Wullie

We aren't painting ourselves as victims as a fanbase. You will get some who will whinge about the media, but I would imagine there are plenty like me who think it will be nice to compete for stuff as a football club again. There's no victimhood in that. You've got Rafa as your avatar there, do you think he should refuse to come back because of the Saudi link? That is a totally reasonable point of view to take but believe me there are a LOT of our fans who have immediately gone to bat for the Saudis, many convinced that it's all an anti-NUFC conspiracy. The position being taken by some of our fans is actually the thing I'm struggling most with, not on here I should add, I think there's more sense here than on Twitter. I should stop reading it tbf. I have infinitely more respect for "I don't care, I don't want to think about politics, I just want to support my team" than "You just hate NUFC and anyway, you can't complain about Saudi bombings because you enjoyed the smell of petrol once when walking past Esso".

Think I see a bit of a fatal flaw in that plan. Who's going to buy rights for a stadium that's not being used or attended?

My wages are paid by the UK government who I think are total cunts. I'm away to hand in my notice.

Do you perform your job to differing standards based on what football team you support, or your customer supports? Have you heard yourself?

Whilst accepting wages through their Saudi funded newspapers. So he's using a Saudi funded newspaper to... criticise Saudi Arabia? Isn't that like the definition of integrity?

Richard Keys is not a journalist, he's a television presenter. I think the other two are idiots. That's not the same as this relentless paranoia that everyone's out to get Newcastle. Last summer it was the refs. People on here were convinced VAR would see NUFC surge to the title because the refs, who all despised Newcastle, would no longer to be able to hide it. Absolutely demented.

I think it's much more daft to think that professional journalists for respectable publications are writing articles about human rights abuses because they hate YOUR team. Man City fans have been at this for years. Every journalist hates them because they're all big United fans apparently, even ones like David Conn, who has supported City all his life, they think he's a secret United agent out to get them. My advice to them and any Newcastle fan who is already developing such a persecution complex would be to grow up.

It's basically all financial criteria I think. Have they ever been bankrupt, have they got any fraud convictions etc?

Bruce would be like the red and blue signs left standing all over the shop, a lingering reminder of Ashley's stench.

There is no media bias against NUFC other than in your own head. The person who wrote that article, who has been writing about this sort of thing for years, long before Newcastle entered the picture, described a potential Saudi buyout of Man United dozens and dozens of times as a "doomsday for football"

This sort of thing does us no favours. Only a matter of time before we start railing against the institutionalised anti-NUFC agenda at Amnesty.

It's down to $2 a barrel today isn't it?

There's a great passage from a book that Ken reads out about life under Ashley, can't believe I've not heard it before.

66 points in this meaningless shite but doesn't know exactly how many games Dynamo Kiev have played in the Champions League. Cunt. Ahem. Nice one Yorkie, good quiz.

It's not hyperbole to say that the Saudis are one of the closest things on Earth at the moment to the Nazis is it? If you were going to pick the most brutal regime around, is there one worse? North Korea possibly but at least they're not bombing anyone. The UK had pretty good relations with the Nazi regime up until the outbreak of war, Edward VIII was a friend of Hitler. I don't think "our government likes them" is the most robust defence, you could say the same about Assad and Gaddafi, these people are always our "friends" until they're not. You missed the point. Take all that moral s*** stuff to the other thread, not this one. Jeez. This is the main takeover thread. It's going to be discussed whether you like it or not. Jeez. So what do you want to happen, Wullie? Another boycoutt? Not at all. A matter for the individual conscience this one I think. I don't think the FA/PL should be allowing any states to own football clubs but that ship's already sailed. So what will be your personal stance out of interest? Will you continue to support the club and would you go to games? Good question. Honest answer is I don't know. They've not even taken over yet so will just wait and see how things look once their feet are under the table I guess. Could be a long time before a ball is kicked at SJP but I don't have the aversion to giving them money that I had with Ashley. Out of interest, when was the last time you went? Late last season for me but I've not been regularly for several years now, particularly to home games. I must confess I'm desperate to go back, lots driven by sentiment. Telling my old man when Rafa left that I was genuinely done with it all and wouldn't watch or listen anymore was heartbreaking. When he text me about games or asked on the phone, every time he thought I was joking or going to change my mind. I suppose this is another reason why I'm probably also erring on the positives here; Newcastle was our bond and a huge part of my life. I spent several weekends this last year genuinely pleased to have time back, do fun stuff and not worry about the football. But that was because virtually every semblance of hope was lost. Just the idea of having that kernel of hope and those dreams of any form of enjoyment back kicks up all those feelings again. 2014 for me, fucked it off when they made it clear Pardew was staying. I've barely even watched us play this season so I freely admit that at this point, I'm looking at things as much from a neutral POV as I am a supporter. I consider the money issue to be an irrelevance really, I greatly objected to giving Ashley money because I considered it to be keeping him here (and it was, which is why he's now apparently selling up). Using Uber or buying petrol isn't the same as supporting a football club, quite obviously, and it's not them having my money i object to. It's hard to say where the line is without knowing what the Saudis do politically in future. Like, what is going to happen with their war in Yemen? Our club's good name is always going to be tied to whatever they're up to.

Especially the inter Milan players 2002/2003 champions league group stages. Francesco Coco! That’s like from the Lamine Diatta vaults of footnote players. I was going to put Coco, but I stupidly didn't ask whether it included trial players or not. Yorkie said it included friendlies, which was a bit of a clue because why would you say that otherwise? I didn't get it like, wouldn't have come up with that in a million years.

I really needed a good half hour to sit and think about some of those questions.

It's not hyperbole to say that the Saudis are one of the closest things on Earth at the moment to the Nazis is it? If you were going to pick the most brutal regime around, is there one worse? North Korea possibly but at least they're not bombing anyone. The UK had pretty good relations with the Nazi regime up until the outbreak of war, Edward VIII was a friend of Hitler. I don't think "our government likes them" is the most robust defence, you could say the same about Assad and Gaddafi, these people are always our "friends" until they're not. You missed the point. Take all that moral s*** stuff to the other thread, not this one. Jeez. This is the main takeover thread. It's going to be discussed whether you like it or not. Jeez. So what do you want to happen, Wullie? Another boycoutt? Not at all. A matter for the individual conscience this one I think. I don't think the FA/PL should be allowing any states to own football clubs but that ship's already sailed. So what will be your personal stance out of interest? Will you continue to support the club and would you go to games? Good question. Honest answer is I don't know. They've not even taken over yet so will just wait and see how things look once their feet are under the table I guess. Could be a long time before a ball is kicked at SJP but I don't have the aversion to giving them money that I had with Ashley.

That was solid.

You gonna play? Has it not already started? Still time to get in

That’s not true though is it? Yes, it is true. Having spent time there with work (our company has since disinvested, some macro reasoning but also based on valuations), I have spoken to tens if not hundreds of people in their twenties and thirties in Riyadh who are open, global and good people who have studied outside Saudi and want to see and be part of it become a more open and tolerant society, while also being fiercely proud of their country and their religion. Saudi Arabia has a million miles to go to become close to being as progressive and advanced in certain areas as they could and should be if held to Western standards, but if you genuinely think they aren't moving forward in this regard when you look at generational trends, then you've not looked beyond headlines in the last few years. By way of a very obvious example, last time I was there several meetings with big banks and the regulator were led by females. Something this simple was inconceivable until fairly recently. Are they trying to use sports to improve their global standing and become more integrated in the western world? Absolutely. Does this make me feel uncomfortable when associated with my team? In some ways it does, in others I'm fairly accepting that this is cause and effect of broader society these days. Am I going to stop following / not attend games as a result? No, it means too much and it's been way too long since I've been able to truly enjoy watching Newcastle. If this comes off then it's mine and my dad's time to get to games and have some hope while he's still able. If it makes me a hypocrite so be it. It does get somewhat boring reading the standard left sided trope rolled out whenever it can be applied of Saudi (or US, or Israel) bad and evil without any balancing factors for the other sides involved in these proxy wars and nothing more than rudimentary understanding of the underlying centuries of religious and political discourse that have got the world to where it is. It becomes even more taxing watching it played out on a football forum. But such is life. Interesting post

That's fair. I meant more in terms of the most awful people on the planet to be owned by, we're not far off the top of the table. It doesn't feel good to me.

The Saudis bomb civilians and execute journalists man, it's not that ridiculous a comparison! It really should be, this is a football forum, we shouldn't be talking about fucking foreign policy. But this is where we inevitably end up when governments are allowed to buy our football clubs.

You know for a fact though, if the Nazis were around today and they bought a Premier League club, their fans would 100% be out in force on Twitter with "What about Abramovich though?"

It's not hyperbole to say that the Saudis are one of the closest things on Earth at the moment to the Nazis is it? If you were going to pick the most brutal regime around, is there one worse? North Korea possibly but at least they're not bombing anyone. The UK had pretty good relations with the Nazi regime up until the outbreak of war, Edward VIII was a friend of Hitler. I don't think "our government likes them" is the most robust defence, you could say the same about Assad and Gaddafi, these people are always our "friends" until they're not. You missed the point. Take all that moral s*** stuff to the other thread, not this one. Jeez. This is the main takeover thread. It's going to be discussed whether you like it or not. Jeez. So what do you want to happen, Wullie? Another boycoutt? Not at all. A matter for the individual conscience this one I think. I don't think the FA/PL should be allowing any states to own football clubs but that ship's already sailed.