Away Toon

This. And as Ben Jacobs put in one of his tweets "Sometimes I think NUFC fans just want to hear 'it's happening' regardless of truth/context" - we even had people claiming the Saudis banning Bein was positive news ffs. When you realise that Staveley's track record isn't very good, and that she has been the only one confident of this happening, then sadly this falling though has looked the most likely outcome for a while now. You don't think the other buying parties weren't confident of passing? They just thought they'd spend months of their time and significant financial outlay on a punt? Plus Ashley thought he'd entertain them for the lolz. Your hated of Staveley is mysoginistic and creepy. What was the name of the woman that hurt you so badly? Mysogynistic...at least spell it correctly if it means that much to you Why so melodramatic anyway. She told Caulkin lots of stuff, none of which has come to fruition. Me pointing that out = a hatred based on mysogynistic views I'm pretty sure Caulkin never said anything apart from that the prospective purchasers remain confident, he certainly never said he was getting feedback from Staveley. And as far as I know she hasn't said anything publicly about the takeover since the last one fell through. She's extremely successful, wealthy and attractive, is that a problem?

Nobody outside of the PL really knows what is happening and that appears to include both the prospective buyers and the seller. We can however guess the following. There are problems with the prospective takeover. The problems appear to fall outside of the strict PL O&D requirements however they matter enough to the PL for them so far not to pass it. The problems appear not to be insurmountable or the PL would have already rejected this. We can guess that the main problem is not strictly to do with any of the prospective owners but with SA and their relationship to BEOUTQ, Qatar and BEIN. Things appear to have ground to a halt so whatever the PL have asked SA to do hasn't as yet happened and might never. SA could no doubt break this apparent impasse but either are in the process of doing so or have no intention of doing at all. In summary if there were issues that definitely couldn't be resolved this would have been officially rejected already, the fact that it hasn't gives us all hope. The ball is definitely in the Saudi's court, will they compromise enough to get this through? My guess is no, so we will either hear it's rejected soon, or more likely nothing as the PL wait for them to change their minds.

Chelsea were big favourites for this. They had two days extra rest ffs. Individual errors don't help but we started with a weaker side and had significant less rest. Was never confident but this was a solid third priority for the season. If we hammer West Ham on Wednesday it's justified. So picking a weak team and rolling over to Chelsea and not trying to win the FA Cup is better than finishing 4th and getting into the Champions League. Football is so fucked.

Then just wait 8 days, you can have all that lined up and ready to go then. As for West Ham, why? Moyes came in got them safe mostly thanks to some good signings in Jan he was the one pushing for and they already tried the sack the dour british manager "to go to the next level" and ended up in enough of a mess to go crawling back to Moyes saying please bail us out again. West Ham need some stability and foundations laid before they look to improve. You could say the same about us.

The players we are getting linked with are all presumably if the takeover gets tossed out. If that’s the case they are all underwhelming and who cares anyhow

Newcastle boss Steve Bruce is planning a summer move for Scotland midfielder John McGinn, 25, if Aston Villa are relegated. (Star)

Can't argue with most of what they say in the letter, the Saudi's are pretty despicable however much we all want a new owner. Fortunately all Boris and Co are interested in is making money via dodgy arms deals so I doubt this will make any difference.

Man this is so wrong. Sorry but what is wrong about this? ASM has potential to be a very good player, the rest are definitely not top 6 standard and that's where we should be aiming.

Despite everything we are actually playing quite well and have plenty of the ball and a couple of chances. Shows how shit Spurs are.

Although we all want new owners, these dumb fuckers aren't half going to be trouble if they do buy us unless they let Amanda and the Rubens run the show. Imagine releasing this news now presumably before having received a definitive answer from the PL. Gormless.

If we are arguing about who is the better manager than Bruce is way ahead of Carver who was as bad as anyone that we have had that I can remember. If we aren't arguing about that then I've no fucking idea at all about what you are all going on about.

Exactly. If we are to aspire to challenge the top 6 we are going to have to replace pretty much every player we currently have, maybe ASM is good enough, maybe Longstaff could become good enough, most of the rest we already know are not good enough. Dubravka is one of our better players but the bar is set so low at the moment that is means nothing. If the takeover goes through I would expect us to be looking for a top class goalkeeper.

I know it's not going to meet with universal approval on here, but I would definitely be looking to replace Dubravka with either a new goalkeeper or Woodman if he's ready. He's a good shot stopper like Given was, but poor off his line, indifferent distribution and full of mistakes.

Southampton are actually going for it and attacking Man City, after our pathetic showing against them last week I didn't think it was allowed.

As part of a midfield three where he doesn't have to do too much defensive work he's good enough. In a midfield two no chance.

If he's still here next season, we haven't been taken over and we are still a zombie club with no ambition. It makes no difference whether he plays as a CF or in a wider role, he has no discernable quality to make him an average player nevermind one who cost so much money. Sell or loan him to anybody who will take him.

I'd take a draw, they have much more of an attacking threat than us, and have looked likely to score throughout the game. Defensively we look creaky.

Longstaff is pretty much playing as a forward

I’m not sure he’s good enough for us now. He looks like a decent player and occasionally he will do something that looks good, but he’s ineffectual with virtually no end product, very few assists and he can’t score.

SA are definitely going to have make public concessions for the takeover to go through, something they are not used to doing. In the balance.

Once this whole takeover collapses it's going to be extremely enjoyable watching fat and fatter squirm as we get relegated. Bring it on.

Since reading that I now for the first time have serious doubts about the PL giving this the green light. If they wanted a way out they now have it. If they reject the takeover plan for us wouldn't they have to go back and look at Sheff Utd?

Well Stones isn't good enough for City and Barkley not good enough for Chelsea, so if we are going to try and compete with them they wouldn't be good enough for us. However if we just want to settle for getting closer to the top 6-8 I suppose they would do. Neither would excite me.

Watching football like this for maybe another year is going to be painful and soul destroying.

I've veered from mildly optimistic to increasingly concerned that the premier league are going to finally grow some balls and quite rightly tell the Saudi's that the answer is no for anyone of a myriad of reasons. The thought of leaving us with Ashley and Bruce is just too horrible to contemplate, I would like to say that I'll be finished with football and the club but it's not so easy after supporting them for over 50 years.