robbo_11

It was a nice feeling after a number of years to have an actual left back in the team. On a couple of occasions he was caught out position, but thought it was a promising debut given he only trained with the team for a week.

As predicted The Sun now going after Greenwood. Shameless arseholes. Interesting dynamic around this. Stupid thing to do given his status, but historical photos dragged up and then used to make it a constant running story. Who was the last player that was hung out to dry by the press?

Questions still remain about this deal, but it is much better with the mindset that it is over. I'd like Ashley to sell, he clearly is a willing seller which was previously leveled at him. It isn't just the Premier League, but the consortium have some questions remaining.

I remember when the news broke about Rafa and there was a feeling of disbelief, but also a sense of inevitability that nothing will ever work out with our club. The back and forth between manager and club, played out in the media over a period of time before an official statement dropped. I haven't been to a game since the end of that season and it was only when a ticket from a friend became available. Today it was a similar feeling, with no real attachment to the investment group, but just a flat, dismal thought about what could have been. The process has been frustrating, although from reading this thread it would seem a lot of fans invested hope in there being a change. I just want a club that I can be proud of, that has an awareness of the community that supports it and the people that challenge it to be the best that it can. We've drifted along in the hope of remaining in the Premier League due to the huge financial benefits clubs receive simply for turning up - partly due to the vast overseas broadcasting deals. Football is a product, but your club is what you talk to your granddad about during a Sunday tea - it's the topic with friends that you haven't seen in a while discussing past games - the icebreaker at an event where you don't know anyone. For too long we simply haven't been a club and the longer this antipathy continues the more likely Newcastle United becomes a past time for the majority rather than the few.

I remember when the news broke about Rafa and there was a feeling of disbelief, but also a sense of inevitability that nothing will ever work out with our club. The back and forth between manager and club, played out in the media over a period of time before an official statement dropped. I haven't been to a game since the end of that season and it was only when a ticket from a friend became available. Today it was a similar feeling, with no real attachment to the investment group, but just a flat, dismal thought about what could have been. The process has been frustrating, although from reading this thread it would seem a lot of fans invested hope in there being a change. I just want a club that I can be proud of, that has an awareness of the community that supports it and the people that challenge it to be the best that it can. We've drifted along in the hope of remaining in the Premier League due to the huge financial benefits clubs receive simply for turning up - partly due to the vast overseas broadcasting deals. Football is a product, but your club is what you talk to your granddad about during a Sunday tea - it's the topic with friends that you haven't seen in a while discussing past games - the icebreaker at an event where you don't know anyone. For too long we simply haven't been a club and the longer this antipathy continues the more likely Newcastle United becomes a past time for the majority rather than the few.

To be honest the PIF structure includes MbS who guides the board decisions and it includes the Minister of Commerce, Tourism, Investment, Finance and then Al-Rumayyan. Underneath the board you've then got their executives which include people you might expect would be involved in this sort of purchase such as Turqi Al-Nowaiser, Bander Mogren (he is included on the NCUK investment document) or Yasir AlSalman. There is no inside knowledge here and these people might not be anything to do with the takeover, but given job titles and information in public domain you'd have to question if they have any involvement at all. I would imagine the majority of these people would need to be looked at should they influence anything within PIF and a lot of them will have ties to the Saudi government. I think reports like we've seen over the last couple of days are par for course in this story, positive noises out of Saudi followed by positive noises out of Qatar offering conflicting reports. Until the Premier League make a decision this is going to continue as 'news' is drip fed to sources.

It's been mentioned a few times over the last few pages, but journalists still have a job to do. Following a 0-0 with Brighton the next article will have to be something takeover related to fill the gap of the non-story. I could write an article, publish it and then get it drip fed into the NUFC twitter world just as someone slagging off Newcastle did a few days ago to get a response. We've got a narrative being made with snippets of information, non of it fact checked or confirmed by anyone close to the deal (i.e. Newcastle United or the Premier League - by all means the Premier League are have not usually confirmed an owner has passed/failed a test given the confidential nature). A quick Google search of 'premier league takeover' shows articles from Daily Express, Chronicle Live, Give me Sport, The Mag, BBC and The Sun all directly linked to the Newcastle takeover all on page 1. There is one article from The Guardian regarding the WSL and an opposition to the Premier League taking it over. There is also direct links to Twitter with all but three not related to NUFC. It's hard to ignore a story when it features nearly everywhere, but nothing of note has been confirmed and it's still a waiting game.

Was there not a fraud case against Mauriss with someone finding the legal papers?

Could be a sliding doors moment this close season (however long/short it is). Takeover or not, there should be a number of player changes that take place as can easily see between 5 - 10 players leaving including Yedlin, Atsu with some loans not made permanent such as Bentaleb and Lazaro. Hopefully it's an exciting summer!

Carroll is finished at this level, could see him retiring after next season rather than dropping down. Would only be useful final 10 minutes if trying to nick something and even then if bench reduces would hope we had a better option!

Embarrassing to watch that second half - piss poor defending for both penalties, to call it grassroots level would be a disservice to that level. There is too many players that are not good enough with poor performances being rewarded with playing time due to a lack of quality on the bench or in reserve. I thought Shelvey was anonymous and over the last few games has looked off the pace with a poor touch and minimal involvement. Schar does not have the awareness to play in midfield and again does not look interested. They need to get out the habit of playing backwards as sadly we're not good enough to do it and it leads to mistakes - the Deeney chance which luckily he missed.

I read it as the UK Government are likely to indicate for it to be approved with the Premier League being seen to placate those shareholders that could be impacted by this. Similar to when the UK announced sanctions around human rights, but then agreed arms sales that would go back to June 2019 (basically a sense of showing that there is something to be done against a heinous crime, but then still accept financial support from Saudi). It's all a mess.

You begin to wonder if this is way beyond Newcastle/Premier League/football now.

We've been doing it all game! And they just pounce on it and take the ball of us We've had 2 water breaks and half time to tell the players to cut it out and it just carried on Exactly - it became obvious early on and still continued with it. These are playing in the Premier League and it's been poor - it was Man City today but any team would have hammered us. The commentator saying how we've had a fantastic season is a joke and the effort today was non existent.

Is there any reason why we keep passing back once we get to the halfway line? None of these players have covered themselves in glory tonight especially those on the fringes.

Not sure why he has been offered another year - did very little today and limited movement upfront when he is on. Bentaleb did well when he came on, nothing too smart but has a good touch and kept it simple.

To be fair he has called out Qatar, corruption and state ownership previously before any bias is given for 'it's against Newcastle'. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2020/04/07/russia-qatar-must-held-account-prove-fifa-corruption-does-not/ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/2019/12/09/world-sport-battleground-states-russia-have-gone-sort-wadas/ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/world-cup/11208289/World-Cup-2022-in-Qatar-is-built-around-corruption-myths-and-lies-we-should-not-take-part.html (this from 2014)

If this American interest is correct you have to question the logic on paying £50m more for an asset when it has been alleged an offer of £300m was accepted. It's just very boring and I can't see the Premier League announcing anything as they've previously said that it would be up to the club or new owners to do that. Does the WTO report have any impact on Sheffield United?

There has been an over reporting on this takeover, but does this not seen a bit murky? There are a number of individuals that have been linked to having some sort of involvement with our club and there has to be some personal gain in it. PIF for example are looking for a 4-5% yield on investment for shareholders through their investment portfolio and there seems to be a small market for people to influence the deal. When Kenyon was looking at the deal having investors that were openly advertised to get involved just seemed a bit dangerous - it was reported DiBello is due to profit from setting up the deal with PIF back in February. I'm not saying Mike Ashley, Justin Barnes and Lee Charnley have been any better financially but the unknown surrounding this deal is concerning. The alternative view is perhaps this is just the way football is going - you sell the soul of the club (product) to the highest bidders and the £££ moves between small circles of billionaires...

I just think nobody know's anything apart from those close to the deal. The article about the government from The Times today offers absolutely nothing, but keeps it on the agenda this week. It's hard to read anything into it as a few weeks ago people are complaining about MP's taking piracy to the DCMS so it all seems to be very speculative. The sources which held 'high esteem' in early May when they were getting shared such as MENA sources saying it was a done deal were also claiming a deal for Man Utd in February or reporting English sources like the Express or The Sun.

If Staveley was to lose the Barclays case would that reduce her credibility? I've not followed the case thoroughly or the takeover over the last few months as it's been the same news articles regurgitated into opinion pieces. However if her company was to lose the case and their evidence was frivolous maybe those positive vibes from the buyers side would also lose their credibility.

Aside from the length of time that has passed on this takeover it is quite interesting to see the journalists interacting with each other, clearly with different opinions and/or sources. That tweet from Henry Winter has drawn replies questioning Staveley's credibility from other journalists and also input from others about the WTO, piracy and human rights. I think it has been quite clear this is anything but normal and surely the credibility of the media must be questioned. I'm the same as I was a few weeks ago as nothing has seemingly changed - the interest is real, it would seem to be that the Premier League are considering the application and there is no more news. The Telegraph article this evening is an example of this from the journalist, credit he has added the additional letter to his article, but this 'exclusive' just uses the term used in the BBC interview about 'fully considering' that came out a few weeks ago. Expect the following next week: Newcastle in talks with Coutinho agent, WTO Piracy report to scupper Saudi deal for Newcastle, Treble for Joelinton, What's the difference between Amazon Prime and Sky Sports coverage? and 'what's really happening with the NUFC takeover'. I must admit it will be nice to talk about actual football once this is over either way.

Every week it seems to be rinse and repeat with the news. I understand people panicking that something has went wrong or it will not be going ahead purely because of the misleading news stories. It is happening locally and nationally with the same lines being churned out to make it newsworthy - same again today with Oliver Dowden questioned as he has been the last three weeks.

Lock down has actually been quite decent to attempt at avoiding takeover talk. However seems to be a theme appearing from recently catching up which involves key phrases such as: No reason to worry How things stand No red flags Where things stand today/tonight Bringing you right up to date Still in the hands of the Premier League High confidence remains on buyer side #Cans All of the above have been used within the last 24 hours and essentially it is no news - the fact remains there is a desire for information and probably a hope to be the first to break either a successful or unsuccessful sale. I'd love for something a bit more substantive to come out before Thursday but realistically a sale is trying to take place during a global pandemic as well as the Premier League trying to get 'Project Restart' underway.

Red card - although won the ball the follow through was high with studs showing. On reflection Dan Burn should have been sent off for his tackle on Joelinton last week as he didn't take the ball and was similar height with the follow through. This was going to end in a defeat before the red, but they'll massively struggle this second half as they cut could straight through us and that was with Hayden on the pitch. There is no tactic or game plan seemingly, I've not seen every team play this season, but we're in the bottom three for performance, goals scored,goals conceded, possession etc.