Rafa Benitez gives overview of Newcastle’s trip to Ireland via his personal website
Rafa Benitez has been reflecting on the squad’s trip to Ireland.
Earlier this week he has finally given both barrels to Mike Ashley, revealing that he hasn’t been given any kind of a proper budget for transfers this summer, having to sell players before he can buy anybody.
This is despite the club currently in profit in this transfer window so far.
However, today Rafa Benitez has used his personal website to talk about the more positive aspects of the trip.
The NUFC manager enjoying meeting Newcastle (and Liverpool) fans in Ireland and making clear that he likes Carton House as a pre-season base.
This of course is where he has taken the squad in all three seasons in his time at St James Park and that on this trip the players have been ‘working really hard and enjoying themselves.’
Last season’s relative success was down to a manager being able to inspire his squad to perform better than their individual abilities.
With seemingly now little hope of a significant rise in the quality of the team/squad in these final three weeks of the transfer window, it will be more of the same needed. The players to come together as a team and also pray we carry the same luck with injuries as last season.
It was a decent start to the friendlies with a regulation 2-0 victory over St Patrick’s Athletic on Tuesday night but with Hull then followed by Porto in nine days time, the challenges will get tougher.
Rafa ends his message with a positive note: ‘In the end, it was a good positive time with everyone together to prepare the team for the next season. C’MON TOONS!!!’
Let’s hope Rafa Benitez is feeling positive in three weeks time when 5pm comes around and the summer transfer window closes.
Rafa Benitez speaks via his own personal website:
“Our new season has already started, on 6th of July the lads came back from their holidays and on 11th we travelled to the ‘Carton House Hotel’ in Ireland; a nice place that we already knew from the last two pre-seasons and a really good place to do our job, without distractions and with the right conditions.
“We held a lot of double training sessions with the players working really hard and enjoying themselves.
“The atmosphere was great, they went early to the gym to do prevention work and after we did the usual training on the pitch. Small football games, patterns of play and tactical work. And some days, in the afternoon, we did certain work in the gym.
“And as always, we saw some Newcastle fans and for me, like every year, we saw some Liverpool FC fans who reminded me ‘the best day of my [their] life’ as they say on the 25th of May 2005 in Istanbul.
“We continued the preparation for the game against St. Patricks Athletics, at its level, a good team and a credit to Liam Buckley its manager, they have a good style of football and they have a game plan, despite beating them 0-2 (Longstaff and Atsu -p-) they were a very good opponent.
“There were lots of Newcastle fans in the Stadium and a good game with some young players having a great experience with the First Team (Víctor Fernández, Callum Roberts, Sean Longstaff, Josef Yarney and also Adam Armstrong, this one with more experience with us).
“In the end, it was a good positive time with everyone together to prepare the team for the next season. C’MON TOONS!!!”
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