Various: N-O has lost the plot over potential end of Mike Ashley's tenure

[Kanj]

PIF likely don’t mind RB in for their real estate and development know-how. They also have a healthy balance sheet and can provide additional local knowledge. I assume PIF will start investing into RBs other funds, if they haven’t already.

[Guest]

I've heard from a reliable source that we'll be rebraned as Newcastle United Emirate Airlanes.

[New Beginnings]

I think we need to be prepared to be hammered in the press over the next few days, especially tomorrow in the Sunday rags.

 

Hope this doesnt give the Saudis cold feet

[SteveMc]

They’d likely be expecting this reaction

[Pons Alias]

 

Well, the Saudis have a well-established history of crumbling when receiving criticism.

That's why they stopped, erm....

[Wilson]

If this is already with the premier league for the green light, there's nothing to worry about imo.  No way they turn them away, I'll be trying to ignore anything other than an official announcement from here on as we're bound to get more and more shite the longer it drags on.

 

Hopefully we don't have to wait long to find out either way.

[TRon]

 

Well, the Saudis have a well-established history of crumbling when receiving criticism.

That's why they stopped, erm....

 

Aye

 

I'm sure the precious snowflakes will never have received vitriolic criticism before it will come as a shock to them.

[Stifler]

Commercial Union House (CU House) which extends over Pilgrim Street next to where the Odeon was, was indeed due to be removed this year. I think that is the building you mean, Stifleaay?

 

However, one of the many COVID-19 delays might mean this may not happen until next year, or even later.

 

The Pearl Assurance Building, while it is within the EPS area, is not going to be touched at all, there are no plans involving it.

Yeah, that was what I was meaning.

[Rafalove]

 

 

Saudi fund boss Yasir Al-Rumayyan is in the final stages of taking over as chairman of #NUFC. The head of the Saudi sovereign wealth fund is poised to become the public face of the club as part of the £300million takeover of Newcastle from retail tycoon Mike Ashley. [Daily Mail]

 

 

 

 

The approval of the new board is expected to take several weeks. The Saudi-backed consortium has sent a 350-page document detailing their financial plans for the club to the Premier League.

 

 

 

The document outlines audacious plans to pump hundreds of millions into #NUFC to create a club capable of competing in the CL. The document outlines fresh investment over a series of three-year stages, new commercial sponsorships & plans for the day-to-day management of the club.

 

 

 

The new owners want to revamp Newcastle’s stadium, while buying star players and training younger players to try to create sustained success. The payment for the club will be made entirely in cash despite earlier reports of a debt-fuelled deal. #NUFC

 

 

[veriaqa]

I've heard from a reliable source that we'll be rebraned as Newcastle United Emirate Airlanes.

 

Newcastle United Saudia Airlanes more likely

[Miggys First Goal]

 

 

Saudi fund boss Yasir Al-Rumayyan is in the final stages of taking over as chairman of #NUFC. The head of the Saudi sovereign wealth fund is poised to become the public face of the club as part of the £300million takeover of Newcastle from retail tycoon Mike Ashley. [Daily Mail]

 

 

 

 

The approval of the new board is expected to take several weeks. The Saudi-backed consortium has sent a 350-page document detailing their financial plans for the club to the Premier League.

 

 

 

The document outlines audacious plans to pump hundreds of millions into #NUFC to create a club capable of competing in the CL. The document outlines fresh investment over a series of three-year stages, new commercial sponsorships & plans for the day-to-day management of the club.

 

 

 

The new owners want to revamp Newcastle’s stadium, while buying star players and training younger players to try to create sustained success. The payment for the club will be made entirely in cash despite earlier reports of a debt-fuelled deal. #NUFC

 

 

 

How have we gone from Ashley to a 350 page document outlining that? 

 

Am I dreaming?

[Miggys First Goal]

There it is.

 

Let us disregard the succession just for a moment and agree that if Mike Ashley departs Newcastle United, it will be a reason to celebrate.

 

If he finally sells, it will feel as if a shadow has gone. It will feel as if a yoke has been removed. It will feel as if Tyneside is finally rid of a man who knew the price of the club but never, ever came close to understanding its value.

 

Ashley has tried to impose his cynicism and his opportunism on a club and a culture that runs on loyalty and passion. He has failed. That, too, is reason to celebrate. The Toon Army sniffed him out soon enough and have been trying to escape his loveless embrace ever since. Finally, deliverance appears to be imminent.

 

He will be remembered in the North East as a vandal, a man who treated icons like Kevin Keegan and Alan Shearer with apparent contempt, a defacer who tried to rename St James' Park, a billionaire who told us everything we needed to know about him when lockdown came and he tried to keep his Sports Direct stores open, arguing they were an essential service. Zero hours and zero class.

 

English football will not miss him. The limit of his ambition appeared to be to do just enough to make sure Newcastle stayed in the Premier League, with access to the fabulous riches of its television deals. 

 

Sometimes he succeeded, sometimes he did not. The game has been ready to bid him good riddance for some time. It has had a bellyful of him. He can go back to puking into pub fireplaces in peace.

 

 

But it is possible both to rejoice at the prospect of his leaving and to despair at what will replace him.

 

That may be the true poison of Ashley's legacy: Newcastle fans are so desperate to see the back of him they do not care what comes next. And what is coming next appears to be a regime synonymous with murder and tyranny that makes Ashley and his drinking buddies look like Torvill and Dean.

 

I am already familiar with the excuses and the justifications that are being prepared by some in the North East should the deal, which is said to be 80 per cent financed by the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF), the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia, go through.

 

There is Saudi investment in Sheffield United, the UK sold more than £600million worth of arms to Saudi Arabia between October 2018 and March 2019, Anthony Joshua fought Andy Ruiz Jr in Riyadh last year and Manchester City are owned by Abu Dhabi, part of the United Arab Emirates, which is mentioned in dispatches by Amnesty International for its proclivity for 'arbitrary arrest and detention, torture and enforced disappearance'.

 

All of those things are to be deplored. None of it makes what appears to be about to happen at Newcastle right. None of it makes it any more palatable. It is tempting to be seduced by the prospect of real investment being poured into the club because so many of us love it and what its fans stand for and want it to be successful again. But let's be honest about it: if the Saudi-led takeover of Newcastle goes through, it will be a new low for the English game.

 

I dislike much of what Ashley stands for but the last time I saw a picture of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the man who is set to replace him, on the news, it was because it was reported there was evidence he had authorised the murder of a dissident journalist in the Saudi embassy in Istanbul.

 

The Crown Prince has made it known through Saudi public prosecutors that he knew nothing of the murder. His name will not be used as the face of the takeover but he chairs the PIF. He holds the power.

 

Jamal Khashoggi was strangled and then dismembered by a bone saw by a team of Saudi assassins in October 2018 before what was left of him was taken away in plastic bags. The fate was reportedly visited upon Khashoggi because he had been critical of the Crown Prince, which might be worth bearing in mind if he ever signs anyone as bad as Joelinton.

 

Ashley's cohorts might have banned you from the club but at least they did not ban you from your fingers, hands, toes, feet and head. So let's not pretend Newcastle are getting some sort of upgrade here. One thing Ashley was criticised for was a failure to understand the culture of the North East, so I await with interest the Crown Prince's first foray into the Bigg Market on a Saturday night.

 

The expectation, of course, is that once Newcastle start buying superstars and playing football from heaven, then we will forget all about what happened to Khashoggi and the myriad other human rights abuses in Saudi Arabia and start talking about the transformation the owners have wrought on the club and the investment they have ploughed in to a struggling area.

 

That is what sportswashing does. It has worked beautifully for Abu Dhabi with Manchester City. 

 

City employ the best coach in the world and play the most beautiful football many of us have ever seen in this country and therefore our attitude towards the regime in the UAE starts to soften.

 

Sports reporters like me say we are separating the beauty of the football from the regime that is financing it but the cunning of sportswashing lies in the fact that by reporting on the enchantment of the entertainment City provide, we are creating a subliminal link to the state that has facilitated that entertainment. By doing our job, we are doing their bidding, too.

 

Which is why it is worth pointing out that what is about to happen at Newcastle is essentially a trick, a ploy more cynical than anything Ashley dreamed up. So enjoy the football the new regime finances if you can but never forget it has been bought by blood money

.

[HaydnNUFC]

Article from the same journalist who defended the presence of the AJ-Ruiz fight in Saudi.

[ElDiablo]

Is it a surprise that their fund boss might be chairman? Would've thought he would be busy enough. I suppose he won't be that involved, but it does seem very direct representation from them.

[triggs]

Article from the same journalist who defended the presence of the AJ-Ruiz fight in Saudi.

Who wrote it?

 

The article is bang on

[Yorkie]

There it is.

 

Let us disregard the succession just for a moment and agree that if Mike Ashley departs Newcastle United, it will be a reason to celebrate.

 

If he finally sells, it will feel as if a shadow has gone. It will feel as if a yoke has been removed. It will feel as if Tyneside is finally rid of a man who knew the price of the club but never, ever came close to understanding its value.

 

Ashley has tried to impose his cynicism and his opportunism on a club and a culture that runs on loyalty and passion. He has failed. That, too, is reason to celebrate. The Toon Army sniffed him out soon enough and have been trying to escape his loveless embrace ever since. Finally, deliverance appears to be imminent.

 

He will be remembered in the North East as a vandal, a man who treated icons like Kevin Keegan and Alan Shearer with apparent contempt, a defacer who tried to rename St James' Park, a billionaire who told us everything we needed to know about him when lockdown came and he tried to keep his Sports Direct stores open, arguing they were an essential service. Zero hours and zero class.

 

English football will not miss him. The limit of his ambition appeared to be to do just enough to make sure Newcastle stayed in the Premier League, with access to the fabulous riches of its television deals.

 

Sometimes he succeeded, sometimes he did not. The game has been ready to bid him good riddance for some time. It has had a bellyful of him. He can go back to puking into pub fireplaces in peace.

 

 

But it is possible both to rejoice at the prospect of his leaving and to despair at what will replace him.

 

That may be the true poison of Ashley's legacy: Newcastle fans are so desperate to see the back of him they do not care what comes next. And what is coming next appears to be a regime synonymous with murder and tyranny that makes Ashley and his drinking buddies look like Torvill and Dean.

 

I am already familiar with the excuses and the justifications that are being prepared by some in the North East should the deal, which is said to be 80 per cent financed by the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF), the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia, go through.

 

There is Saudi investment in Sheffield United, the UK sold more than £600million worth of arms to Saudi Arabia between October 2018 and March 2019, Anthony Joshua fought Andy Ruiz Jr in Riyadh last year and Manchester City are owned by Abu Dhabi, part of the United Arab Emirates, which is mentioned in dispatches by Amnesty International for its proclivity for 'arbitrary arrest and detention, torture and enforced disappearance'.

 

All of those things are to be deplored. None of it makes what appears to be about to happen at Newcastle right. None of it makes it any more palatable. It is tempting to be seduced by the prospect of real investment being poured into the club because so many of us love it and what its fans stand for and want it to be successful again. But let's be honest about it: if the Saudi-led takeover of Newcastle goes through, it will be a new low for the English game.

 

I dislike much of what Ashley stands for but the last time I saw a picture of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the man who is set to replace him, on the news, it was because it was reported there was evidence he had authorised the murder of a dissident journalist in the Saudi embassy in Istanbul.

 

The Crown Prince has made it known through Saudi public prosecutors that he knew nothing of the murder. His name will not be used as the face of the takeover but he chairs the PIF. He holds the power.

 

Jamal Khashoggi was strangled and then dismembered by a bone saw by a team of Saudi assassins in October 2018 before what was left of him was taken away in plastic bags. The fate was reportedly visited upon Khashoggi because he had been critical of the Crown Prince, which might be worth bearing in mind if he ever signs anyone as bad as Joelinton.

 

Ashley's cohorts might have banned you from the club but at least they did not ban you from your fingers, hands, toes, feet and head. So let's not pretend Newcastle are getting some sort of upgrade here. One thing Ashley was criticised for was a failure to understand the culture of the North East, so I await with interest the Crown Prince's first foray into the Bigg Market on a Saturday night.

 

The expectation, of course, is that once Newcastle start buying superstars and playing football from heaven, then we will forget all about what happened to Khashoggi and the myriad other human rights abuses in Saudi Arabia and start talking about the transformation the owners have wrought on the club and the investment they have ploughed in to a struggling area.

 

That is what sportswashing does. It has worked beautifully for Abu Dhabi with Manchester City.

 

City employ the best coach in the world and play the most beautiful football many of us have ever seen in this country and therefore our attitude towards the regime in the UAE starts to soften.

 

Sports reporters like me say we are separating the beauty of the football from the regime that is financing it but the cunning of sportswashing lies in the fact that by reporting on the enchantment of the entertainment City provide, we are creating a subliminal link to the state that has facilitated that entertainment. By doing our job, we are doing their bidding, too.

 

Which is why it is worth pointing out that what is about to happen at Newcastle is essentially a trick, a ploy more cynical than anything Ashley dreamed up. So enjoy the football the new regime finances if you can but never forget it has been bought by blood money

.

 

From?

[Guest]

Saw something that they’re donating $500m towards fighting the Corona pandemic.

[Guest]

[Miggys First Goal]

Oliver Holt. Daily Mail.

[HaydnNUFC]

Article from the same journalist who defended the presence of the AJ-Ruiz fight in Saudi.

Who wrote it?

 

The article is bang on

 

Oliver Holt. Though some past tweets of his make it seem a tad hypocritical on his part. Ah whey.

[Andy84]

Awaiting the Crown Prince’s “first foray into the Bigg market on a Saturday night “ 

 

Such a tired, patronising statement

[Wilson]

Finding it hard not to get excited tbh.

 

 

[Andy84]

More to do with the fact he’s trying to write a serious critique of our potential ownership, same old boring shite about the Bigg market

[LV]

I want to read the 300+ document about potential investment

[Yorkie]

Finding it hard not to get excited tbh.

 

 

 

Absolutely. I hope something organic remains because I've never felt envy of thy elite clubs, and not out of simply being contrary, either. My envy has been towards those clubs who've wanted to better themselves within their means. But you can't help but read stuff like that and think, wow.