Polarboy

Dear "Rafa" You were great, but going home again rarely works out. I want a young, hungry manager with a point to prove, and progressive style of football over your pragmatism.

Fraud? Do you even watch football mate? You don't get to the Champions League final, and consistently qualify for it, if you are a fraud. And as far as I can see the major reason things went stale for him at Spurs, and he didn't quite win a major trophy, was because of Levy's penny pinching. And in the article you linked it points out that Pochettino was being scouted for the Real job as far back as his Espanyol days, and he's currently still seemingly well thought of by the big clubs around Europe. So I think I'll trust my eyes in terms of the football Spurs played, the level he built them up to, and the opinion of world class football professionals, over yourself. No offence

Video of Poch on Sky. He seems very open to coming to us. The interviewer was clearly trying to steer it that way when he asked if he'd manage a team outside the top six, and Poch most definitely didn't rule it out. https://www.skysports.com/watch/video/sports/football/teams/newcastle-united/11993069/poch-happy-in-london

Supposedly a few of the premier league teams are in talks to maybe use cardboard cut out fans, to make the empty stadiums look a bit less stark when football resumes. I see they've gone a different way than FC Seoul who used sex dolls

That gif reminds me of the time a mate of mine was on a dance floor and pointed at a girl, pointed at himself, and did a little hand shuffle thing in an attempt to entice her over. Suffice it to say that she wasn't having it

McClaren told talkSPORT: "He's done a good job. He's stabilised them. He's got them playing a system which is not attractive, but has got them results with limited resources. He's in the driving seat to say right, put me in front of these new owners and I'm going to sell a dream and a vision for this football club for the next five years. This is what's been going on, this is what I've seen can improve. These are the players that can improve us, what budget have we got? "He's in the driving seat and I would say what a fantastic opportunity Steve Bruce has got now." The Magpies sit 13th in the Premier League table - eight points clear of the relegation zone - but have faced criticism for their style of play and troubles in front of goal. McClaren feels sympathy for the current Magpies' head coach - citing his own short-lived spell in charge which led to United's relegation in 2016 - and believes a takeover could see a return to the entertaining football he believes fans crave. The former United boss added: "I've been there with no strikers, and it's a struggle and it's hard week in, week out. It's hard to manage in that climate. If I've got a new owner coming it with money, all of a sudden I'm so excited about the future, and I've got to sell that vision to the new owners. I want this, I want that, I want to fill the stadium. To do that, we've got to put players on the park who can entertain that crowd because that's what Newcastle is. Ginola, Asprilla - that's the kind of football team that they want, and they haven't had it for years and years because of budget resources not being there. If they've got the budget - wow, what that club can do. It must be exciting and Steve must be looking forward to it." Delusional doesn't quite cover it for McClaren. Then again he likely couldn't have survived brollygate and generally being thought of as a plonker if he wasn't delusional.

According to the article we have to wait until the 1st of June for the official, official announcement We've waited this long I suppose, still fucking annoying though.

His entire thesis on us hinges on taking a handful of shitty twitter responses to and about Khashoggi's wife. Twitter journalism at it worst. He even tried to be clever by including the poll result from the supporters trust, with regard to whether we wanted the takeover to happen or not, straight after, thereby implying that what a handful of people say on twitter, is a comparatively accurate representation of fan opinion as a whole.

Yeah but.... 1979 And I prefer the artwork for the MCATIS t-shirt over the uninspired red star and band name for the Siamese Dream t-shirt. But agreed on Siamese Dream being a more coherent, less indulgent album.

Not sure who I'm supposed to root for. Being a music purist to the point you have to call someone out on TV is wank, and so is being a poser who wears band t shirts for fashion without having a love for said band. It's a bit like atheists who bang on about being an atheist so much it becomes a dogmatic religion to them, i.e. it sours what may be an entirely reasonable viewpoint. This reminds me that I ordered a Smashing Pumpkins, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness t shirt recently. I'll definitely be refreshing my memory on that album, apart from the obvious Tonight, Tonight, so I don't get caught out In fairness I've recently been listening to Siamese Dream.

It started when I was 12, so it was grand for a few years when at the time I was still amazed that a vaguely attractive female was interested in football, and Tim Lovejoy's sense of humour seemed cutting edge

Bullard looks like he should have been an extra on Confessions of a Window Cleaner. Him and that guy who presents Soccer AM are twats who've failed to realise that 90's lad culture died a long time ago.

I bow to you lad's Bernard knowledge/banter. I can barely remember what happened last week let alone 15, 20 years ago

Was that just for the French pun, or do you have knowledge of him making predictions and being wrong?

Oliver Bernard reckons a reliable source/sauce has told him that the takeover is happening today. Don't recall Bernard making any predictions before, or what sort of record he has of being full of shite, or not.

At present the gutter press are somehow trying to place the blame on the Saudi's potentially taking over on us the fans, then the Saudi's, the UK government third, Ashley a far fourth, and then maybe the premier league get a mention. So until they make a decision it isn't anything for them in terms of negativity from the press. The only negativity they are getting about prolonging the process is from Newcastle fans. The press can't be like, I can't believe the premier league did this, when they haven't even made an official decision.

You could say that, but then again having us in the back pages constantly takes a bit of pressure off them with regard to project restart for the league. We're already seeing players kick up a fuss, which is justified in some respects, so again for the takeover to still be happening gives them a little cover from all the spotlight being on that.

Maybe you're purely taking the piss, fair enough if you are, I can take it, but if you actually believe I'm in any way supportive of the Saudi regime you are wrong. I was merely pointing out that there was a deeper context to what was happening with his wife's letters, and indeed his actions when he was alive. There has been a widespread tendency to paint Khashoggi and his wife as morally pure in contrast to the Saudi regime. Now given that he was murdered you may say that whether he held morally despicable views is besides the point, but good journalism furnishes people with all the facts. It's not as if you can accuse the NYT's of right wing propaganda. The old, I'm going to assume any caveats you've written are bullshit with my mind reading ability.

He wanted the Saudi regime to be taken down, but his alternative was not a liberal democracy, albeit he may have wanted the Saudi public to vote in a Muslim Brotherhood type of political Islam, but those two things appear, to me at least, to be incompatible, as in democracy and the ideology of TMB. He had been a member of the Muslim Brotherhood in earlier life, supported their style of political Islam, and indeed was thought of as one of them by them even after he died. He was also friends with and worked with Azzam Tamimi, a British-Palestinian academic, on at least one political movement that sought to have an Islamist party elected in Algeria. Tamimi's known for extreme views including staunch support of Hamas, and stating that he supported suicide bombings, and indeed would blow himself up if he could get inside Israel. Khashoggi was also a close friend of Erdogan, as also written in NYT in another article, who advocated very strongly after his death for an investigation into his murder. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/14/world/middleeast/jamal-khashoggi-saudi-arabia.html

Been reading about Jamal Khashoggi and the views and allegiances he held when he was alive. I would never advocate what happened to him happening to anyone, except for maybe rapists and paedo's, but the guy was an Islamist, antisemitic headcase, and it's very unlikely that his wife doesn't hold similar views. So yes, an authoritarian regime murdering a journalist is very, very bad, but the guy was more of an activist for Islamist ideology than he was a journalist, and certainly not as innocent as some would like you to believe. Of course this isn't to dismiss his wife's right to protest his killing, regardless of what abhorrent views she may hold, and he held when he was alive.

Kieran Maguire the football finance expert has weighed in on this, probably non-issue, of piracy being linked to Saudi. He basically said that there isn't any clear evidence linking the two parties, and that even if there are suspicions, it would make more sense for the premier league to give approval in order to get the Saudi's to bid for the rights and stop any piracy. https://www.nufcblog.com/2020/05/13/football-finance-lecturer-weighs-in-on-nufc-takeover/

If it's not mentioned in the test as you say, and this article is saying it is, then the validity of the entire article has to be called into question. Can't say I would take the word of a journalist who can't even get basic facts straight.

Hopefully it's much ado about nothing, but the guardian are reporting that a legal document that supposedly provides a direct link between the Saudi government and BeoutQ, the channel the pirated sport is/was shown on in Saudi, has according to them been passed onto the premier league in the last 24 hours. I would presume that any such document would have been found during the court case that Bein sports or whoever it was took out against the Saudi's and lost. Again hopefully it's just a last minute futile attempt to scupper the deal with little basis in fact. Even squeakier bum time. https://www.theguardian.com/football/2020/may/11/new-legal-documents-raise-fresh-questions-over-newcastle-takeover-deal-saudi-arabia-premier-league

Everybody has probably seen it, but NUFC.com have stated that the takeover will go through before the end of this week. It's significant obviously because NUFC.com don't usually speculate without having solid information to back up their posts.

Why should he be applauded for anything when he's very likely not acting out of any personal moral code, and is just saying what's most convenient in terms of trying to save his own job.