The buggers up the road...

You are now.

 

If this comes off, they will cope just as we would.

They have seen the way such a takeover has worked out at Man City and will base their hopes on that model.
Just as we would.

Given what we know about the people involved, (very little), that seems reasonable enough to me.

Am I jealous?
Bet your life I am.

In passing I read a Sci-Fi story some years ago by either Asimov or Clarke that speculated that one day in The Middle East, Saudi Arabia using their huge oil wealth would combine with the trading and business abilities of the Jewish Nation, to become the most powerful business bloc in the world.
So I'm curious to see how this try works out, me being such a fan of those two.

 

That's a jolly decent view to have. If it was the other way round, to put it mildly I'd be rather disappointed.

But whatever happens, and all of us are nervous wrecks that the Premiership will send it tits up, I hope that we'll soon play against each other again.

 

Obviously born and bred in my home town

Only chance of this is a cup match I am afraid

 

Shotley Bridge hospital has a lot to answer for

 

Sliced the pad of my foot chasing a trout as you do it was that bad our lass ran away when she saw it. anyway went to Shotley bridge hospital to get it stitched back on and the surgeon says were you all clear on your xrays I said what xrays he says you are supposed to have xrays before we stitch you up it’s to late now so just hope there is nothing in, my son was 10 when 2 long slivers of glass came out the bottom of my foot while we were on holiday in Broughton in Furness couldn’t believe our eyes he wasn’t born when I done it

 

spent a good few nights in the Manor Arms in BIF. Great boozer and lovely little town.

 

This, in a way, was always the danger of opening up the Premier League so accommodatingly to the toxic influences of global geopolitics. Partly, of course, it is simply a reflection of how wars are fought these days: not just on the ravaged battlefields of Yemen but in the commercial real estate offices of Manhattan and London, the bully-pulpits of social media, and now the Zoom meetings of English football. The Premier League has long sold itself on the basis of tribal conflict, endless narrative and wall‑to‑wall entertainment. Perhaps establishing itself as a theatre for actual war is simply the next logical step.

So, welcome to the new orthodoxies of English football. Saudi Arabia is good. Amnesty International is bad. New signings are more important than murder, broadcast rights are more important than women’s rights, and a sense of basic humanity is ultimately expendable if you can scrape into next season’s Europa League. It’s a manifesto, to be sure. Just don’t expect anyone with a scintilla of decency to feel warmly about it.

 

It's been in the process for a very long time. You don't get to be an oligarch in Russia by being a genial and nice guy who was luckily in the right place at the right time. Our investors/buyers can and will be looked in to but I'd be amazed if the Prem actually do anything as they don't seem too bothered about this kind of thing. Investors from Russia and China in the past have been fairly questionable. My view is that they shouldn't be allowed to own a Premiership football team but that there are others who should have also been prevented previously and weren't. The "fit and proper person" test is just window dressing and even if they do actually look into it I don't trust the FA not to just take a back-hander to look the other way.

 

If I am honest, I have always thought the limit that I would go with is beer companies. I never liked betting companies, too addictive, for being on kids replica shirts.
Saudi may in many peoples view may be a step too far!

 

Just had a message that Twitter, which I don't use, is kicking off about the Newcastle takeover ...

... apparently there's a second gunman on the grassy knoll.


Luke Edwards on Twitter;

"There may be news of 2nd bid for #nufc breaking later. Deal verbally agreed and so on. Which makes very little sense as contracts signed for l Saudi led one and it’s already gone to PL to be signed off."

 

Yeah it's right. I just read it on twitter. There's probably nowt in it unless the premier league rejects the saudi's current bid. I think they have exclusivity for another two weeks. Richard Keyes mentioned it.

 

It's really strange isn't it.

Perhaps Ashley has been tipped off that the Saudis aren't acceptable to the PL.

He shouldn't have said they were going to snap his hands off at that price

 

It would be bad timing for an unpopular and morally bankrupt group to take over a club, I think three separate groups have lodged complaints which is three more than I remember from any other takeover. With nothing else happening there will be a lot of attention on it and it'll all be negative if it goes through.

 

i still can't believe anyone would stump up 300 million quid for them, when you look at what they're getting for the money. A decrepit, crumbling council house stadium which has zero scope for expansion. **** training facilities on a local recreation centre. A very average squad which they've vastly overspent on, with correspondingly high wages, and a journeyman manager who can't quite manage to exorcise the ghost of his predecessor, and a bunch of deluded orks who blindly kid themselves about famously filling 52000 seats every game, despite 10000 of these being free giveaways. So 300 million pounds seems a bit steep for an asset-less company and a once famous name.

 

I've not particularly paid attention to the big takeovers so what I'm about to suggest may be off the mark.

However when you look at Man City, West Ham, Everton, Leicester, etc it seems that they're tied in with ground moves and the sale of the land.

The result is a modern stadium partially financed by 'other means' than paying from income.

Newcastle, as you say, can't really move, into a modern stadium, because they'd have to pay the demolition/clean up costs for their landlords.

As the training facilities need investment the ground will, most likely, continue to be bodged up.

I know some supporters like to believe its a quaint old ground but it's starting to look really shabby.

 

The ground will probably become their Achilles heel. It’s probably at maximum capacity and needs a small fortune spent on it just to basically keep it as it is. If they decide to move, it would have to be outside the city centre, then you inherit other problems such as transport issues and where to meet up before and after the game. The location at the moment is perfect, but the ground Itself is not.

 

My thoughts exactly but I never got round to writing them I can’t even see what they are buying for £300 ml