Relegated

[thisisgil]

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Chances are you'll see him next season. Twice if you want to travel to Stratford.

 

[b3h]

Just goes to show how special that period was for everyone, seeing those posts from players/family

I always say it wasn't just about winning or losing, was more than that to us

Miss ya Nuno

 

[prawnking]

Imagine having so many likeable players with character as well as ability, practically the whole team at one point

 

[Mel Evo]

Imagine having so many likeable players with character as well as ability, practically the whole team at one point

I find it baffling that endeavouring to repeat this strategy is simply completely written off. Something we just have to accept will never happen again, even though it’s the blueprint for going up and staying up. The limitations of our vision not only make me sad, they seem completely illogical. Maybe it’s just me.

 

[Tony Towner]

I find it baffling that endeavouring to repeat this strategy is simply completely written off. Something we just have to accept will never happen again, even though it’s the blueprint for going up and staying up. The limitations of our vision not only make me sad, they seem completely illogical. Maybe it’s just me.

Well we aren't signing 3 Champions League players, 2 initially on loan, all taking low wages with massive promotion bonuses all because they wanted to play for the manager / their agent cajoled them into it. It's written off because it simply won't happen for multiple reasons.

The rest of the squad is repeatable. Players who were already at the club - Costa, Cav, Saiss, Coady, Doherty, a journeyman centre forward - Bonatini, 3 experienced British players Douglas, Ruddy, Bennett.

Oh and you need a manager taking an obvious step down because he's bought into the project.

We aren't that club anymore and it's pointless pretending that we are or hoping we will be again. We can go back up, I don't think we will, but we can, however it'll need to be in a more traditional sense as pretty much every other promoted team outside of Newcastle and ourselves have in the last 15 years or so

 

[YoungWolf]

Yeah, if we go back up it will be with a squad of players that are too good for the championship but not good enough for the Premier League. Yo yo at best (and it won’t even be that for a couple of years anyway)

 

[Mel Evo]

Well we aren't signing 3 Champions League players, 2 initially on loan, all taking low wages with massive promotion bonuses all because they wanted to play for the manager / their agent cajoled them into it. It's written off because it simply won't happen for multiple reasons.

The rest of the squad is repeatable. Players who were already at the club - Costa, Cav, Saiss, Coady, Doherty, a journeyman centre forward - Bonatini, 3 experienced British players Douglas, Ruddy, Bennett.

Oh and you need a manager taking an obvious step down because he's bought into the project.

We aren't that club anymore and it's pointless pretending that we are or hoping we will be again. We can go back up, I don't think we will, but we can, however it'll need to be in a more traditional sense as pretty much every other promoted team outside of Newcastle and ourselves have in the last 15 years or so

I thought it would be just me.

 

[basher]

What I like about those posts from Jonny and Raul's family is that neither of them got the deserved send off that they truly deserved and yet they still hold the club in such high affection.

Lovely to see.

 

[Alan]

The club can be the club it wants to be; people can remember things as they will given the excitement of possibility early on, but we had no business hiring Nuno or signing many of the squad that took us up. It’s not different from now in any significant way, IMO.

What happens from here is entirely down to Nathan Shi’s judgement. We can be a club “too good” for the Championship. It’s only a matter of us choosing to be such.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

1) Mendes doesn't have that kind of residual quality on his books any more

2) There's no incentive for him to do it again even if he did

We can recruit "normally" and beat most other Championship clubs to the punch, but we are not repeating 2017. Not now, not ever.

 

[Alan]

Fuck Mendes.

 

[BGreenWolf]

Fuck Mendes.

Completely fair, but there's absolutely no way that 2017 happens without him, and no way that we'll replicate it today without him either.

 

[visage]

Fuck Mendes.

Nah. He can be a mercenary so and so only in it for himself, while also giving us the best group of players Ive ever seen in my lifetime.

Both things can be true. The mistake was on our part in not being equally hard-nosed. It was naive from Shi etc.

 

[basher]

Mendes gave us access to those players an age ago, in football terms.

Since then it's been by and large nothing but failure.

Nothing against anyone personally, but it really fuckin grates that each and every time Mendes is brought up someone will pipe up about that early Nuno period when yes we brought in and built that awesome squad of players... but do we have to be in thrall to the wanker when he has continued to line his pockets, at the clubs expense, whilst foisting overpriced dross on the club.

He further inserts himself into every transfer, when the players aren't even on his books.

He's a parasite.

 

[visage]

Mendes gave us access to those players an age ago, in football terms.

Since then it's been by and large nothing but failure.

Nothing against anyone personally, but it really fuckin grates that each and every time Mendes is brought up someone will pipe up about that early Nuno period when yes we brought in and built that awesome squad of players... but do we have to be in thrall to the wanker when he has continued to line his pockets, at the clubs expense, whilst foisting overpriced dross on the club.

He further inserts himself into every transfer, when the players aren't even on his books.

He's a parasite.

Sure, but nobody forced us to deal with him. I think pointing out that Mendes is a scorpion doesnt absolve the people who thought they wouldnt get stung.

 

[prawnking]

It's the price we've paid for having zero senior football acumen for years, lazy and wasteful from the previous control freak in charge

 

[basher]

Nobody forced us is true... but it's why we were bought by Fosun...

 

[broughtonwolf]

Mendes was an intrinsic part of the original plan and it worked for a time. It then got derailed by Covid and Chinese state controls on the outflow of money. Shi's floundering and flip-flopping back and forth to Mendes showed that they neither have any other plan or had the acumen to bring people in who did. We benefitted at the time from a world class group of players in his stable of the right age, value, willingness to go along with his view. A similar new group of players doesn't appear to exist.

Fosun need to therefore regroup and decide what they want (hopefully already done via Nathan Shi) and put in place a new plan, or cut ties and try and sell the club, or depressingly and more probably Option 3 - mess about for a while, a la Leicester, with inevitable consequences.