TheBrownBottle

TBF the club were stupid enough to give it the 'separation proved' crap. Being owned by a nation state isn't against PL rules.

No, because we’re not comparable to Chelsea in terms of size at the moment. This isn’t a ploy to allow us more sponsorship money - this is just our owners sponsoring a rival club to the tune of £60m.

But it seems a reasonable assumption that the chairman has a say in what it is doing. I’m struggling to see how this isn’t a problem - if true.

Our chairman is also the chairman of Riyadh Air. It’s definitely weird. At some point some of support might actually start questioning some of this stuff - do they seriously need to be sponsoring Chelsea? If Sports Direct were giving another club three times as much as our sponsorship deal when Ashley was here, I can guess what the response would be.

It’s really odd when you think about it. I remember reading once (think it might have been David Conn) it being said that Newcastle has a ‘cap-doffing air’; that there is almost a feudalistic desire to love those with money and power. The owners aren’t in charge of the club because they have a sense of noblesse oblige - they’re there to make money, with a nice dollop of ‘cleaning’ it on top.

Tbf I don’t think they’re doing it deliberately - but we are suffering from a negative externality as a result. I also think it would be reasonable for them to prioritise the KSA league - it’s their money, after all. That doesn’t mean that they’re actively seeking to harm us - I don’t doubt that they want this to be a success.

They haven’t ploughed £350m into the first team, though. The club brings in money, too. I’m sure the numbers will be out there re cash put in, but it won’t be close to £350m.

You’re comparing market figures for those players with the inflated fees and wages being offered by clubs in KSA. No European club is going to offer anything like what is being offered for Salah, given his age

They’re prioritising because clearly those ludicrously inflated fees have a negative effect on NUFC, given they’re handing money to our rivals. It’s their money and it makes sense they’d prioritise their own teams, tbf.

I had to look it up after reading this I didn’t have a clue who we were playing either. I hate the international breaks - especially this one, always just as the season gets going.

It would be buttons. Al-Shabab aren’t owned by the PIF - they don’t have megabucks to spend.

I don’t even think it’ll be PIF insisting - it’ll be Castore and other NUFC board members wanting to lickspittle them. Like anticipating what an emperor wants for their birthday.

‘A simple game complicated by idiots’

It’s funny how that whistle posse / colosseum / new monkey wank doesn’t sound any different from when I first heard it quarter of a century ago.

I don’t think football managers always rely on teaching and tailoring the message tbf. Sometimes it is just about a cold hard bollocking - a calling out or a shaming. It isn’t the same working environment as what the rest of us face on a daily basis.

I don’t think I’d describe Bruno or Isak as having it if Gordon doesn’t. Gordon has the deceptive intelligence to buy fouls and trick opposition players.

Love how the footballing intelligence of the English players has already been assessed when three of them haven’t even started a match yet. How the fuck could you know if they ‘lack guile’ until you’ve actually watched them play a bit? edit: it’s three of them. Ffs

I’m lending our dog, Jeff, to a Sheff Wed fan I know.

Swap Gordon and Almiron, drop Almiron? This is why these aren’t my calls of course

He always looked far better LW

My view re the summer spend is that Howe would have been given assurances, given that two-thirds of the budget was spent on players for the future. If the expectation was top four, he’d have been crackers to not jump up and down and demand that it all be spent on first teamers. There will be a plan, and these are just bumps in the road.

Then we need the no1 income in the league. At the moment we’re roughly on par with West Ham. Adding £35m in shirt and sleeve sponsorship is chicken feed in PL terms.

You don’t know that though. There is zero evidence for it.