TheBrownBottle

It is a lot of money they're talking about, so I don't imagine that the decision will be taken quickly or lightly - particularly given the inefficient govt (sorry, company) we're talking about. We're an investment, not a sportswashing exercise - they aren't going to just hoy insane money around like they have with the Saudi League. The Saudi League is for the direct 'benefit' of KSA. So is putting on boxing, F1, WWF etc etc. So there'll be cost benefits analysis and all those other fun things happening first. I know that plenty fantasised about the money they'd happily chuck around the club, but I've never believed that would be the case - while I think they definitely would've spent more in the transfer market without FFP/PSR, I don't think it would have been blank chequebook Man City / PSG stuff. They'll want to know what the likely return on investment is - both in income and in club value terms. It would substantively increase both, which makes investment in a new ground more likely.

D on a good day, E on a bad day. Anyone giving any member of our team an A other than Isak has B&W specs on, mind. Nothing wrong with E, mind

Mind, I do agree with one of the posters talking about Sheff Utd being a potentially more winnable game for them than Burnley. I reckon Burnley would be a nightmare to face in a playoff - they’re really tough to beat (at that level) and are good at the back.

Just following the reported number. I know that there was a claim that the figure included pay, severance AND compen to NUFC - this strikes as being fantastically unlikely.

This line isn't great, either: the city's high rates of deprivation played a key role Call me a humourless old fucker, but I can't bring myself to laugh at poverty-driven deaths from alcohol. It is fucking awful and its not exactly as if Newcastle is a utopia of full employment with all earning more than a living wage. The NE is desperately poor in relation to most of the UK, the result of neglect and the (sometimes deliberate) destruction of local industry. All are in the same bucket. More than happy to laugh at their football team and their delusions of grandeur, mind.

His 4.1m severance package for about two months work suggests he made the best decision he could ever make

It’s always been the case - you’re playing downhill. I’d guess that it’s become more pronounced the more that football has become about athleticism.

That’s ok mate - I assumed you were

In thinking about the prospect of building on Barrack Road, the site should be more or less ideal. The site is greenbelt, so the ground investigations are unlikely to find serious soil contamination. SJP is next to it, so it is likely that the geotech will find that foundation / structural issues won’t need too much technically difficult consideration. Transport links are decent, site access should be straightforward, and the site should offer plenty of space for works to be undertaken with a ‘crashed’ construction programme - ie the works can be undertaken contiguously rather than sequentially, which would push back the completion date. In terms of planning, I’ve been out of the UK for nearly a decade, so the planning regs may have changed, but they used to be a potential pain in the arse. But I would say that you’d hope that the current SJP would be converted to parkland to offset the new stadium (which would actually improve the situation of Leazes Terrace), and the Victorian bandstand could easily be relocated (or moved brick by brick to Beamish, etc etc). Given that the club bought back the land where the Stack is atm, perhaps that could be given over to greenery too. So hopefully something along those lines would help push any new stadium through planning quicker than if the club was simply gobbling up a greenfield site without any offsets.

I wouldn’t worry about it - I learned a harsh lesson re dads and Wembley in 1996. I already had my Charity Shield ticket via my ST (at that point my dad didn’t go anymore - couldn’t afford an adult ST. So I used to go with my uncle, who did have one). My dad wanted to go, so when the tickets went on general sale, I offered to go and queue at SJP for a ticket for him. He dropped me off on his way to work just before 5am (he worked shifts at Parsons), where I queued for about four hours (I was nowhere near the front, btw - people had started queueing the afternoon before!). Eventually I got to the front, and bought him a ticket behind the goal. When he got home from work that day, I thought I’d get a bit of praise for getting him a ticket. His response? ‘It’s a bit far from the pitch - couldn’t you have got me a better seat?’ So my advice - be ruthless

Assuming a lack of planning issues, then a world class 65-70k stadium can be taken from concept design to completion in just over three years, if you have the right team onboard, and the site is relatively free of issues.

Even a bit of simple maths exposes the obvious lie re their attendances, and how the ticketing there works. In Sunderland’s accounts for 22/23, they posted £10.7m in revenue. Their aggregate attendance was 931,691. That works out as about £11.50 on average per seat ‘sold’. Yeah, pull the other one. Either their ground is filled to the brim with kids (cheapest ticket £8 per match) or they aren’t selling anything like the numbers to support their attendance claims.

Clearly doesn’t understand that the value of the playing squad isn’t usually factored in in that way into the purchase of a football club. And we’ve seen already that they don’t have a clue re what their players are worth (Jack Clarke)

Everton’s average gate has dipped below 20k only once since the Great War - in 83/84, when it dropped to just over 19k. Which was the case for pretty much every club in that era.

Need to start shifting some of the keepers on our books soonish tbh. Dubravka cannot possibly be close to starting next year.

Reform are currently on a plurality in the polls in the UK. The world isn’t a happy place atm.

Wasn’t he meant to be on over £60k p/w? These rumours never seem to be substantiated, mind

'I have anecdotal evidence and got paid to be there for a bit, so everything is hunky dory' The 'arrow in York' is irrelevant - that hasn't been an issue for centuries. For gay Saudis, this is not the case. It is a dictatorship - what else could an absolute monarchy be? It does not have the Rule of Law.

Agreed, he is - as is KSA. It isn't a coincidence that the 'peace talks' between the US and Russia re Ukraine took place in Riyadh - minus Ukraine, of course. Who has been funding Wahhabism / Salafism around the world, causing untold harm in Asia and Africa? Some of those taps have been turned off recently, but not all of them. In terms of his actions within the US - if KSA has moral immunity for how the govt conducts itself internally, then so does Trump in the US. MBS is what Trump would love to be, if he could.

I'm all for executing witches and sorcerors, obviously - who wouldn't? - but do you think that gay Saudi Arabians might have an issue with being executed for being born gay? And tbf if it is their laws - why give a shite about what Trump is doing in the US? That's their laws, too.

Can't both things be true, though? That KSA is a nasty dictatorship (I know about how it has 'liberalised' a bit recently - I suspect more down to not wanting a revolution from its relatively young population), and Trump is a nasty cunt who is a danger to the planet?

All arguable tbf mate - Liverpool is a much larger city, as is its catchment area.

I'm waiting to be told where to go - he's indulged me so far.

They can also execute you for blasphemy, homosexuality and witchcraft. They can execute on a whim because there is no written law code - it is up to individual judges to make judgements and sentences in their own interpretation of Sharia.

Massive cunt with authoritarian / anti-democratic tendencies, possible outright fascist. An outright danger to the world generally, and young women in particular. Would be great comedy figure if he had no power.