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


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Jim white just said no chance of it happening this week as The Premier League has yet to look at some of the details of the takeover.

 

Obviously his interpretation of the Master's interview. The bloke is a fucking joke.

 

That's exactly what it is.

 

I have to say though I'm not expecting to hear anything this week.

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Stones could potentially be better than what we have but that’s not a given from what we’ve seen so far Barkley would be definitely. The issue is though there are possibly more quality young players than there have ever been right now, why not go after some of them instead of players who are more or less at their peak and never going to be world class which is the level we eventually want it be at.

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E-Mail received from NUST today (25th May 2020) . . .

 

 

RESPONSE TO MEDIA SMEARS AGAINST FANS AND MEMBERS

 

Dear member,

 

Many of you will have noticed that some sections of the football media have continued to attack Newcastle United fans and the members of the NUST since news broke of the proposed takeover of Newcastle United by Amanda Staveley’s consortium. As a board we have been inundated with media requests from around the world to talk about the takeover and have done our best (we have all still been working in our day jobs during the lockdown) to respond in good faith to journalists wanting to know the Trusts position on the takeover.

 

Like everything with the Trust – you, the members, dictate our position. 

 

We have consistently  relayed the following messages

 

96.7% of Trust members who completed our takeover survey (15.04.20) said they were in favour of this proposed takeover

A minority of positive respondents to the takeover  members commented that they both supported the takeover and had concerns and questions about the potential new owners

The Trust has only ever judged the owner of Newcastle United on his record running Newcastle United. Outside factors are not an issue for the Trust

Even assuming for a moment fans of Newcastle United were against this takeover (rather than the vast, vast majority of fans supporting it)  football fans do not get asked about the buying or selling of their club.  We weren’t asked about Mike Ashley buying the club in 2007 and haven’t been consulted now. Therefore it is unfair to demand football fans to rise up and block things over which they have no control.  There are lots of people that could influence who owns clubs and the buying and selling of clubs.  I cannot understand why fans are being targeted instead of

 

FIFA

UEFA

The FA

The Premier League

The UK Government 

Mike Ashley

Key partners of the game in England like the BBC, BT Sport, Sky Sports

 

The listed institutions above seem to be happy with the way the English game is run. They have the power to make a difference.  Newcastle United fans have been mocked for years for attempts to remove the current owner by some of the same people in the media demanding that we now ‘take action.’

 

As a board there isn’t a media request we haven’t tried to make and in the main the conversations have been respectful.  Even if there is a disagreement about this proposed takeover, there can still be civility and respect between the fans and journalists. No one should be abused privately and publicly for expressing doubts about the takeover of a football club.

 

That respect and civility has to work both ways though.

 

The board of the Trust were dismayed to read an article in the New Statesmen by respected and awarded winning sports journalist Jonathon Liew.  The general tone of the article was, in our opinion, offensive toward the vast majority of  Newcastle United supporters. From a Trust perspective we were appalled to read the following line in Mr Liew’s piece: ‘Asked whether they would be in favour of their club being purchased by a state culpable for numerous human rights abuses and accused of a litany of war crimes in Yemen, 97 per cent of respondents to a survey by the Newcastle United Supporters Trust said they would.’

 

We will not allow our members to be defamed in this manner. As you will be aware the question in our survey was ‘Would you approve of a takeover of Newcastle United via the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund, the Reuben Brothers and Amanda Staveley as is widely reported in the media?’. 

We have emailed the New Statesmen the following on the matter:

 

“Dear Sirs,

 

I write in reference to the article titled ‘Newcastle fans back the club’s takeover by Saudi Arabia. Do they bear moral responsibility?’ written by Jonathan Liew and published by the New Statesman on 20th May 2020. This article includes a number of factually incorrect statements in relation to the Newcastle United Supporters Trust (“the Trust”).

 

The following statement is not true ‘Asked whether they would be in favour of their club being purchased by a state culpable for numerous human rights abuses and accused of a litany of war crimes in Yemen, 97 per cent of respondents to a survey by the Newcastle United Supporters Trust said they would.’

 

The survey referenced in the article did not ask our members ‘whether they would be in favour of their club being purchased by a state culpable for numerous human rights abuses and accused of a litany of war crimes in Yemen,’.

 

This is a fabrication and a clear breach of the Editors Code published by the Independent Press Standards Organisation (“IPSO”) section 1, Accuracy.

 

This statement is factually inaccurate and is potentially harmful to the longstanding reputation of the Trust and its members. In addition the article is entirely one sided and does not reflect the true circumstances of the situation at hand and is in general defamatory to Newcastle United supporters.

 

We provide you with this opportunity to remove this line from the article and publish an apology.

 

If the article is not amended and apology published within 24 hours of this correspondence we will seek further action as advised by our legal advisors (on our current understanding that the New Statesman is not a member of IPSO).”

 

Sadly, at the time of writing, we have yet to receive a response from the New Statesmen.  The article remains on their website in the original form and has gone into the print version of their magazine (page 40).  There are many other troubling aspects of Mr Liew’s article and we understand why Newcastle United supporters are deeply unhappy with it. It was heartening to see some positive, robust responses on social media that didn’t resort to abuse. Despite our objection to the article no journalist, activist or fan deserves abuse for their point of view.  However it is important that football fans are able to stand up for themselves. Sadly many professionals paid to write and speak about the game have viewed Newcastle United supporters as easy targets to ridicule.

 

We will be pursuing this with the New Statesmen in the aim of receiving an apology for you, the members.    What they have published is unfair and untrue. We will update members when we can on what happens next.  As a board it is essential that the Trust speaks out for Newcastle United Supporters.

 

We have conducted the following interviews since details of a deposit paid for the purchase of the club. We will continue to ensure the positive views of members about this takeover are hear:

 

The Chronicle

Forbes Magazine

Independent

Independent #2

Guardian

The WSJ

BBC

The Athletic

Radio 5 Live

ITV

 

Thank you for reading.

 

Board

NUFC Trust

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Stones, Barkley and Ings are miles ahead of anything we’ve got. Would be mental to turn any of them down.

 

Rome wasn’t built in a day and that.

 

Would be such an interesting trio to start a rebuild with under Rafa. All between 25 and 27 years old, so a good balance of experience and still got some youth. Lots of talent and potential to unlock still in all three.

 

Caulkin thinks Rafa is likely to remain in China for the time being.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Jim White and his supposed ITK knowledge. Been wrong throughout this saga.

 

Yeah he said a couple of weeks ago it was imminent. Fwiw I don’t think it will go through this week either, I would expect some sort of confirmation that the checks are complete however.

 

Also worth mentioning the premier league has 2 big meetings with clubs over the restart tomorrow and Wednesday so that could again slow things down.

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I think Poch would build a team that would genuinely win stuff Rafa would IMO would have a genuine interest in improving the whole area

Definite quandary for me. I love Rafa and I feel like a cheating lover but I can't help but lust after the type of football we would get under Poch. I think he would inspire and unite the fanbase again possibly even more than Rafa, which feels weird to say. On the flip side I see this as Rafa's swansong rather than Poch's stepping stone to Madrid or elsewhere. Rafa knows the club, area and is a dreamboat. It's unfinished business in this league, the title he doesn't have and you know he will do everything for our club.

 

Either way, what a position we could potentially be in to consider either and managers of this pedigree.

 

This sums up my feelings perfectly. I am massively conflicted, and in reality you could make a very strong case for either. Rafa would be the safe bet, and you know he would do things right, but Pochettino's football and his high pressing philosophy is exactly how I want to see us play. I also really rate the bloke as a personality, he seems very single minded.

 

That said, either of those two and you can't really lose.

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No. Got a link?

Can't find it and can't remember where I saw it was watching it when I woke up this morning. If I find it I'll post it. I didn't make a note of it as assumed it would be on here.

 

Anything interesting said ?

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Has anyone seen that interview with the Saudi sports minister talking about this?

 

Is that the one who posted on twitter at the end of last week about the deal is done? Had over a million followers but didn't really seemed to get picked up by the media over here.

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He's not the sports minister. He's the chairman of two sports marketing organisations.

 

Edit: Also board member of the  Saudi  UK business council and Cranfield University Saudi branch.

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You have to start questioning Caulkin at this point mind. He said they expected PL approval on a wednesday, what, 4 weeks ago now?

 

It can be an ongoing process but cant be an indefinite one? At some questions have to be asked about what more the PL need.

 

I'm not buying all this "next week", stuff. No fucker knows, including Caulkin.

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Aye was longer the one I saw and had a translation. He was talking about how it was from an investment perspective or something. I was quite hungover as drank shit loads of leffe last night.

 

#LAD

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Stones, Barkley and Ings are miles ahead of anything we’ve got. Would be mental to turn any of them down.

 

Rome wasn’t built in a day and that.

 

Would be such an interesting trio to start a rebuild with under Rafa. All between 25 and 27 years old, so a good balance of experience and still got some youth. Lots of talent and potential to unlock still in all three.

 

Caulkin thinks Rafa is likely to remain in China for the time being.

 

 

I don't think Rafa will break his contract with them

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You have to start questioning Caulkin at this point mind. He said they expected PL approval on a wednesday, what, 4 weeks ago now?

 

It can be an ongoing process but cant be an indefinite one? At some questions have to be asked about what more the PL need.

 

I'm not buying all this "next week", stuff. No f***er knows, including Caulkin.

 

Only time will tell, think he (and the buyers) know more than you and me to be fair though.

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