Dr Jinx

He was working on behalf of Staveley the last time around but don’t think he’s involved this time. Can’t imagine he’d have talked to anyone, he’s quite professional as Ashley appointments go..

Chillwell, Dunk, Matt Doherty, Mikel Merino (bring him home!), Coutinho, Mertens, Cavani. Then see if the best that we already have can raise their game.

I'm surprised Adrian Durham hasn't said the Saudis should be investing the money into the NHS instead. I think read somewhere that they will be making a sizeable donation when the deal is announced. Clever really, as even Amnesty can’t shit on the gesture given what’s going on.

Imagine him hiding in his office trying to avoid the sack

Well there we go. It’s just a matter of time now

I wonder did someone from the AP doorstep Khashoggi’s fiancé to get that soundbite. As if she gives a shit about Newcastle United.

Chi is definitely on this forum ?

Lets just forget the UK is on lockdown etc. It’s a shame this didn’t happen a few weeks earlier as the media were all over the coronavirus 24/7.. I think they and people generally too are quite exhausted with it at this point. Now there’s basically fuck all else going on that people can vent about.

It’ll all be approved already. With the media shitstorm happening right now they might just be biding their time of when it the best time to make an announcement.

Whatever happens with this takeover, I hope we don’t turn into the type supporting Man City. Just had a peruse through their forum and seeing people referring to Pep as the “bald fraud” They obviously have Steve Coppell and Joe Royle amnesia

The calm before the storm ?

Us potentially becoming one of the big boys has really ruffled some feathers. The bitter cunts are out in force and because they can hide behind a worthy cause this will get more air time than it really should.

It’s when not if at this stage. I read somewhere that for the directors and owners test, the premier league look to conduct a face to face meeting. With the pandemic this will probably be much easier to achieve over Skype. Although I’d imagine our new Chairman is a hard man to get a hold of..

Opportunity of a lifetime for a whole slew of journos and groups like amnesty to be relevant by piping up over this. They can fuck off. We’ve paid a lifetime of penance already.

? Red Star Belgrade

And we’re going to have an influx of glory hunters trying to get into SJP now too. It’s the way of the world. There will be a demand on season tickets that will see locals left wanting. 65-70k would be more than enough. Also for a groundshare, it would have to be the smoggies, we’d never live it down going to the stadium of light despite the capacity being similar. We’d be dropping 15k capacity though. Only other option would be 2 hours up the road to Murrayfield.. then we’d be gaining 15k Which also might be a decent indicator as to how many we could get into SJP

Life is surreal right now. Im starting to worry I fell asleep while watching Contagion back at the start of March and this has all been a dream.

It's not the SD board, it is the auditors "Furious shareholders are expected to oust the entire board of Sports Direct auditor RSM at the embattled firm’s annual meeting this morning as discontent within the firm pours out into public view. Five shareholders, who claim the backing of about two-thirds of investors, have tabled a motion to remove the current management, as first reported by The Telegraph." Ahh.. shame, am really hoping they take a complete tumble now that we’re almost free of their clutches. That article basically has nothing to do with Sports Direct other than them hiring them. Quite a misleading piece on the surface. Here’s a question actually, so our club shop is run from Shirebrook, well they handle the distribution etc and take all the profits. Is this agreement posted in the companies house? I’d be interested to see if he manages to keep any sort of agreement in place.

Apparently there’s a meeting happening today for Sports Direct where there’s a motion to remove the whole board. There’s a story in the Telegraph but it’s behind a paywall. It wouldn’t surprise me if he keeps hold of his shares just long enough for things to pick up a bit and then just gets out of there.

Anyone think he’ll stay in football after this?

It is win-win for him. He’s done ok. We’re not relegated. It was only going to get worse for him season on season if Ashley was still owner. This way he can peddle the line, “we’ll see what happens, they might want to bring their own people in” Leaves with his reputation enhanced* , gets a pay off and then ends up at Sunderland in 2/3 years from now when they get into the Championship. Everyone is happy.

I assume there are ways around it. Like paying over the odds for a player and having the payments staggered. So the outlay over a season falls within those parameters but it’s basically on the limit every season for multiple deals?

I think it was in reference to some quotes attributed to him saying that the lads were enjoying training more under the new “gaffer”

The pitch is currently at most 3 metres from the front row, where are you going to fit in these extra thousands? Well I’m talking more about a stadium rebuild than a modification. There’s only one way that can happen which is building up. I think it will eventually have to happen, moving the ground somewhere else doesn’t seem to be an option anymore and besides, the location is perfect there. We would have to ground share though or just rent the use of somewhere similar to what Spurs did. Geographically it doesn’t leave many options though..

Seeming as money would be no object when considering what they might do. Why not take the Camp Nou approach and dig into the ground leaving the pitch much lower? It would solve all sorts of planning issues and you could pretty much bring it up to the level it’s at while still packing in thousands more below. Barca’s ground is only 48 meters high from street level, SJP is 98 according to google. The new Wembley is well below ground too iirc.