Chris_R

As opposed to the UK where the people are brainwashed by the Murdoch media. FWIW you are not going to get arrested for casually criticising the regime here. I've had some intense debates with locals and nobody has batted an eyelid, and some of them have been openly critical of some things themselves. You just can't organise proper full-scale protests against the government or go publishing dissenting articles. Private free speech is fine. Not saying that the above is great, but it's not as bad as is often portrayed. Guy who was driving me home tonight got pulled over by the police and happily got out his car to remonstrate with the officer. Still got fined, but you clearly don't have to act all meek to anyone in authority. I accidentally drove across a parade ground in an airbase in Dhahran last year during an actual parade (Thanks Google maps! ) and despite the military police coming screaming out after me in a pickup truck, it was all laughed off in the end. It's not some totalitarian hellhole where you'll end up in jail for nothing.

Let's not big up democracy too much - This is a process which has brought us Donald Trump, Boris Johnson and Brexit. FWIW the Saudis are making bold steps to modernise. Look up their "Vision 2030" if you want to see what they're planning on doing, but you cannot do these things overnight. I've spent a lot of time in the country over the last 7 years and indeed I'm in Jeddah right now. I've been talking to the people here about the modernisation and even the young people who do want change are worried that things are happening too quickly. Like any people, they're proud of their culture and worry about its loss and dilution. These things simply cannot change overnight, but the crown prince is determined to do as much as he can and seemingly wants to do things quicker than most of the populace are comfortable with, which tells me things are going absolutely as fast as they can. I'm not suggesting it'll be some paradise in a few years or that it'll be a free and open society, and I'm not sugarcoating the obvious horrific things which have happened and continue to happen here. But it is definitely changing and it can't change any quicker.

Looking at the state of the fat mess, I imagine lots of leaks come from Ashley's end.

Doesn't matter how willing the buyer is, the seller is a cunt and doesn't want to sell. However much is offered, he'll always want £1 more. And for that reason alone we'll never be sold.

Thing is, and you might not like it, but when you buy from those places you very literally DO support kids working 18 hour days in factories and slaves picking coffee beans. That's exactly what you do by patronising those places. You might do it with regret. You might pretend it's not happening. You might hate that they do the bad things they do. But you support them continuing to do those things nonetheless. I think the word you should have used was that it doesn't mean you agree with them. But you quite definitely support them. You're just putting yourself ahead of others, like the vast majority of us do - myself included - because we're too weak, poor, lazy and selfish (in different percentages for each of us) to do anything else. It would be impossible for people to fully look into which company is doing what on a level for people to exclude any company as somewhere they shop. It would be impractical, not impossible. Plus, whilst I could grant people unknowingly buying from a company who do shady things, you were explicitly talking about people shopping at places Primark. You can't play the 'oh I never knew' card on those transactions. I get that not everyone can invest time and effort into checking everything, but if you knowingly shop at shit places or don't even do the most basic of checkpoint because you'd rather live in ignorance and pretend you could never have possibly spent 30 seconds googling a company's ethics, then you're supporting what they do. And as I say, I'm as guilty as most in that regard. Some places I do avoid because their just too blatantly awful, and I look for ethically reared, free range meat and eggs, but I could do a hell of a lot more. And where I don't do enough, I'm supporting those bad practices. We all are.

Thing is, and you might not like it, but when you buy from those places you very literally DO support kids working 18 hour days in factories and slaves picking coffee beans. That's exactly what you do by patronising those places. You might do it with regret. You might pretend it's not happening. You might hate that they do the bad things they do. But you support them continuing to do those things nonetheless. I think the word you should have used was that it doesn't mean you agree with them. But you quite definitely support them. You're just putting yourself ahead of others, like the vast majority of us do - myself included - because we're too weak, poor, lazy and selfish (in different percentages for each of us) to do anything else.

Given how the last 472 takeovers have gone, you might want to plug the toaster in next to it.

I'll take total cunts who invest in the club and make it a success over a total cunt who owns the club just to line his own pockets. Anyway, I'm currently sat in a hotel in Jeddah, so I can hardly take the moral high ground here . If I'd happily take Saudi money to keep a roof over my head, it seems silly to get my pants in a knot over Saudis investing in my football club. (Obviously this will - as per the last 472 takeover rumours - come to nothing, so the whole thing is moot anyway)

-Ctrl-C -Ctrl-V -Edit a few names -Submit article -Repeat next window

More irony in that being his reaction to being called out on reacting over emotionally.

The decade finishes at the end of 2020.

Suppose they better act quick whilst Poch is still available.

OK, but my point stands. Why do people talk as if their loss is of any relevance if they've been going straight to Short? Or am I missing something?

Why do people keep talking about the imminent ending of the parachute payments being a bad thing for them? Weren't they supposedly going straight to Short anyway, so were of no relevance?

"I'm only willing to take a risk on a company if it's made risk-free for me."

I've feel utter apathy. I feel enough for the club to be happy when we score, but getting rid of Ashley is the only important thing and if that takes relegation then bring it on. Accordingly, if West Ham had pegged us back to 3-3 I'd probably just have laughed.

Yep. Rafa's solid defensive foundation and formation, and the players still defending to his drills are the only reason we're doing as well as we are. If Bruce rips that all up, he's screwed.

Watched the Wolves match on my phone, the wife kept asking if I wanted to put it on the big screen but I said no, I'd rather not. I told her I wasn't even interested in turning the commentary up, I was only keeping half an eye out for if any goals went in. When they did, I felt almost nothing for either goal. I wanted to know there'd been goals, but I couldn't celebrate either ours or theirs, I had too many conflicting emotions about both. As soon as Ashley goes, I'll be back to supporting Newcastle fully, but right now I can't wish the club and by proxy him any success at all. I simultaneously love the club but want it to burn. Such a shit way to feel.

CTRL+C, change a few names, CTRL+V. Easiest job in the world.

He didn't even change the seats. They did.

It's either on or off. Can't imagine the richest group of potential owners in football would need to haggle over the price of a third tier football club. Be like me going into the local corner shop and trying to get 1p off a Mars Bar.

His problem is that previously he's been the big name (at least on playing rep) brought in to do better than the last bloke, and often because the club he's joined has sacked their manager for being shit, that's not a hard task as the team had been underperforming. The only way is up etc, it's easy for any manager to look good when the last one was dogshit and was fired. The problem now is that he's joined a team that were overperforming, and the previous manager was a bigger and more famous man with a solid reputation and the respect of the fans, and now he's baffled as to why telling the players to go out and have fun isn't really cutting the mustard and so he's lashing out at everyone because he's confused and, quite frankly, a bit stupid. He's not qualified for the job. He has no answers to anything that's being asked of him and he never will because his only way of working is fundamentally incompatible with what we need. Hopefully he stays though, and takes us down. Fuck it all to hell and back.

Where's this "He'll spend if we go down" rhetoric come from? Last time we went down, we made a surplus of over £30m on transfers.

Forums being taken in by posters claiming to be ITK at takeovers? Only at Sunderland, eh.

Yeah Potter seems like a good manager. Did great things with Östersund in Sweden and I'm not surprised he's got Brighton playing well too.