Mohammed bin Salman: Comes with a lot of baggage. The House of Saud comes with a lot of baggage and with the prospective Saudi backed takeover of Newcastle United, there has even been a report of St James’ Park being the latest battlefield in a ‘proxy war’ between Qatar and the Saudis in the New York Times. In this case they are referring to Qatari Sports broadcasting giant, beIN Sports, whose claims are on the basis of piracy regarding live coverage of games. To add to this, two other antagonists have also entered the battlefield, human rights group Amnesty International and the Scottish National Party.
Going in reverse order, SNP MP John Nicolson raised the issue with culture secretary, Oliver Dowden, during a meeting of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport committee, where he raised the issue of Saudi Arabia’s frankly abysmal human rights record, though Dowden swiftly passed the buck on to The Premier League, saying that it was a matter for them and not Downing Street. (more…)
A new dawn at St James’ Park? The news that Mike Ashley’s time as Newcastle United owner is coming to an end has unsurprisingly gone down extremely well with the fans.
A Saudi Arabian-funded consortium is set to complete a £300 million takeover and will pump in significant resources to try and establish the Magpies as a force in the Premier League.
We take a closer look at four key areas Newcastle’s new owners must address if they are to deliver success to the North East’s biggest club.
Time to say goodbye to Bruce.
Steve Bruce has done a reasonable job as manager in difficult circumstances, but he is not the man to take the club forward. (more…)
Bruce: Keeping his distance from contract negotiations In his press conference before the Arsenal game on Sunday, Steve Bruce once again faced inevitable questions on whether the Longstaff brothers will stay at Newcastle United under Mike Ashley’s notoriously parsimonious regime.
As we revealed in our previous blog, 21 year old Sean Longstaff is still receiving only £692 per week in a contract which lasts until 2022, whilst his 19 year old brother, Matt, isn’t listed and his contract will be ending at the end of the season.
Speaking on the contract negotiations before the Arsenal game, Bruce said: (more…)
Jeremy Corbyn with NUFC fan group representatives.Newcastle United’s next game after the international break is away to Chelsea – use betting bonus if you fancy us to upset the Blues the way we beat Man Utd!
“Barcelona is not a business, it is a feeling. We are not owned by anybody, we are an association.” Sandro Rosell, President of FC Barcelona (owned by 180,000 fans).
In case it has escaped your attention, Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn was recently in Newcastle with North East Labour MPs Chi Onwurah and Ian Lavery meeting NUFC fan groups and outlining his proposals to democratise football clubs in a similar manner to clubs in countries such as Spain and Germany. (more…)
A rare shot of Ashley and Benitez together. Rafa Benitez is undoubtedly one of the most likeable and professional managers in football. Despite operating under one of the tightest budgets in the Premier League, the Spaniard produced a minor miracle in guiding The Magpies to a 13th place finish last campaign and 10th the season before that. After their less than acrimonious split over the summer, Newcastle owner Mike Ashley and managing director Lee Charnley are now locked in a war of words with Rafa Benitez which has so far involved back and forth insults, accusations and other general playground antics. But is Mike Ashley really the bad guy in all of this? Or does Rafa have to take some responsibility for his own actions? (more…)
