Ankles Bennett

To me steve Bruce's strategy is to identify the potential winnable matches and to put the strongest teams out in those games. That is not competing its surviving! He focuses on cup runs to mask his pl inadequancies!

Aye that makes sense but i still think it would be a lot more useful to have a wall there if it’s for players likely to take Free Kicks. I mean, surely we’ve got the equipment and the staff to sort it out something that simple so why not? Yeah, but the manager ain't going to be too chuffed if your top striker gets concussed by a practice free kick

What is surely the aim of the "big 6 " is to effectively create a PL 2 and to send the other 14 teams to pl 2 and to then invite the top 14 euro teams to take their place in the PL1 with 6 teams promoted to the PL2 from the championship.

Just chuck them out of the PL. Greedy American owners ruining our national game and as for drafts they can f**k off.

Yes I meant one of the big 6

Seems to me if one of the top 6 ends up in a relegation spot the top 6 will simply suspend relegation that season .

Rumour the Saudi finance minister has also flown in. Can anyone confirm this?

Bruce has got to go. Virtually nill possession as usual.7

Just in time for the transfer window to slam shut.

We were told the transfer budget was £35m. That's what we have spent on Wilson and Lewis so I dont expect to see any more incoming unless they are freebies or loans.

Not a single shot on target. Just not good enough.

Wouldn't it be fair to say that this is not a frivolous purchase but a key part of MBS Vision2030 plan? Are they cutting back on this project too? This keeps getting mentioned but I don't see how it has anything to do with the potential acquisition of NUFC. The main concerns with regards to Vision 2030 are: to diversify the economy away from oil (if this is related to that, there are far better options ROI-wise than buying a football club, especially in the current climate), improve the health sector, improve education, promote tourism (again can't imagine this would be enriched through buying nufc), facilitate more recreation activities and improving infrastructure. Hard to argue that buying the club ties into any of those goals in my humble opinion. But the Saudis are planning on investing in the region and owning the football club gives them a link to the region. They will use oil money to invest in projects that will provide an income stream so they are no longer reliant on the oil especially when electric cars are the way forward.

Perhaps we need to start a thread drumming up support to inundated the EPL with a demand that they pass the takeover or to clearly explain why it's not accepting the overwhelming evidence that PIF is not autonomous from the Saudi's gov..

Seems to me that Ashley is perhaps going down the line of saying the refusal of the PL to give a decision on the O&D test by steadfastly refusing to accept the "overwhelming evidence of the independence of PIF", from the Saudi government, amounts to a decision that he plans to challenge. It's a case of the PL deciding the outcome is to reject the takeover and to then demand the consortium provides the adverse evidence to support their decision to reject.

It took the PL 8 months to ratify the Southampton takeover. They rejected the original consortium takeover on the O&D test, and the guy who put it together then discarded the consortium and made his own takeover bid and he passed the O&D test and the takeover was then allowed.

Regardless of what people think of Ashley he has always said he would only sell to someone who could take the club forward. In that respect the consortium are the only buyers who can do that, hence his determination to realise his asset and at the same time can say there you go I've given you owners with a shed load of money that I haven't got.

Rather than appealing the rejection, the club may consider applying for a Judicial Review. A Judicial review process would examine whether the PL have correctly applied the O&D procedures in reaching their decision to reject the takeover. If it is established they have exceeded the parameters of the O&D procedures in rejecting the takeover, regardless of the evidence of piracy etc, they could then be left with no other option than to allow the takeover.

Am I reading something into this statement by the club? It refers to the club and its "owners" i.e in the plural. Does this mean the club has actually been sold to the consortium?

Exactly this. We are just cannon fodder for the top six.

I cant see the Reuben bros buying us. I think they were only onboard so they would get all the Saudi area regeneration funding. They have the land in newcastle all they needed was someone like the Saudi's to fund the various regeneration projects.

Not thick at all. Looking at the situation with critical eyes Nothing to stop him doing some actual journalism and checking to see if what he's been told is actually based in any kind of factual world. Unless it was just an interview and reported as one, rather than taking a single source as gospel That's fine in most scenarios, but with one source (we are assuming) involved in a highly confidential process, I'm not sure how feasible that is. In that case a decent journalist wouldn't report as fact, and would write as an opinion piece. Probably not feasible to report with checks, but that should have been made clear. Caulkin reported numerous times that all he was doing was passing on what he had been told but couldn't vouch for the veracity of what he had been told.

Is this serious? He could be writing a book etc. The ABC of failed NUFC takeovers by George Caulkin

This is not for fans to sort out. Newcastle fans have done their bit, whipped up a storm with MPs and got the PL to talk for the first time. It's now over to those with the power, the millionaires, billionaires, corporations and sovereign states, to sort this out, either way, once and for all and then we can move on to wherever that may be. What I meant was NUST, not individual fans, should write to Al Rumayyan asking for closure one way or another.

This. Sean has always had his best displays for us when he has been given the no 10 role

I support the option of writing to Al Rumayyan at PIF asking for closure for the fans one way or another. It also seems clear to me that it wasn't PIF who withdrew their offer, it was MBS who clearly wasn't amused by the PL line of questioning and therefore ordered them to withdraw the offer, and so I think it is clear he would have been the majority, but lets be clear here, not the sole owner, of NUFC. However, this guy is the Crown Prince, and will be the next King of the KSA, and as such he is feted wherever he goes around the world. Yet the EPL have had the temerity to question his suitability to own a share in a piddling little football club, because that's what NUFC, and by association, the EPL, is to him. MBS clearly felt insulted, and I don't blame him for this, by the fact that the EPL refused to accept the assurance from the Saudi Royal Court that he would not be interfering in the running of NUFC. Hence the withdrawal, and as such, I cannot see PIF would be allowed to resurrect the takeover, unless the EPL say they will pass the takeover without any further questioning. So no, this takeover is sadly, dead in the water.