Ha'way the Lads!
Newcastle have muddled themselves into the most indefensible positions this season.The Magpies are experiencing a long bout of bad luck in the Premier League and canny manager Rafael Benítez has comeunderfire.
Newcastle United manager Rafael Benitez has defended his conservative tactics during the recent league meeting versus Chelsea. The Magpies lined up in a 5-4-1 formation during the game and they nearly secured a draw despite commanding less than one-fifth of the overall possession at St James Park.
Rafael Benitez is quietly preparing the next season with a list of potential transfer dealings. He said that he already has a good squad and that he wants to add more quality to it in order to challenge for the European places.
The Spanish manager has been promised an improved transfer budget by Newcastle owners and Rafael Benitez will be hoping that this time around Mike Ashley could keep his word.
The former Liverpool manager has already had to deal with three difficult transfer windows and will be hoping that this time around he could get enough money to revamp the side.
It is also reported that the manager will be looking to sell some players that are deemed to be surplus to requirement. At the top of the list, we have defender Mbemba who is reportedly attracting interest from Fc Porto. The player is currently valued at £8million and Rafael Benitez will be hoping that he can raise additional money from the sale of this player.
Some pundits believed that Rafael Benitez already has a clear idea on how to improve Newcastle United but he is being hindered by a lack of transfer budget. He has successfully managed to help them win promotion back to the Premier League and help them secured a 10th place finish last season in the top flight.
This time around he will be looking to improve this finishing position and for this, he will need to have access to more funds. So far, Mike Ashley has said that he will be giving the manager enough money to build a competitive team and we will have to wait and see whether he actually keeps his words.
Rafael Benitez has yet to sign a new deal with the club and is perhaps waiting to see whether the Newcastle United owner keeps his word.
Newcastle United manager Rafael Benitez admits that his Newcastle United players have no excuses for not performing in the Premier League despite the reduced transfer activity this summer.
Despite this, he committed his future to the Tyneside outfit on a three-year deal whilst guiding them back to the Premier League as Championship holders. Speaking to reporters prior to their league opener against Tottenham Hotspur, the Spaniard admitted that every single player and staff will have to be up for it as they cannot make excuses for his reduced summer spending.
He said: “The main message from me for the fans is get behind the players because it’s now the way. I was telling the players that we cannot make excuses, so we have to be ready and try to win the games and that’s it. Sometimes we will do it and sometimes we will not do it, but we have to be sure that every single game, the players give everything and myself and my staff will do the same.”
Premier League defending champs Chelsea are not likely to be relegated to the lower division at the end of next season, bookies claim.
With the Manchester clubs spending big, both are not likely to be relegated as their odds are 2500:1 as well. Liverpool, Arsenal and Tottenham have odds 1000:1 of relegating. They are rather likely winners after the top three aforementioned.
Ronald Koeman led Toffees are 66:1 in the odds of relegation next term even though they would be sharing their time with European fixtures. Southampton have 20:1 while former champs Leicester City have 14:1 odds.
The Hammers who were riding high in the 2015/16 season have odds of 7:1 after a difficult term last year despite spending relatively big. Stoke City are 13:2 as with Bournemouth after a decent return last year.
West Bromwich Albion have odds of 5:1 while Crystal Palace are 9:2 to drop down. Returners to the big boys, Newcastle United under Rafa Benitez have a decent chance of remaining in the top flight this time as they are 100:30 in the likelihood of returning to the Championship where they are defending champs.
Newcastle United achieved their target of returning back to the Premier League within a year after they lost the status at the end of last season. Now the question is what’s next after regaining top tier status.
The Spanish tactician invested £55 million to get 12 players. He made a profit of £30 million from the players that were cut off and they brought in £85 million in revenue. With his experience and the relative better investment in the team compared to other Championshipsides, you would expect that Newcastle get promotion by March but the second tier of English football is complicated.
Aside Newcastle, only Burnley have secured an automatic promotion back to the Premier League within a year in recent times. So Benitez seem to deserve his £5 million annual salary.
Newcastle United manager Rafael Benitez said that the club should be over-confident about winning promotion and that the players should continue to work hard in training.
Rafael Benitez stated that he does not agree with this statement as he feels that the lead could melt quickly if the team went into a negative spiral of results.
He said that it all depends on consistency. If the team loses consistency, they can end up falling down the table and damaging their chances of promotion. He said that the only way to prevent this is to keep working hard and to make sure that they keep winning matches.
Newcastle has managed to beat Barnsley 2-0 to go top of the table.
The match was won thanks to two goals from Dwight Gayle in the second half. Newcastle started the match the better and took control of the game despite playing away. However they will be let down by poor passing, and when they managed to get the ball in the penalty area, the Barnsleydefence managed to clear their line.
However, Newcastle will improve dramatically in the second half and create more decisive chances. Dwight Gayle will score the first goal of the game when Barnsley will fail to clear a corner. The goal will motivate Newcastle, and they will become more dangerous during their attacking play.
Rafael Benitez has been in charge of Newcastle United for around 6 months and his task in this new season is to help push the English club back into the Premier League.
The main objective is to earn a promotion spot that would allow Newcastle United on making a return to the Premier League and it seems like Rafael Benitez is focusing in adding new players to his squad as he has already signed 8 players during this summer transfer window and the Spanish manager has recently stated that the transfer activities are far from over as he still has other players that he is intending to sign.
‘’We are working hard and I check with managing director Lee Charnley every day. We are talking with agents and thinking about what we have to do to improve the team and make sure the squad has the right number of players’’
“It’s not easy, though. As soon as Premier League clubs had more money, it was difficult because everybody is spending big money. We have targets and are working on them. Hopefully, we will do something sooner rather than later.” Newcastle United’s Rafael Benitez said as he voiced his desire to continue adding more players to his squad.
Grant Hanley says the delay that was taking place in his transfer was irking him and was getting him impatient, but, because he could not really have a say in the bargaining stuff happening between clubs, there was no point letting the matter dominate his mind.
Hanley’s move to St. James Park was dramatic as Newcastle had to return empty handed twice earlier. The bidding amounts they had gone to Blackburn with, 3 and a half million Pounds initially and then an additional million on the second time to make it four and a half, were turned down by the Blue and White management with an almost miffed Owen Coyle suggesting such amounts to be very, very low for someone like Hanley.
However surprisingly, when Newcastle made the approach third time with an increment of just one more million to the bidding amount, Coyle took it.
Having his first communication with media as a magpie, Hanley said, “It took quite a while and yes, when you are waiting and waiting, it’s normal that you feel a little irritated, but, what can you do as a player when it depends on other parties? Nothing really; so, the lesser you put your mind into it, the better.”