ponsaelius

Not necessarily. Looking at the last couple of seasons the points tallies for teams just outside the relegation zone after 18 games are broadly similar to this year. Edit: Last 4 seasons for example 21st place has always been on 18 points at this point. Basically it's only Birmingham who are keeping them in touching distance, and they have a game in hand.

Their squad is extremely stretched at the moment. Half of their matchday 18 today are genuinely League One standard at best.

Bolton are unbeaten in 7 including this one. Pretty much been in play-off form since Sammy came back into the side.

RIP Duncan Watmore BA

They're an injury to Grabban away from being doon like.

It might. That's always a possibility. However I'd say it's more likely that you get somebody who would have a 'think big' approach to developing the club and expanding revenue, especially with the amount of sums involved in purchasing us outright. Either way it's got to be worth rolling the dice.

Haydn makes a good point with regards to UAE and Man City as well. It gives leverage and legitimacy to states with significant problems in terms of human and civil rights. The benefits of enormous financial investment for a state in a football club may not seem apparent at first hand but they are numerous. These people aren't blowing hundreds of millions on football clubs just for the craic.

I wish I fully understood either of these things. To what extent does owning a PL football club protect a company's financial assets? Do they take all their investments out of whatever they're in, and shove them in the club because it's theoretically more sustainable? And how does owning a PL club represent a state and how does it effect political power? Wealthy individuals invest their money all the time. It is rare and often not beneficial to just have money sitting in a bank. One of the most common examples of investing is in property - as the saying goes an investment in land/property is generally regarded to be as 'safe as houses' in developed anglophone countries. This is why you have so many properties across London sitting empty under the ownership of foreign buyers where house prices will continually inflate or in a worst case scenario not depreciate. An other example is to invest in a business portfolio and expand wealth in this manner. A Premier League club right now represents a worthy place to invest money because with the TV deal and exponential growth of the sport you're unlikely to see a loss for your investment. It's a safe and sustainable place (in theory) to stick your cash. On the second point it's all about promoting a country's wealth and power to the world. There is no doubt that Abu Dhabi's investment in Manchester City has brought the UAE to the knowledge of the world. It has pushed the Emirates as an international airline and Abu Dhabi/Dubai as tourist resorts. It's a dick waving contest essentially, a way of showing off wealth, but also potentially being to the long term benefit of a country like the UAE which only has so much oil to rely on in the long term. Qatar is much of the same. Same reason they bought the World Cup, same reason they signed a deal with Barca, same reason they bought PSG. It shows off Qatar to the world, but also attracts investment, tourism and whatever other things. How much of it is wasteful extravagance and how much is sensible long-term branding in light of limited oil wealth is open to individual interpretation.

It's almost impossible to say until we know more about the people behind it. It's clear that Staveley is leading the bid, but we have no idea who the mysterious Middle Eastern backers are. I'd say there's two broad possible scenarios. The first one is the people involved are business people looking to be involved in the PL gravy train, and for a way to turn their financial assets into something that is likely to appreciate or at least retain value. This is what most of the owners coming into the Premier League are (Everton, WBA as the two notable recent examples). In this scenario you'd imagine that NUFC would be run as a business, but one that is focused on growing it's potential in line with the size of the club and the growth of the Premier League. This in itself would be an upgrade on the manner in which Ashley has been running the club. The second, and more unlikely option, is that the backers are representing (either directly or indirectly) a state in itself. This is more in line with what happened at Manchester City and PSG. In this instance money is not really an object as the goal is soft-political power on an international scale. That would truly be the time to get excited, or not I guess if this is particularly distasteful to how and what you wish NUFC to be. Either way I'd say it's unlikely that any new owner could truly be worse than Ashley. The fact is he has been running the club to the detriment of its progress on the pitch, and severely undercutting the potential of the club. It's absolutely worthwhile the dice is rolled.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/15/sports/soccer/north-korea-soccer-italy.html Interesting situation

I don't get what he's doing. He's only every gonna be this in demand now, able to get a PL job. If he goes to sunderland its over. He could arguably get the baggies or swans job. I'm honestly not sure he's in such demand. Clubs will be wary of his club past rather than wooed by 6 years of part-time management.

Based on his last few club jobs he's lucky to be given any kind of manager's position. Managing internationally is a totally different thing, and if anything being out of club football for 5 years is only likely to have put him even further out of step.

Geet up

Swiss have a decent young side atm but have absolutely no decent strikers.

The Saudis would be a moral fucking conundrum like I'm fine to be pretty much any state's soft-politics tool but that's pushing my tolerance a bit. The only saving grace would be if they are focused on investing abroad it's probably going hand in hand with their recent small moves to modernise and open up.

were you in a coma in 2015 Kinda But I mean, that team was maybe worse, but at least there was some genuine quality in there. Other than Merino we're pretty pitiful.

Got to be the worst Premier League side we've ever had this like. Some truly woeful players.

Absolutely atrocious.

To some it seems so. I think Dummett is better defensively and they're both about as shite going forward as each other - but at least Dummett is left footed.

Genuinely think Dummett is better.

At my wits end with Joselu and Manquillo already. Spanish shite.

Yes it used to be where their reserves played until a couple of years ago.

Literally all he had as a player. He's Amdy Faye 2.0 without it.

He was absolutely horseshit tonight. Total fucking clown on and off the ball, as he has been for most of his time here. Legs have gone and should not have been taking up a squad place in the top flight.