Honey Honey

Agree with that, will all be dependent on the right signings and manager, which isn't a given with money as you know all too well. With everything I've heard I'd be surprised if we even try to be Man City. This is an investment fund and a UK retail magnate combo consortium with very slow build plans to grow the company by sportswashing standards. This is reuters assessment Soccer clubs are often poor investments. Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) may have found an exception with a possible 305 million pound acquisition of Britain’s Newcastle United, known as a “sleeping giant” of the game. Buying a football club may sound like a frivolous investment for the PIF, which is tasked with helping the country wean itself off oil revenues. Yet the fund seems to be getting a bargain. ‘At the mooted price tag, the deal would value Newcastle at 1.7 times its revenue in the last pre-pandemic financial year. Listed clubs Manchester United (MANU.N) and Juventus (JUVE.MI) trade at 4.1 times and 2.1 times respectively. ‘And the club, currently owned by retail magnate Mike Ashley, arguably has better prospects than most. The new owners could crank up commercial income: sponsorships, merchandising and similar revenue sources are just 15% of sales, compared with 44% at Manchester United before the pandemic.’

I'm not justifying the PiF takeover. I'm challenging the navel gazing I'm reading. I sat through debates hosted by Chi Onwurah and including guests from Amnesty International. Their views on what to do if it happens etc, what the role of the community and fan is and has been. Not people who take things lightly. From that I determined a view in what is complex for a Newcastle fan. I just don't accept this navel gazing which I think comes easily to you precisely because football encourages you to treat us as others. So easy to cast judgment and moral expectations onto others. Kevin Maguire reckons it is possible possible spend about £170m within fair play. However despite the talk of us being at the top, Staveley has said before that's not the overnight goal, we'll be spending the next 3-5 years trying to get to the top 5-8. It's a slow burner.

I accept that the club is intertwined with Saudi reputation now. That's part of it and I'm not telling you not to. I'm not telling you to stop calling him out at these football occasions or using the club to attack him. We are now part of British diplomacy and that is actually part of it. That's fucking awkward. What I don't accept is the idea that the Newcastle fan should be boycotting and burning his club, especially when the people expecting that don't hold themselves to the same standards as they tweet or Facebook post whilst watching the Mandalorian among other collections of PIF funded things.

I look forward to Spurs fans boycotting their game with us in protest. Oh. These people invest in much of your daily life, it's a national question. The nation allows them in under our rules, to allow them in to chip away at them to change back home. The model is to allow positive relationships with an overarching reputational challenge to bring about change. Whether anyone likes it or not Newcastle and Tyneside's role in that kind of relationship is now primarily the positive aspect to this diplomacy, yes with some negative questioning and the local press will get that ball rolling. I accept that we as a club are fair game when it comes to Saudi reputation now. I'd prefer if we weren't, but I will defend the community from attacks by hypocrits. Why is it OK for you to benefit from dodgy arab money in your life but it's not ok for the Newcastle United fan with a tea towel on his head, the Geordie should sacrifice his football club at the alter, he should carry the weight of it all whilst you continue to sacrifice nothing. That will help maintain the myth of football being more virtuous than other businesses probably. Have them take this money that will bring jobs to Tyneside and fuel south east house prices some more instead perhaps. We will see a lot of people tweet about how a brick layer from Heaton should be burning his club to the ground in anger, completely unaware of Saudi funding to keep twitter going. Herein lies the hypocrisy that comes with having an opinion on this takeover. Beware anyone who claims to be virtuous and clean for they are simply part of the big dirty lie that besets the United Kingdom. Watch how easy the middle class target working class blokes with Saudi flags, far easier and comfortably than anything else they've bothered to do to rid their country of investment from people that are wrong'uns.

It's easy to chastise from a far, but I and many other Newcastle fans have to learn how to live within this situation. How to challenge and when to challenge. In my view today is not the day for the Newcastle fans to challenge. Today is about a new start for our community and for me personally its a hope of rebuilding family relationships that were heavily damaged by Mike Ashley. It is however the day for you to flag the Saudi's. I encourage you to do so. Nationally you need to play that role, but I vehemently disagree with pinning it on the Geordie and making the Geordie carry the burden and shame. Particularly when it's impossible to have a view of the takeover without being a hypocrit, either way.

The club wont be rich, just as Ashley is a multi billionaire the owners have money but it doesn't mean they'll put that money into the club. The Rueben's, one of if not the richest people in Britain? Will own a small share, they're not putting up the capital they're in it for the property developing and what can be done to the city of Newcastle, akin to what happened in Manchester perhaps but on a lesser scale. Some reports have mentioned that there will be £250m put into the club over the next few years, but not just for players, it's going to cost a bit to upgrade the neglect Ashley has left the stadium, training ground and general infrastructure in. The club needs to be reconnected to the community. Just waiting for the news it's over the line and Ashley is finally gone. Think I might have a little cry of joy when it happens. For me this season has been the worst in my entire life. Finally ground down to absolute disconnect, hopelessness and a sense of what's the point anymore. A more moved on depressive state, whereas previous years those feelings were full of anger and frustration, more alive emotions.

Antonio Conte's odds to replace Bruce have come crashing down to 5/1 Will he get the best out of Jeff Hendrick?

Saudi takeover to go through in next 48 hours. Source- everywhere

5000 nufc trust members voted in a snap poll after the Wolves game, with 94.3% saying Bruce should resign or be sacked in the best interests of the club.

Bloody hell sea levels have risen a lot more than I expected

I could be wrong but the gangs in Yorkshire being referred to specifically and deliberately targeted non-muslims didn't they? In that sense I'm not surprised if someone was to label it Islamic. Whereas the issue of incest in Yorkshire, particularly in places like Bradford, I've only ever heard it referred to as Pakistani or Asian and not Islamic.

They wouldn't get the coverage. They wouldn't be on morning tv. People protest in numbers that small and smaller at government buildings all the time. Many occasion have I taken a leaflet from someone dressed as a badger or walked past a bloke who stuck a load of plastic bottles to himself. Many have been arrested. When an ambulance is trying to get through its time to stand up, get off the road.

Yikes.

Industries turn to government when they need help. They work closely with DEFRA. It would be DEFRA's responsibility to put to the Prime Minister any requirements or help they need from his powers which DEFRA can't handle. Prime Ministers typically wouldn't do an interview unless they are told the topic of conversation first. If Johnson knew that topic was coming up and still winged it like that it would be saying a lot about how he treats his position and the interviews.

No they won't do it, but that doesn't make it worthless. Activists have a role to play within our political system even if they are in denial about what that is. There's a pendulum in which on one side is the activist bringing a topic to attention of the public and gaining support for it, on the other side is the activist making the topic seem that of cranks, hippies and lunatics. That is where the activist must be careful within this political system, what they all know is that in reality they need to completely overthrow the system to truly get what they want. The Labour Party have already put a figure on how much £ to dedicate to this issue as a result of this topic becoming prominent. Public support for action is growing. The incumbent governments policies so far have failed and in order to sustain their power they will have to address the topic to some extent. Ultimately in the end the activist does not get what they want but they can and often do cause positive change. Long term disruption however risks that pendulum swinging to the hippy crank side. The topic of interest to the public will shift from insulation to how to stop the disruption. A government who can get them to stop will likely get approval rating rewards for it. My main fear, within this system, is that unlike the US and to some extent Australia and Canada right now, mainstream anti-climate positions are non existent and anti-climate is the crank position still, but activists moves risk feeding those cranks if they are not careful. I understand that however on climate it is impossible not to be a hypocrit in some aspect of life. You can make many changes and many decisions but there will always be something that someone finds to wave at you. On housing insulation, at current market prices you're looking at maybe £10-35k per house. So on that subject we are simply not going to make the changes to this countries housing stock without the government's help. Policies so far on this matter have flopped.

In British history and culture though? It's very rare for a protest to directly lead to the action the protest is asking for from the government. Typically it is at local council or business level that protests may work. At national level, most of the time action is the result of threat to government power and that threat to power usually comes from public opinion. The British public are overwhelmingly averse to disruptive means even when they might support the cause, examples in this thread may well be Stan and Deadlinesman. The danger with all prolonged disruption is attention shifts from a growth of public opinion for the wider cause to a growth in demand and support for an authority bringing an end to the disruption. As seen with Margaret Thatcher coming to power and staying in power. I don't think that matters. It doesn't have have be a zero sum game. The protesters are asking for the government to immediately refurbish everyone's house in the country. The savings from which would far outstrip the additional emissions from 45 minutes of traffic. Why does it matter that he hasn't insulated his own property? The protest is asking for the government to pay for it for him.

The only use of a disruptive protest is to raise awareness for an issue. Once that is raised the disruption has no benefit and may start to have the opposite effect.

I agree to an extent but what you have to remember with Bruce is he has pissed fans off with the things he says. He winds the fans up. Interestingly a lot of the same stuff he said at Villa and Sunderland that made him hated there. When you combine that with not getting the best out of the team you've got a toxic mix. A toxic atmosphere.

The decision of the takeover is in a separate tribunal in January. Yesterday's court case is all about Ashley getting compensation. If it gets Ashley out I'd be happy for Premier League clubs, particularly the top ones to forgo much of their "prize" money so that Mike Ashley can sell the club at actual market value but still get the same price PIF offered 18 months ago OK with me. If Ashley is entitled to compensation and takes this club down with his crap decisions then the Premier League should pay compensation to the fans to whatever value is required to buy Ashley out

Yesterday in court it was heard that Richard Masters threatened to expel Newcastle United from the Premier League in a heated argument with Mike Ashley. It doesn't look like you'll hear that in the national press. The court case is about determing whether the Premier League has been corrupted by BEIN sport and the Super league clubs to block Newcastle's takeover. If found to be the case Mike Ashley may be entitled to millions if not tens of millions in compensation from the Premier League.

The catalytic converter thief's around my mates turn up with baseball bats, broad daylight, have beaten someone up before and smashed the shit out of someone else's car for challenging them. They also sometimes don't bother hiding their identities. However it is London, most of the CCTV hasn't worked for 15 years in this city.

No one more entrepreneurial than the criminal. When they couldn't sell drugs in lockdown the stole dogs and catalytic converters. Now in the fuel game.

Coronavirus led to 40,000 HGV tests being cancelled. 25,000 fewer candidates passed their tests in 2020. The test backlog now in 2021 can't be cleared quickly enough because there aren't enough assessors. Thousands of drivers left the country because of Covid and haven't returned. Yet upping wages and issuing some visas to people from other countries also with driver shortages will sort things out? Does free movement do anything but mask non existent public policy? Is the goal simply to get back to teetering on the brink instead of having gone over the edge like now. Bearing in mind that we are over the edge because of consumer behaviour. Reality is the government were warned in June/July and they ignored the warnings. Only now trying to get assessors out of retirement or from the army to clear a backlog. This is a public policy failure and incompetence.

Saw the car wash guys selling petrol by the cannister Clearly bought loads last night to sell it on today. Entrepreneurs.