One of the things that caused Newcastle’s downfall and even complete collapse under former manager Steve McClaren was the team spirit of the side on and off the pitch and during games the season before last too many of our players were only too willing to give up when things got tough.
And they often did with Steve holding his head in his hands on the touch-line in dismay, which was not exactly a positive sign to his players and certainly not any kind of leadership coming from the boss on the touchline.
This photo gave Newcastle fans huge hope for the club’s future in early May
Newcastle really are United
Enter world-class manager Rafa Benitez on March 11th last year and with some magic moves in the summer transfer market – helped enormously by hard-working Managing Director Lee Charnley – he transformed the side completely last summer.
And would you believe it, but last season one of the strengths of the side was a determination to fight like crazy in games when things got really tough and that bagged us quite a number of points last season in winning the Championship and getting promoted at the very first attempt.
It was a stellar performance from Rafa Benitez and his staff, which we doubt will ever be fully appreciated – remember this man risked his career to stay at Newcastle and manage us in the second division.
Not many world-class managers today would even think of doing that, but it showed Rafa’s complete dedication by sticking with Newcastle as he attempts to transform the club and the team into one of the best in Europe.
That’s only one reason that in the recent Chronicle yearly poll an amazing 99.7% of Newcastle fans think Rafa is the right manager for the job on Tyneside.
That’s 997 people in every 1000 – not too bad at all in terms of Rafa being popular with the Newcastle fan base.
🙂
And with owner Mike Ashley saying all the right things last summer and after this season ended, it looks like Rafa still has full control of everything to do with football and will continue to be given a free hand to run the club with Lee Charnley.
it’s difficult to trust Mike or to praise him too much given the chaotic 10 years he has been at the club, but if the owner stays out of the way and lets Rafa do his job (which he does so very well) then Newcastle United FC could be worth hundreds and hundreds of millions of pounds in a few years time with Rafa guiding the ship.
There’s already an estimate Newcastle is worth more than half a billion pounds.
We know Mike values money and we hope that’s a huge incentive for him to let Rafa steer the ship.
Maybe Mike can even come to St. James’ Park for every home game with sold-out St. James’ Park crowds and actually enjoy watching a top team in action – Newcastle United.
That would be something.
Comments welcome.
1 comment so far
jimmysmith
Jun 3, 2017 at 11:58 AM
Comment #1Only .3% rotten mackems. Surprisingly low figure.