Polarboy

Which is why I wouldn't want them. Not all players are of the mentality that they don't care where they go, as long as the wages are better than the aforementioned established elite. If that was the case there would be more top players playing in China. There are still players who love the sport and have ambition. As I said I'd rather we followed a model similar to Dortmund and Leipzig and invest in youth, and make astute signings that aren't always obvious to other clubs with perhaps less knowledgeable scouting staff. It's undeniable that Liverpool, as I've said, have been very clever in who they've signed. Of course players will also take big wages as well just like anyone else would. Again the facts are that we realistically won't be able to just start bidding for the same players Man City, Real etc are bidding for right away regardless of the money we throw at it, which will be tempered by FFP rules in any case. We'll need to build ourselves up to a level that is more attractive, and put the right people in charge of making the decisions so people can see what sort of project it is we are trying to build. Who the manager is going to be will of course have a big influence on who we can convince to join us.

It's not about the amount being spent, I just think it's more sustainable in ways over than cash being spent over a long period if you are laying a strong foundation. It also lessens the possibility of the club buying a bunch of mercenaries who only care about their wages. As for Van Dijk and Allison, Van Dijk was bought off Southampton, and Allison was bought off Roma. Obviously Roma have a much higher pedigree than Southampton, but they are still a step down from the elite of Real, Barca, Liverpool etc. So yes they were expensive but for the same money there were more obvious choices at the time. And I did concede they were at the expensive end, and that those types of signings would pretty far down the track for us even if they weren't bought off one of the biggest clubs in Europe.

Fekir off Betis, Cavani off PSG, Donny van de Beek off Ajax, a few young players who aren't established yet, and I'm sure some others I'm missing. Personally I hope we don't go the route of signing players who are established great players, for ridiculous wages, but who are the wrong side of thirty looking for little else than a lucrative final contract. I'd rather we built up more slowly if need be and invest in our facilities, youth and scouting. Although I do think there will be opportunities for players of the calibre of Fekir. Players who aren't quite grabbing the attention of elite of Europe, but are still great players who could potentially be great in the premier. We just need to look to Liverpool and the way in which they've operated in the market. If you look at the core of their team i.e. Salah, Mane, Robertson, Allison, Van Dijk etc, they weren't bought off Real, Barca etc and thought of as world beaters, they were just very astute signings, albeit at the higher end of expensive in Van Dijk and Allison's cases. I've said it before but the Dortmund, RB Leipzig models are great blueprints to use, and then when we build up enough we can try to sign the final pieces of the jigsaw like Liverpool did with Van Dijk and Allison. As I've been doing I will just add the caveat that this is all assuming that the sale goes through, I don't want to jinx it now

Unsurprisingly half the YouTube comments are asking who the girl with the hoop earrings in the chorus is.

Transcript of what the other "journos" on the SS had to say. https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11678/11979008/newcastle-takeover-the-sunday-supplement-view-on-saudi-based-consortium-amid-scrutiny

“I think this one’s genuine. “I think this one goes through. “I think it works as a business proposition.” Samuel speaking on the Sunday Supplement just now. He looks like Fred Flintstone's less intelligent brother.

Didn't Rafa sign him for Napoli? It would make a lot of sense if Keith Downie is correct and it's inevitable that Staveley et al are set on hiring Rafa.

In fairness to Davina it's definitely not the worst YouTuber football video I've ever seen, but there is some steep competition. She has pretty much all the salient points in there, wasn't particularly cringe, and her editing and graphics were relatively decent.

See Garry Kasperov, the chess player for any mackems who might be reading this, has written a letter to the premier asking them to not let the takeover go through on the basis of Saudi human rights abuses. Only problem is that Gary is good mates with Pep Guardiola and congratulated both Man City and Pep on twitter after they won the league last season, oops.

I'd love to see the list of the people who have tenuous and otherwise links to us, who are trying to contact Staveley, Reubens etc in order to try and get on the gravy train. What's the bet that Wise has tried to tap up young Reubens. I'd actually like to see Asprilla back just for the craic.

The cope from the mackems is pretty hilarious. I think they're at the bargaining stage with this piece. https://www.sunderlandecho.com/sport/football/newcastle-united/why-newcastle-uniteds-ps300million-saudi-takeover-could-be-good-news-sunderland-afc-2547446

Uh, oh, don't tell me the administrator is from Dublin

And he's from Dublin, so that makes him functionally retarded to begin with

Delaney well caught out. He clearly doesn't give a shite about Saudi human rights abuses, otherwise he'd have went hard on the notion of them taking over his beloved Manure. It's hilarious how clearly bitter he is that it's us and not them in the context of that video and article.

Hopefully in the context of the first week of May it will be a very real consideration though. We'll just have to get used to shopping in Harrods

I think Rafa would be the wisest choice in terms of rebuilding a club. Poch in fairness did it at Southampton and Spurs, but I think Rafa edges it because of his familiarity and connection with the area as people have said. He could jump right in and likely already has plans to implement. To be clear though I would not be disappointed if Poch got it. No point acting spoiled before we're even sold.

Pochettino is a very good manager who's great at developing young players, but if we're going for the best I'd be a bit worried about how his tenure at Spurs ended. I mean maybe it was more a case of him not being given the funds needed to take them to the next level, and it going stale with certain players trying to jump ship. And perhaps he was a victim of his success in terms of getting very close to winning things and not, but I do have a slight doubt about his temperament.

My comment was in response to however many posts there were from you and others trying to draw false equivalences between the US and Saudi. And if you read my comment properly you'd see that the logical fallacy you were trying to bring people to was that because "no one is blameless" we're all in the muck. So yes you didn't say criticism was invalid, but that doesn't refute my point on the basis of whataboutism's definition.

https://www.dictionary.com/browse/whataboutism

It's the definition of whataboutism, as in focusing on someone else’s misconduct implying that all criticism is invalid because no one is completely blameless. And I'd like to see where you'd place Saudi on this spectrum, who are literally still medieval in comparison to the west, to admittedly flawed Western democracies.

It's classic whataboutism, and a very poor example of it to boot, with regard to US, Saudi judicial comparisons.

Fucking hell. Lads the Saudi's cut thief's hands off regularly, decapitate people with machetes and have done so quite frequently in public, and have killed and then crucified a person in at least one case, also in public. A non Saudi servant for a Saudi family stated that her employers, more like slave masters, were unhappy with her work and so cut one of her hands off which they were allowed to do. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. If we as Newcastle fans start trying to draw transparently false equivalences we will rightly get torn to pieces by the media and other fans. Having said all that I'm going to go toast the prince

The Independent are saying that should there be no last minute hitches, the takeover will be completed by the 1st of May. They mention the Amnesty International letter and the leagues response, but as someone said it was likely just a very polite fuck off from Masters. https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/newcastle-united-takeover-saudi-arabia-premier-league-amnesty-international-a9478831.html

If I was him I'd say I supported a lower league team as well, just in case accusations of hypocrisy came up. Maybe he does just support a lower league team like Crewe, then again maybe he secretly supports Evil Utd FC

Yeah obviously, but again at least he's a twat in that respect all the time and isn't doing it selectively. Or well as far as I know. I suppose if we knew who he supported it would be easier to know how hypocritical or not he is.