I've spent countless months working in Saudi, I know enough of their failings first hand (and good points) as a country, and I'll certainly be critical of them when appropriate. There's lots wrong with Saudi Arabia politically. But you know what? I judge the owner of my football club on the basis of how they run the football club.
Mike Ashley has catastrophically failed there.
I'm not a journalist, I'm not an MP, I'm not an Amnesty International activist. I'm just a football fan, and Newcastle are my club, they always will be. Ultimately, my primary judgement on the owner of my club will be based on how they run that club. Provided that aspect is done well, I'll leave the finger-pointing and tutting to those whose job it is to tut and point fingers at those other things. I will probably even vocally agree with them whilst they do it, but I can let shit slide to a large extent if we're being well-run. And by well-run, I couldn't give a toss about winning anything, I just want a well-run club which tries its hardest to compete and uses its own revenue to reinvest in its facilities and staff. If the British government see fit to keep trading with the Saudis and the Queen will have lunch with them, then why should football fans be expected to hound them out and deny themselves the pleasure of supporting a team which is being well-run and hell, may even win something for the first time in the memory of anyone who doesn't actually need drugs to survive?
What I've had over the last decade and a bit is a shell of a club, with a man owning it stripping all the revenue out of it so the club shops are just re-badged Sports Directs and we get nothing from the sales, we don't get the catering money, half the adverts are for SD with him paying a token fee for the privilege. He just uses us as a glorified advertising hoarding for his tatty, chav sports shops, targeting 17th each year whilst spending the least he humanly can just so he can keep that advertising hoarding on TV whilst stating openly that trying to win a cup doesn't make economical sense ffs. Screw enduring even a single second more of that, it's fucking miserable.
If this goes through I may hate the new owners for their politics, but I'll take them gladly to end a decade of hating the whole club which is far worse, so that I can fill what has frankly become a void in my life on match days. I'll take so that I can stop wanting my own team to lose because getting out of the Premier League for an extended period seemed the only way to get rid of Ashley so I could have a team that actually tries again, even if in a lower division, a team whose successes, however relative, and however modest would at least be something I could enjoy because the club would be trying to improve. Not being able to support your own football club is horrible, and it's not like most of us can pick another one either. I just want a team to support again, even if I can't support the owners. I just want to enjoy matchdays again, supporting a club that wants to be the best it can be. Football has always been a big part of my life from my childhood onwards, I've been stuck in limbo for a decade and that vacuum has been awful.
So no, I cannot and will not ever oppose this takeover.
Amen. Couldn't agree more.
I also worked in KSA many moons ago and know much about their shortcomings, the cultural differences etc but I'll tell you something, the UK is a million miles from perfect and any stones thrown by us would be from a glass house.
