Chris_R

Thanks for agreeing with me.

Important point but I'm seeing something quite disgusting in this and other threads relating to the takeover. Can people PLEASE stop putting an apostrophe in "Saudis" when talking about multiple Saudi people? "Saudi's", with an apostrophe, indicates something belongs to a single person or entity called Saudi, for example "This is Saudi's pen", where the pen belongs to Saudi. Writing "We're being taken over by Saudi's" is nonsensical and offensive to my eyes. Thanks.

That's a fair point. That's enough wine on a school night for me, I think....

So we held a 2 hour call with Poch today, starting at 6pm, and the broke the news about it on a tweet before 7pm. Are we supposed to believe that half-way through the actual call, Poch thought "Fucking hell, better text Indykaila!"

I must admit, when there's something I don't care about I also take the time to record a video saying how little I care about it, and then upload it to YouTube. I always feel that's one of the best ways to demonstrate my indifference for a subject.

Am I alone in not getting the Charnley hate? I mean, he's clearly overpromoted and clearly a yes man, but I don't get people hating him for saying yes to the job. I mean, imagine you're working in the box office and by a series of lucky happenings you find yourself offered the chairman's job of the club I assume he supports. Doesn't matter how shit the salary is, you're qualified to sell tickets in the box office, that's it. You're still being offered a massive payrise over your old job and it's not as if you're turning this down so you can go be Arsenal's chairman. I think the massive majority of people would, if in the same position, have also taken the job. And when your condition of continued employment is to do what Ashley says, then you do it. Maybe we'd have thought we could wield some positive influence, make the best of the situation, whatever. But most of us, coming from his background and with his prospects, would have taken the job. Fucking brilliant thing for a box office ticket seller to put "Chairman of NUFC" on his CV when you go for his next job, that's for certain. He's set himself up for life, let's put it this way I seriously doubt his next job will be ticket seller at Whitley Bay Ice Rink. Charnley as chairman symbolises everything which is wrong with Newcastle United. He's a symbol of our underinvestment in key positions, our continued cutting of corners and our quest for mediocrity. I detest everything about what he represents, but I really can't hate him for taking the role or for not standing up to Ashley because it's hard to imagine anyone in his position really doing anything else. It's also hard to judge his competence as a chairman, because he is just a mouthpiece. He's not done what we've wanted, but he's done exactly what his boss asked of him for what, 6 or 7 years? Probably come out of it with some cracking stories to tell, too....

I get that, but it's not done until it's done. We've all seen the youtube "Early celebration fail" compilations, and I refuse to add myself to that list.

Even if it fell through for completely legitimate non-Ashley reasons, I'd still be utterly done. Now I watch the matches without caring about the score. If this fell through I doubt I could even watch another match, knowing what might have been.

If you're not interested in anything that's not a big development, I suggest you just F5 the main forum page and wait for a thread title change. Because everything until then is going to be speculation and nothing new.

I mean yeah the original poster of Arabic tweets could clearly do more, but are others really so incapable of copy and pasting something into Google translate? Takes like 3 seconds.

This was a new keyboard at the start of the month.

I mean, you understand we're not allowed nice things, don't you? You do know how the world works?

Yes. I’m not buying into anything before it is official. But I do like the excitement. This for me too. I refuse to get excited until it's sealed. Been bitten too many times before.

He's just a member.

None of them will have the slightest clue who he is. Except maybe Mandy, if she was writing letters to Stifler, I suppose it's possible she might swap convivial texts with Wraith. This is my worry, that they'll have no idea who he is and therefore assume from his large online presence that he holds any kind of value or insight at all, rather seeing him as the weapons-grade, vacuous, bullshit merchant he actually is. And that they'll grant him far more credibility (ie any) than he actually warrants.

Wraith dismissing the meeting happening is surely the greatest proof necessary that it's actually happening. Honestly, if the new owners give him any time of day I'll instantly lose respect for them. Utter bellwhiff of a man.

I get the sentiment, I'm in a similar camp to you, but I don't think you quite understand what Stockholm syndrome is Fair point re Stockholm. I know it's not that, and I even looked online to see if there's a similar thing which does describe how I feel but couldn't find anything. So for some reason chose to stick with Stockholm syndrome even though I knew it was wrong. Maybe when I come off a 3-hour video call I should grab a coffee before I start typing on internet forums.

I feel like someone who has been kept hostage by my abuser for 13 years, and now they've opened the door and told me I can leave. I can see the daylight and smell the fresh air, but I'm just waiting for them to slam the door shut and laugh maniacally at me for even thinking freedom was a possibility. My brain won't even let me begin to process what life on the outside may feel like. I'm Stockholmed up to the eyeballs here.

The new ruler does want change. He's from a new generation, unlike all of the previous ones who were either Ibn Bin Saud himself, or one of his brothers. They finally ran out of brothers though and had to go to a new generation. Things are changing for a reason, he genuinely wants to open up the country. The pace of change since he came in, compared to the previous rulers, has been massive. He can't really even go faster because many of the locals are scared it'll be too much too soon and don't want to lose their identity, so if anything he's having to go at a pace the people will tolerate.

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. Well thought out post. If may I ask what’ exactly is stopping them from moving faster and say bringing in democracy or allowing journalists to be more critical or allowing homosexuality? Say in ten years what kind of regime will we be looking at? I'm not Rafalove, but I've been to Saudi 7 times myself in the last 5 years, normally for about a month at a time. I've been to Riyadh 3 times, Dhahran 3 times, and to Jeddah once. In that time I've seen massive changes, even in just 5 years. They really are progressing, at quite a rate. However you ask what's stopping them allowing homosexuality, and the answer is clearly religion. This won't change. They're the literal centre of the Muslim world, and homosexuality is forbidden under the Quran. Nothing in the Quran is open to change, it can't even be printed in any language other than Arabic and has to stay in its original form, so there's no chance of homosexuality ever being allowed in any Muslim country. Maybe they'll reach a point where its ignored, and indeed largely it IS ignored - Just don't publicise it. I've got a friend who is as camp as Christmas, there's not a hope in hell anyone could speak to him for more than 10 seconds and not know he's gay, and he went to Riyadh just a few months ago and had no problems whatsoever. Religion plays a massive part there, the "call to prayer" is played out audibly many times a day and everything stops, all the shops shut, and all the Muslims go and pray. Then after 15 minutes or so, the shutters come back up and everything reopens. It takes a little getting used to, but if you're out and about as a non-Muslim you just park your arse somewhere and wait for a bit, no big deal. But it does mean there's no way that homosexuality can ever be "Ok" officially. It just can't, because the Quran forbids it. As for other things like allowing journalistic freedom or democracy, well, I can't see the monarchs giving up power willingly. That's not a Saudi thing, that's just a human nature thing. Their power gives them their wealth, there's no way they give that up. But they're hardly the only monarchy on Earth. And as for journalistic freedom, maybe we need to sort our own press out before we criticise anyone else's. Sure, our journalists don't end up chopped up, but the threat of not being in Boris's good books seems enough to stop most of the criticism that they should face. Most of our press is controlled by Rupert Murdoch, they all print whatever he wants. But you can have open discussions in Saudi Arabia. Last time I was there I spent a good couple of hours openly discussing politics with a group of about 6 or 7 Saudis. They were reasonably young and want democracy to come, but they realise it's a forlorn hope for now at least. They welcome the changes that are coming to their country whilst not wanting to lose their identity, women can now drive which everyone agrees is good, they're all absolutely certain that alcohol will soon be introduced for non-Muslim residents though obviously they personally (claim!) they're not interested in that happening. I've spent many evenings walking round the above cities and never once felt unsafe. Everyone has always treat me with respect, I've been lucky enough to be invited to some of their houses for dinner and they're a warm, proud, and welcoming people and I'm lucky enough to count quite a few of them as friends now.

This Sums it up perfectly.

Thanks.

What's this about a 350 page document? I missed the initial reference and now only see people referring to its existence. What is it?

To me, it'll always be St James' Park and that's what I'll always refer to it as. I'd massively prefer them NOT to change the stadium name, and all things being equal that's what I'd always want. But I admit I can be bought. If my choices are: A) Watch Newcastle scrap around 17th with Steve Bruce as manager at St James' Park B) Watch Newcastle win lift the Premier League title at the Prince MBS Arena Then I, for one, welcome our new Saudi Arabian overlords.