McCormick

Things may be slightly frosty but I doubt they'd risk losing a major strategic partner and military alliance (the Saudi National Guard are trained by the UK military and have been for a while) for the sake of buying a football club .

They won't lose face if they walk away; they control the media here they could dress this up as not bowing down to foreign influences to protect their national security/ interests. They're losing more face now if anything. Put it this way, anytime the Saudi government makes wholesale changes to it's national policy to appease a jumped up sporting institution is them looking weak and losing face. Making concessions to the PL is, at the moment, the same as making concessions to Qatar.

Anyone thinking that Saudi won't walk away from this deal for fear of being embarrassed will be very disappointed. Changing an entire governments' policy just to yield to a fucking foreign sporting body would be infinitely more degrading in their eyes; the 17m is pennies in the grand scheme of things and they will not be happy with being made to jump through all these hoops for something that is relatively insignificant to them.

We're certainly not catching Man Utd in popularity here , and despite the stc deal and the few times they've had friendlies in Riyadh they are well behind the likes of Liverpool (because of Salah) and Chelsea (no idea why they're so popular here). No one has even heard of this deal going through in KSA, so I'd take that Saudi "journalist's" tip off with an even bigger pinch of salt.

Ugh. Krafth. Ugh. No Lazaro.

Just seen ASM talking up Steve Bruce on bbc.

This please...

Plus Qatar already have a club representing them in Man City who would probably be their main focus, not us. It’s PSG mate, not Man City. City are owned by Abu Dhabi, who are a Saudi ally against Qatar (and Iran) Abu Dhabi is a city. UAE. Ha. Yep, my mistake. Brain not engaged properly. I meant UAE. No you were right first time, Dubai and Abu Dhabi are autonomous Emiratis. UAE is more a country of convenience. To be fair, both descriptions work. Abu Dhabi and Dubai are emirates of the UAE, with their own rulers, and also have capital cities with the same name as the emirate. Yeah, apologies. They're under the UAE banner as a country and operate politically as 1 country.

Plus Qatar already have a club representing them in Man City who would probably be their main focus, not us. It’s PSG mate, not Man City. City are owned by Abu Dhabi, who are a Saudi ally against Qatar (and Iran) Abu Dhabi is a city. UAE. Ha. Yep, my mistake. Brain not engaged properly. I meant UAE. sorry, didn't mean to be arsey but it was said twice in row and it's always annoyed me.

Plus Qatar already have a club representing them in Man City who would probably be their main focus, not us. It’s PSG mate, not Man City. City are owned by Abu Dhabi, who are a Saudi ally against Qatar (and Iran) Abu Dhabi is a city. UAE.

Plus Qatar already have a club representing them in Man City who would probably be their main focus, not us. Qatar is not UAE.

Also, I explicitly talked about this being a vanity (or I suppose a sportswashing) project and the country not needing it now. I could be wrong but I don't see this as the same type of venture as those other investments. Like I said, prominent PIF directors- albeit in a vastly different sector- think the same thing, but we'll see.

They're not. It's hardly news over here; I get the distinct impression that this means more to Qatar than it does to KSA. With all the financial restrictions and belt-tightening measures taken by the government due to a covid-related economic downturn, this is fast becoming a headache that KSA do not need. Additionally, with salaries going down by 40%, vat increasing from 5 to 15%, the timing for a 'vanity project' like this is ill-judged here at present. I have many friends - leading directors- in the housing project at PIF that echo these sentiments. Broken record and I hope I'm wrong but I heavily doubt this will go through. So why are they investing all over the place then, including sums far exceeding what they will be paying for the club. Crisis investment and diversification. How many of these bigger investments were met with the same criticisms? I don't see the ROI's on this deal being worth the hassle and associated bad press.

They're not. It's hardly news over here; I get the distinct impression that this means more to Qatar than it does to KSA. With all the financial restrictions and belt-tightening measures taken by the government due to a covid-related economic downturn, this is fast becoming a headache that KSA do not need. Additionally, with salaries going down by 40%, vat increasing from 5 to 15%, the timing for a 'vanity project' like this is ill-judged here at present. I have many friends - leading directors- in the housing project at PIF that echo these sentiments. Broken record and I hope I'm wrong but I heavily doubt this will go through.

This will not go through. Qatar's vested interest in this will see to that.

Keep banging this drum but as a Saudi resident, the beoutq thing was pretty flagrant. They were organizing and advertising (on terrestrial tv channels and huge billboards as well) these beoutq viewing tents for the World Cup. Just have to hope that the PIF legal team have done an extensive amount of prep-work.

I'm sure it wouldn't be very hard to provide proof that the Saudi Government were involved in Beoutq tbh; it was a widely known "fuck you" to Qatar when their feud meant that the entire country (which is football obsessed) couldn't have access to World Cup. The Saudi government even set up these massive World Cup viewing tents with food and whatnot, which were in most hyas (districts). Went along to a few and it was good craic tbh, the ad breaks on BeoutQ were just embarrassing pictures of the Qatari royal family to the backdrop of goofy tuba music and fart noises. Really childish but the crowds loved it. Worrying if they have something concrete and sent it in.

Correct, should be Crown Prince. Yes and no. They use the term Sheikh here (I've been living in KSA for over 20 years) but MBS is the Crown Prince so people would precede his name with either Aamir or Malik (as he's basically the King).

Good player, just what we need in midfield.

Real Rafa performance. Good 3 points.

Wtf... I think that vote was me, lads. Completely by mistake by the way

I mean Sterling has got to be one of the top 5 attacking players in world football, but I guess that depends on what you mean by 'dictating' games, really. I do think though, that this is the first England team in my lifetime that's actually underrated.

Sterling?

Rafa on Paul Dummett. https://sportslens.com/rafa-benitez-says-paul-dummett-is-one-of-the-most-underappreciated-players-he-has-ever-worked-with/274836/ I agree, chronically underrated.

That's a fair assumption too. First half though I saw enough of our play off the ball to suggest that there was some defensive organization and understanding going on. Completely agree with your second point.