Whitley mag

I'd get used to the tedium then tbh, it's going to be part of the cost of them being the club's owners.

Think the majority of us will have broad enough shoulders to deal with any flak coming our way.

It's an age thing, really. I know a bloke in his early 60s who is a mackem and will openly admit when he was younger, he'd often go to SJP when they were away and his mates who supported us would go to Roker Park when we were away. He said it was the done thing.

 

I'm fairly certain there's people on here who have mentioned it before as being fairly common. Fans on either side would be aghast if you admitted doing it now.

 

Likewise my mackem mates are sound - but that's because I've known most of them at least 20 years. We've also all mellowed out as we've got older.

 

That's not to say there are fans on either side, most likely at the younger end, who absolutely despite the other half.

I’m 44 and hate then still as much as when I was 12. Bring on Armageddon for them !

BBC running the Khashoggi fiancé story for the third time, slightly different quote this time.

 

It’s almost as if some agency was releasing press releases on her behalf....

I don't care if it's Qatar releasing the story. It's one we should be discussing seriously. It's not enough to simply acknowledge wrong-doing. A man was murdered for criticising a regime. That does not deserve death.

 

Why should we ? It’s got nothing to do with football, if your going to attach the murder to the purchase of the club then also discuss it in relation to live nation, Warner brothers and other Saudi purchases.

 

No one is disputing the murder is horrendous, it’s the hypocrisy that the sale of nufc should be stopped whilst all these other deals go throughout without a murmur.

 

The one thing this deal won’t be stopped on is human rights, it would put the premier league at odds with the policy of the U.K. government.

 

What is blatantly happening here is human rights lawyers are using the high profile nature of this sale to gain publicity, as they know the Saudis buying stakes in other companies just doesn’t draw the same attention.

 

You can’t blame them for this as this is their job, however what I strongly object to is the notion that we should sacrifice the chance of a lifetime for our city and club, If this was blocked these same people would move on to their next cause and wouldn’t  give a s%#t about us.

 

So whilst I acknowledge and understand the human rights aspect, ths hypocrisy expecting us to be line drawn in the sand with Saudis doesn’t wash with me and many others.

 

 

Spot on Whitley Mag. 100% agree with you here, everything you said is spot on.

 

Nail on head

 

Because we argued Ashley was a human rights abuser and used that angle in some of our protesting.

 

Makes us look a tad hypocritical if we say nowt.

 

Yeah that is going to make us look very hypocritical, I don’t think anyone would have done it if he had ran the club well, but the fact is we did.

That’s a fair point some did try to use Ashley’s poor treatment of sd staff to highlight our cause, however still think your missing my point.

At no point did we ever call on sports direct to shut down, thereby denying thousands of people vital jobs.

These people are actively calling for the sale to be stopped denying millions being poured into our local economy.

I’m fine with Human activists raising concerns as we have done with sports direct, however to actively want this sale to be stopped is hypocrisy when other deals with Saudis go through unopposed.

BBC running the Khashoggi fiancé story for the third time, slightly different quote this time.

 

It’s almost as if some agency was releasing press releases on her behalf....

I don't care if it's Qatar releasing the story. It's one we should be discussing seriously. It's not enough to simply acknowledge wrong-doing. A man was murdered for criticising a regime. That does not deserve death.

Why should we ? It’s got nothing to do with football, if your going to attach the murder to the purchase of the club then also discuss it in relation to live nation, Warner brothers and other Saudi purchases.

No one is disputing the murder is horrendous, it’s the hypocrisy that the sale of nufc should be stopped whilst all these other deals go throughout without a murmur.

The one thing this deal won’t be stopped on is human rights, it would put the premier league at odds with the policy of the U.K. government.

What is blatantly happening here is human rights lawyers are using the high profile nature of this sale to gain publicity, as they know the Saudis buying stakes in other companies just doesn’t draw the same attention.

You can’t blame them for this as this is their job, however what I strongly object to is the notion that we should sacrifice the chance of a lifetime for our city and club, If this was blocked these same people would move on to their next cause and wouldn’t  give a s%#t about us.

So whilst I acknowledge and understand the human rights aspect, ths hypocrisy expecting us to be line drawn in the sand with Saudis doesn’t wash with me and many others.

Sir John made a lot of money no doubt, but at least he had the vision to back Keegan and spend big. He didn't go in half hearted, so my view has always been he earned some credit for thinking big, even if it was for the wrong reasons.

Looking back great times when we look at what’s happened since. But Halls legacy will always be tainted for me, he sold the club without any due care of who he was selling to.

The Gibraltar office was exposed as never being used and they billed the club a hefty fee for it. Not to mention when club was floated they made sure as majority share holders they got a nice dividend ever year as well. This for me was the real reason Keegan walked after spurs game, he knew that fans money was no longer going to be going on players, but instead into halls and shepherds pockets.

John And Douglas Hall did very well out of nufc, when he comes on to talk about Ashley these days got to say I switch off. He couldn’t wait to sell the club with Freddie laid up in hospital. Prior to the sale to Ashley he also made a fortune when the club floated on stock market. This S#%t about we’d never marketed the club abroad doesn’t wash, he’s just trying to ease his conscience and conveniently forgets how they charged the club for empty warehouses and offices abroad and paid halls daughter a directors wage for doing f#%k all.

Whilst Ashley has fu#%ked us over for 13 years, let’s not forget worse still our own including Westwood, Seymour, mckeag, shepherd and halls have all treat us with contempt and used this club for their own ends.

The Woolsington Hall site is perfect. Turn it into the best training facility in the country. Big enough for first team, academy and woman’s team. Build a mini 10,000 seat stadium. Perfect.

That would be superb, however I doubt the residents in Woolsington would be happy. They put up a hell of a fight to prevent new homes being built near the Falcons ground. They lost that fight however it took years to resolve what with legal challenges etc.

 

I'll say it again, i went past on Wednesday and they are building houses on it!

As I remember back in 90’s the club purchased woolsington hall with a view to it being our new training ground. Can’t exactly remember why we ended up in benton instead ?

However, point being I’m pretty sure when hall sold club he made sure this wasn’t included in the deal and kept if for himself. Quite happy to be corrected on this but certainly very similar to how mike has siphoned off the land at strawberry place for himself.

I’ll always remember the Keegan years but often think hall gets an easy ride from us and local press over sale of club and money they made.

Isn’t that the sort of thing that could be prepared. They’ve apparently put forward a 300 page business plan to the PL and they haven’t even thought about the basics of what the future training ground would be like?

F#%$ing hell let’s just stick with Ashley then what a load of rubbish.

Drain the swamp all these apologists have taken the shilling and shafted the fans.

 

Why bother posting that s***? 😁

All quite plausible if you ignore the source.

Does the athletic podcast with Caulkin usually drop on a Tuesday ? If so might be a more info to come out tonight.

Quiet day on the takeover front yesterday Ryder seems pretty confident in chronicle article last night, get the feeling pcp know this will get approved now and prem league are just getting their ducks in a row.

More tellingly Shearer’s comments that we could be winning trophies in 5 years last night, I’m sure it was mentioned Staveley had  been in touch with ex players recently. I wouldn’t imagine Shearer making a comment like that unless he was in the loop.

Where getting close I can feel it.

Beautiful morning in NE25 hopefully no dramas in takeover world today !

Buyers claiming the deal is pretty much done. Ashley leaking that he has doubts. What could possibly go wrong?

 

If only we'd seen this pattern before...

We really haven’t seen this pattern before it’s with the premier league it’s all but done.

Another choppy afternoon on the takeover front, but think the ship has evened it’s keel again. Be fu#%ing bipolar after all this is over.

I think Henry Winter also implied other clubs had raised concerns. Let’s not kid ourselves there’ll be a lot of jealousy and self interest going on here from other clubs. I agree prem league are covering their backs at this time, but I’m very confident this will go through in next few days.

George Caulkin is the only journalist you need to listen to.

Ignore everyone else.

In terms of info from the Staveley camp yes, but think the likes of winter and Burt have been pretty spot on to.

I think Henry Winter also implied other clubs had raised concerns. Let’s not kid ourselves there’ll be a lot of jealousy and self interest going on here from other clubs. I agree prem league are covering their backs at this time, but I’m very confident this will go through in next few days.

I would imagine it's nowt to do with bein and more to do with the standard takeover/checks process.

The telegraph article specifically states that it is the Bein issue that has complicated matters and is only obstacle. But as stated in article they do not expect it to prevent takeover.

This Jason Burt fella at the telegraph does seem itk. It was him who broke story about papers being filed with prem league in first place. He obviously has some source there feeding him info, I think the positive being that his article tonight expects this to still go through and it’s only been delayed days.

I would imagine prem league are checking there’s no way Bein can cancel deal if they chuck toys out of pram when this goes through. I would imagine they pay 500 mill over 3 years and this where the concern is, as other prem clubs would hoy a wobbler if they lost tv income at this time.

Ultimately though even if this was case I still can’t see how they can legally block our takeover as it would be very difficult to link pif directly to piracy.

Can’t even allow myself to think this won’t happen now. I think all we can go off at minute is PCP via

Caulkin appear confident, I would imagine there not just sitting by the phone awaiting a decision and there is constant dialogue between prem league and them. Ultimately even if there was problem I believe they would find a solution as neither side would want this to result in legal action. I can’t see that Bein would have any grounds for legal action against premier league for allowing a club to be taken over.

Regardless this is like a fu£&#ing rollercoaster could only happen with us.

www.independent.co.uk/voices/saudi-arabia-newcastle-united-takeover-bid-mbs-mohammed-bin-salman-a9486791.html%3famp

 

Another bad article to add to the collection, this time from a Saudi analyst based in Washington DC

 

People ignored this but they should read it, it's pretty grim

Thought it would be right up your street. No thanks.

www.independent.co.uk/voices/saudi-arabia-newcastle-united-takeover-bid-mbs-mohammed-bin-salman-a9486791.html%3famp

 

Another bad article to add to the collection, this time from a Saudi analyst based in Washington DC

Think you’ll find that’ll be Miguel Delaney who’s sourced that interview. The Manc t-%#t is obsessed with us.

Is this the week, is today the day ?

Getting ready for work, got my takeover play list going on the Sonos, Knopfler’s whey aye man, followed by manillows oh mandy.

What a time I’ve almost forgot where in the middle of a national crisis.

" But I won't glorify Saudi Arabia, I won't be holding up a Saudi flag or dressing like a daft c*** with a tea towel on my head. I won't personally promote Saudi Arabia. "

If fans do that its probably with the best of intentions , most people are not political really . To call fans who might stick a tea towel on their heads c***s says more about you quite frankly than it does them

 

It says they are uneducated and do not understand the issues at hand.

 

I think a lot of our fans will fall into that category.

Bit off to class a lot of our fans as uneducated.

Think the majority fully understand the history is Saudi, however when the government and royal’s are happy to associate with them, I again stand by my stance why should we be asked to condemn them.

We may have a few nuggets who take things a bit far, but to generalise the majority as uneducated is a tad condescending.

Just had a look in the success at any cost thread, quickly exited it’s like a parallel universe. I get some people have strong views on saudi’s, but the type casting of our support who back this takeover, you would think we are all thickos who need educating.

 

Every person I speak to is buzzing for this takeover. Actually feel kind of sorry for some of these fans who probably were desperate to get rid of Ashley, but can’t enjoy this due to their strong feelings.

 

But like I say yet to meet any of these types in my every day life !

 

Counting down the minutes to cracking open those #cans

 

Don't feel I need educated but when this was all announced I'll admit I got pretty excited by it all, started thinking up wild s*** that could be our reality now!

 

But then you think about it more, and think about the links we may have to such a f***ing abhorrent state and it's definitely not something any fan can possibly want, regardless of the wealth etc.

 

I wish I could be cut and dry with the matter like yourself and others you met, but it does sit a little uneasy on me. Problem is, I don't practice this in every single aspect of life and thus I feel really hypocritical

 

My justification is pretty simplistic if this country is prepared to accept 60 billion of Saudi investment, why should we feel duty bound to make a stand regarding this.

 

It’s the modern world unfortunately why should we suffer more pain just keep Gary Kasparov and co sleeping easy at night.

 

Like I say maybe simplistic and uneducated, but I’d guess it’s the majority of fans view on this.

 

 

 

You don’t have to accept that either.

I already have bring on the # cans