Tiresias

Oh nothing unreasonable about bidding with a lower figure, it's just ashley, he is likely to put the price up every time you underbid etc etc The thing is he is probably quite happy with the reputation he has built of being a nightmare to deal with, except now it comes back to bite him as he probably has driven a way a lot of potential buyers on reputation who just don't want to deal with his bs.

I mean clearly anyone would be better than ashley, at least with the saudis though you knew they weren't bluffing about being loaded. If they are legitimate, even if they're not mega rich just anyone interested in running us at all reasonably is welcome. However until they have got an agreement for sale with ashley it is hot air.

Oh yeah, but kinda expecting the fit and proper persons test to pass through fine the owners who are actually broke hucksters looking for something to load all their debt on

Aaah yes the old sign one accident prone disaster to act as backup to the normal accident prone disaster. Classic Spurs tbf

Bond villains tbh I dunno it looks more like the guy on the right has just accidently walked up to them, seen the camera at the last moment and everyone just assumed he is meant to be there

I’ll admit I’ve not bothered to look in to it to much but from just reading on here. Pretty much every article written about the group is by the group, Photoshopped pics with Obama, nonsense about owning 10,000 private jets, Michael Chopra bring a figurehead and reports of wanting Shearer as manager all just seems amateur hour. Staveley and co had a proper vision for the club and area it’s gonna be hard for folk to accept different Meanwhile in premier league HQ, an absolute shower of amateurs is taking over newcastle? Perfect sign them up!

He might also be sensible enough not to want to become the face of an owner who may turn out to be shit

Fairly sure Shearer has subsequently said he is not interested in management, and it seems they want him in some sort of ambassadorial role anyway. I am not sure he would accept if it interfered with his punditry anyway which seems to be going well (most non nufc fans I talk to used to dislike him but think he's got a lot better)

Sat at home on universal credit playing fifa is a step up from us

I will not let myself have any confidence a takeover is going to happen until it's actually announced as happened after premier league checks passed, and presume most takeovers who haven't yet agreed a price with ashley are not going to. They want to talk it up in media, get ashley to drop the price £100m and then maybe get a bargain. Ashley will not drop price. Once it goes to the premier league i will accept it as serious.

Just close the thread forum

Not if the question is "did you really order that bloke killed in that embassy" and the answer is "yes"

Well shit but not really surprised, apart from how basically how long it took them to bother to tell anyone. (though the consortium too could have been a little more forthright). Nasty reminder nothing good will come out of this era of football really. I do hope one day it all blows up on the super rich clubs

People are quite right to say if the MBS not being named director (which sorry he clearly has very clear influence so can't the objections to why the premier league shouldnt demand he be subject to the checks) was the clear reason we 'failed' the checks then why didn't the premier league just fail us and annouce that a while ago, I agree completely this is strange. Possible that this leak isn't true, other possibility is the premier league were willing to pass it with MBS' name on it but he was not willing to put his name on directors? Premier league have acted obliquely without transparency. I could understand if the premier league said no we feel that MBS in his involvement with an assassination and bombing yemen is beyond the pale and we do not want him involved in the league, I share similar distaste for the man and may think well how come our football club is a step too far and all the other business we accept from them isn't (and all the other owners arent etc etc etc) People keep talking about since they haven't totally outright stopped it it must be inevitable, but in my experience the longer something is delayed and takes, the less likely ultimately it is to happen. I've not totally given up hope, that would be daft, but I agree should take Staverley's last statement as most likely state of affairs, that the bid is to all intents and purposes dead. A miracle could happen but I doubt it.

Don't understand this at all. The owners test is all about making sure people who control a club match up to the leagues standards how can they do that by ignoring directors. They clearly feel mbs is in a position of authority over PIF and this the consortium and do should be named on it. You may disagree with that but it's completely within their remit

THey would not invest in us for money back, it will be about making Saudi Arabia look good

heartbreaking.

If they are messing with the ownership amounts Saudi could (albeit won't) donate 10% to be owned by fans. Dare them to block it on moral grounds being the only club in league with some fan ownership (even if easily ignored)

Like a new signing

I believe it boiled down to in regards the MBS questions, that MBS wasnt on board of the consortium that would own NUFC but Premier League did not believe, or at least questioned, that he would not have influence and decision making power over the consortium. The onus is on the consortium to demonstrate a governance structure for owning the club, and as such it is quite difficult to prove this bloke, who is in charge of the investment fund as well as having enourmous power over anything Saudi related would not get his way should he say demand NUFC be renamed Saudi Arabia FC etc etc.

Wraith is an awful spokesperson for the fans. Someone needs to be out there calling out the league for accepting money from all kinds of dreadful places and then turning round and saying us being taken over is beyond the pale. The league should be taken to task for doing nothing to encourage proper fan ownership of clubs, of doing nothing to discourage owners like mike ashley treating fans like cash machines and lastly taken to task for refusing to even take a stand on any principles and instead just delaying the decision endlessly. As I have said before, why don't (or indeed didn't months ago) the league say the piracy is too big an issue, reject the takeover but say come back in a year and we'll have a look and see if your house is in order then, if the piracy is a categorical fail on the test. Of course would be awful for us, and they may not come back in a year but at least the league would have actually put something on the record that made some sense rather than dodging any and all decisions.

I wish it was anyone else but saudi arabia in many ways (albeit also cos we'd have passed by now lol) but quite frankly teh bar for morality of owning football clubs basically does not exist so why should we be singled out? (and I think its clear we havent failed on morality, it's piracy from a premier league customer more specifically, piracy is a considerably less bothersome lack of morality than treatment of gays like me and hacking up people in embassies) I also feel denying the joy and investment in teh area would be ultimately totally self defeating. While I have questioned this considering how many seemed to declare undying love for MBS I also kinda think sport washing really doesnt actually work that well, that if anything raising the profile just raises the profile of the criticisms too, so happy to reap any benefits of pouring loads of money into our club. Better spent on that than bombing yemen. This may be trite, and as someone who considers himself on the left bother some who think it is absolutely wrong. But honestly money jobs in the area? I just couldn't in my right mind say but it is wrong to that boost. However that does not mean I will ignore their human rights abuses and feel a little sad about that. Unfortunately I also am in the basically given up all hope camp.

Yeah maybe. Does anyone know if an owner fails the test is that fixed forever? As mentioned earlier I would have had more respect if PL had just failed it quickly and said come back in a year if you've sorted out piracy, would at least leave everyone knowing where they stand.

This is one of the dafter angles (and they're all pretty daft) being pushed. There doesn't need to be any shadowy links between the Premier League and Qatar - Qatar pump 100s of millions of pounds into the Premier League's coffers every year as a result of the beIN deal. That's the financial link that's important and it's in the public domain. Everything else is conspiratorial fantasy that will come to absolutely nothing. This. People seem to think that it's illegitimate for the premier league to listen to concerns of a major customer. Of course they do, it's not shady it's the real world and if say some business i was in a long term contract did formed a partnership with someone who was stealing from me, of course it would be a problem.

No we’re not but until the U.K. stops dealing with them, why should this deal be a line in the sand. If it was and the Saudis weren’t allowed to invest in anything else in the U.K. fair enough, however we know that’s bull s*** and they will continue to trade and invest in U.K. Why should our city be the one to miss out on millions, just because certain organisations see this deal as a high profile easy target. I agree, it is picking out this unethical investment. The thing of it is rather than broad ethics being issue mind it does seem to be specifically the piracy issue. And again how the premier league have dealt with this has been absurd, I am just not hugely optimistic of this being resolvable.