Alan Shearer often praises Rafa Benitez and for good reason – the 56 year-old has been phenomenal for Newcastle since he joined us in March and he’s now showing just why he is one of the world’s best managers.
In his Sun column yesterday Alan praised Rafa and he also gave special praise to Newcastle’s (new) number 9 striker Dwight Gayle, who has scored 13 Championship goals for us already this season and he’s been some buy.
Dwight Gayle – after scoring first goal against Leeds
Alan has said that Dwight has a striker’s instinct that he showed in Saturday’s game at Elland Road with two good goals.
And if anybody knows what a striker’s instinct is, it’s the great Newcastle legend who scored 206 goals for Newcastle United in his 10 years at his home town club.
We paid (only) £10M for Gayle from Crystal Palace and that is now looking to be an absolute bargain buy for the club.
This is some of what Alan wrote in his Sun column:
“Rafa has done some very shrewd business in the transfer market this summer, making the club a healthy profit in the meantime.”
“There has been no better buy than Dwight Gayle at £10M from Crystal Palace.” “That move bought a guaranteed 20-25 goals in this league for me.”
“He has scored nine in his last six games now and looks unstoppable at this level.” “Both of those he scored at Elland Road showed a great striker’s instinct.”
“Most would have given up when they saw Jack Colback’s long ball floating seemingly harmlessly into Robert Green’s hands.”
“He sensed the goalkeeper might just been struggling with it, there might just be a scrap to feed off, and there he was.”
“His second was the culmination of a good move that unpicked the Leeds defense but he did well to just hold himself onside before connecting with the final ball.”
Next up for Newcastle are Blackburn Rovers on Saturday afternoon at home – and now we have to find some way of winning that game and making it 10 wins in a row.
That would be the first time a Newcastle manager has ever won 10 games in a row.
If we can do it.
Comments welcome.
39 comments so far
microbar
Nov 22, 2016 at 1:26 PM
Comment #1Not the first time a Newcastle manager has ever won 10 games in a row ED .Remember keegan.
JamesToon
Nov 22, 2016 at 1:27 PM
Comment #2On the topic of the ashley model
This club will always need the model of having a manager who controls everything, it will always need a rafa/SBR/KK type manager in charge. I just think thats how it should always be with our club in particular, even if ashley did listen to the right people and tried to follow the continental head coach/DOF model, i just dont think it would ever work with our club.
JamesToon
Nov 22, 2016 at 1:28 PM
Comment #3What is the all time record for amount of games won in a row in the championship?
funlovingexpress
Nov 22, 2016 at 1:35 PM
Comment #4James toon unless you have a keegan, SBR or Benitez then the continental method is the only way forward. Just lookl at Sunderland or what happened after Keegan and SBR.
Daglish and Souness came in and ripped the teams apart. That would never have happened under a continental system.
funlovingexpress
Nov 22, 2016 at 1:42 PM
Comment #5I will contradict myself here and add that if you follow the old Liverpool method and promote from within then the structure will stay the same but promoting from within also gives you a new set of problems, i.e. every defeat would be labled as lack of experience by our reporters.
After Benitez I think it would be best to go contionental because then the new boss is forced to use the existing structure and not rip it up.
funlovingexpress
Nov 22, 2016 at 1:46 PM
Comment #6Not sure about championship but I remember people saying Arsenal equalled the consecutive wins when they got 14 in a row a decade ago.
Whether that was just for the premiership Im not sure though.
Jib
Nov 22, 2016 at 1:46 PM
Comment #7Championship all time top scorer
2012–13 Glenn Murray Crystal Palace 30
Jib
Nov 22, 2016 at 1:47 PM
Comment #8sorry games won in a row
hang on
Jib
Nov 22, 2016 at 1:50 PM
Comment #9NUFC has the longest winning streak with 8 games
Brighton have the longest UNBEATEN run 11 games
Jib
Nov 22, 2016 at 1:54 PM
Comment #10The last time we were down we had the longest running winning streak as well – 7 games
Jail for Ashley
Nov 22, 2016 at 2:02 PM
Comment #11Jib,
You’re Googling this years stats you plonker!
Jib
Nov 22, 2016 at 2:21 PM
Comment #12Jail
A mix of this season and all time.
If I’m going too fast can the dullards like Jail let me know please.
good lad jail (pats on head) it’s much btter when the slow ones pipe up
funlovingexpress
Nov 22, 2016 at 2:21 PM
Comment #13Man utd, bristol and preston in the old second division which is now the championship with 14 games of consecutive wins.
Just googled it. Was right about Arsenal but they were premiership ofc and they also got 14 wins
martoon
Nov 22, 2016 at 2:29 PM
Comment #14On topic it is a bit strange how the fans seem to love Mitro and yet luke warm to Gayle when the lad is on fire at the moment. I guess it’s down to personality – Mitro is a character whereas Gayle is a canny lad but a bit non-descript but who cares as long he keeps bangin’ them in.
Jib
Nov 22, 2016 at 2:30 PM
Comment #15funloving
I just did the Championship from 2001/2002 the old 2nd div was a bit of a jok tbf
http://www.espnfc.co.uk/english-league-championship/24/statistics/performance?
JamesToon
Nov 22, 2016 at 2:32 PM
Comment #16Would like to think Cathro will learn his trade from Benitez, and could one day make the step up. Rafa has set up all the foundations that should be implemented right to the grass roots for years to come and we should just follow those blue prints, that will give us stability and success
Jail for Ashley
Nov 22, 2016 at 2:34 PM
Comment #17Jibberish,
It is incredulous that you can scoff at someone’s lack of “footy” knowledge when Jibs bloomers is getting toward encyclopedic proportions. James Toon clearly asked for the all time records which you then Googled and were given this years stats. Any real toon fan would have realised that eleven games UNBEATEN is nowt compared to ours in 2009/10. You’re like the fat ugly ginger kid taking the p out of fat ugly ginger kids without realising how stupid you look.
funlovingexpress
Nov 22, 2016 at 2:34 PM
Comment #18Jib the old second division couldnt have been that much of a joke we struggled for years to get out of it.
In fact it took 2 future England internationals and one current (then) to get us up.
funlovingexpress
Nov 22, 2016 at 2:37 PM
Comment #19BTW Keegan, waddle and Beardsley would destroy any team in the championship now, including us and yet we only finished third.
Jib
Nov 22, 2016 at 2:42 PM
Comment #20Jail
Jibberish,
It is incredulous that you can scoff
ha ha ha
hibbit
Nov 22, 2016 at 2:44 PM
Comment #21jib
the old second division was no joke maybe footballs moved on but at the time it was a very hard league to get out of
Jib
Nov 22, 2016 at 3:17 PM
Comment #22hibbit
I meant it was a bit of a joke as far as winning runs go – as there were loads of gimme games.
This week 23 years ago we beat Cambridge united 2 -1 with a front 4 of
Terry McDermott
Chris Waddle Peter Beardsley Kevin Keegan
The previous 2 games we had lost to Sheff Wed and Chelsea – letting in 8 goals probably because our back 6 were
John Anderson Steve Carney Wes Saunder son Neil McDonald Kenny WhartonJohn Ryan
funlovingexpress
Nov 22, 2016 at 3:32 PM
Comment #23We will have to agree to disagree Jib. I reckon there are more gimme games now.
IMO the league is a lot weaker than it used to be.
The big difference is that these days the press bigs itv up all of the time.
TBH, I haven’t been that impressed with the teams this year. Take Leeds for instance, quite a few of our fans reckoned that Leeds would be our toughest opponent and if thats the standard of the toughest then its going to be a cake walk.
Personally I see them as tenth to eighth at end of the season with a real long shot at sixth but many of our fans seem to rate them better than they do Brighton.
Jib
Nov 22, 2016 at 3:39 PM
Comment #24funlovingexpress
I’ll agree to disagree with you.
I saw Chelsea at SJP that season , they had a big galoot at number 5 called Mickey Droy who wouldn’t get near a 3rd division side today.
Gawd some of the footy then was shocking !
He’d probably get into England rugby team mind.
funlovingexpress
Nov 22, 2016 at 3:57 PM
Comment #25Droy would get into the current blackburn team.
But I do see your point.
In those days football was more about atack than defence and team after team had future internationals in it as well as old international pros who were seeing out the end of their careers.
Look at some of the attackers and midfielders in that promotion season and I think you will be amazed at the quality.
You could even argue that the defenders werent even that bad, it was just that there was so many top drawer strikers that year.
Our defence for instance was not that bad. Mcdonald went on to play first division, as did Ando and Wharton.
Dont get me wrong, I never rated Wharton but I talked to a fan the other week and he reckoned he was the best fullback he had seen under a toon shirt. Strange but true.
Essex Geordie Bill
Nov 22, 2016 at 4:14 PM
Comment #26He’s certainly looking nailed on for Top scorer, which is going to mess up my Martoon prediction. Never mind I can live with that quite happily.
Not even sure that my MOS prediction is as certain as it has been with a lot of players now challenging Shelvey.
The other top contender for me is Lascelles.
Jail for Ashley
Nov 22, 2016 at 4:27 PM
Comment #27martoon,
I brought up a similar point earlier about Gayle.
Jib,
Yet again deflecting your ignorance of the beautiful game by using the context of my sentence, I’m looking forward to the complete works of Jibberish’s bloomers. It will take a while to read mind.
Jail for Ashley
Nov 22, 2016 at 4:33 PM
Comment #28EGB,
I’ve got £100 at elevens on him to finish top of the charts and have him on 29 with martoon (I think)
Jail for Ashley
Nov 22, 2016 at 4:35 PM
Comment #29EGB,
I’ve got Lascelles as player of the year but I think Ritchie and Shelvey are in front with Shelvey edging it despite Gayle being the leagues top scorer.
Jail for Ashley
Nov 22, 2016 at 4:38 PM
Comment #30fle,
I had us down for record points but then changed it as I over estimated Villa, Norwich, Sheff Wed, listening to too many nay sayers who said we’d struggle to get out of the league, I still had us as Champions though.
Jimmy……Jimmy……Jimmy Smith
Nov 22, 2016 at 4:39 PM
Comment #31I had in mind a more a Rafa/Carr model,Yo. Buying good young players, in the right positions, and bringing them on to their peak while surrounding them with likewise and a strong bench. We’ve only ever sold for top dollar, and usually with the player agitating. I can’t really fault the sales of Carroll, Widjnaldum, Cabaye and Sissoko, but I suspect under Rafa we’d have got even more out of those very good players, more of their calibre, and fewer wanting to leave.
Jail for Ashley
Nov 22, 2016 at 4:39 PM
Comment #32martoon,
Have you got my prediction handy.
JamesToon
Nov 22, 2016 at 4:40 PM
Comment #33Love the new beta nufc website, so much better and also credit to the club for making nufc tv free at last. 10 minute highlights really decent.
Am I the only one who just keeps watching back our results on the highlights on nufc tv because I just love watching the football we play!
JamesToon
Nov 22, 2016 at 4:43 PM
Comment #34Top 5 key players in order. Go
Mine:
1. Shelvey
2. Gayle
3. Ritchie
4. Lascelles
5. Hayden
The whole backbone of Darlow, Lascelles, Yedlin, Hayden, Shelvey, Ritchie and Gayle needs to be kept over the next few years I think. They can all develop into decent/top level players I reckon
Jail for Ashley
Nov 22, 2016 at 4:46 PM
Comment #35Jimmy,
It was the manner in which they were sold that was all wrong, they were never bought to feel part of the club, they were sold a package that consisted of a decent wage while they went through the motions till a bigger club paid the asking price, it created a situation where there was little or no pride in the shirt. Look at Mitro, even if he wanted to stay he’d have been threatened with reserve football if he never took an acceptable offer, players are being signed now to be part of something, not a production line.
hibbit
Nov 22, 2016 at 4:52 PM
Comment #36JamesToon
top 4 yes
but Hayden no has the makings yes but not shining this season
i would have Colback next to Shelvey ever time
Jimmy……Jimmy……Jimmy Smith
Nov 22, 2016 at 4:56 PM
Comment #37Yeah, but that was pre Rafa. I’m hoping our existing approach to recruiting will be refined, rather than abandoned. Actually, its what I expect, and what Rafa has agreed to in principle.
Jimmy……Jimmy……Jimmy Smith
Nov 22, 2016 at 4:57 PM
Comment #38……and what I believe Rafa has probably agreed with in principle.
martoon
Nov 22, 2016 at 4:58 PM
Comment #39Jail I’m on my way home at the moment (not driving) but I’ll post it early evening when I’m home.