The "delighted Ashley has gone, but uncomfortable with Saudi ownership" thread

[Chapo]

I imagine the “protest van” will be in for a rough time too. 

 

[midds]

Just going to keep reminding myself that I'm not responsible for the actions of any other individual Newcastle fans. I've got no control over what they do and say so I'm not going to worry myself about it. I want to enjoy the game, I've waited long enough to see the back of Ashley and I think I deserve to do so without worrying what a tiny minority of fucking brainless idiots say or do tomorrow. They're responsible for their own shit, not me, fuck that. 

[Ben]

Without trying to sound to much like a dick, is ignorance not bliss with a certain section of fans at football clubs ? They won't know, they don't want to know and to make things worse if they knew it wouldn't even bother them.

[TRon]

Newcastle takeover: All the fine work on inclusivity is undone by this — the Premier League is morally bankrupt

 

Graeme Souness

 

I have always been cautious about wading into that morally grey area where sport and politics converge — before the 1978 World Cup we had people telling us not to travel to Argentina where dissidents were being “disappeared” — but the Saudi takeover of Newcastle is on another level altogether.

In the past decade, huge strides have been made in this country in bringing in women and the gay community into football’s embrace. The Women’s Super League, 10 of whose 12 clubs have Premier League affiliations, has a broadcast deal with Sky and properly funded structures in place. The Rainbow Laces campaign, one of the league’s key drivers in reinforcing its diversity credentials, is an established annual initiative welcomed by players, fans and the media alike.

The decision to allow a Saudi government-funded investment vehicle to own a Premier League club is a two-fingered salute to all that. This is a state in which women enjoy second-class status, gay men and women have the status of prisoners, and dissenting voices are silenced by the simple method of execution. Yet a shoulder-shrugging acceptance to the takeover seemed to set in almost overnight.

 

Cards on the table, I’ve worked in the past for the Qatari-owned beIN Sports and that Gulf state is not exactly a hotbed of liberalism. But when you put Qatar’s contravention of human rights alongside those committed by the Saudis, it’s like comparing a Championship side with a top-four club.

I’ve written before that the Premier League is the best league in the world and those in charge of it must act as fierce custodians of that exalted position. And yes, the possibility that Newcastle United could be a genuine force again will undoubtedly enhance its attraction to fans here and around the world. Yet the more foreign money that flows in, the closer it edges to moral bankruptcy.

 

For the Saudis, it’s a win-win. They get to enjoy the halo of respectability and glamour that being a Premier League club owner confers. But they are also in it to win it and their financial war chest is a huge asset. They regard themselves as top dog in the Middle East and will view knocking their Abu Dhabi neighbours at Manchester City off their perch as key to bragging rights in the region.

Quite how they will be able to square the spending spree which will almost certainly ensue at the club with Financial Fair Play escapes me. Maybe they will take a leaf out of the Abu Dhabi playbook at City and ensure they have enough of the best-paid lawyers and accountants to tie Uefa up in knots for years.

Newcastle fans celebrate outside St James’ Park with a Saudi flag after the takeover of the club was confirmed last week

 

I understand the gleeful reaction of the Newcastle fans to their new ownership. When you’ve managed in the city, as I have, you are left in no doubt about their desperation for success and exciting football. There has been none of the former and slim pickings of the latter for as long as most of their supporters can remember.

They need a reality check, however. They went into the weekend second from bottom and though the departure of Mike Ashley can only help their cause, the task of staying up remains a sizeable one. They have one transfer window in January to bring in fresh talent but who will recruit that talent? Steve Bruce remains in charge but for how long? Even then, it’s not as if there is an array of quality managers at a loose end.

Nor are the comparisons with City or Chelsea at the time of their big-money takeovers valid. Chelsea finished fourth in the season before Roman Abramovich bought them. City finished ninth in 2008, four months before the Abu Dhabi money rolled in. Newcastle, by contrast, have for at least a decade been a byword for, at best, drift or, if you’re less generous, dysfunction.

Whoever the manager is will find it hard to recruit the kind of stars the Newcastle faithful are mentioning in their prayers at night. There is no prospect of Champions League football for at least two years, I would contend, and while I yield to no one in my awe of the natural beauty of the Northumberland coastline, that’s not really a sell for a promising young Spaniard and his girlfriend.

It remains to be seen how much longer Bruce will be in charge of Newcastle but there is a limited number of high-quality replacements available

 

So we come back to, as we always do in the modern game, money. The chequebook will come out and whoever gets to splash the cash will be like a kid in a sweet shop. As we all know though, the big, bright red lollipop might taste lovely at first but it seldom offers much in the way of long-term satisfaction. Robinho at Man City, anyone?

And you can bet that like sharks when they see blood in the water, a host of agents and other hangers-on will be circling around those in charge at St James’s Park, clouding their judgment with advice — all of it self-interested.

 

Patience will be needed on Tyneside because there will be some dud signings and even the good ones will only get them so far. A three-step approach is needed: first mid-table respectability, then top four, and finally a title challenge. For what it’s worth, I think barely a handful of the current squad are good enough to help them attain that initial target.

Yet, even with sustained spending over a decade, success can never be guaranteed. The recent history of football is littered with billionaires – the Venky’s group, Mel Morris and Ellis Short to name but three — who thought they had the resources and strategy to crack it and left the game with their tail between their legs.

We should not forget that there are two teams playing this afternoon and the other is Tottenham Hotspur. The last time I cast my professional eye over them was at the Emirates three weeks ago. As a gauge of how bad they were that day all you need to know is that they made Arsenal look like the Barcelona team of a decade ago. Certainly for the first half.

It rapidly became apparent that the way they had set themselves up to play that afternoon would leave them exposed. Yet it was not until half-time that anyone on the bench or on the pitch twigged that something was up. That is very worrying.

If you hadn’t followed football for a few years and were asked which of the two clubs that day had reached the Champions League final in 2019, you wouldn’t have said Spurs. That final defeat to Liverpool should have been the trigger for an injection of new talent into their squad. Yet within a few months, Mauricio Pochettino had gone and the rot was starting to set in. As anyone at Newcastle can tell you, once the rot sets in, it’s very hard to remove.

 

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/newcastle-takeover-all-the-fine-work-on-inclusivity-is-undone-by-this-the-premier-league-is-morally-bankrupt-bvlhcz53c

[TRon]

There you go guys, Graham Souness has finally developed a moral compass. 

[STM]

Like fuck did Greame Souness write that.

[STM]

He also ignored that he was the "rot", when manager here.

[TRon]

I find it quite funny that he admits to working for Qatar with the get out clause  that it's not as bad as Saudi Arabia.  

 

I mean, you brought it up Graham, try holding a Gay rights parade over there if you really want to go down that road. 

[Geordie Ahmed]

I stopped reading when he mentioned working for Qatar, makes his entire article worthless 

[Dancing Brave]

50 minutes ago, STM said:

Like fuck did Greame Souness write that.

Yip, no way. 

[Guest reefatoon]

I didn’t even start reading it as Souness fucking detests us and is one of the most bitter bastards going.

[JeffJ]

High profile Liverpool fan in bitter rant about richest club in the world being in the PL. He’s on script. 

 

Must have finally found that moral compass after taking Qatari cash and as Liverpool fans hate more than anything, Murdoch cash. Everybody has a price. 

[Guest HTT II]

That van, showing the face of the murdered journo, needs to be doing the rounds around all the U.K. HQs of companies Saudi have invested in and even more so 10 Downing Street. Bandwagon jumping cocks, I’d have more respect for their ‘campaign’ if it wasn’t some publicity stunt which for me is all it is. I guarantee most involved have their own agendas and aren’t anywhere near as altruistic as they claim. 

[TRon]

10 minutes ago, HTT II said:

That van, showing the face of the murdered journo, needs to be doing the rounds around all the U.K. HQs of companies Saudi have invested in and even more so 10 Downing Street. Bandwagon jumping cocks, I’d have more respect for their ‘campaign’ if it wasn’t some publicity stunt which for me is all it is. I guarantee most involved have their own agendas and aren’t anywhere near as altruistic as they claim. 

 

100%.

[Geordie Ahmed]

14 minutes ago, HTT II said:

That van, showing the face of the murdered journo, needs to be doing the rounds around all the U.K. HQs of companies Saudi have invested in and even more so 10 Downing Street. Bandwagon jumping cocks, I’d have more respect for their ‘campaign’ if it wasn’t some publicity stunt which for me is all it is. I guarantee most involved have their own agendas and aren’t anywhere near as altruistic as they claim. 

That's the thing with protests they are often done to get publicity

 

That van at downing street gets little attention but will get loads on match day, especially if some knacker does something daft

 

Ideally, we just ignore it but I'm not confident in the slightest that happens 

[Abacus]

It's a good job for the Saudis that there's one special guy who knows what's really important and should really be the focus of the world's cameras.

 

But it's not all about him, of course. The human rights and the fans or whatever. It's very very difficult.

 

But don't forget it's big Steve's special 1000 game day and he's won a manager of the month award before and these journalists are a big distraction from that.

 

He just wants a bit of respect and no criticism, they all deserve a slap let me tell you.

 

Next question, Luke?

[Joey Linton]

2 hours ago, TRon said:

Newcastle takeover: All the fine work on inclusivity is undone by this — the Premier League is morally bankrupt

 

Graeme Souness

 

I have always been cautious about wading into that morally grey area where sport and politics converge — before the 1978 World Cup we had people telling us not to travel to Argentina where dissidents were being “disappeared” — but the Saudi takeover of Newcastle is on another level altogether.

In the past decade, huge strides have been made in this country in bringing in women and the gay community into football’s embrace. The Women’s Super League, 10 of whose 12 clubs have Premier League affiliations, has a broadcast deal with Sky and properly funded structures in place. The Rainbow Laces campaign, one of the league’s key drivers in reinforcing its diversity credentials, is an established annual initiative welcomed by players, fans and the media alike.

The decision to allow a Saudi government-funded investment vehicle to own a Premier League club is a two-fingered salute to all that. This is a state in which women enjoy second-class status, gay men and women have the status of prisoners, and dissenting voices are silenced by the simple method of execution. Yet a shoulder-shrugging acceptance to the takeover seemed to set in almost overnight.

 

Cards on the table, I’ve worked in the past for the Qatari-owned beIN Sports and that Gulf state is not exactly a hotbed of liberalism. But when you put Qatar’s contravention of human rights alongside those committed by the Saudis, it’s like comparing a Championship side with a top-four club.

I’ve written before that the Premier League is the best league in the world and those in charge of it must act as fierce custodians of that exalted position. And yes, the possibility that Newcastle United could be a genuine force again will undoubtedly enhance its attraction to fans here and around the world. Yet the more foreign money that flows in, the closer it edges to moral bankruptcy.

 

For the Saudis, it’s a win-win. They get to enjoy the halo of respectability and glamour that being a Premier League club owner confers. But they are also in it to win it and their financial war chest is a huge asset. They regard themselves as top dog in the Middle East and will view knocking their Abu Dhabi neighbours at Manchester City off their perch as key to bragging rights in the region.

Quite how they will be able to square the spending spree which will almost certainly ensue at the club with Financial Fair Play escapes me. Maybe they will take a leaf out of the Abu Dhabi playbook at City and ensure they have enough of the best-paid lawyers and accountants to tie Uefa up in knots for years.

Newcastle fans celebrate outside St James’ Park with a Saudi flag after the takeover of the club was confirmed last week

 

I understand the gleeful reaction of the Newcastle fans to their new ownership. When you’ve managed in the city, as I have, you are left in no doubt about their desperation for success and exciting football. There has been none of the former and slim pickings of the latter for as long as most of their supporters can remember.

They need a reality check, however. They went into the weekend second from bottom and though the departure of Mike Ashley can only help their cause, the task of staying up remains a sizeable one. They have one transfer window in January to bring in fresh talent but who will recruit that talent? Steve Bruce remains in charge but for how long? Even then, it’s not as if there is an array of quality managers at a loose end.

Nor are the comparisons with City or Chelsea at the time of their big-money takeovers valid. Chelsea finished fourth in the season before Roman Abramovich bought them. City finished ninth in 2008, four months before the Abu Dhabi money rolled in. Newcastle, by contrast, have for at least a decade been a byword for, at best, drift or, if you’re less generous, dysfunction.

Whoever the manager is will find it hard to recruit the kind of stars the Newcastle faithful are mentioning in their prayers at night. There is no prospect of Champions League football for at least two years, I would contend, and while I yield to no one in my awe of the natural beauty of the Northumberland coastline, that’s not really a sell for a promising young Spaniard and his girlfriend.

It remains to be seen how much longer Bruce will be in charge of Newcastle but there is a limited number of high-quality replacements available

 

So we come back to, as we always do in the modern game, money. The chequebook will come out and whoever gets to splash the cash will be like a kid in a sweet shop. As we all know though, the big, bright red lollipop might taste lovely at first but it seldom offers much in the way of long-term satisfaction. Robinho at Man City, anyone?

And you can bet that like sharks when they see blood in the water, a host of agents and other hangers-on will be circling around those in charge at St James’s Park, clouding their judgment with advice — all of it self-interested.

 

Patience will be needed on Tyneside because there will be some dud signings and even the good ones will only get them so far. A three-step approach is needed: first mid-table respectability, then top four, and finally a title challenge. For what it’s worth, I think barely a handful of the current squad are good enough to help them attain that initial target.

Yet, even with sustained spending over a decade, success can never be guaranteed. The recent history of football is littered with billionaires – the Venky’s group, Mel Morris and Ellis Short to name but three — who thought they had the resources and strategy to crack it and left the game with their tail between their legs.

We should not forget that there are two teams playing this afternoon and the other is Tottenham Hotspur. The last time I cast my professional eye over them was at the Emirates three weeks ago. As a gauge of how bad they were that day all you need to know is that they made Arsenal look like the Barcelona team of a decade ago. Certainly for the first half.

It rapidly became apparent that the way they had set themselves up to play that afternoon would leave them exposed. Yet it was not until half-time that anyone on the bench or on the pitch twigged that something was up. That is very worrying.

If you hadn’t followed football for a few years and were asked which of the two clubs that day had reached the Champions League final in 2019, you wouldn’t have said Spurs. That final defeat to Liverpool should have been the trigger for an injection of new talent into their squad. Yet within a few months, Mauricio Pochettino had gone and the rot was starting to set in. As anyone at Newcastle can tell you, once the rot sets in, it’s very hard to remove.

 

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/newcastle-takeover-all-the-fine-work-on-inclusivity-is-undone-by-this-the-premier-league-is-morally-bankrupt-bvlhcz53c

Only issue is if he was 20 years younger and was offered the manager's job by a club who had been taken over by the same Saudi regime he would 100% take it. That's not a criticism, but it's very much the problem. 

[Ben]

 

[Ben]

Looks like a plane is booked for a flyover as well.

[Guest HTT II]

As shit as he was managing NUFC, Souness constantly talked the club/area up from what I remember, he was just. Shit manager who blew a lot of money on general shite and failed to man manage an already fractured dressing room and ultimately ended up resenting the fans actually questioning him and wanting him out, it was his biggest job, even bigger than the LFC one as this was his one true chance to manage a big club and turn it around whereas at LFC he was left a pretty much successful club and even ruined them. He’s a bitter cunt and having taking blood money of his own, he can fuck off, the gall of the ‘man’, every two bit personality is and will have their say, ignore ether and remember in Souness’ case, he was shite as a manager and started this rot here at NUFC. 

[Awaymag]

let them do it.   Its expected while the takeover is still hot news.   A few weeks from now, they will have moved onto the next hot news

[Billy Pilgrim]

Fuck off souness, bitter failure dickhead, we are gonna smash your beloved Liverpool into the fucking Stone Age over the long term. Up until the 74 cup final we were more successful than Liverpool domestically, and will be so again, it is inevitable

[Guest HTT II]

16 minutes ago, Ben said:

Looks like a plane is booked for a flyover as well.

Be interesting if Sky show it as they have often tried to not capture live on Tv any form of fan ‘protest’ flyovers in the past. 

[Dokko]

36 minutes ago, Ben said:

 

Just hope some dafties don't vandalise it, live on TV as well. 

[tgarve]

2 minutes ago, Dokko said:

Just hope some dafties don't vandalise it, live on TV as well. 

Guaranteed to happen