When Newcastle United first unveiled their new home kit on Wednesday, many fans noticed a reference in the advertising that left some a bit puzzled.
The write-up about the new shirt called on Newcastle fans to support “Rafa Benitez’ men” in the new replica home shirt.
It also mentioned how the team were looking to make this season a successful one “under the famous Spaniard”.
This tactic of using Benitez to sell shirts did not sit too well with some fans. They considered this to be a disingenuous ploy as Benitez has less than two weeks remaining on his contract.
Some fans though found comfort in seeing Rafa’s heralded name still being attached to the club. They saw this as a possible sign of a new contract on the horizon.
Well, the advertising write-up was suddenly changed yesterday with the removal of all references to Rafa Benitez.
This move left fans even more bewildered and some in a panic. Many saw this as confirmation that Rafa Benitez was indeed leaving Newcastle.
Here is a comparison of the two different ads for the new home shirt:
Below is a couple of exchanges on Twitter with Newcastle United’s Head of Media and Content Lee Marshall about the original ad for the sale of the new home shirt:
Hi, thanks for flagging this up. The retail website doesn’t fall within the remit of my team and I but I’ll make some enquiries.
— Lee Marshall (@LeeMarshall9) June 19, 2019
It’ll be written by a third party rather than a colleague at the club but I do appreciate what you’re saying. Leave it with me. Thanks again for bringing it to my attention ??
— Lee Marshall (@LeeMarshall9) June 19, 2019
While we are not sure if this is of any significance to Rafa Benitez’ tenure at Newcastle, this tweet exchange does seem to be the origin of the removal of his name from the ads.
While it may have been done to ease some unrest, in true Newcastle fashion it has led to even more confusion and despondency amongst the fanbase.
131 comments so far
RobLeenio
Jun 22, 2019 at 1:30 AM
Comment #81Cheers, Online Guy – that’s what I was after. Some folk have been trying to find a way to list all of their posts, that’s it.
And also, it turns out it was Thump who gave us the command.
Nice one mate. Now I’m off to bed, which means I’ll promptly forget this all over again.
😉
beermonkey
Jun 22, 2019 at 1:36 AM
Comment #82one fine day
its a position that rafa wanted filled given that who ever got the job would report to either rafa or ben dawson you would think they would have had a hand in the interview
as long as he can do the job and is not out of his depth like beardo was
it wont be so bad
we were told often enough how smart strolla was ( cant score for toffee yes but he is really clever) i thought he might have gone into management
with willo joining the ranks of barton bowyer cambell bloke at boro whose name escapes me who will be the next former player to manage us
Tony Baloney
Jun 22, 2019 at 1:37 AM
Comment #83AND IF THE BOOKS ARE COOKED WHY IS HE LETTING ALL OF THESE POTENTIAL BUYERS COME IN AND PORE THROUGH THEM AS PART OF DUE DILIGENCE?
At least 8 times according to the Frog.
lesh
Jun 22, 2019 at 1:37 AM
Comment #84One fine day
@74
There’s nowt surprising about the timing of the academy restructure – they’ve put ST prices up and have had to try to issue some good news to help ST sales. If that’s all they can offer……
As far as Shola’s concerned, I wasn’t surprised when he came in a few weeks back. As you said, he sang Ashley’s praises as did Beardsley. Beardley’s gone and Ashley needed a new set of eyes and ears on the ground.
Tony Baloney
Jun 22, 2019 at 1:40 AM
Comment #85It would be like Enron inviting the FBI into their meetings with Arthur Anderson.
beermonkey
Jun 22, 2019 at 1:45 AM
Comment #86tony bal
i would like to know what they see
there are so many grey areas
all the pies and beers go into mash does he get a fee plus a % i got no idea
and then all the merchandising stuff that goes into sd
i do think this is where any deal for the club will fall down because in a way this stuff is nothing to do with the club its to do with mash
i cant see him letting people have a look at mash holdings accounts
Online Guy
Jun 22, 2019 at 1:46 AM
Comment #87Lesh
There’s re-runs of Porridge on BBC iPlayer..series one two and three . I’m up to series one episode 3 .
Remember the footballer Stan Bowles, think he was from Carlisle …played for QPR.. read on .
Someone on here was telling us last night that they never read The Sun paper now as its full of puns, a coincedence occured later .. in that I was watching porridge s1 episode 3 ..and at 9 mins in Fletch is reading the Sun ! He’s looking at the front page and on the back page the headline reveals ” Bowles in flare up ! ” . Hilarious.
Strange the frog has mentioned medical matters pertaining to the bowels tonight …
Toon22 you seem to know a bit when it comes to medical matters …ever thought of colonic irragation?
Online Guy
Jun 22, 2019 at 1:47 AM
Comment #88ROB
It’s ok its on back of me logbook . Sleep well.
Online Guy
Jun 22, 2019 at 1:49 AM
Comment #89Colonic irrigation
Tony Baloney
Jun 22, 2019 at 1:50 AM
Comment #90I still can’t get my head around why Ashley would sabotage a sale in order to set a smokescreen over not spending in the transfer market. I can think of a myriad of reasons why a deal might fall through, on both sides, but not that.
Anyway, I a going to sleep on it.
Tony Baloney
Jun 22, 2019 at 1:53 AM
Comment #91The Frog has done my head in tonight. I am trying to work out the world according to Toon22 and I simply cannot.
beermonkey
Jun 22, 2019 at 1:55 AM
Comment #92tony
just remember its not mike ashleys fault
Online Guy
Jun 22, 2019 at 1:57 AM
Comment #93When I say Sir John Hall has sold all our souls to the Devil
I mean inadvertently.
The Great Man would never have sold Newcastle United to Ashley if he had know what the future intentions were of Ashley and what it would look like for us 13 years on . Bleak.
Ashley conned Sir John into thinking he was going to take the club to another plateau.
Won nowt .
Bank of Ashley.
Online Guy
Jun 22, 2019 at 2:01 AM
Comment #94Hev yiz all buggered off ti watch porridge ? !
Gets!
NY Mag
Jun 22, 2019 at 2:03 AM
Comment #95OLG,
Don’t be so sure of that…..SJH was a smart guy, of that there is no doubt.
I think he knew the end way neigh…..and I think he knew that what had to happen was not palatable with the fans.
Online Guy
Jun 22, 2019 at 2:08 AM
Comment #96Tony
Iv learned to skip the frog as I can never get him to converse.
Now and again though…
He’s dropped himself in it tonight . He’s a medical man . Can’t have that knoledge of the inner working’s of the gastrointestinal tract without a lot of study and experience in such.
I have narrowed his identity to two people on this blog .
Munster Mag
Jun 22, 2019 at 2:11 AM
Comment #97Bills son, amazing comment re the Rangers game in the Fairs Cup. Says it all about nufc fans. Jail i hope you have welcomed this blogger back or are you still obsessing about his previous comments. Mind you, apparently I hated rafa and laughed at his small hands when I met him!! 🙂 nowt so queer as folk.
Online Guy
Jun 22, 2019 at 2:17 AM
Comment #98N.Y.
I Think SJH knew the end game when he bought McKeag and cohorts out via Share gathering
He like many might have thought Ashley would grow the club and not channel funds to his retail projects outside of Newcastle United and football with creative accountancy and lies ..which he has admitted!
Never a dull moment NY Mag .
I am still optimistic …but we are talking Ashley so who knows .
I’m off for some light entertainment . Goodnight New York.
NY Mag
Jun 22, 2019 at 2:18 AM
Comment #99Howay then OLG,
Spill the beans – who is the frog?
Online Guy
Jun 22, 2019 at 2:19 AM
Comment #100Morning Munster
Hope yer well me man.
Online Guy
Jun 22, 2019 at 2:22 AM
Comment #101N.Y.
I will know for sure if one certain poster takes an action I’m expecting ..and if he doesn’t!
Got him both ways .
Sheik-en but not stirred
Jun 22, 2019 at 2:23 AM
Comment #102@Robleenio
I don’t post enough on here so I go unnoticed.. I try to stay away for the bickering that goes on as well
If I was PR or whatever I’m pretty sh*t at it….. Oh wait??? So is KBA
Online Guy
Jun 22, 2019 at 2:23 AM
Comment #103Toon22
Gotcha !
Nicky the ball tosser
Jun 22, 2019 at 2:24 AM
Comment #104Best bet Ashley will blink and Rafa will compromise and the sale will eventually get done, but 36 million quid is no small temptation, no matter what anyone says. I wonder what Rafa’s crew think about doubling their money for three years work in China.
NY Mag
Jun 22, 2019 at 2:39 AM
Comment #105OLG,
The suspense is killing me…name that frog 🙂
newcs
Jun 22, 2019 at 2:40 AM
Comment #106In Australia when we don’t like someone we egg them. Even on national tv.
We should start a movement where Mike Ashley is egged every day until he leaves, no matter where he is or what he is doing. The more public the better, so he can share the embarrassment we share at being the laughing stock of the premier league or having our stadium renamed sports direct arena.
He will known as humpty dumpy or the egg man. Make his life misery as he has made ours.
one fine day
Jun 22, 2019 at 3:30 AM
Comment #107Lesh
my thoughts were exactly that on having him around to report back …which makes it all the more likely ash is not planning on going anywhere.
Beer monkey
It’s a position that Rafa wanted filled given that who ever got the job would report to either Rafa or Ben Dawson you would think they would have had a hand in the interview”
that theory could explain why Rafa was at Benton last week but then these days couldn’t it have been done over Skype?
The information vacuum is throwing up so many ifs and buts .doing my head in .
I even direct messaged rafa on his insta and said even if he could give us a cryptic nod as to whats going down…so far that drawn a zero but will update in the unlikely event i get a response
one fine day
Jun 22, 2019 at 3:32 AM
Comment #108Newc
Would be funny to see but knowing him he would hand his jacket to charnley and tell him to rustle him up an omelette
toxic lollie
Jun 22, 2019 at 3:43 AM
Comment #109Newc
Seems like a waste of good eggs. At least with a rock you can use it over and over!
FloridaToon
Jun 22, 2019 at 4:42 AM
Comment #110I’m calling June 30th as the day its announced, trying to stay optimistic. But part of me thinks MA will keep moving the goalposts until the buyer drops out.
magscar
Jun 22, 2019 at 6:30 AM
Comment #111Just finished catching up on last night’s Blog after I left it earlier in evening and found myself having to skip not just frog but others I would normally read because they had been sucked into the vortex of trying to have a rational discussion with him.
I wish folk ha d backed me up a little more in October last year when I tried to reason with him and called him out on all the same issues as he is still being tackled on and we just might of seen him off long ago. But no there was a spate of frog copyist avatars (some still around) giving more oxygen and self belief to the disruptive prat.
Now he is just loving the attention as he disrupts the Blog for reasons only Tsunki still defends and yet again he mentions him as some kind of savant over the takeover. Another poster who I suspect just loves the disruption and I can’t help but see an image of him chuckling in the shadows as he sees the continuing bites.At least he has dropped his frog avatar if not his allegiance to him as the man who saw and calls the fakeover before any other poster or reader.
I posted to GeordieTom the other evening to not directly engage with him and to leave him as an irrelevance and I honestly believe that is the only way to go as Ed is obviously content to allow his repetitive unengaging nonsense to continue. Even Tsunki is an advocate of skipping his posts .
Anyway not only is sale still unclear but the Rafa waters getting muddier – oh the highs and lows of being a NUFC fan
lochinvar
Jun 22, 2019 at 6:30 AM
Comment #112So Boris Johnson has had a mega Barney with his girlfriend and screamed that she should leave him alone when on his laptop.
Police called to the flat.
Wonder what he was watching ?
Or was he emailing Mike to learn about leadership qualities ?
Or maybe Mike was emailing Boris to learn more about how to be a …..
Or is a wum on the blog ?
Standards ain’t wot they they used to be.
MarkBro
Jun 22, 2019 at 6:39 AM
Comment #113Rafa has too much respect for the fans to promise one way or another, hes either waiting for the takeover to be completed to secure a better deal or he’s completely in the dark to where the club stands regarding a takeover, just like the fans, journalists.
Mike could really be sticking up the fans this time. Fake takeover, season tickets going up, expensive kits and stringing rafa along.
Stripping the club of sd signs and closing off companies seems to suggest something is happening or mike is really trying to convince us something is happening. Surely he would be lynched if found out to be lying?
magscar
Jun 22, 2019 at 6:52 AM
Comment #114Newcs and other Aussie fans
You may have missed Farage being “milkshaked” in Toon centre couple weeks ago with hurler being arrested and later fined (and lost his job?)
Over here is going to cost more than a box of six medium free range projectiles 😉
Jib
Jun 22, 2019 at 6:55 AM
Comment #115The original exclusive in the Sun was likely provided by a leak
from the lawyers or the PL/FA
I’m sure the efforts to plug said leak have contributed to any delay
magscar
Jun 22, 2019 at 7:07 AM
Comment #116Jib
Makes sense to me . Been saying for awhile that source of leak to Sun was crucial to authenticity of sale claim. If indeed from PL then even at BZG direction it means documents for Owners and directors test to start must have been with PL
captainmarvel
Jun 22, 2019 at 7:09 AM
Comment #117How long has it been since the signs were taken down surely that is a pointer to what is happening? How long before that would it have been to get to the point they were removed? This has obviously been going on for weeks!
Keep positive!!
carltoon
Jun 22, 2019 at 7:22 AM
Comment #118New York Mag. Your Avatar omg that’s not how I perceived you at all. A lovely cuddley teddy bear please. I’ve tried and and just can’t download it on the site.
bill
Jun 22, 2019 at 7:23 AM
Comment #119Magscar, l will change my frog avatar when the parasite leaves our club. Until then toon22 is right and has my support regarding MA.
magscar
Jun 22, 2019 at 7:33 AM
Comment #120Bill
So you subscribe to the notion that all posters tackling him or even posting something which frog dislikes are by his definition “shills” and also that he is here f or all the readers being taken in by the paid for PR.
We all want Ashley to go there hasn’t been one post in recent memory defending him. You seem a reasonable guy it’s a pity you overtly support the frog against free speech of others just because he hates Ashley.
As you wish but he does unnecessarily disrupt the Blog on his misguided crusade.