Rayvin

So there's quite a few of our lot falling on their swords in the guardian comment sections, 'can't support the club' etc, being roundly applauded by fans of other clubs who observe that they'd do the same thing if it were their club. This got me thinking a bit about where culpability ends here, in particular with respect of this 'damage to the brand' line. I would have thought that, with this being such a huge issue that transcends football etc etc, any other fan of any other club should be morally obligated to abandon the sport in protest. I mean if they pay their money to watch their team against us, they're as complicit in legitimising the regime as we are, no? Especially given that all of their clubs have just lined up to essentially point this out. The brand is being "damaged" by legitimising Saudi Arabia - therefore all principled fans should walk away from the entire sport. Maybe I'm clutching at straws here though.

Doesn't Saudi own the Independent at least to a degree? Miguel Delaney actively taking blood money, nothing to see there. https://www.theguardian.com/media/2019/jul/23/evening-standard-and-independent-unable-to-rebut-concerns-over-saudi-ownership

What is it that they expect to achieve I wonder? Maybe it's entirely as they've said and they're outraged that they weren't involved in the decision making process this time around? Tbf they did appear to have a veto last time so this very much will be a slap in the face. They can't cancel it and bitching about it like toddlers isn't going to get them anything though, so it is a bit bemusing.

Pleasingly it seems its an impotent gesture anyway. What it will do however, is further convince the mackems that everyone will hate us and start loving them..!

"It is an absolute outrage that Newcastle have been permitted to become competitive, and the very idea that in this day and age there should be some modicum of challenge to the big 6 clubs strikes at the very heart of what football is all about - wealth and glory for an established elite!! Err, I mean, think of the brand!" "Moreover, the fact that we weren't given time to subvert the deal somehow really is a shocking dereliction of duty by the PL..!"

I think it's fair to say this is what the PL was running from.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2021/oct/08/angry-premier-league-clubs-demand-emergency-meeting-on-newcastle-deal All other clubs united against the deal

Honestly I think this is probably the end of the local rivalry in any real sense. I mean who on our side is even going to care anymore. They're nothing to us now.

Just read Bruce will get an £8m payoff. £8m. For that. Fuck having sympathy for that, he should be the one sympathising with us!

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2021/oct/08/mike-ashley-claims-rejected-higher-offer-newcastle-saudi-takeover DId he fuck turn down a higher offer He'd have taken an offer that was 1p more than the Saudi one just on point of principle.

Appreciate it

Superb

I just enjoy the thought processes at stake anyway, I mean who fucking knows in the end - he might well be right. It's nice to be arguing about football related matters though, rather than politics

I don't think they were intrinsically linked, or else why would they be continuing to make a fuss about the "clear separation" between state and PIF now, what with it having been resolved? They'd just say "well it doesn't matter anymore whether or not there is clear separation because the piracy issue is sorted between the parties concerned". The fact that they haven't said that is relevant. They have instead climbed down. And if they didn't need the clear separation argument for the piracy issue, then what did they need it for? I would say, they needed it as yet feather in their bow to stop this going through due to pressure from other clubs. Pressure that was fairly publicly revealed at the time as I recall. I don't see how we can know the right of this either way - I can see your side of it but I'm sticking with my interpretation on this one, solely because of Ashley's movements. For your version to be right, he'd have to have basically ignored what all parties told him and just carried on with a court case on a whim. It's possible, but for a businessman of his stature, pretty fucking unlikely. It's far more likely that he knew he was being stitched up, and went after the people responsible. And PL ran scared and took the first respectable 'out' they could get their hands on.

Maybe. If that is true then the reason it took 18 months is because the geopolitical complications were resolved last week - which isn't something i'd put at PIF's door anyway. But this very much looks like the PL capitulating to me (and it is just my opinion). If Ashley knew that it was just going to be a matter of piracy, he wouldn't have bothered taking the PL to court. If the PL were only bothered about piracy, they would have just said so instead of inventing problems about ownership. I think they had multiple reasons to block this of which piracy was a convenient excuse more than the root issue. It's the fact that Ashley went for them, called their bluff, that has forced this to change. And it's the reason why no one can provide any actually coherent argument as to why the ownership issue is now no longer an issue. Without Ashley being a complete weapon about the whole thing, I don't think this would have happened. Nice that his cuntery actually worked out for us for once.

I don't think the piracy actually was the main sticking point, it's just the acceptable climb down opportunity. IMO the PL probably did resist this on the ownership grounds/pressure from other clubs but didn't expect Ashley to come after them like he did. They've caved in the face of being forced to relent IMO.

Yes you'd expect an influx of commercial sponsorship even if it's not fake Saudi cash injection stuff. Given that Ashley had almost fucking nothing in place on that front, we should have a few tens of millions to run at just from making the smallest effort.

The PL has had a fucking mare with this tbf. Inconsistent, unprincipled, cowardly. It deserves any criticism it gets.

thanks for the info.

Sorry but, who is he? Huge respect for him based on that clip but I've no fucking clue who he is.

Aye fair enough.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2021/oct/08/saudi-takeover-of-newcastle-leaves-human-rights-to-fog-on-the-tyne David Conn though, first journalist who has actually troubled me about it. I mean you read the article and it's full of "the great institution of Newcastle United, a beloved asset to the country" kind of rhetoric which, I mean come on, no one was saying anything of the sort about us under Ashley. You can't just turn it on now. But looking past that a lot of what he's said does still land. Still though, if a slight unease is the worst I'm going to get from this then I suppose that says it all.

That is 100% my take on this too. If this had been Man Utd it would have been "expected" and "part of the order of things". An example of "how the sport is - no point crying over spilt milk, the horse bolted some time ago etc etc". I have to say though, even for us the outrage isn't that big. Plenty of ordinary fans just enjoying the memes and excitement, I don't think all that many people are actually bothered by this.

Aye, got to be honest, I'm a bit stunned by the eloquence of that Shearer piece.

I reckon she's just fucking knackered tbh.