruits shall ye know them' i.e. by results. I hope he can turn things round because no one, or at least very few, want the disruption caused by a change in manager but if it looks like he can't I see no reason for not doing what most clubs facing relegation do and that is to gamble with changing the manager -and it is a gamble. This might seem very unfair because undoubtedly Rafa hasn't been given enough money to spend but we could debate What Ifs all day and night and it wouldn't change present day reality. We are where we are and have to look to the future not debate the past. Relegation again would be a disaster. We wouldn't come straight back up. We might even do a Sunderland. Twice we've left a change in manager to the last 10 games and it hasn't worked. I hope reinforcements come in January but whether they do or not if we're in the bottom 3 by the end of Jan and there's no sign of a turnaround that would leave 13 games to go so a decision, in my view, would have to be made. The end of Jan wouldn't leave Rafa with much time to integrate new players bought in Jan but there again to leave a new manager with fewer than 13 games wouldn't be very fair on whoever. No doubt some will say who have I got in mind as a replacement. I haven't. But I don't know all the names available. I'd like Big Al but there's little hope of that and no hope under Ashley nor might Shearer want a relegation struggle with a squad he hadn't picked. I hope that with players returning from injury and hoped-for new recruits in Jan we can pick up so the question of a new manager will be academic. But things don't look too good at the moment. Football is a cut-throat business and there's little room for sentiment. All managers know that.

I think Rafa has got as long as he wants, especially if this sale goes through. He is said to have contacted Stavely about buying Newcastle and in return, SHE want him as manager.
There will be allsorts going on behind the scenes that we don't know about.

Even without the takeover, im sure the task handed to Rafa was survival. As the season has gone on, its clear to see we need further investment to secure the premier league status, im sure he will get funds to keep the fat mans advertising cash cow in the top flight and his grubby hands on the sky money.

Its easy to blame Rafa that we aren't good enough, but in reality we have a very young inexperienced squad.

Our goalkeepers have all been relegated,
nearly all of our defenders have been relegated,
our midfield consists of untried players at this level
our strikers have never had a run in a premier ship side

what do people expect

i know that prat on here always goes on about Rafa being crap and how hippo face is a much better alternative,
yet he always neglects the fact that no other manager in history has won what Rafa has,
Sam is a caught out crook, we were getting hammered 3/4/5/6 nil on a weekly basis even by shlte teams when he was here.

It plsses me off that before the season started almost everyone agreed, survival is the target, we had a few good results and now we are having a rough patch, the manager is shlte, the players are shlte, the selections are shlte.
We all knew what we had before the first game ffs

[occult]

Everything you say might be true but no one is answering the key question: if we're in the bottom 3 by the end of Jan, maybe in the bottom 2 or even bottom 1, do we stick or twist as regards the manager?

[TANYA_]

Everything you say might be true but no one is answering the key question: if we're in the bottom 3 by the end of Jan, maybe in the bottom 2 or even bottom 1, do we stick or twist as regards the manager?

stick, i cant believe people are blaming the manager for the situation. How many times had he said we dont have the players, how many times have we said the players arent good enough.

Do you think Michelangelo could paint that beautiful ceiling with a tin of Dulux and a toilet brush?

If we end up going down, its through lack of investment, and i dont just mean in the summer, the last decade has been
a cost cutting exercise, squeezing as much out of the club as possible, making every penny work as hard as it can.
BUT
a shoestring can only hold so much weight before it snaps, Mike has ran this on the borderline for 10 years and still hasnt learned by his mistakes, he plays everything he has on green when in reality red or black come out 99%
of the time

[occult]

No one's saying replacing Rafa would be fair but life's not fair. I think that if there's a new owner and by the end of Jan we look like being relegated, then whatever the historical reasons why the squad is poor and results are bad the owner will say, like most clubs do, I can't change the squad before the summer. The only thing I can do to try to avoid relegation is change the manager who isn't getting results from the squad. To the new owner this is a business which she, assuming it's Miss ( or is it Mrs? ) Staveley, doesn't want to fail. Lots of managers get the boot fairly or unfairly.

[TANYA_]

No one's saying replacing Rafa would be fair but life's not fair. I think that if there's a new owner and by the end of Jan we look like being relegated, then whatever the historical reasons why the squad is poor and results are bad the owner will say, like most clubs do, I can't change the squad before the summer. The only thing I can do to try to avoid relegation is change the manager who isn't getting results from the squad. To the new owner this is a business which she, assuming it's Miss ( or is it Mrs? ) Staveley, doesn't want to fail. Lots of managers get the boot fairly or unfairly.

Got nowt to do with fair mate,
the "Rafa out club" love to sing to the high heavens but fail to offer a better alternative, please tell me who is a better choice as manager under the current regime, with the current set up who could do better?
........................................mmmmm how about nobody, i hear Alan Curbishley , O'Leary and the likes would be interested.

bet they could get the club bouncing

[toonlegend]

Got nowt to do with fair mate,
the "Rafa out club" love to sing to the high heavens but fail to offer a better alternative, please tell me who is a better choice as manager under the current regime, with the current set up who could do better?
........................................mmmmm how about nobody, i hear Alan Curbishley , O'Leary and the likes would be interested.

bet they could get the club bouncing

Neil warnock was being lined up if Rafa had left when we were relegated.

[TANYA_]

Neil warnock was being lined up if Rafa had left when we were relegated.

please stop! you will have pboro climaxing in his briefs knowing the Sheffield shuffler could have been here instead of the Spanish waiter

**** me, they are actually people who want this

[Andrew_NUFC]

Rafa is used to being at clubs with plenty of money to spend and he's been successful at most of them. Last season, comparatively, he was at a club with more money than competitors and we got promoted. Guiding us to be champions was still a great achievement but not unprecedented because Chris Hughton, of much lesser reputation, had done the same. Now he finds himself at a club which has less to spend, or at least less money made available by the owner, and his record this season so far is no better than Pardew or McClaren. Indeed if we keep losing games the right comparison might eventually be with Carver. Unlike many who post on here I have no strong feelings about Rafa. My motto is 'by their fruits shall ye know them' i.e. by results. I hope he can turn things round because no one, or at least very few, want the disruption caused by a change in manager but if it looks like he can't I see no reason for not doing what most clubs facing relegation do and that is to gamble with changing the manager -and it is a gamble. This might seem very unfair because undoubtedly Rafa hasn't been given enough money to spend but we could debate What Ifs all day and night and it wouldn't change present day reality. We are where we are and have to look to the future not debate the past. Relegation again would be a disaster. We wouldn't come straight back up. We might even do a Sunderland. Twice we've left a change in manager to the last 10 games and it hasn't worked. I hope reinforcements come in January but whether they do or not if we're in the bottom 3 by the end of Jan and there's no sign of a turnaround that would leave 13 games to go so a decision, in my view, would have to be made. The end of Jan wouldn't leave Rafa with much time to integrate new players bought in Jan but there again to leave a new manager with fewer than 13 games wouldn't be very fair on whoever. No doubt some will say who have I got in mind as a replacement. I haven't. But I don't know all the names available. I'd like Big Al but there's little hope of that and no hope under Ashley nor might Shearer want a relegation struggle with a squad he hadn't picked. I hope that with players returning from injury and hoped-for new recruits in Jan we can pick up so the question of a new manager will be academic. But things don't look too good at the moment. Football is a cut-throat business and there's little room for sentiment. All managers know that.

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Edit: Sorry, couldn't resist