Thumbheed

To be fair I don't think he was trying to be inconspicuous. What he said is right though, the consortium have publicly announced they are no longer interested. If they were interested again, they could say so. That they haven't should be a wake up call to some in here. PIF have announced they are no longer interested not "the consortium." Can anyone think of a reason why Ashley would engage a QC who specialises in International public law if PIF weren't still involved? I can't.

There are legal safeguard preventing you from incriminating yourself and handing over evidence that does so. What are those legal safeguards Stiffy?

My take is the consortium don't have grounds to take the PL to court as it's still technically under review and hasn't been rejected, however a 3rd party taking them to court would expose the legal frailties of the PL's position which leaves them in the situation of having their hand forced into a decision, or to have their dirty laundry aired out in public.

This guy.

Other than leave the league or create their own league where could they go with this? At the end of the day they need the votes of the other 14 to get any traction on any of their own ideas.

they don't give two s***s about football culture anywhere let alone english football culture, they're American venture capitalists they just care about money and are annoyed the have to share with "little" teams instead of just taking it all and everybody else should just be grateful for the exposure Yep, I dont think they expected this reaction from the fans, hence why they've rejected their own proposal.

They've totally misjudged English football culture here. That is the only explanation I can think of for this shitshow.

I'll just stick to studying bread

This bit's an interesting take. I dunno about being told they aren't happy but Bruce will know his job's on the line so I bet his skin is extra thin at the moment. He'll be desperate to change the narrative as much as he can.

One down, one to go.

Supposing Ashley pulls this off and gets this pushed through, does this give him a clean slate?

this guys gonna keep Bruce in the job

Best I've seen us play in the last 2 to 3 years, that.

Feel sorry for people who can't appreciate a player like Ben Arfa.

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. Will the sports broadcasting right not form part of the diversification? They've recently created their own Sport broadcasting company so I'd have though having your own team within the the most watched league in the world will be the crown jewel for that. Furthermore, it's pretty fucking clear that Sportswashing works and they have proved the soft power they have over the government, which is handy when it comes to trade deal negotiotions for Brexit.

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?

https://twitter.com/MoneyMikeAshley/status/1305469687497662464 The money shot.

He's already said they've provided enough evidence on the point of contention so this will be about the sale, not compensation. Ashley has seen the colour of their money and also will be thinking about his new contacts, the strength of which will depend on this sale going through. This will happen.

Aye, all this talk of split shares is nonsense. Ashley wants to sell to Saudi's and Saudi's only.

It begins.

Saudis setting up their own sports media company is also a another step in the right direction for us imo.

I can't help but think this was to draw the PL out into a public statement. We're still waiting for a decision and there's 100% grounds to reject it. It's clear the PL are willing to let this impasse go on indefinitely so the club needed to act. It's further evidence that they aren't acting apporiately, which is the point of the statement. Makes sense to me.

"The Athletic understands that Ashley had been keen to use his new contacts to pursue wider business opportunities with the Saudis. He is said to be furious that he may now have lost out twice over." Reason 12847 why this is not over.

Well he was. He suggested on many occasions the ‘talking behind the scenes’ would lead to takeover being accepted...... .....PL rejected it I hope in the long run he’s right and it gets overturned on appeal or something Nah, no he didn't. He's been pretty clear he was waiting for exactly this kind of confirmation. He's taken some uneccassary patter.

Yea I’m a bit baffled by this. That’s how I see it too. Because there's clear indication that they don't accept the decision, which gives them thr option of seeking independent adjudication, free of bias and influence which has clearly corrupted this process. How can that not be a positive? Which is possibly what the premier league want as well as it takes any decision making away from themselves which stops bein getting p*ssed off with them. I thought this, but then if it was the case why didn't they reject it sooner?