Rayvin

I was basing it on death counts from the various wars we've waged - I do appreciate that there's some nuance to it but 450k people died for an illegal war in Iraq and I don't think the Saudis are up to that kind of tally yet in Yemen. I mean it's not a competition and I'm not really intending this as whataboutery, but let's not pretend that we aren't run by absolute psychopaths as well. The US killed 7 children in a "righteous" (leading US general quoted as saying) airstrike in Kabul a month ago if you want a particularly disgusting anecdote.

Honestly they're probably beheading political opponents as much as normal criminals. Treason is in their list of capital punishments, along with Blasphemy and homosexuality. So realistically, there's plenty in there that we should object to. And the Yemen state of affairs is also highly objectionable. Not up there with Western atrocities, but still highly dismal. But they're going to keep doing that whether we support the club or not. And they're getting their legitimacy from the PL, not us. So if this is our line in the sand, as a society (it isn't, not even close) then fans of every club in the PL should be dropping support of their team. I do struggle with this, honestly, but the hypocrisy from every other quarter is what's actually keeping me in it. We are not the gatekeepers of morality for football. Either the whole structure backs away from football to 'defeat' this, or none of us do. It's not just on us.

TBF he only publishes on Tuesdays each week - it's almost as if the announcement was timed to avoid him being able to get straight in there

It's almost like we'd have to be proving to the media, courtesy of being stuffed 5-0 by Spurs, that Bruce isn't good enough no matter who the owners are. And we don't need to prove shit to the media, they can get to fuck.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/ng-interactive/2021/oct/12/david-squires-on-newcastle-united-saudi-takeover Squires. Was always going to be about us, and was always going to be grim. I do note with interest that the guardian has opted not to put comments up for this one, which is the first time one of his cartoons has been locked as far as I can recall. But there we are anyway. I also noticed some knacker who owns Grimsby town was telling us off yesterday too. He lived in Newcastle for about 10 mins, 30 years ago, and can't understand why more people aren't opposed to this. It's not the Newcastle he remembers, etc etc. He's a professor at Oxford or something, so he's obviously very well connected with reality. The Newcastle he remembers, I would argue, has been pummelled to within an inch of its life by southern voted Tory governments over the course of that 30 years - and any spirit of hope, optimism and human solidarity that did exist was then further trampled by an odious pillock who I have no doubt will end up buying honours for himself at some point to become 'Lord Ashley'. Moreover, and this is the really important bit which tbf Squires alludes to as well - this would have happened at ANY club in the football league pyramid. Any of them. Even motherfucking Grimsby. This is the society we have chosen to exist within. Fucking choke on it Southern England. And maybe stop voting for it.

Don't they want to keep Charnley on though? I'm sure I read something to that effect. I could maybe, just about, see the logic in that on the basis that I guess they do need some manner of continuity so that they can tackle the day to day operational challenges without needing to reinvent the wheel. I suppose we just have to hope that they know what they're doing, but Bruce being in charge for our next game would set off alarm bells for me. And we'd get fucking stomped as well, which isn't how I'd want to start the new era personally.

I guess it comes down to whether you think Bruce is adding any positives at all to the team. For me, he's taking a team of players and somehow managing to make them less than the sum of their parts. As such, getting rid of him means that we at least won't be any worse than we already are, and might even get a bit better. If he's managing the club and getting pelters from all angles of the stadium, he's going to start phoning it in more than he already is, looking for the sack. He just adds nothing, at least as far as I can see.

Yeah idk about this, I think they need to get rid of him. Nothing good is going to come out of him taking another game for the club, especially if we get smashed. Which we will because the man is fucking useless. What's wrong with just having a caretaker for a bit? Jones would be fine. Couldn't do worse.

Had no idea - agree entirely with what you've said there. Hope you feel better soon yourself though

Was trying to be charitable but yes, I think youre likely right

Also I'd wager that at least 50% of this thread is making fun of their forum, rather than discussing Sunderland itself. Whereas their thread is fully focused just on NUFC.

I'm not about to do the maths like but I don't think 800 pages in two months holds up favourably against 700 in 10 years even with a 1:20 ratio factored in.

I've seen some mixed info on this FFP stuff. So yeah a lot of people are gravitating to this 200m figure because that's the amount permitted as a loss over a three year period or something, but someone posted another video with a guy saying that we could more or less spend what we want since we're currently profitable. The logic I think was that if we front loaded the spending in year 1, the values of the players on the accounts would depreciate over 3 years and this would somehow modify our profitability. Not an accountant, don't totally get the argument, but is there any logic to that? The upshot was we could spend even up to 500m or so and still be fine.

This guy. If the Saudis came to him to buy into one of his "businesses", he'd never shut up about how great they were and how he had a special relationship with them and that they had understood his unique brilliance making them far more insightful than British investors etc etc. He'd probably convert to Islam for them ffs.

Amazing. The Times presumably being the left wing one? I mean it's centrist I suppose but still.

Despite being a long time reader of it, I agree. For this and so many other things, the Guardian can indeed fuck off.

Ah. Some night time reading then

I've honestly not seen that much push back from other fans, at least on their forums. A decent number even seem to think we deserve some success after a long period in the wilderness. Mackems and journalists, yes, hate. The guardian will loathe us forever. Everyone else? Not that arsed.

I'm up for giving Wykiki a shot tbf

A very good friend of mine is a Derby fan. After years of listening to me go on about Ashley, he's now petrified. I suppose at least he'll get them promoted. They'll have a year or two of pretending to be a real football club before endless 15-17th finishes in the PL - guess they should enjoy that while it lasts.

China maybe? Hard to imagine it really since buying football clubs as a sportswashing thing is a bit smalltime for a nation state. But they're the only ones I could imagine being remotely possible.

Have another go at reading that post Almost feels like you read the first sentence and then stopped..

Any flag that is not the Union Jack, is an anti-British flag. Apparently. I suspect the actual issue is that the Saudi flag includes some text about Islam on it, and if you're in Sunderland then "Islamic" = "Anti-British".

Aye me too, but I really think this club could be so much more than that. If we're going to do anything, even if it only amounts to glorious failure, I'd like it to have a touch of the 90s to it.

Keegan going back would be the stuff of dreams. Not as a manager or DoF, but as a way of joining pre-Ashley with post-Ashley. It'd be a huge moment to rally everyone around the club and really underline how, whatever happens from here, this isn't going to be the soulless march to success that City and PSG have embarked on.