Rafa would cause a few head to implode over the next few seasons if he went back. They love him but he will not bring the success they want and I doubt he would spend he money well.
I can imagine quite a chunk of their support would be underwhelmed if Benitez came back. Under Ashley? Great! Under Arabs? Meh!
I was about to say they would not come out and say it after their fawning over him for the past half decade but that's bullshit. They would 100% come out with ****e like, we are bigger than Rafa now.
St Rafa might well could come back. He has already demonstrated that money will draw him anywhere. He'll probably keep them up, then play some more stodgy stuff next season, then if they aren't tearing the league up, and they won't be, the grumbles will get louder. And he'll be really bothered as he pockets another huge pay off.
Skunks jumping on this as proof of saudi investment in the NE due to their new owners... #Jobswashing
And just a few weeks after being given the green light to finalise their sportswashing project. Hmmmm this doesn’t look remotely like they were holding those jobs to ransom does it?
And I'm sure it has absolutely nothing to do with the new hydrogen strategy set out by the government in August where government funding will also be in place for companies and Teesside was mentioned as one of the 6 most economic sites... "A major driver behind the government’s hydrogen strategy is its need to decarbonise the industry. That requires hydrogen to replace fossil fuels (largely gas) for industrial processes. Heavily industrial areas that also have relatively easy access to offshore sites where carbon dioxide can be stored are expected to be the most economic sites to develop initial CCUS and large-scale hydrogen facilities. In an earlier strategy, the government identified six ‘industrial clusters’, around Grangemouth, Teesside, Humberside, Merseyside, South Wales and Southampton. Each has a different history and a different flavour to its hydrogen or CCUS plans."
I don't think so really. This has been likely for ages from what I've heard from quite close to the matter. It was sufficient for the lad who told me to turn down a really good job , thinking this was coming. Whatever, it is a commercial investment, designed to make money in the long term. Nothing new at all with Aramco doing business in the UK, I've worked on their jobs before down the years. It's only football that they won't make money from, and it's only football where that is not their intention, despite the fact that they have as much interest in it as I do in caber tossing. And, as mentioned, hydrogen is very much part it all.
They seem to believe everyone will just forget. Stick their head in the sand as much as they want but plenty of people will remind them who they are owned by at every opportunity.
It's a shame that as football slowly moves towards being accepting of all races and sexualities you've got these dinosaurs taking over a premier league team. It's so contradictory to what we all want. The fact their PR team chooses to ignore all that is predictable, because what else can they do, but it's still painfully hypocritical and generally messed up.
Further down the responses a town fan states ' Anyone who hates gay people is not a football fan. Take your anger elsewhere. We utterly reject you.' Thats some way comparible to a Nazi Party member telling Adolf Hitler to 'take your anger elsewhere. We utterly reject your anti-semitism.'
"Sky is against all forms of discrimination ... .... and now over tonight's game between Newcastle United and Chelsea. Sky believes in equality so we have both Saudi Arabia and Eastern Europe."
I think we're going to see a lot more of this hypocrisy from now on. The Mags that have been on here have been going "oh, but the PIF invest in this company and that company and no one is making a fuss about that" but they're missing the point completely. Their investments are purely about making money and, no matter what you think of the Saudi's human rights record, you could easily not be aware of those investments. Their purchase of Newcastle Utd is a completely different thing. Its not about making money, its solely about improving their international image and so of course their new Trojan Horse is going to be making all of the right noises to make us in Europe think that the Saudi government are a bunch of nice blokes.
