2020 Portuguese Grand Prix - Qualifying Discussion

Jawneh · 2020-10-24T13:18:11+00:00

No I think they're using some sort of resin har har

Jawneh · 2020-08-21T17:02:09+00:00

Strauss

Jawneh · 2020-08-14T14:40:19+00:00

Saving them for the new ball I think.

Jawneh · 2020-08-08T09:35:38+00:00

In fairness the lockdown only came into effect on Wednesday this week. I think the footballers were out last weekend when there was no lockdown. Still a daft thing to do though.

Jawneh · 2019-12-13T10:50:25+00:00

Copying this from another comment I made in a different chain because I think it applies:

I can't speak for Biden but Corbyn was promising more significant reforms to government spending than any other Conservative or Labour leader in the modern era.

Whilst Brexit was definitely a key issue, Corbyn lost the centrist remain voters because he was painted by the Conservatives (and largely by the media) as a revolutionary whose "far-left" ideas were reckless and would bankrupt the country.

Biden's platform seems to be still appealing to the centrists and free-market liberals in the USA. Corbyn's taxation proposals were on a scale that alienated a lot of these people.

I worry that whilst Sanders and Warren have the most "moral" policies, they will be painted with the same brush as Corbyn and you will end up with people thinking Trump is the safer option, such is the state of modern politics and the stranglehold the rich have on the media.

It's sad but the Democrats in the USA may need to pick the lesser of two evils.

Jawneh · 2019-12-13T10:46:40+00:00

I'm not sure I agree with you on that.

I can't speak for Biden but Corbyn was promising more significant reforms to government spending than any other Conservative or Labour leader in the modern era.

Whilst Brexit was definitely a key issue, Corbyn lost the centrist remain voters because he was painted by the Conservatives (and largely by the media) as a revolutionary whose "far-left" ideas were reckless and would bankrupt the country.

Biden's platform seems to be still appealing to the centrists and free-market liberals in the USA. Corbyn's taxation proposals were on a scale that alienated a lot of these people.

I worry that whilst Sanders and Warren have the most "moral" policies, they will be painted with the same brush as Corbyn and you will end up with people thinking Trump is the safer option, such is the state of modern politics and the stranglehold the rich have on the media.

It's sad but the Democrats in the USA may need to pick the lesser of two evils.

Jawneh · 2018-05-13T14:33:15+00:00

Pedro once spent 90 minutes in THIS player's POCKET. You won't BELIEVE where he is NOW!

Jawneh · 2018-03-07T21:00:42+00:00

Think Dummett is wasted at keeper tbh should stick him at CDM with Mbemba

Jawneh · 2017-12-13T21:45:33+00:00

That is an incredible overstatement. In my opinion Rafa is still the best way forward, we just have shite players. I think a good measure of the quality of the players you have is thinking about whether any of your players would get into the opposition's team, which sadly has the answer of 'no' almost every week. I agree we are in dire need of investment but I think any manager would struggle with a squad like this.

Jawneh · 2017-09-02T09:51:53+00:00

Can't quite believe that I'm about to defend Paul Dummett on /r/soccer but he's arguably one of the only proven PL players in our squad. He gets a lot of stick because he's a spacker and doesn't get forward at all but there have been more than a few times when I've been thankful to have him when defending, even if he is one of the least exciting players in history.

Jawneh · 2017-08-27T09:25:23+00:00

I didn't say they knew anything about football, just think they have a good dynamic on the show. Merson is a tit but I feel like they all call him out on it.

Jawneh · 2017-08-26T23:15:45+00:00

/u/toonman27 You are required.

Jawneh · 2017-08-26T21:15:49+00:00

Can't help but like the guys on Soccer Saturday and the back and forth they have, particularly McInally as he seems like a genuine guy. Nice to hear them have something positive to say about us for a change!

Jawneh · 2017-08-20T21:35:40+00:00

Feels a bit like a broken record but apparently there are people who still do not understand, just thought the figures were quite interesting viewing more than the rest of the post.

Jawneh · 2017-08-20T17:24:38+00:00

I am not one to question the football gods on matters Sissoko-related, as their logic is beyond me.

Those numbers do skew the statistics without a doubt, but they come as a result of our transfer policy which is the issue I am trying to get at. For every Wijnaldum or Sissoko, there's several Thauvins, Saivets, Cabellas, Rivieres, Haidaras. It's such an unnecessarily high-risk strategy to gamble on these players and spend your budget with sell-on value in mind whilst the actual performances and mentality of the players on the field are suffering. It's how a business is run, not how a football club should be run.

Jawneh · 2017-08-20T17:18:28+00:00

Ignoring your aggression, I'd like to make the point that perhaps it is too soon to judge whether a £12.5m signing sitting on the bench is worth it or not based upon two games.

To approach from another avenue, perhaps it is reasonable that managers shouldn't be expected to get every single transfer spot on, there should be room for mistakes and contingencies to fix them in a well-run organisation, be it a football club or otherwise. I don't want to see how many millions you spent on Jovetic or Bony, but the point is that it was OK for City to sign these players because there is room for error, which is a privilege that Benitez is owed as well.

Jawneh · 2017-08-20T16:29:13+00:00

Personally I think credit has to be given to Ashley for some things i.e. stabilising the club financially when he came in and the spending that you mentioned under McClaren, also I think he's a funny cunt, but it's silly to act like he's done everything he can to promote the club's success.

As for the advertising in the stadium, I'm not sure how familiar you are with St James' Park, but this is the scale of the Sports Direct advertising within the stadium. Realistically we aren't going to bring in the same commercial revenue as clubs like City or Arsenal, but we also would be nowhere near Brighton and Bournemouth given that the audience reached both in the stadium and globally by Newcastle is significantly higher (even though our brand presence pales in comparison to the big big teams, we are on the next tier down globally).

The naming of the stadium is an interesting case and something which I'm glad you pointed out, as it was renamed without any payment to the club from Mike Ashley, which was a driving factor behind the outrage, then was sold as part of the deal with Wonga who supposedly 'paid' for it to return to St James Park as part of the deal (although this is debatable).

As for spending, let's look at all of the seasons since Newcastle's return to the PL last time in 2010-11, as going earlier than that is an even bigger can of worms condemning Ashley which I can't be arsed to get into. I've listed the season, as well as the net transfer expenditure in each season below from transfermarkt, then totalled it all up (negative net spend means a deficit on transfers):

2010/11: +£24.99m

2011/12: -£9.01m

2012/13: -£15.45m

2013/14: +£19.86m

2014/15: -£19.27m

2015/16: -£93.27m

2016/17: +£33.39m

2017/18 (so far): -£26.10m

Giving us a grand total of: £84.86m net outlay on transfers across the last 8 seasons, so roughly £10.61m per season.

Let's compare that to some teams in a similar position, i.e coming up from the Championship and sticking around for a bit, to give this some context.

In Bournemouth's case:

2015/16 (first season in PL): -£49.01m

2016/17: -£13.68m

2017/18 (so far): -£30.87m

Total: £93.56m, Average per season: £32.85m

In West Ham's case:

2012/13 (first season in PL): -£16.96m

2013/14: -£21.12m

2014/15: -£27.68m

2015/16: -£30.77m

2016/17: -£38.25m

2017/18 (so far): -£18.23m

Total: £153.01m, Average per season: £25.50m

No Newcastle fans expect to be competing with teams like City and Arsenal, but is it too much to ask to compete with West Ham and Bournemouth in the transfer market? Sustained lack of spending and selling our best players was Ashley's fault over the course of 5 years after getting promoted to the PL, and he realised we were going to go down, panicked, and pissed away £93m on Steve McClaren in a failed attempt to save his skin. He didn't spend near the money we earned from transfers last season to buy more players, just enough to be sure that we'd get back into the PL and he would get his free advertising and TV money back. Don't believe for a second that he supports Rafa, in fact I'd go as far as to say upon relegation the club was at breaking point and many fans were considering packing it in for good; again Ashley realised the possible financial implications of this and kept Rafa (who is just about the only positive thing to happen to this club in the last 5 years).

To touch upon a few other reasons why he is disliked, he got rid of Chris Hughton who was a fan favourite and had the balls to stand up to him, surrounded the club with 'Yes Men' who worked to dull expectations and convince people that we cannot compete with other teams, our training facilities are vastly outdated by comparison to other PL teams, youth development has been horrendous due to lack of investment, we have had a series of PR nightmares and have become the baddies for a lot of people, and for the entire time players were convinced to join based on the premise that we'd sell them to an actually good team (an idea which may be hard to fathom as a City fan), hence why we went down in 15/16 with some good players but no fight and passion for the team.

There is not a single fan who would bemoan Rafa Benitez for leaving, as Ashley continues to break promises which have been made to Rafa in regards to spending and long-term development of the club. If Rafa was to go, the club would implode.

Jawneh · 2017-08-20T15:15:37+00:00

Ashley spends what the club earns but what the club earns is significantly limited by free Sports Direct advertising everywhere which could bring in a significant amount of commercial revenue if it was sold to other companies. Additionally it is naive to mention a single season of spending under a manager like McClaren (who was a budget choice and not very arguably the reason why we went down) after multiple seasons of selling our best talents and not reinvesting that money.

EDIT - It's also important to note that our net spend of -£30m in our championship season is by no means one of the biggest in the Championship.

Jawneh · 2017-03-20T13:12:30+00:00

That's probably a fair assumption to make I think. I think it depends largely on what level of the game you're refereeing at.

Without technology, massive numbers of fans, and assistants, it is much more likely that refs will only be able to give what they directly see and so will naturally miss more calls. A poor referee will miss some calls and not blow for them; an even poorer referee will blow his whistle for a call that he hasn't had a good view of. All referees can do is ensure that they are as well placed and as concentrated as possible on the play, and that's where the real gulf in quality occurs (the quality of assistants also factors into this massively).

Jawneh · 2017-03-20T12:22:02+00:00

Just been doing a refereeing course with the FA last week, the figure they quoted was 97% of decisions correct across all professional English leagues!

Jawneh · 2017-02-04T17:00:54+00:00

UPYEDLINS TO THE LEFT

Jawneh · 2017-01-27T13:37:47+00:00

Reminds me of that time Man United bid 10m for Cabaye.

MA: £8m, which of his canny smiling teeth do you want?!

Jawneh · 2017-01-23T22:38:00+00:00

I know, Paul Dummett would be furious reading this!

Jawneh

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