Wandy

Yeah he didn't set the place on fire when managing us but, in his defence, he had the unenviable task of being the first manager after Arthur Cox and the original Keegan Era. When Keegan left in 1984 their was a vaccum at the club and you could feel it. And to be fair to Big Jack, if I remember right, he did have us top of the league after the first 3 games.

Very classy tribute that from Clive Tyldesley.

If the takeover falls through then it's unlilkely to mean a significant decrease in home attendances from those pre-Covid. However that also means that the club is still in a position where it now needs to give away 10K free season tickets to fill SJP. And what that also means is that those 10K who walked away last summer will be those who are now saying if the takeover collapses they are done with football altogether. Which means that the club has a long term problem of having to fill 10k seats with full-paying customers. Whereas before a departing Ashley may have seen the 10K return it will now be the case that not even that happening will get them back. For those people their grievances will now run even deeper than just getting rid of Mike Ashley.

It will be an absolutely horrendous waste of time and money if he is here next season under new owners. Having said that, as much as I love Rafa I also moving away from the idea of wanting him to come back too as it is simply never the same the second time around. We need a fresh start...no idea who that might be at the moment but this is where I am at now.

He's going to be kept in the job, even in the event of a takeover, isn't he?

Ashley wouldn't have signed a deal with those kind of conditions attached.

If the PL somehow have the audacity to still block this then I hope Ashley lives up to his "you have no idea how nasty we can be" reputation and takes them to the absolute cleaners. For the first time ever I'd be rooting for him. Would love it if they had the triple whammy of Ashley, Staveley and PIF going for them at the same time and stripping them of a few hundred million.

You say that, but I worry that new owners would listen to this relentless media bullshit and start being influenced by it. Especially if they start taking a microphone on the streets and radio phone-ins to the most dim-witted element of our support who will give it the "Brucie is a Geordie" bollocks.

Danny Murphy and Phil Neville desperately trying to get Bruce the gig if the takeover happens. These cunts from the establishment are gong to try every trick in the book to throw a spanner in our works. "Newcastle need a manager who knows the area" ...they are absolutely desperate to keep the stereotype alive and kicking and keep NUFC "in their box".

They are starting to show a few signs of 'bricking it' tonight Yep. They have been cocky as fuck over the last few weeks but their smugness is melting away as we speak. Already they are talking the North East down once again with their rancid "what top player will go there?" bullshit. Honestly, these cunts truly have found their level in the 3rd division.

With the takeover all of a sudden looking likely, this lot are now clinging to the belief that it will be a disaster for us because Amanda Stavely had a rough week in her court case and therefore is a hustler....whatever the fuck that means. Mackematics at its finest.

Can't agree more with this. In 35 years of following NUFC I have seen a lot of world class players but whenever someone asks me who is the best player I have ever seen in a Black & White shirt I always say David Ginola in his first 3 months at the club. Better than Keegan, Waddle, Beardsley, Gascoigne or Shearer. In those first few months he was simply unplayable.

The most enjoyable NUFC game since Fulham away last season. On another note...

As someone pointed out earlier, if there was little the buyers could do if turned down, this would have been rejected months ago Not necessarily. I have no doubt that they do want to pass it through but they know that if they do have to reject it then there will be no legal repercussions for them.

I have to say I have always thought that this commonly floated idea, that the PL could be hammered legally if they rejected it, to be founded on nothing whatsoever. It just seems that someone on the internet floated the idea and then everyone else ran with it. I also think there would be very little the buyers could do if they are turned away so, as irritating as Penn's negativity is to witness, he is probably right about this.

No, and by the end of next week. Regardless, if there is no announcement by July 1st I have already vowed to mentally check out of this farce and assume for certain that it will eventually be rejected. Then I can get on with forgetting about football for good. Until then, the small sliver of hope I have will keep me engaged and checking all of the news and forums. But I feel almost certain we have yet another devastating blow coming our way.

This will be the get-out that the PL need to reject the Saudi bid. This yank can fuck off, another Glazer who will use us entirely for personal profit. If this current deal is rejected thats me done. Just put us out of our misery you incompetent pack of cunts.

After feeling quite euphoric this afternoon, once it established that the report wasn't a completely devastating blow to the takeover hopes, I'm now coming down and starting to feel pessimistic again about the chances of this going through. It's now well establsihed that the PL are within their rights to make a decision either way, based on their O&D test, and I think they will think "better the devil you know" and side with Qatar. Desperately hope I am wrong but that sinking feeling is settling back in.

Please let the takeover be announced in the next few days to send them over the edge.....

My thoughts exactly. It will be identical to last year except this one actually made it to the O&D tests. So not identical then.... Identical as in we never really got to hear why that deal never came off. All we got was a newspaper interview from Ashley with him whining on & asking why a wealthy arab Prince could not just stump up a few extra million if he wanted NUFC so badly. There was no bin Zayed bid ffs.. it was obvious even at the time. Yeah right, that's why there was a thread about 500 pages long devoted to it.

My thoughts exactly. It will be identical to last year except this one actually made it to the O&D tests. So not identical then.... Identical as in we never really got to hear why that deal never came off. All we got was a newspaper interview from Ashley with him whining on & asking why a wealthy arab Prince could not just stump up a few extra million if he wanted NUFC so badly.

My thoughts exactly. It will be identical to last year except this one actually made it to the O&D tests. How can an owners and directories test just rumble on and eventually just fizzle out? It won't. But if they fail the test I suspect we will never get a full explanation of why.

My thoughts exactly. It will be identical to last year except this one actually made it to the O&D tests.

Who the hell would the PL have to answer to legally if they pass it through? The whole "must be legally watertight" stuff sounds like a prep for a challenge from the buyers IMO.

Said No all along (other than for a couple of days of false hope when NUFC.com chirped up) so I'm sticking with that. Not really arsed either way now anyway. Totally bored with it all. Think you are kidding yourself tbh. I am very arsed. Have devoted a huge amount of emotional energy once again following this saga, just like I did last year. And even though I feel certain of what is coming I am still dreading the heartbreak of experiencing it fall through. Just hope I can move on fairly swiftly and forget about football altogether.