Pons Alias

Did you go to Kenton in the 80s by any chance?

A night with Bonnie Langford...nearly broke her back. You would though - just out of curiosity.

The PL have known that for weeks. That it hasn’t been approved yet points only at one thing: they are trying to find a way to reject it which they can get away with.

I haven't got a fucking scooby what's going on any more.

What's made people more positive? I'm confused.

Now fuck off, and don’t forget to cancel your lottery tickets on the way out.

I imagine if the deal times out due to PL procrastination, there would be consequences.

https://www.shieldsgazette.com/sport/football/newcastle-united/newcastle-united-given-all-clear-after-latest-premier-league-tests-2877087 ... Starforth being a real Dick with that headline.

Of all the people to dig at, Caulkin is the last. He reports facts as much as he is able. He doesn’t win up fans like Edwards or regurgitate shite like Ryder. I find this negativity more than baffling - it’s fucking stupid. He’s Actively on our side - a rare thing.

The prospect of more games of Bruceball under Ashley isn’t helping

According to the Ronnie they are getting pissed off waiting. So no....

@TheProphet No, the League are giving the Glazers time to gazump us.

Which in its own way, is a sign that the takeover is still happening...

Something in this whole process smells. Isn’t this new PL chief a mate of Gorrila Mitts?

Do you reckon he'll get a load of SD franchises in Saudi as part of the deal? Will House of Fraser merge with House of Saud?

The smell, the gut feeling, the mood music - call it what you will. None of it is positive at the moment.

Dropping someone off to be around for the 'inevitable' Press stuff? Anyone checked out who's staying at the Copthorne or Malmaison?

Amanda Staveley seen outside Londis in Fenham talking to Barry Moat. Edit: Apparently my random uninformed takeover-frustration bollocks is worse than everyone else's. Some achievement. The only path open to me now is to go full Stewart Lee with this. Second Edit: Just gone back over the last page - I hadn't realised the thread had been locked! Apologies.

I thought it was *probably* bollocks....

Potentially interesting. (Or potentially bollocks) https://twitter.com/GavinSport360/status/1262684480000741376

If we can't be taken over, then Mansour has to go. "In its 2017-18 report Amnesty condemned the UAE for unfair trials, lack of freedom of expression, a failure to investigate allegations of torture, discrimination against women and the abuse of migrant workers. City fans knew that the UAE had a dodgy human rights record. But many of us preferred to turn a blind eye. It was abstract – out of sight, out of mind. And there were endless positives. Mansour had invested billions in the club and the city; City were playing dream football – the first team to win 100 points in a Premier League season in 2017-18; we had the best manager in the world, and what’s more he cared – Pep Guardiola wore a yellow ribbon for political prisoners jailed after campaigning for Catalan independence. What was there not to love about City? Well yesterday we found out, when British academic Matthew Hedges, who had been accused of spying, was given a five-minute trial without a lawyer, and sentenced to life in jail. UAE prosecutors said he had admitted to spying, though others claimed he is innocent. Jeremy Hunt, the foreign secretary, called it “totally unacceptable”, said there was “no evidence for the charges laid against him”, and warned of “serious diplomatic consequences” for the UAE, which Britain regards as an ally. As for City, unsurprisingly not a word. Just to reiterate, Sheikh Mansour is not just a wealthy individual in the United Arab Emirates: he and his family run the country and make all the important decisions. People live and die by their rulings. If I were as principled as I’d like to be, I’d denounce my club and walk away – of course, human rights trump a football club. But I tried that in 2007 – and failed. So for now, I’m sticking with City, while pleading with them to speak up for justice. It is not good enough for the club to pretend this is not happening or it has nothing to do with them, and that if they ignore the fate of Matthew Hedges the issue will go away. It won’t – and the longer he is in the news, the more ethically bankrupt City will look– the glossy, globalised, media-friendly face of repressive government; launderer supreme of the politically unacceptable. So what can Manchester City do? I beg City officials to state publicly that handing down a life sentence to a man without a fair trial is unacceptable, and that the club will do what it can to pressure the UAE to change its mind, and to address its wider human rights issues. Just as Sheikh Mansour has transformed City for the good, City now has the power to change the UAE for the good. Pep, over to you. I look forward to seeing you explain why you are now wearing your yellow ribbon for a different victim of state injustice." https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/nov/23/uae-human-rights-man-city-jailing-british-academic "Describing the UAE as “the most brutal police state in the Middle East”, one speaker from Amnesty International recounted the appalling record of abuse in the country and the jailing of human rights defenders, such as Ahmed Mansoor, trying to stop those abuses." https://www.themeteor.org/2018/12/14/council-in-partnership-with-most-brutal-police-state-in-the-middle-east-says-amnesty-international/ The success, then, of Manchester City has also brought some fresh attention to long-standing criticisms of the UAE. "This is one of the most abusive and dangerous governments out there," says McGeehan. "They are particularly sinister and dangerous." Serious mistreatment of the migrant workers that make up 90% of the population, vast inequalities in wealth, environmental degradation, oppressive policies aimed at women and gay people, torturing prisoners and embarking on a war that has killed thousands of innocent people in Yemen: all these allegations against the UAE have been brought, however hazily, to the attention of some of the hundreds of millions of people that watch the English Premier League around the world. This is particularly true for fans of City's rivals looking for a stick to beat their conqueror with, and particularly true in an ever more polarised football landscape, in which fan sites and podcasts have risen to prominence and supporters across the world vent at each other on Twitter. In return, fans of the Manchester club have become what McGeehan calls an "unpaid PR army" for Abu Dhabi, defending the UAE on social media and pointing out that when it comes to supposedly dodgy owners of Premier League football clubs, City are very much not alone. "Dig deep enough and you'll find murky business in every club's financial dealings – where there's money, there's a lot of questionable characters and practices," says David Mooney, a life-long City fan and host of the Blue Moon podcast. Fellow fan Howard Hockin, who runs the 93:20 podcast, makes a similar point. "The UK government is just as bad as the UAE government. There is a lot of Western arrogance surrounding this," he says. https://www.middleeasteye.net/big-story/manchester-city-abu-dhabi-football

https://www.90min.com/posts/newcastle-buyers-plotting-further-takeovers-in-other-leagues-as-magpies-deal-draws-close-to-completion-01e8c6r6sz5h?utm_source=RSS

Stavely spotted shitting herself in Old Eldon Square.

Staveley spotted making multiple cash point withdrawals at the Haymarket.