Tiresias

Not going to believe anything unless it's a 3pm friday press conference

Typical that just as there's some relatively concrete positive news on this finally being over soon this place implodes. Can this thread much like 2020 be removed from history once this is all over and never spoken of again?

Ok clearly that was the quid pro quo, i'm back in

Yeah best Bruce performance, SU were rubbish though, thought they'd be better. Credit where it's due was alright.

Wrong decision, not denial of a goalscoring opportunity when it's Joelinton

"incredible job"

They'd have spotted the shirt pulling if it was a proper english player

Rafa is too diplomatic to tell his own scouting team someone is dogshit. It reeks of dodgy favor for agent. £40m of our transfer budget pissed down the drain purely to show off willing to spend it, just not willing to do anything good.

Deserved a goal that

commentators banging on about us having to play long balls to our 'big centre forward'

Are these sources from the premier league or from PIF though who have always basically said as such? If it has actually leaked what is it likely to be or has masters told them he will decide by next week and they assume will be positive and told press as such? Obviously can't tell us but I'll just believe it when it's official and not before

Back when this hit 500 pages i joked that we'd hit 1000 pages before we knew one way or the other. Starting to feel inevitable

www.google.co.uk

Every week like clockwork people conjecture how it will play out and of it will be this week. Guess what we don't know.

I know the intention is positive for the club and of course the league would find an excuse to block it for money reasons (and then no doubt flaunt their ethics), but you all know KSA are guilty as all hell of this don't you? I do appreciate it's all some proxy war with Qatar who are not good guys, but you know KSA is blatently behind Beout...

Well if there was ever a surefire guarantor of smooth running and sheer competence, it certainly is our government getting involved!

I mean Qatar are certainly right cunts but I am amused by this narrative of poor saintly naive Saudi Arabia being bullied by the evil Qataris

The thing of it to me is regardless of all the other ethical issues, it is fundamentally wrong for premier league clubs to be owned by state level actors, let alone billionaire businessmen of dubious repute. It leaves clubs, which are important community 'assets' with historic and cultural value to fans subject to the whims of things way beyond merely the world of football. Clubs should be fan owned so safeguard their wellbeing and to make sure they are run better. Unfortunately it is probably impossible to force the clubs to sell even small proportions of the clubs. If the league does not bring in fan ownership it should at least but stringent rules in place about how businessmen operate clubs in the league. The league can and should say you are not welcome in the league unless you meet these standards to prevent owners like Ashley happening. Unfortunately the set up is no accident, it is set up to bring in maximum investment so a few clubs have all the money. This system is designed to get investment like Saudi money in. I will not refuse myself the joy of ambition and investment in the club, I will not resent any excitement among fans. I also know in my ideal running of the league that would, without all other leagues instituting the same rules, lead to all the top talent deserting the league for pay elsewhere. It is not illogical to have it how they do, it brings the big players, it brings the product in the league that generates the investment. It just rips the soul out of the whole thing and endangers the wellbeing of clubs long term (look at the amount of debt Man United are in). That is the tradeoff. All my anger is at the whole running of football. I am not interested in this competition some have going on of 'oh but Qatar are also evil'. Yes they are all cunts. Yes there are people acting unscripulously who are pretending to be moral crusaders and maybe people getting political points out of the Khasoggi thing it's all just a swamp from which noone comes out looking great. I just don't think all this stuff is, for me with the qualms over it just an appendum. Football clubs should never have been allowed to be political pawns of whole states, even if it wasn't Saudi Arabia, even if it was some nice state noone hates like fucking New Zealand who bought us to boost tourism (not sure budget would be that great) it is still utterly wrong, albeit not much more than being 100% owned by random billionaires. The league should take some action to safeguard the clubs for the fans in the long term and normally will not do so in order to make a quick buck. If the league rejects the ownership it will not be over 'moral' grounds, contrary to some it is not a test of the morals of Saudi Arabia. If it does it will be over Saudi Arabia piracy issue and I guess (and yes a lot of people are on long chains of logic of what is going on here) and of course a league can't completely ignore concerns of broadcast partners. Neither can it renegotiate the deal with Saudi Arabia mid takeover as that would be clear bribery. Even if they pretend it is some kind of moral stand against a state like Saudi Arabia owning the club that is like drawing a line in the sand so far out to sea you are already drowning. I do slightly fear this, that it will be thrown out so the league can pretend to look principled regardless of the legal reasoning. I dread a long drawn out legal battle as if the takeover hasn't taken long enough as is. I appreciate the 'don't care just want it done view' completely, I am mostly with you. I just think it's possible to feel a little sad at how football has got to this point, but also joyous that Ashley is gone and some money is coming to the club and the area. I will not resent that, and I hope, as much as I think it's wooly nonsense, that Saudi Arabian engagement in the world will improve things (although that reminds me of when Brendan Rogers after losing to sunderland with liverpool said he was proud to show the poor people of the north east his brand of football a bit, we are not some shining beacon of righteousness, it is again, an issue that sports clubs should not be mere playthings of teh super rich and of nation states). I think it's miserable how much shit seems to have come out of it, now maybe that's on me for dissenting a little from the isn't it all so completely wonderful line, but all teh attacks on everyone in the media etc feels slightly uneeded. There are some dishonest folk around, there is also a completely broken model of funding sports journalism which means even the good journos are reliant on clickbait a bit. It would be better if there was a quality filter but I do also think it is a respectable opinion to say that the takeover should be blocked, even if I disagree as it's a systemic issue not with this takeover by itself. I am really looking forward to ambition and to enjoying the football again. I hope we get there, I really do. But again I won;t be cheerleading our owners, more cordially hoping it is positive in the end and hoping some reform comes for how clubs are run one day. I also do slightly fear now if it will happen, it is ridiculous how long it is taking, almost like they want SA to withdraw interest so they are freed of making a lose-lose decision from their PR point of view.

I mean I don't mind being labelled a 'moralist' too much in a way but for the record, as I have said in the past, I do think it is a horrible thing overall for football for clubs to be owned by sovereign states at all (and no states dont buy foreign football clubs to even just make money let alone just out of pity or something to give geordies a fun time), however that is the fault of the league and the league alone (presuming it goes through), fans do not have a say and so basically blameless and I think perfectly reasonable to be excited about investment and the football played. I don't know why suddenly people seem to think it is obligatory to unconditionally love the owners of your football club, surely the last decade should have taught us that your owners can be cunts. Only this time the owners will be cunts but hopefully great times on the pitch. Call me a hypocrite I suppose but I think there's as many hectoring moralists on the other sides demanding total purity of thought, that Qatar are the real evil and noone is allowed any slightly ambiguous feelings about it and thus must be called out as moralists themselves and enemies of the club or something.

I love all the people who seem to be looking for hidden agenda's etc with Khasoggi's widow. Maybe they murdered the love of her life and she wants to fuck over Saudi Arabia as much as possible? Disagree with her as much as you like feels a fairly understandable and honest motivation to be honest.

:'(

Really regretting abandoning my stance that we would never get taken over and allowed myself even a little hope, even as one who does have qualms about this was so happy to even start to think it was happening, and now the doubts are just coming back. If I'd stuck to my ashley will never sell policy I'd still be nonplussed.

It's not entirely impossible that we're in a blinking contest where Premier League are saying we won't approve you unless you close down BeoutQ and the Saudis are saying dare you.

To be fair a temporary ground share can't be that difficult to arrange

Because every week everyone develops some gut feeling it will be this week. it will happen when it happens.