Sven Botman back late December/early January 'at the earliest' (Howe)

[ponsaelius]

I mean successful clubs have long had wealthy benefactors. The history of Italian football is perhaps more underscored by this than anywhere else. But Berlusconi took it to another level - filling subs bench with players who would have otherwise been stars for any club on the planet just so their rivals couldn't have them.

 

Plus he was pretty much the original architect of the Super League concept.

[Happinesstan]

Wasn't Maradona's Napoli famously backed by mafia money.

[WarrenBartonCentrePartin]

21 hours ago, McDog said:

 

 

Trump shit? Never associate me with that. Just to make you hate me, I liked the Iron lady.

 

 

 

My favourite Thatcher fact is still that she's dead.

[McDog]

4 minutes ago, WarrenBartonCentrePartin said:

 

My favourite Thatcher fact is still that she's dead.

 

 

So is Ronnie. We all move on.

[Awaymag]

Is it me or are all the threads going to shit recently? 

[Stifler]

I’ve got to admit, if I wasn’t an NUFC fan and I had the chance to go AC Milan or us, I’d go to AC Milan. Mostly because living in Milan etc would be much more appealing. With the money he’d be on, you could live out by Lake Como, and go into one of the best cities in the world when you want to socialise/shop. A nice Villa with a pool etc is a better prospect than living in Tynemouth (as much as I love Tynemouth) and hoping the open air pool reopens soon.

 

Even though we have new owners, and a lot of promise, it’s something different to actually unleashing that promise (see Everton, QPR etc). Milan seem to be on the up, they have won Serie A, they have a history of winning the Champions League, and with Juventus floundering in recent years, they have an opportunity to become a dominant force in Italy again.

They and Inter are also on the verge of building a new stadium as well, and that would be exciting to be a part of.

[Guest HTT II]

I can’t remember where I read it but Ginola was asked why he would swap Paris for Newcastle once and he said as a footballer, shopping, going out etc. is rarely a thing because they mostly train and are with their team mates and then too tired to do anything else. He said it’s mainly the wives and partners that do all of that stuff which could dictate where a player ends up. He did say the weather was an issue sometimes. I’d choose Milan of course if I was a player, but as a footballer you eat train and sleep basically. 

[Raconteur]

I’m wondering if a lot of our board are too young to remember Maldini as a player. In some ways he is similar to what Shearer was for us, except whilst Shearer was the premier English striker of his time, Maldini is in the top three defenders of all time (number one for me). Chuck in the family dynasty - if Maldini has chosen Botman as The Man to buy, you’d think the lad would go to Italy in a trice.

 

Unsurprised Milan fans might be bitter losing a quality player to an “oil money” club, but frankly, after 14 years of getting shafted in the transfer market, it’s easy to let those insults slide off!

 

 

Edited June 13, 2022 by Raconteur

[Keegans Export]

12 minutes ago, Raconteur said:

I’m wondering if a lot of our board are too young to remember Maldini as a player. In some ways he is similar to what Shearer was for us, except whilst Shearer was the premier English striker of his time, Maldini is in the top three defenders of all time (number one for me). Chuck in the family dynasty - if Maldini has chosen Botman as The Man to buy, you’d think the lad would go to Italy in a trice.

 

Unsurprised Milan fans might be bitter losing a quality player to an “oil money” club, but frankly, after 14 years of getting shafted in the transfer market, it’s easy to let those insults slide off!

This is in no way aimed at our new Milan-based member who seems both educated and eloquent but in general - fuck anyone with this attitude. 

 

The historical "elite" have done nothing but attempt to kick the ladder away for any club trying to usurp the status quo. The money is so tied up at the top of each respective division, we see the same handful of clubs at the top in England, Spain, Italy, Germany, France every season. When that wasn't enough, we saw the ESL and let's be clear - that hasn't gone away. The prospect of healthy competition has been largely eroded away, so if the alternative is unhealthy oil-fuled competition then so be it.

 

If you're a fan of one of those top 20 or so clubs, you've had pretty much consistent success for 20+ years. We're going to try and crash the party, all while conforming to the UEFA "fair play" rules designed to stop us doing just that. Suck it up.

 

 

Edited June 13, 2022 by Keegans Export

[KaKa]

58 minutes ago, Raconteur said:

I’m wondering if a lot of our board are too young to remember Maldini as a player. In some ways he is similar to what Shearer was for us, except whilst Shearer was the premier English striker of his time, Maldini is in the top three defenders of all time (number one for me). Chuck in the family dynasty - if Maldini has chosen Botman as The Man to buy, you’d think the lad would go to Italy in a trice.

 

Unsurprised Milan fans might be bitter losing a quality player to an “oil money” club, but frankly, after 14 years of getting shafted in the transfer market, it’s easy to let those insults slide off!

 

 

 

 

It's so much bigger than just Newcastle, a large part of it would be playing in the Premier League in general, which is still a major draw for most players.

 

The Italian league is also no joke. I think it's far tougher from a tactical point of view, which is why they tend to favour older more experienced players in general, compared to other leagues.

 

Looking at how things have turned out for De Ligt, who was a phenomenal prospect at Ajax, I could see how a younger Dutch compatriot would perhaps look at the Premier League as a first step instead. 

 

Camoranesi was talking about De Ligt being more suited to the Premier League recently actually, and I do think he would have fared much better had he come to the Premier League at the time rather than joining Juventus - https://football-italia.net/camoranesi-de-ligt-more-suited-to-premier-league-than-serie-a/

[WillingtonMag]

Not sure he's any better than Schar or Burn but suppose we need a back up.

[Coffee_Johnny]

Hoping to use this gif by the end of the week ?

[The Prophet]

I hope he signs soon so I can form an opinion on him accordingly.

[TheBrownBottle]

2 hours ago, Keegans Export said:

This is in no way aimed at our new Milan-based member who seems both educated and eloquent but in general - fuck anyone with this attitude. 

 

The historical "elite" have done nothing but attempt to kick the ladder away for any club trying to usurp the status quo. The money is so tied up at the top of each respective division, we see the same handful of clubs at the top in England, Spain, Italy, Germany, France every season. When that wasn't enough, we saw the ESL and let's be clear - that hasn't gone away. The prospect of healthy competition has been largely eroded away, so if the alternative is unhealthy oil-fuled competition then so be it.

 

If you're a fan of one of those top 20 or so clubs, you've had pretty much consistent success for 20+ years. We're going to try and crash the party, all while conforming to the UEFA "fair play" rules designed to stop us doing just that. Suck it up.

 

 

 

One of the notable things about all of this is the tendency to forget that in most instances, successful clubs on the continent have had a financial helping hand.  It hasn't all been tickets and corporate - R Madrid are repeatedly bailed out by the Spanish govt, AC Milan bought success via Berlusconi's TV millions, Juventus literally have Fiat money, Bayern Munich greedily gobble up a massive portion of the Bundesliga's TV money.  Even Parma's success in the '90s was down to 'milk money'.

 

I'd much rather it was simply down to what a club earns, of course.  But it isn't - and the ones yelping loudest are the ones who've hoarded the biggest share of the pie.

[gbandit]

Got some highlight reels ready to go at either 0.5x speed or 1.5x speed depending on the outcome of this transfer saga 

[KaKa]

6 minutes ago, TheBrownBottle said:

One of the notable things about all of this is the tendency to forget that in most instances, successful clubs on the continent have had a financial helping hand.  It hasn't all been tickets and corporate - R Madrid are repeatedly bailed out by the Spanish govt, AC Milan bought success via Berlusconi's TV millions, Juventus literally have Fiat money, Bayern Munich greedily gobble up a massive portion of the Bundesliga's TV money.  Even Parma's success in the '90s was down to 'milk money'.

 

I'd much rather it was simply down to what a club earns, of course.  But it isn't - and the ones yelping loudest are the ones who've hoarded the biggest share of the pie.

 

I find the whole thing disgusting tbh. I hate the way a lot of the so called top clubs, just think they are entitled to be at the top forever. Completely overlooking the fact that a lot of them got there by being bankrolled at some point themselves.

 

And now they are too expensive for anyone to buy, and smaller clubs are being bought with the view of them rising to challenge them, they all get in a hissy fit, instead of welcoming the competition. Outrageous stuff.

[The College Dropout]

There's a big difference from being bankrolled by a extremely succesful local business people and entire countries who are doing it to soften their nations international image.

 

Like it's ok.

 

We are in a special league with PSG & Man City. At least, we have a genuine fanbase and enduring history. But we can't compare ourselves to Blackburn Rovers of old.

[Hanshithispantz]

Any club's fans will rightfully hate what has happened with us as it's absolutely disgusting. It's not our, or even NUFCs fault though.

 

It's impossible to defend on most fronts though, we just have to accept it and enjoy the fact we just randomly won the lottery.

[Armchair Pundit]

[et tu brute]

18 minutes ago, Hanshithispantz said:

Any club's fans will rightfully hate what has happened with us as it's absolutely disgusting. It's not our, or even NUFCs fault though.

 

It's impossible to defend on most fronts though, we just have to accept it and enjoy the fact we just randomly won the lottery.

I honestly couldn't give two fucks about other clubs fans and their faux outrage. 

 

 

Edited June 13, 2022 by et tu brute

[Kid Icarus]

1 hour ago, KaKa said:

 

I find the whole thing disgusting tbh. I hate the way a lot of the so called top clubs, just think they are entitled to be at the top forever. Completely overlooking the fact that a lot of them got there by being bankrolled at some point themselves.

 

And now they are too expensive for anyone to buy, and smaller clubs are being bought with the view of them rising to challenge them, they all get in a hissy fit, instead of welcoming the competition. Outrageous stuff.

 

They don't think they're entitled to be at the top forever, they're using every trick at their disposal to fight to be at the top forever. It's a fundamental capitalist thing to do and I'd fully expect Newcastle to do exactly the same thing once they're in the same group of clubs.

 

Everyone moralises about what those clubs are doing because it is fundamentally immoral, unfair,  and anti-competition, but then so is our ownership so, let's be honest, the argument about it being unfair etc is largely being used as a convenient argument for exceptionalists who'll have no problem with Newcastle doing the same thing in the future.

 

I can already see the arguments

'They did it and tried to keep us out, why shouldn't we?'

'of course they're going to protect their investment, wouldn't you?'

'it's shit, but it's modern football for you'

'it's just capitalism, no one gets on their high horse when amazon, McDonalds, Starbucks etc do it'

[Dr Jinx]

18 minutes ago, Hanshithispantz said:

Any club's fans will rightfully hate what has happened with us as it's absolutely disgusting. It's not our, or even NUFCs fault though.

 

It's impossible to defend on most fronts though, we just have to accept it and enjoy the fact we just randomly won the lottery.

What part of it has been disgusting? The white away shirt has been the only sign so far (sportswashing) that I’ve seen in relation to us so far. It’s all been Amanda and Mehrdad for the most part who have spearheaded every new initiative and they’ve been a breath of fresh air.

 

They haven’t shown any signs that they are about to follow the Man City route, in fact it looks like any success we get will at least have some home grown element to it if and when it happens.

[KaKa]

It's going to be really interesting to see how this all plays out with Newcastle.

 

I'm not a 100% convinced we are going to be anything like PSG or Man City at all.

[morpeth mag]

6 minutes ago, KaKa said:

It's going to be really interesting to see how this all plays out with Newcastle.

 

I'm not a 100% convinced we are going to be anything like PSG or Man City at all.

I agree, I think we will be way bigger in time.

[Awaymag]

37 minutes ago, The College Dropout said:

There's a big difference from being bankrolled by a extremely succesful local business people and entire countries who are doing it to soften their nations international image.

 

Like it's ok.

 

We are in a special league with PSG & Man City. At least, we have a genuine fanbase and enduring history. But we can't compare ourselves to Blackburn Rovers of old.

 

Im all washed and lathered with NUFC.....love this sports washing me.   Beats being shat on for 14 years, was that sports dumping?