Newcastle - Saudi takeover

I don't know. Personally I think Newcastle have been the smuggest group of fans on the whole planet because they have absolutely no reason to be so which makes it worse. During the 90's they were a great set of fans but 2 seasons of relative success (despite not winning anything) seemed to feed into them thinking during the 2000's that they were Bayern Munich. They don't realise that Newcastle is pretty much the backend of beyond, it's hard enough to get players to come to the Manchester and Liverpool clubs as most players (or their families) want to be in London so attracting players requires a massive amount of overpaying. I remember Owen refused to move and choose to helicopter in and out of training each day. This is just going to make them worse because these Arab owners are corrupt and will find ways be able to pay people whatever they want to go there (Like how PSG gave Messi £30mill in the clubs own Cryptocurrecny which is now worth closer to $80mill but that's not considered as part of the club's accounts or how Neymar is getting tens of millions a year from the tourist board of Qatar which isn't counted in his wages. Or they will just do a City and both sponsor themselves at inflated rates or they will give 3rd party companies money to sponsor the club or buy things like image rights) so they will be able to act like they have a real legacy and justification for where they end up

If you were talking about United during the Moyes to Jose reign then you would have a point but under Ole and the other appointments made the identity is pretty much back to what it has always been

 

Where are you getting the historically in the top 10? In the 74 years post WWII they were in the top10 of the top flight just 19 times. And a large percentage of those came during the period Hall was throwing silly money at the club and when Ashley tool over the club was in a pretty bad financial state. They spent nearly as many season (18) in the second tier. They are a team who have largely been bottom half, trying to battle against going down and then eventually dropping out and having to rebuild

 

The fans were predisposed to hate him though. They hate both 'outsiders' and those they deem to be the world best. they saw him as both an outsider and a chancer, everything he tried to improve things at the club they turned on. The strange thing is they hated the stadium naming rights being sold claiming it killed their heritage BUT look how they are now celebrating the idea of the owners selling themselves the stadium naming rights.

Just look at the way they are with their managers, they start booing them from game 1. They even turned on Keegan pretty quickly in his second spell despite him previously being a hero to them. Or Pardew who got them up to 5th and not once did they stop looking for a chance to boo him. And the same with Sam Allardyce, he may not be a top-level coach but he would have most likely made them a solid top 10 club and gave them a decent base to build on. Mind you Shearer could have got them relegated to the National League North and they would still support him.

I personally get the feeling you lot aren't as delusional as Newcastle fans. If you were bottom half premier league most seasons you would be happy with that.

 

They seem to be largely ignoring it already. The thing that makes the Saudis the worst of them all is that how many have openly lured citizens who have been critical of the countries human rights record to the embassy and then kill them and then almost flaunted the fact because they did a pretty poor job covering it up

 

What because I said I feel that you lot would be happy with a bottom half of prem? How is that me being smug? It's saying that you lot are realistic about the status of your club not totally deluded like Newcastle fans who based one TWO seasons in 72 years think they are Bayern Munich or Real Madrid. They don't realise that no player wants to be based in the backend of nowhere unless you are able to bribe them with stupid wages. United and Liverpool do have problems persuading some top players to even join them despite the history of the clubs and Cheshire not being a fairly appealing area of the country to live because players and their families want to be in London if they come to England. Owen is a perfect example, he choose to charter a helicopter to fly back and forth to training rather than base himself up there.