Chris_R

Managed to dig it out from my emails, it's from back in 2013 and looking at section XII I think it's actually a BAE form rather than a Saudi one - though it doesn't explicitly say, it was just in a load of attachments I received and was asked to fill in and return. Still, even if it is a BAE form, the contents will just be to protect the visitors against falling foul of any Saudi laws.

Despite how it still is, it's a lot better now than when I first went in 2013. Think I've posted about it before but they are modernising at quite a pace. The problem is, all the old people (who are generally in senior positions in companies and society) are very resistant to the change. And I get that because they've already seen such massive change in their life times. There's even rumours that booze WILL be allowed soon in tourist areas as part of Vision 2030. But that's yet to happen. I don't mind the lack of booze for a few weeks. I drink enough here, I see Saudi like my trip to the Betty Ford clinic.

Mid-2020, I think? Spent 5 weeks in Jeddah. Don't *think* I've been since, but tbh I travel enough that I've lost track. Was supposed to be back in Jeddah December just gone however it got pushed back indefinitely, but will almost certainly be in Al Majmaah some time early summer or late spring.

Well, obviously they're at a slightly higher level than me that goes without saying but I normally work for the Royal Saudi Airforce when I go out there (I had to get subcontracted through BAE for complicated reasons) and I count a few Saudi majors and colonels as friends for many years and have been lucky enough to go to their houses, and I had absolutely no chance of getting a sniff of anything. From everything I know and from how the Saudis are about alcohol, there's zero chance. None. Not only can you not get it because it's just not available in any shop whatsoever to anyone at all, but you dare not even ASK anyone about it because it's so totalitarian over there that you fear they might just march you off somewhere. Alcohol is against their Muslim beliefs, and they take those incredibly seriously. They hand out leaflets on the plane on the way over there with big banners on saying "DEATH TO DRUG SMUGGLERS" telling you exactly what will happen if you bring in the wrong stuff, and even though I don't even take paracetamol over with me and touch nothing harder than alcohol these days, I still have that moment of panic where I wonder if I accidentally packed a few kilos of coke. First time I went over I had to sign a form saying I wouldn't even JUGGLE. I shit you not. Don't equate Saudi to more relaxed Muslim countries like the UAE (which I've also been to loads) where you can get alcohol as long as you're not Muslim. It's not like that at all. Maybe they do find a way to get some, but because you cannot trust anyone around you and because you are in such an alien environment and know how illegal it is, you'd be fucking stupid to try.

Also thinking about it, they'll almost certainly all have single-entry visas, which mean they can't do a border run even if they were utterly crazy. If they leave to go to Bahrain, they'll not get back in.

Yeah, you can go across the causeway to Bahrain, that's the usual thing to do on a weekend from Dhahran, but you can't bring any back with you. The cars are searched on crossing back in. Just not worth it, the penalties are massive, and I'm not talking financially. It'd be all levels of madness to even try.

There really isn't. I've been to Saudi many times, for many weeks at a time. I've been to Jeddah, Dhahran and Riyadh. There is no alcohol available at all in the country as a whole. None. There's one exception - The British Aerospace compounds. I've stayed on them a few times, and there the expats make homebrew. But that's the only chance of alcohol in Saudi. Oh, and embassy parties. But I doubt they'll get to any of them! Oh and they won't be able to get on the BAE compounds, there's no way on them. They're walled compounds that are strictly for employees only. I got in as I was working as a consultant for BAE but even then the application process was horrific and took weeks. There's zero chance of them getting in there just because they can't go a week without a beer.

Worked well the last time someone did that.

I know nothing of Van De Beek, having had my head out of football for so long, but a quick google confuses me. Metro says he wants to leave this window, fair enough so far.... https://metro.co.uk/2021/11/14/manchester-united-star-donny-van-de-beek-decides-to-leave-club-in-january-transfer-window-15598721/ In there it says "United are in a strong position given the midfielder has over three years to run on his deal but his stock has plummeted given he’s barely kicked a ball in 18 months." However Wikipedia says he played 36 games in all competitions last year, and has played in 13 so far this season. That seems to be stretching the concept of "barely kicked a ball" quite a bit when I went there expecting a Phil Jones level of footballing participation.

If we go into the Watford game with the same players in DC and MC, then we'll likely have a very tough day. We're absolutely desperate for a reliable player somewhere in the middle of the pitch.

Also seems to prepare us of Ameobi-like levels of offside....

I think that was it yes, Suarez. Still, they didn't sell him to Arsenal so maybe they were onto something?

Wasn't there a big club famously tried to claim that release clauses just gave you the right to talk to a player, but they still didn't have to let him leave? Man U with De Gea rings a bell?

I mean, I'm sure they can get a loan. Or pay themselves for the replacement player in installments. Also aren't minimum fee release clauses normally entirely up front? Otherwise you'd have to specify what payment terms were valid in the minimum fee release clause itself, otherwise the buying club could say "we'll just pay you over 100 years then".

Took a couple of days to announce Trippier.

But what's the catalyst for him turning to shite so suddenly? I just don't get it. Strikers go through hot and cold spells. If he was just back after a busted leg or something you could claim he wasn't the same anymore, or if there'd been a gradual drop off over time you could say age has caught up, but from what I can see he scored loads at the back end of last season but hasn't scored many (someone remind me how many, I don't think the exact number has been clarified yet for this season so far?) yet this campaign. That could just be bad luck and he's going through a natural dry spell like all strikers do. It could be Burnley not providing him with the service for whatever reason. But I cannot see a reason for an immediate drop off in form between the back end of last season and the start of this. Certainly his age is no issue at just 30. He's been a consistent double-digit PL scorer for the last 4 seasons so it's not even as if him doing well at the back end of last year was a hot streak, that's normal for him.

I quoted 92/93 because once you take anomalies like Shearer out, people weren't scoring that many in the mid-late 90s. To go the other side of that, in both 97/98 and 98/99 the PL top scorer had just 18. And the 2 seasons you've shown there, aside from Shearer being Shearer at the top and one record-breaking season from Cole, don't look any different from the last few years once you look at the players further down. You've quoted 94/95 to back your point up where 12 players scored 15 or more, but in 19/20 we had the same number of players do exactly the same. You've basically just disproven your own point. Things were not different then, there were not more strikers scoring more goals by any measurable amount. You might be able to cherry pick and find a single "blip" year like 93/94 where it was a slightly more than a single "dip" year like we had last year, but as a footballing era overall there was absolutely no difference.

I'm sorry I'm not having this, it's absolute bollocks. Teddy Sheringham top scored in 1992/93 with 22 goals. Most seasons the top scorers look very similar to this last couple of seasons, you can see for yourself here: https://www.premierleague.com/stats/top/players/goals The exception being 1993/94, where there were a lot of people getting a lot of goals, and there were a couple of standout anomalies like Shearer having 30+goal seasons around that time but then you only have to go back a season or 2 to see Salah do the same. In short, it wasn't really any different and Ferdinand was an absolute monster of a player, both for QPR and for us. I remember seeing him play for QPR at St James', I think the season before we signed him and he was absolutely immense. He dominated everything, he was just amazing and I was over the moon when we signed him. I want Wood to do well, I genuinely think he will and am very optimistic about him from what I've seen, but there's not many footballers on Earth fit to lace Sir Les's boots for that 5 or 6 year period in the mid to late 90s when he played for us and QPR.

I think that's an optimistic comparison - Sir Les scored 60 league goals in the 3 seasons before he joined us from QPR.

This. I'll be honest, I knew (and I guess still know) very little about him. My falling out of love with football over the past decade meant all I really knew was that he was a Burnley forward, cheap when they bought him and not too young. So my gut reaction was "What the fuck are we buying him for?". However looking into his record and the clips of his goals, he seems quite an astute buy - if it goes ahead. Getting double digits 4 years in a row for a shithouse team like Burnley - how many would he get for City? And what would his transfer value be then? He also looks quick for a big man, strong, great in the air and can put his foot through a football. Overall I like what I see and read about him. In short he's definitely PL quality and if we create chances he'll get goals. Clearly at 30 and with Wilson also still on our books he's not a long-term signing but he'll do a job for the next couple of seasons at least and could be massively important to us. If he scores enough to keep us up, he could be one of the greatest signings ever and could really write a name for himself into our history much like David Kelly did.

I was in the Milburn paddock just behind the home dugout, so basically right in front of where he struck it from. Took quite a while for us all to cotton on. Fucking hell that was nearly 30 years ago.

Robert Lee likes this (Even more annoying that it got disallowed so WE could have a free kick, not sure I'll ever get over that. Best non-goal I'll ever see.)

We probably are getting the raw end of it, but agents have no say over transfer fees. If anything, agents want LOWER transfer fees because then there's more money left for their client's wages.

True, none of them use social media, you're right.

That's such a shit take. There's absolutely no reason professional footballers won't be aware of the forums for the clubs they play for. They're normal people and generally very tech savvy. They'll know these places exist, it's foolish to think otherwise. I'm not suggesting any Newcastle players are regulars on here or even post at all, but they'll know the forum is here at the very least and I'd be astonished if none of them at least browse it occasionally.