Polarboy

The Shields Gazette have already said it definitely wasn't Ashley who leaked the story about the takeover guys, honest. I wonder how that journalisming went. Journalist - Hey Mike did you leak this story so as to purposely scupper it even though that makes no actual sense as a way out of it, Mike - No of course not, Journalist - OK Mike fair play.

If there's one good thing that will come out of this, should Fatley pull the plug again, it's that no sane person or media outlet will be able to say that someone with a 300 billion pound personal fortune is a time waster. Ashley will be totally exposed, not that a lot of us weren't already aware, as a duplicitous rat who's never had any intention of selling the club until he's sucked every last bit of profit and advertising from it. Oh and if there needs to be any other motivation for Ashley to do this every season just think about how much free publicity he's getting. From the US all the way across to the middle east and beyond his name and the name of his tat store is being mentioned. Alternatively it will be amusing if Ashley tries to take the moral high ground from a PR perspective and say he can't in good conscience sell to the Crown Prince.

I think it's been said that the Saudi's giving out 20% is another way of softening the PR nightmare that them buying anything will bring. So they can trot out Staveley and or one of the Reuben brothers as the western face of their large majority ownership.

When isn't he being a cunt.

A story from Martin Samuel is out so you can be assured it's basically Ashley's hand up his arse when it comes to its contents. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-7935917/SAMUEL-does-billionaire-Mohammed-Bin-Salman-need-fixer-buy-Newcastle.html The PR wing of Fatley's is in full swing now. My optimism that anything will happen is quickly fading. He seriously asks why the Crown Prince would need a go between in Staveley. As if he's going to show up himself and go for pint with Ashley. What a fucking nonse. Here's a tip Martin, he didn't fucking hand a sack of cash over himself to the people he bought his yacht or artwork off either.

If I was the Saudi's I'd tell him to take the money, which is more than generous, for the entirety of the club, stadium, merch rights etc, or they'll walk away and spend millions on media and PR to let everyone know exactly what kind of greedy leech that he is. That is if these reports are true given they're from Russia Today, but you've got to admit they've got Ashley down pat if it is made up given the aforementioned debacle he created with Rangers, and the continued shitstorm of his ownership of Newcastle.

A video update from Sky. Not much new in terms of info, apart from a few anonymous statements from the Newcastle higher ups regarding the news being leaked supposedly. https://www.skysports.com/watch/video/sports/football/competitions/premier-league/11919412/newcastle-takeover-next-few-days-critical

Story in the mail about Ashley asking the Saudi's to get on with it so it doesn't turn into another saga played out in the media. Between that and him having previously said that once it gets out it's unlikely to happen, it appears that he's laying the PR groundwork in order to call them time wasters when he eventually pulls the plug. I hope I'm entirely wrong but obviously you wouldn't put anything past the cunt. It will be a bit harder to call the Crown Prince of Saudi a time waster though.

10 pints, 16 packets of pork scratchings, and a ham shandy in the alleyway for Bruce, after having both thrown up. The Luke Edwards style of investigative reporting.

Luke Edwards tweeted that the 90% complete thing is nonsense according to his sources. As in it's not going to happen in days or is very close to happening. Of course his tweet is vague enough that if it were to happen in a week instead of days he could claim he was the one with the inside scoop.

Well if nothing else this keeps the message board busy for a week or so every season.

Am I just mildly uniformed or how well known is it that Sheffield Utd are majority owned by a Saudi Prince? BBC have put up a story saying that the deal is at an advanced stage, but also pointing out that, and I'm paraphrasing, Ashley is a twat who could easily fuck it up on purpose or by accident. https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/51258778

There's a virus in Corona's? Are we sure it isn't the limes?

Well just to be clear I'm mostly arguing from a pragmatic standpoint in terms of what percentage of your tax base you can expect to be paid for by the top 5% of earners before they move their earnings elsewhere in a global economy. Caudwell pointed that out to John McDonnell in that pretty disastrous pre-election interview. But yeah we should probably put away the soap boxes

Not to turn this into a politics debate, but that's a very one sided view. Over half of the income tax base in the UK is from the top 5% of earners. And while there is clear exploitation of minimum wage earners at companies like Amazon, they and other multinational companies also generate thousands of mid and high paying jobs. There are also people who've built their fortunes totally online in the digital space who you'd be hard pressed to seriously admonish morally for the clear premeditated exploitation of others. It's also seen as almost as a given that multi millionaires and billionaires engage in philanthropy. Obviously they can use charity work as a tax right off, but as long as the charity work is being done that's all that should matter. John Caudwell the owner of phones4U as far as I'm aware is decent example of a not "evil" billionaire. He's been incredibly dedicated to personally undertaking charity projects going on decades now. Edit: Just read that Caudwell might be an antivaxxer, so I retract a portion of my praise. Not that admittedly dodgy views on vaccination should erase the amount of time and money he's put into charity work.

Another very positive article from the telegraph this time with a few quasi new bits of info. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2020/01/26/saudi-arabian-backed-consortium-pressing-ahead-340-million-deal/

Yay!!!, Captain Socialist has arrived to save the day with moral relativism If I was a billionaire I'd be sound as fuck.

A few months of seeing Prince Andrew's ex Stavley in the stand, with her slightly too wide apart eyes, will soon make you forget where the money is coming from. Although it may just remind you of Epstein which is hardly ideal. They'll likely try to mention the Crown Prince as little as possible for obvious PR reasons, not as if we see the Citeh owners much. Not that anything should be taken for granted given how many times we've been here before and how poor a seller, and a massive bell-end, Ashley is.

Yep, but the Crown Prince seems a lot more credible than the Man City owners fifth cousin. I'll be very surprised if it happens as well, and a little disturbed at the prospect, but we can only take things at face value as they come, if they come from what are supposed to be credible sources.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2020/jan/26/saudi-340m-takeover-newcastle-leak-threatens-deal In fairness the Guardian are pretty reliable for sport, so that 90% sure it's going to happen line is at least mildly interesting. Although it does seem that it's more if not exclusively from the Saudi side that people are that confident, if you read between the lines. Ashley is nothing if not a fucking mystery to some people, so they could get a rude awakening.

I'm not saying he's perfect but in comparison to Joelinton he was fucking top class today. Oxford were glad to see him go off. I can't see them thinking the same about Joelinton. In terms of potential, with ASM still only 22, there's also no contest on current evidence.

What are you on mate. He was the only one who looked likely to do something positive, and would have had a great goal only for some good goalkeeping. Joelinton's only contribution was to finish when the whistle had gone, otherwise he skied it like the chance near the end.

Joelinton is honestly worse than Joselu and maybe even Riviere. It will be a miracle if he turns out to be even half decent.

Joelinton's not even league one standard on this showing.

What the fuck has happened to Sean Longstaff. He can barely pass the ball ten yards this season let alone the range of passing and composure he was showing under Rafa.