There may be more to look back at. For a start, Rafa has never terminated a contract early. I am biased, having suggested him as a Newcastle manager on 9th Jan 2016, as far as I can tell, the first to do so. When Rafa signed, the squad included around £75million in signings the previous summer.
Looking further back, I and probably others have written about even though we want Ashley out, his and our interests should overlap. If NUFC is successful, Ashley can get a better price for it.
When I was looking back for something else, I also stumbled across a thread on this board from September when Rafa had been offered a contract extension. funnily enough, I had predicted on 26th August 2018 that this would be Rafa's last season, even though I got the wrong league for him to go to and was 25% out on his wage.
What changed? From £75 million in a summer window, Ashley publicly made the promise of "every last penny". From words to action, Ashley took £33 million out of the club instead. Rafa's contact book led him to making do with loan signings and sub optimal players like Joselu, Gamez and so on.
In my view, Ashley shot himself and asset value in the foot (if you can do that to asset value but it was a metaphor).
As someone who has worked up to the wire in my all too many redundancies, I can understand seeing out his contract. I could have done gardening leave but then there are other parts to reputation. Even if the employer has turned out to be crap, it doesn't mean that customers or supporters should be the victim. Maybe Rafa and I are both barking mad.
