Sean

Same, agreed terms but still in discussions, 'hope' to conclude a deal. Want it to be true so fucking badly, but can't bring myself to believe it is going to happen. Good things don't happen to us etc. I probably won't believe it even if a new owner is standing in the ground holding a scarf tbh

Looks plausible atm, my subjective reason for thinking this being: - Someone on here said half a season ago that they'd heard from someone close to the club that a sale to an Arab buyer was likely/agreed in principle if NUFC remained within the PL. - Mike Ashley has taken a huge hit on Debenhams, he's having problems with landlords who aren't taking his shit re: House of Fraser, SD shares have absolutely tanked compared to 5 years ago, he's sold and leased back SD's home to inject capital into the business. Looks like he has alot on financially and selling NUFC would free up cash and time for him to focus on his main love which is retailing tat to charvers. - The Sheikh who has allegedly bought us tried to buy Liverpool last summer for £2bn. For £350m and with serious investment NUFC makes total sense - decent stadium, huge fanbase, large catchment area, world class manager already in charge. How much money would it even take to catch up to a team like Spurs or Arsenal? Certainly a hell of a lot less than £1.65bn (the difference between buying us and buying Liverpool), especially with Rafa in charge. - On the Rafa contract front things have been are eerily quiet, unusually so. We know for a fact Rafa has been meeting with Ashley for a few days so to not hear anything is strange. This is Mike Ashley, if he wanted rid of Rafa he'd be giving him the cold shoulder and would not bother speaking to him let alone meeting with him. - Rafa not saying anything when normally he'd be laying his cards out on the table in the media to put pressure on a Board - it indicates something is up...almost like the club is on the verge of being sold and there's NDAs in place meaning Rafa has to keep stum. - Yesterday the Sun claimed NUFC had already been sold. - Yesterday a host of one of the Middle East sports channels, someone with supposed links to the Emirati royal family, tweeted that the sale has been agreed. All makes sense. Obviously could all be nothing too. Thanks for the info, would be amazing if this were true. However I've just seen the reports suggesting this is a ploy to up the price/put pressure on potential buyers. Seems classic Ashley tactics so I'm switching off. Can't be bothered getting my hopes up.

So this is all a load of PR bullshit from Ashley's camp to try to get someone else to pay his inflated price/demands. What a fucking surprise.

Ive managed to switch off and pay no attention to the club lately just seen this. Anyone fancy giving a quick summary of what the fuck is going on? Does it seem like another pretend sale? Or does it actually look real this time?

Going off the comments he 'did a deal' and only then thought to ask what they wanted the club for. Cash is king it seems.

He's not leaving unless he's forced to simple as that. Whether that's us forcing him out, him needing the money desperately, or he gets caught for something illegal and has to sell. Unfortunately I can't see any of those scenarios happening any time soon.

Basically, Ashley is going to try to do as little as possible in order to get Rafa to stay, and even then he's going to drag it out for a while until Rafa finally compromises some more. And if he doesn't...well we all know what happens then. Exactly how we do transfers. The Mike Ashley way.

This. Its just so fucking transparent at this point too

Rondon's been superb this season, he should have already been signed fully.

Yet there's still fans that think turning up to the match and singing nasty songs is just as affective as a boycott. Exactly. Wasn't it just before a proposed boycott that the Kenyon shit was made up?

It's not even cynical at this point though, it's rational not to believe a word. I can't get my head around how anyone could be taken in by the bullshit.

Must be an amazing feeling for them. Makes me hate what Ashley's done to our club even more. I can't enjoy things like this as Im just bitter that we don't want to even try to compete ffs.

Ugh, thats fucking grim.

Jesus. Pundits in contributing to the problem shocker. It'll only get worse when a bunch of morons are given a major platform to be morons. With VAR coming in, it could end up going the way of every single foul being checked, maybe rightfully so as well considering how bad diving is getting. The referee should at the very least be fed information on it. Make diving (if confirmed by VAR or if the ref is 100% certain) a straight red card. If they want to stamp it out then they should start taking a no nonsense policy. Players learn that they're becoming a liability by diving. Unfortunately this won't happen, the powers that be don't want a fair competition, they want a product they can market. We all know that the Fabinho dive would be given as a free kick still with VAR, we all know we will still be denied stonewall penalties at will too. The big problem with VAR is it still relies on a referee to make a decision, with all their biases. VAR is open to abuse, and abuse it will suffer no doubt.

Get the fuck in! Love Rondon like!

Yep, I can't bring myself to even care tbh

They're not the only ones. He's fucking ace.

Irrelevant when he doesn't want to sell no?

No luck today lads. None.

We really never do get any luck do we ffs.

If Rafa goes then regularly putting in away performances like this, and the results that come with it, will be history. Remarkable how good tactically we (read Rafa) are/is

Ben Arfa esque :lol:

Yes they can just stop paying. Cheers, not a season ticket holder myself so wasn't sure what the position was legally etc.