Newcastle

I wonder when the penny will drop in Newcastle. The fans may be drunk with joy at getting rid of Mike Ashley but they have now got owners who do not care two hoots about some city in the Nort East of England.

Yes, they will invest heavily but then they will want a return on their money. Be it from the fans or making Newcastle an international brand. Others have done it and they want a slice of the action, football is just the means of making money, and not what happens on the pitch or in the community.

Thankfully 1878 take a different viewpoint and want to create a community club.

Quoted from DB

I wonder when the penny will drop in Newcastle. The fans may be drunk with joy at getting rid of Mike Ashley but they have now got owners who do not care two hoots about some city in the Nort East of England.

Yes, they will invest heavily but then they will want a return on their money. Be it from the fans or making Newcastle an international brand. Others have done it and they want a slice of the action, football is just the means of making money, and not what happens on the pitch or in the community.

Thankfully 1878 take a different viewpoint and want to create a community club.

Take a look at what the Man City owners have done for that part of East Manchester and tell me they haven’t played a huge part in the community. It’s a lazy criticism to say a foreign owner won’t have an interest in the wider community at Newcastle.

The Saudi’s haven’t bought Newcastle because they think it’s a good investment. Just like City, Newcastle will be a public relations exercise and any success they have will help promote the Saudi brand. But what will also promote the Saudi brand is (like City) being seen as a big player is the Tyneside community. I guess we’ll see.

Saudi Arabia is slowly coming out of the dark ages. Now isn’t the time to make them international pariahs. There are far worst regimes around the world including one that this country and our allies inflicted on Afghanistan.

Quoted from GollyGTFC

Take a look at what the Man City owners have done for that part of East Manchester and tell me they haven’t played a huge part in the community. It’s a lazy criticism to say a foreign owner won’t have an interest in the wider community at Newcastle.

The Saudi’s haven’t bought Newcastle because they think it’s a good investment. Just like City, Newcastle will be a public relations exercise and any success they have will help promote the Saudi brand. But what will also promote the Saudi brand is (like City) being seen as a big player is the Tyneside community. I guess we’ll see.

Saudi Arabia is slowly coming out of the dark ages. Now isn’t the time to make them international pariahs. There are far worst regimes around the world including one that this country and our allies inflicted on Afghanistan.

Coming out the dark ages? That maybe the promotional material but they’re still very ouch the puppet masters of so much…there’s an excellent documentary about the Saudi regime and royal family.

I do agree with the notion that they don’t care about the area being a lazy and ill informed view. The area around Man City has improved greatly and there’s been genuine investment, is it to raise the owners profile and make them even more rich? Perhaps but nobody made them invest in those developments. The same will happen with Newcastle but I’m still not convinced they’ll end up eating at the top table so to speak…

Quoted from GollyGTFC

Take a look at what the Man City owners have done for that part of East Manchester and tell me they haven’t played a huge part in the community. It’s a lazy criticism to say a foreign owner won’t have an interest in the wider community at Newcastle.

The Saudi’s haven’t bought Newcastle because they think it’s a good investment. Just like City, Newcastle will be a public relations exercise and any success they have will help promote the Saudi brand. But what will also promote the Saudi brand is (like City) being seen as a big player is the Tyneside community. I guess we’ll see.

Saudi Arabia is slowly coming out of the dark ages. Now isn’t the time to make them international pariahs. There are far worst regimes around the world including one that this country and our allies inflicted on Afghanistan.

Agreed, I’m genuinely impressed with the work City have done in Manchester. They do a lot more for the local community than their red neighbours and you can see the impact on the city as a whole. That doesn’t mean we should all be jumping for joy praising the Emiratis for their ‘gracious investment’, but City’s role as a ‘community club’ has, surprisingly, improved since they were taken over. That’s kind of part of the beast of sportswashing, they want to be seen to be doing good things in the community and things which are relatively inexpensive for their regime, such as spending a few million improving local infrastructure, goes a long way. As I mentioned in my earlier post, this is by no means me claiming such projects are amazing or an overall moral positive, it’s just that one of the side effects is that there tends to be good investment.

The one thing that really frustrates me about it is people acting like this is some harbinger of doom for Britain, as if we’re our economies are not already deeply aligned with the Middle Eastern petrostates. Hell, the country who’s government we scorn are our allies, who buy weapons from us and have investments in a large number of the FTSE 500. It might seem like whataboutery, but the truth is that the Saudis have been an integral part of the British economy for years, if we wanted to put a stop to it, it could’ve stopped a long time before PIF invested in an underachieving football club.

I particularly like all these 'Newcastle are a big club whose fans deserve success' types that are popping up everywhere?

Have they forgotten the 7,134 that bothered to turn up at St James's Park back in 1979, or the 9,419 in 1982 or the 10,057 in 1992?

Quoted from WetFlannel

Agreed, I’m genuinely impressed with the work City have done in Manchester. They do a lot more for the local community than their red neighbours and you can see the impact on the city as a whole. That doesn’t mean we should all be jumping for joy praising the Emiratis for their ‘gracious investment’, but City’s role as a ‘community club’ has, surprisingly, improved since they were taken over. That’s kind of part of the beast of sportswashing, they want to be seen to be doing good things in the community and things which are relatively inexpensive for their regime, such as spending a few million improving local infrastructure, goes a long way. As I mentioned in my earlier post, this is by no means me claiming such projects are amazing or an overall moral positive, it’s just that one of the side effects is that there tends to be good investment.

The one thing that really frustrates me about it is people acting like this is some harbinger of doom for Britain, as if we’re our economies are not already deeply aligned with the Middle Eastern petrostates. Hell, the country who’s government we scorn are our allies, who buy weapons from us and have investments in a large number of the FTSE 500. It might seem like whataboutery, but the truth is that the Saudis have been an integral part of the British economy for years, if we wanted to put a stop to it, it could’ve stopped a long time before PIF invested in an underachieving football club.

Good points, well expressed.

But there's almost a need to weigh the good versus the bad. Even if the Saudis do the same in Newcastle as the Emiratis have done in Manchester does that outweigh or 'forgive' the human rights abuses, the totalitarianism and the export and support of Wahabism? I would suggest not.

The Emiratis are not the same as the Saudis, the UAE is a lot more liberal and a lot more 'free' as a society. It is far from perfect but it is not Saudi Arabia.

Several posters have said things like 'why should football be a moral leader' or 'not bothered, it's in the Prem' and I really understand those points but if governments or our 'leaders' aren't taking a stand then somebody has to or this becomes the norm, it goes completely unchecked and us 'little people' lose our game even more. Ironically it's happened recently with the outpouring of anger over the Super League and it hit home! And it's happened to us on a smaller scale; the unmasking of Alex May was the tipping point for many of our fans who were prepared to give Fenty the benefit of the doubt previously.

And this is not isolated, several clubs already have people involved in them who have very dubious backgrounds but a blind eye is turned because of the amount of money being pumped into clubs.

Football's moral compass is already kept in a drawer in the spare bedroom and doesn't come out very often. The deal to buy Newcastle will see it thrown away completely.

Newcastle !

Would be a nice 3rd Round Cup draw  

Maybe a Sheikh or two at Blundell Park.

Would imagine Bruce will be first out the door. What odds Jose M taking over? And what odds they buy Kane in January?

I have to say the coverage in the last 24 hours has really got on my mammaries. It’s not like their club has been saved from the edge of extinction, if memory serves me right all barring two seasons most of the Ashley resign has been in the Premier league, though they have smaller support bases there are a number of supporters of lower league clubs who have had it much worse.

Everyone in the media seems to assume that NUFC are everyone’s second favourite team, I’m not sure this is the case. I also love the way some of their supporters are saying they’re not bothered about big signings etc.. well that’s bull sh1t if I ever heard it.

I’m pleased for their supporters that they have got rid of their version of JSF but I’m not convinced the media need to bug it up, then again they have to report something don’t they and I guess it’s better than the fuel crisis, petrol supplies, food poverty, £20 cut in Universal Credit, nobody to drive lorries etc… etc… etc…

Quoted from Caveman

Newcastle !

Would be a nice 3rd Round Cup draw  

Maybe a Sheikh or two at Blundell Park.

Away it would be.