Wandy

Not sure about that mind. We are the USA's pet, and when they say "jump" we say "how high?". Added to the fact that we need a post-Brexit trade deal with them too, I wouldn't be surprised to see this get messy. It's why I am just enjoying this ride while I can and, especially in the current climate, won't be making any confident assumptions about how long this ownership will be around for. Just hope they stick around long enough to build that new training complex.....

This is a bit of a concern mind. It was be so very NUFC to have the rug pulled away from us just when things were getting good.

Another quick glance over at the lunatic asylum and it seems our rise up the table is really upping the ante in their rage-state, as the penny drops a little further about what has happened over the last 12 months. And, can anyone explain what this loon is going on about???....."The vast majority of fans have no idea about Saudi Arabia and the Middle East in general. To compare the situation to Man City is ludicrous - the UAE is barely 10m with only 20% being Emirati. Given the oil wealth it is easy to keep 2m citizens happy - they couldn't care less about the other 8m, Meanwhile Saudi is 35m people with a very young population with a much smaller migrant workforce. Keeping that young population happy is going to be very difficult. You also have to remember MBS broke the succession rules and later locked his enemies in a hotel and took their assets. He will have many many enemies and sooner or later it will go pop. We will have the final laugh here, of that I am absolutely certain". So the Saudis will have to sell up in order to keep the Saudi people happy? That's a new one mind.

Nope. Pretty much everyone agrees that the stadium needs to remain somewhere in the city centre. Build a replica of the all-new Bernabeu on Castle Leazes. It’s going to be the best stadium in the world when finished and will make Spurs’ stadium look like the Stadium of Shite. if the Saudis expect to own us for a long time then this is the level of ambition I imagine they will have for us. And if so, we really need to get on board with it.

He will get a new & improved contract very soon to fend off Madrid IMO.

If the club remains as as ambitious as it currently is then 52,000 is nowhere near enough. As has been pointed out earlier, there must have been at least 15,000 long-term ST holders who have walked away in the Ashley years who now cannot get back in. Of course, the club must stay in the city centre....that is non-negotiable. But the idea that moving a few hundred yards north to Castle Leazes would "tear the soul" from the club is absolute bollocks. It would mean a bit more walking for a few minutes and that's it. Another very good reason for a fresh start in a new stadium is that, although many people want to come back, they also don't want to sit up in the Gods, which would be the only option in an extended SJP. The club needs a stadium that is basically a bigger version of how SJP looked in the 1990s. Symmetrical stands so that good views are accessible everywhere, and also that ensure the atmosphere is kept within the stadium. People go on about the atmosphere at SJP but in reality it is pitiful compared to 25 years ago. That's due to the changed design of the stadium and also the many thousands of the more militant, vociferous supporters walking away. Only an all-new stadium will rectify those issues.

Mehrdad mentioned ongoing discussions with the council in today's takeover anniversary interview. If they've got any sense then those talks will have involved discussing the possibilty of building a new stadium at Castle Leazes and remodelling the park. Sorry to say but SJP will probably never cut it as an elite stadium. There are simply too many obstacles.

Same here. I let them off with so much shit in the 90s and then kind of wished I'd given them more grief when they were doing well under Reidy and giving it the whole "2-1 FTM Top Dogs" shit of the early 2000s. But they again turned to shit, we soared again under Bobby and yet I still couldn't be bothered to grief them. Then we had the Ashley years and the six-in-a-row, the relegation in 2016 and once again they milked it for all it was worth. Now we have seen them be an utter shambles for the last 6 seasons and we've now shaken off Ashley, with a dazzling future possibly in store, with them going nowhere....and I still cant be arsed to properly take the piss. It's easy to see why though. Going excessively out of the way to mock them would just make us small time, like them. So it really is best to just ignore them. And, ironically, that actually gets them wound up a lot more than any pisstaking ever could. It's much better to be hated than ignored.

Yeah if it had been them hitting the jackpot and us in the shit then I would have been mortified. And it was pretty terrifying when it looked like they were going to be rich with the Dell takeover. So for that reason I don't blame them for losing interest or even thinking of walking away from football if we become an elite club. What I cannot stand about them though is the OTT personal stuff....scum, vermin, murderers, horse punchers etc. And using a few individual idiots in our fanbase to fit their warped narrative. Like you say though, it's just a comfort blanket.

The ones that I know, and at work, are quiet as a mouse too. You can tell they are quietly seething though when the office is chirpy with all of the NUFC positivity. They are gagging for something to go wrong for us too, hence when we had the blip against Bournemouth a few weeks ago I had some texts from one of them regarding Howe "getting sacked hahaha". I have actually been easy on him for the last 5 years of their laughable existence but quickly shut him up. It's unimaginable how bad they would have been if the two clubs' fortunes had been reversed over the last 5 years. The mouth on them would have been off the scale.

jlaws is probably the biggest whopper on there actually. Exile1968 is just an unhinged, deranged lunatic but this jlaws prick actually tries to present himself as some kind of intellectual because he has worked with Saudis in the past, or some shit like that.

One year ago to the day when their world fell apart. And cued up over 10,000 posts of delicious Mackem tears in less than a week. https://www.readytogo.net/smb/threads/nufc-sportwashing.1557357/page-352 12 months on, some of them have gnashed their teeth down to the gums.

https://twitter.com/moneymikeashley/status/1445819247133745152?s=61&t=kxzMyjQzli945s4u7vdq4w Just reading through the thread from a year ago and this tweet from Money Mike caught my eye. Will we ever find out if it was really him, or one of his team? This tweet sounded uncannily like it really was him tweeting.

I distinctly remember feeling gutted as I was sure we'd have beaten the dippers that day.

I can only imagine what this place would have been like if it had existed 25 years ago when our game got cancelled after Diana died.

The last time this lot were ahead of NUFC in terms of number of trophies won was at the end of the 1922/23 season. Nearly ONE HUNDRED years ago. Take out the 73 cup win and their entire status, in terms of any kind of success, happened pre-WW2. Since the end of the war though they have been in slow and steady decline, and have done almost nothing of note outside of the cup win (which was also a giant-killing freak result). Relegated 11 times though, which is impressively shit. Their average league position since 1945 is something like 22nd in the entire league pyramid. Making them, officially, a second tier club. The Championship is their natural habitat.

Hahaha, this is absolutely incredible. My last post in this thread was saying that Neil is the best manager they have had for 20 years and that he would get them up within a year or two. Well, they are absolutely goosed now. Its impressive how this lot find all-new ways to be a laughing stock. Never change Sunderland, never change.

Hope so. The guy sounded ridiculously negative, to be fair. But I do have a feeling that expectations should be tempered with regards to what this lad will do for us.

Has anyone else listened to this? https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0cwb5cn Not exactly a glowing reference. I hope people aren’t expecting this to be a Shearer-esque signing. I’m confident that Eddie will extract every ounce of ability out of this lad but it seems we have wildly overpaid for him.

From Whickham isn't he? He hasn't changed at all since the late 90s when he was posting on the old Strawberry message board. He reeks of someone who swam against the tide, chose to support SAFC whilst living in a NUFC stronghold...and has regretted it ever since. Wont ever admit of course.

They aren't coming up this season, but if they stay patient with Neil he will get them up either next season or the one after that. He's the best manager they have had since Reidy.

Looking forward to reading the Gerrard thread on Villa Talk tonight.

With the state that Man Utd are in, it's now become apparent that 6th place is very much up for grabs. Even with just our current squad I think we will now be in the running for it. We will undoubtedly bring in more players too in the two windows of this season so it's not unrealistic to expect us to think that we might actually grab 6th now. Lots of things will have to go our way too, of course.

No, I am just highlighting their hypocrisy and duplicity. They simply do not give a fuck about what's going on in Saudi Arabia. Their whole agenda is based on the fact that NUFC are, in theory, awash with money and are seemingly on their way to becoming an elite club.

Exactly. And for that reason, we can have a go at the Dreyfuss family for their involvement in the middle east, the same way others can have a go at our Saudi ownership.