Sean

No....No he hasn't. People give bishop way too much credit he isn't that powerful and he isn't that smart Isn't how smart? How clever do you think someone needs to be to plant stories in the papers ffs? Also, lets pretend Rafa won't sign up on Ashleys terms, what do you think Bishop would suggest? Tell the fans the truth? Especially when as a fanbase we are so fucking easy to con. From the very start I've been suspicious of this, the main reason being why now? Just as we were meant to be signing Rafa up long term. It stinks. To fake being an Arabic consortium though? Howay man. Im not saying they're faking being them, no-one knows whats really going on, I just have massive doubts that this is our way out of the Ashley nightmare. It's just all so bizarre. It's only at this club under this regime that the news of "NUFC has been bought!!!" would turn to "they might have an agreement on price, but they might not have even made a bid. Not happening any time soon etc"...its how all the other supposed takeover attempts started/continued. But can anyone answer why the news leaked just as we were meant to be securing our world class manager to a new deal?

No....No he hasn't. People give bishop way too much credit he isn't that powerful and he isn't that smart Isn't how smart? How clever do you think someone needs to be to plant stories in the papers ffs? Also, lets pretend Rafa won't sign up on Ashleys terms, what do you think Bishop would suggest? Tell the fans the truth? Especially when as a fanbase we are so fucking easy to con. From the very start I've been suspicious of this, the main reason being why now? Just as we were meant to be signing Rafa up long term. It stinks. Then you add in the character and history of our owner, and our bi-annual "takeover talks" and surely even our most optimistic fans must question this?

This is exactly the sort of shit Ashley would try to pull. Rafa wouldn't fall for it, but if he left and got blamed for a takeover collapsing, enough people might fall for it to continue filling the stadium. On a related note, how are Rafa's contract talks going? It's not like this would have came out of the blue to the club just the other day, so why the fuck did we spend a week talking to Rafa to not conclude anything? Its suspicious as fuck. Especially given this regime's history, all of which gives cause for concern.

There's no way this Bin Zayed Group would want to lose face with an aborted bid, as the concept of personal dignity, honour and protecting one’s reputation is very important in the Middle East, particularly in the business world. That was always my impression of the culture over there, was quite surprised to hear that anyone with any sort of connections high up would be involved in bullshit like fake bids. well aye but its already happened before with Liverpool Also with their $2billion Telangana investment agreement too. Always full of promise but is there ever actual proof of investment with these lot Where can we find the talk of it being a scam that you alluded to earlier? This is a bit of a comedy show at the moment..will he, won't he? Does he have the cash...doesnt he? Who is he even (to the journalists at least). Does he even give 2 fucks about Rafa? What have his companies actually done? No-one fucking knows a thing. To be honest all this talk in the media from them isn't a very good sign going forward if this does actually turn out to be true. Coming across very amateurish....a bit like their website. That is a fucking HUGE red flag surely.

If true looks like they have pulled the pants down on Ryder and co again regarding sources. We're they not the only ones who also had the exclusive on Ashley and Staveley in the same restaurant for the alleged meeting/dinner. The curry house photos were set up. A PR stunt basically. As this supposed takeover may well turn out to be too. We don't know much, but to ignore the past is foolish in the extreme when it comes to this club.

I think you are wrong, but don’t blame you in the slightest. It's just been so many years of repeated lies, media et al all going along with it that it will probably take a while if it ever happens for me to fully believe it. Its got me so cynical.

The default position of each and every fan to rumours of takeovers should be to instantly dismiss it as bollocks (owing to past history, which keeps repeating itself over and over). This looks shady as fuck. Gone from "clubs been sold" to "nearly sold" to "hasn't given proof of funds" to "we want to complete this as soon as possible" to "wont be done till after Rafas contract has run out". A blind man can see its been a piss take from the start surely I'd love to be wrong, but this is my default position with this club and cunt of an owner. Am I wrong to think this way?

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.