Shadow Puppets

I mean, that’s not remotely what he has said though is it ?

Seems a bit like blackmail to me

Just out of curiosity, why would Bein write to the other clubs. They have no say in this do they?

Guess or fact?

It's not hyperbole to say that the Saudis are one of the closest things on Earth at the moment to the Nazis is it? If you were going to pick the most brutal regime around, is there one worse? North Korea possibly but at least they're not bombing anyone. The UK had pretty good relations with the Nazi regime up until the outbreak of war, Edward VIII was a friend of Hitler. I don't think "our government likes them" is the most robust defence, you could say the same about Assad and Gaddafi, these people are always our "friends" until they're not. You missed the point. Take all that moral s*** stuff to the other thread, not this one. Jeez. This is the main takeover thread. It's going to be discussed whether you like it or not. Jeez. So what do you want to happen, Wullie? Another boycoutt? Not at all. A matter for the individual conscience this one I think. I don't think the FA/PL should be allowing any states to own football clubs but that ship's already sailed. So what will be your personal stance out of interest? Will you continue to support the club and would you go to games? Good question. Honest answer is I don't know. They've not even taken over yet so will just wait and see how things look once their feet are under the table I guess. Could be a long time before a ball is kicked at SJP but I don't have the aversion to giving them money that I had with Ashley. Out of interest, when was the last time you went? Late last season for me but I've not been regularly for several years now, particularly to home games. I must confess I'm desperate to go back, lots driven by sentiment. Telling my old man when Rafa left that I was genuinely done with it all and wouldn't watch or listen anymore was heartbreaking. When he text me about games or asked on the phone, every time he thought I was joking or going to change my mind. I suppose this is another reason why I'm probably also erring on the positives here; Newcastle was our bond and a huge part of my life. I spent several weekends this last year genuinely pleased to have time back, do fun stuff and not worry about the football. But that was because virtually every semblance of hope was lost. Just the idea of having that kernel of hope and those dreams of any form of enjoyment back kicks up all those feelings again. 2014 for me, fucked it off when they made it clear Pardew was staying. I've barely even watched us play this season so I freely admit that at this point, I'm looking at things as much from a neutral POV as I am a supporter. I consider the money issue to be an irrelevance really, I greatly objected to giving Ashley money because I considered it to be keeping him here (and it was, which is why he's now apparently selling up). Using Uber or buying petrol isn't the same as supporting a football club, quite obviously, and it's not them having my money i object to. It's hard to say where the line is without knowing what the Saudis do politically in future. Like, what is going to happen with their war in Yemen? Our club's good name is always going to be tied to whatever they're up to. I fear that too, but thinking logically I do think after a year or two of ownership, when we’re hopefully performing like a well run football club, it will start to be less relevant. I know it’s not the same, but City get away with far less scrutiny these days in terms of questions of ownership, far less than when they first bought the club.

The new owners will absolutely 100% unarguably be morally way behind the western world, and worse than Ashley. But I am firmly of the opinion that it has very little to do with the fans and shouldn’t be thrown at them as a moral dilemma. We have no choice in who our owners are (as has been made abundantly clear over the last 13 years). All we can do is support the team and hopefully enjoy watching some good football. I think it’s fair to say that you can love what the owners are doing to your club and hate their human rights record at the same time.

If this is all pointing towards a deal being close/done, then we're going to be a very strong position, albeit sadly, as the rest of the teams in the UK will likely be needing to tighten the purse strings a bit during / after the pandemic.

...with no symptoms whatsoever. There’s probably hundreds of thousands of people just like him walking around without knowing that they have it. Makes the death rate likely much less scary, but also means that chances of catching it yourself are higher.

Aye, he’s a twat in general, but I don’t really see what he’s done wrong. One Everton player has shown symptoms of the virus. Those symptoms, for all we know, are as minor as a cough. It would be mental to think that everyone who has been near someone with cold like symptoms has to self isolate. It’s just not workable. No ones going to do that, unless it becomes actually the official advice / law.

Totally agree with this Ian. It even gets to the point now, where someone will pipe up with a bit of football talk, and I am instantly bored. Roll the eyes and just switch off. The whole thing just bores me rigid. So bored that you spend your day on a football section of an internet forum? Here he is On his high horse as per usual. It was a joke

Totally agree with this Ian. It even gets to the point now, where someone will pipe up with a bit of football talk, and I am instantly bored. Roll the eyes and just switch off. The whole thing just bores me rigid. So bored that you spend your day on a football section of an internet forum?

I mean, I love Rafa and loathe Bruce as much as the next guy, but we were regularly dominated by big teams (pretty much every time we played them) under Rafa. We weren’t dominated by Norwich though!

Well that was absolutely woeful!

I had a conversation with a lad at 5 a side yesterday, where he said looking back he thinks "Rafa was a bit of a fraud".

That was because his child was ill I believe. He did an interview about it in the summer and apparently everything is much better now.

Obviously he won’t. We won’t go anywhere long term with any manager. The quality of football is literally no different to the last 3 seasons.

Don’t know why you guys are bothering to moan at him to be honest...he’s doing more than we could have ever imagined he would. 25 points at this stage of the season is excellent. There’s nothing wrong with just being happy for him you know ? I get the anger surrounding Ashley and Rafa leaving, but can’t ask much more from Bruce like.

As far as I can tell, and I’m no Steve Bruce Fan, the football/tactics are basically identical to the last two seasons, except now we have Saint Maximin who can produce some moments of magic to make it feel more attacking (in reality it’s basically the same). And to be honest I’m fine with that. I haven’t disliked watching us this season anywhere near as much as I was expecting to.

We’d be really fucked off if that happened to us. Literally every player on the pitch stopped playing apart from Shelvey. Big linesman error. Every team at the start of the season was told that linesman would keep their flag down if it was a close call.

I rest my case m'lord. Some fans man! He’s right though isn’t he?

I would say last season's 2-1 win over City, the previous year's 1-0 win over Man Utd... they were up there for atmosphere. Very reminiscent of the "good old days".

Shadow Puppets has finally accepted it’s less than reported Yeah, the Watford game was definitely significantly down on crowd. I would say 38-40k. Maintain that from every picture I saw, the Arsenal game still looked in the 45k region to me though.

Shame you couldn't muster the courage to make a stand for the club you claim to support. I hope it comes in the future. Attendance = Acceptance For your information, not that it’s any of your business, I was there in a corporate box with work entertaining clients. In future, keep your f***ing nose out of other people’s business and decisions. Ta. ? Arguably even worse. How?

Shame you couldn't muster the courage to make a stand for the club you claim to support. I hope it comes in the future. Attendance = Acceptance For your information, not that it’s any of your business, I was there in a corporate box with work entertaining clients. In future, keep your fucking nose out of other people’s business and decisions. Ta. ? You really are pathetic. Why? I was answering the question of why I was at the match. I was at the match because part of my job requires that I take clients to the football 4-5 times a year. It's part of my job for fucks sake. We're on a rota to do it. As I've already said multiple times on here, I gave up my personal season ticket in the summer in frustration / anger and Ashley. How the hell does that make me pathetic? I don't expect an answer by the way... you tend to disappear when people give perfectly good responses and you can't think of a smart response.