gjohnson

all it would take for the whole illusion of pundits defending him to be shattered would be a simple question to each of them.... Would you want him managing your club? The awkward uncomfortable silence would be right up with there like a post Brent joke scene in The Office.... lots of looking at feet, avoiding eye contact, and the slightest excuse to change the subject

agree Just smells like one of those Chelsea transfers that should be brilliant but won't be.....Torres/Shevchenko style

This - I used to have loads of pirated music but haven’t downloaded anything dodgy in years as Spotify feels like good value and covers pretty much everything I listen to. Football costs a fortune and being split across a number of providers inevitably means there are plenty of games I don’t have a access to (even after paying all that money). Spotify gives the square root of fuck all to the artists Perhaps it means the most popular artists earn less. At the same time it allows for much lower barriers of entry for starting bands and artists, less reliance on agents (record companies) and arguably a healthier marketplace for music. The analogy works quite well with football come to think of it. Don't agree with this....the best will always earn millions one way or another. I personally think Ed Sheeran is garbage, and Adele couldn't sing her way past the first round of x-factor, but enough people disagree with that opinion that they are sitting in houses worth millions, and I'm almost certain they sit and dry their tears over my opinion with £50notes every night

Or on the flip side, not have to watch it at all. We don't need eyes to see where this is going

Pretty much always ideas above his ability though...seemed to think he was an Arsenal/Chelsea player but never anywhere near good enough

So some probably flawed logic on this piracy guff....Qatar object to to broadcasts being stolen, but at the same time won't allow any legitimate way for KSA to access. Glib as hell, but what did they expect?

Apparently, some people will believe everything they're told

What am I missing here? He's saying that being cross-examined in a billion-pound legal case is showing her up? A quick scan of his timeline shows a fair few RT's of stories poo-pooing the takeover. Wonder why. Fail to see the relevance really. Not directly related (unless you believe rumours of her using the 'winnings' to fund her stake). This will be worth a hell of a lot more to all involved than NUFC. If anything it will show the calibre of lawyers involved on both sides

Too difficult to pick a worst. There's been some grim line ups under Ashley. Then again I almost cried looking at the line up against Monaco in the Uefa Cup in 97/98....Literally a 6-4-0 and predictably humped. Not an Ashley lineup, but Roeder had some grim choices to make a team out of...Ramage, Huntingdon, Bramble...eurgh It's a wonder it took so long for us to be relegated

If he's on £800 per month, £20k would surely do. Journalist speculating, I suspect. Probably would if there wasn't a £30K offer sitting there

Probably. Could see some legal action against PL purely to spite Qatar, and a massive bid for next set of TV rights, while Newcastle dropped and some German/Italian team becoming their focus. Probably not Roma after their begging, Juventus and the Milan's ruled out...who's next? Germany pretty much a closed shop given their ownership models. France....what's the point? Spain, if not Real Madrid or Barcelona then nah? Portugal? Potentially, but not a great league. Scotland would be amusing

Yes that is true, but it doesn't happen immediately. It takes a few years of success for any particular team to generate money for the PL. Leicesters year was the most entertaining in bloody ages, but almost certain the PL income was down that year, as they didn't have the reach of the traditional 'big' teams I'd love to see some sort of study on tv viewing figures for all games, social media engagement etc etc comparing the figures between seasons where theres a tight title race with Leicester (or hell Chelsea or City) winning and Man Utd or Liverpool running away with it (obviously can't really use this season due to the disruption). My guess is there would be higher viewing figures and general engagement when Man Utd or Liverpool are winning it compared to Leicesters title win. Exactly what I mean. If Leicester had challenged for several years, or been consistently in Europe, they'd attract more fans and push the viewing figures back up. At present it is the usual suspects that generate the majority of PL income and takes a while to change. eg Spurs are appealing to watch now, but when they were the mid-table team they didn't get half as much interest. It's taken them what 10? 15? years to become established Euro challengers.

Yes that is true, but it doesn't happen immediately. It takes a few years of success for any particular team to generate money for the PL. Leicesters year was the most entertaining in bloody ages, but almost certain the PL income was down that year, as they didn't have the reach of the traditional 'big' teams

Their former owner was pressured by the Premier League to sell after an arrest warrant for him was issued and his assets frozen, meaning he had no money to run the club. As the Premier League had urged him to sell, and he had no money to keep the club going, they weren’t in a position to reject it. PL/FA rules at that time also forbidded an owner with a criminal record from owning a club. There was also no Global pandemic, no accusations of piracy, and no objections from Amnesty or fiance's of murdered journalists.

No it's no conspiracy, but could potentially disrupt their cash flow for a few years and no business likes uncertainty in their figures beyond annual growth. If Newcastle got into the top regions of the league they'd probably suffer a drop at least initially, and this has the potential to disrupt their growth plans for the next few years. Would be interesting to see what kind of hit they took when Leicester won a few years back. Almost a pity it was pretty much a one off (despite this seasons good form). Football reputations and finances generally change pretty quickly barring some exceptions based on massively extended success. We're probably the best example, showing how quick and easy it is to fall behind. From being one of the biggest earners in mid-90's and a couple of years early 2000's we've gone to a club just making up the numbers. A few better decisions over the last 15 years and it could easily have been us sitting in the Tottenham/Arsenal/Liverpool situation.

Why would they care? One of their big 'money making' teams (Man Utd/Man City/Liverpool/Chelsea/Arsenal/Tottenham) will miss out being in the top 6, and they're will be a few years gap in their finances till Newcastle have enough of a following abroad to replace it.

More likely agent driven having told him that there are Championship and League 1 players being paid significantly more than he is.

Batistuta. Closest player to Shearer I've ever seen

This. Every time is is reported as close, another objection comes crawling out from somewhere. Someone somewhere with actual power wants this stopped for whatever reason. No idea who really, but simplest thing would be to chase the money, and who benefits from this failure. Obvious and probably wrong answer is all other Premier League clubs, as the Saudi Wealth is bigger than the rest of League combined. like it or not the Premier League will listen to. Maybe BeIn, as they'd probably lose rights going forward. Despite the negatively of this post, still think it will go through as PIF will throw a bit extra to the Premier League, and probably promise to bid for rights going forward.

Neymar is a good example. One of the best, at one of the best clubs in the world suddenly decides PSG is the place to be. Remove their wealth and would he have gone there? Probably not. Never believed the excuse about him being sick of living in Messi's shadow

Money talks one way or another....yes you get agents and players going on about wanting Champions League and Trophies immediately, but add a zero to their pay and suddenly a 'project' becomes interesting. Also, if these players wanting immediate success were actually as good as they think they are, surely they would back themselves to bring whoever they join to the elite.

Bruce has no long term future here. We know it, he knows it, the players know it, PIF know it, every pfm knows it. Save some time, pay him off and get someone who's up to the job

The RAF retired the Tornado from service in April 2019. F-35B Lightning is the replacement. What has this got to do with the NUFC takeover again? Nothing at all...just a possible reason why someone might hear a plane near the airport not on the normal flight path.

I live about four miles away from the airport, but we aren't on the flightpath, so we never get planes directly overhead. In the middle of the night I was woken up by a very LOUD plane flying directly overhead, never heard anything like that here before. So I immediately thought (still 95% asleep) "that's them, the Saudis, flying in from a different direction from normal planes" and then I went straight back to sleep. It may all have been a dream of course, but in the morning I felt it was real !!! (how 'wound up' into all this, am I . . .. ) There's only two ways to land a plane at Newcastle. Straight in from Whitley Bay area, straight in from Hexham area. Anything else would end in disaster. Unless the Saudi private planes are like Harrier jump jets. Maybe you heard the Northumbria Police Ghetto Bird tracking some villains ? Or a military jet. get occasional Tornado's and Typhoons flying around at low levels. Takes what about 2 minutes to get to Leeming when you're doing 7-800mph?

Not seen any published. PIF could have easily done this all alone, so in my view they hadn't considered it in the past but were approached by Staveley who wanted a cut for starting the deal, and the Reubens jumped on as part of their buy up of property all around Newcastle. Or, they just want to be owners and have others do all the day to day running