Football: The Kids Are All Right

[Spockydog]

Also, for balance, here is a comment from the above linked story, from a fan of twenty-five years.

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I have been a Newcastle fan for over 25 years, and yesterday, with a heavy heart, I had to call time on that relationship. Like all Newcastle fans, I have experienced some good times, some exciting times, some embarrassing times and some infuriating times. I have been inspired by Sir John Hall and Kevin Keegan, sickened by Douglas Hall and Freddy Fletcher, moved to tears by Sir Bobby Robson. I have leapt out of my seat and sprinted round my dining room table after an Alan Shearer hat-trick, have laughed in disbelief at the skills of Tino Asprilla and Hatem Ben Arfa, howled in frustration at Paul Kitson and Joelinton, shook my head in disbelief that anyone would buy Silvio Maric or Jesus Gamez. This has been a major part of my life for most of my life, but it's over now.

Like everyone else, I wanted Mike Ashley gone. But not at any cost. Ashley is a purveyor of unremarkable sporting goods who didn't invest enough in the team or support managers enough. The new owners commit war crimes and murder journalists. I can't be a part of this any more.

There will be a lot of Newcastle fans who will look at this regime in the same way, but conclude they cannot just turn off their support like a tap and will carry on. I can understand that position. As we saw on TV yesterday though, there are many more who just don't give a shit. As Nick Hornby wrote in Fever Pitch when writing about the aftermath of Heysel "Nothing ever matters, except football." I watched with disbelief and anger on Sky News yesterday evening as a member of the NUST tried to blame Amnesty International for the fact that Newcastle fans don't care about where the money is coming from, because "they haven't been informed well enough by the likes of Amnesty." Warren Barton then followed up with "of course human rights are very important, we all care massively about human rights" while saying how delighted he was with the Saudis taking over.

I am sure many Newcastle fans, like Man City and Chelsea fans before them, will play the 'loyal fans support the club no matter what' card. I have supported Newcastle through heartbreak, misery, boredom and drudgery like they all have. But I can't support this. I don't know how it is going to be watching Premier League football from now on, I have never been in this situation before. Am I going to instinctively cheer when they win? How will I feel when one of the world's best players suddenly finds Newcastle "an interesting project"? I guess we will see. But today I shed a tear for the last 25 years, and for those who will continue to suffer at the hands of those being so heartily welcomed in Newcastle yesterday.

 

I feel for this guy. 

I asked my brother yesterday what he would do if bin Salman had bought the Arsenal. Would he stop supporting the club? His answer matched my own, 'I don't know.'

I love my football. I have been supporting Arsenal ever since I moved to London in 1981. But I'm not sure my support could withstand something like this. Perhaps if we started signing £200m players and winning the league every other year, that would be different. The cognitive dissonance might just be too much though. I suspect that no amount of demonstrations would make me feel clean.

p.s. I've always had a soft spot for Newcastle United, but that is gone now. I hope get they relegated and do a Sunderland. (yes, yes, I know there's no chance of that, but football is all about dreaming).

 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

7 hours ago, BigFatCoward said:

I know they do, but why should the vast majority (99.9999%) of people care? Its an absolute irrelevance to pretty much every person connected with the game. 

Relegation/promotion is what makes sports interesting, if there aren't winners and losers/consequences then what's the point?

 

 

[BigFatCoward]

Other prem league clubs complaining about the takeover. As if it's got anything to do with morals, it's about fear, especially from the big 6.

We have a far deeper history and fanbase than the shite clubs of the big 6, and now much more money than the big 3. 

[Heartofice]

Nobody should be complaining about moral issues around the takeover because that horse has already bolted.

Here is a fun article listing each club by how reprehensible their owners are, and guess what, there are maybe 3 or 4 that aren’t entirely evil… Delia included 

https://www.football365.com/news/ranking-premier-league-owners-morals-bin-salman-abramovich-mansour

[Darryk]

5 hours ago, Spockydog said:

You know my politics. The Saudis are right up there amongst the most abhorrent regimes in the Universe. And seeing some of these young men wearing Mohammed bin Salman masks was ... pretty weird, I have to say.

But we have to place this in context.

I think it's fair to say that most of the people we saw celebrating were marking the end of the Ashley regime. Ding dong, and all that. And whether Ashley had sold the club to Thanos, Michael Palin, Count Dracula, or even a reanimated Hitler, the celebrations would've been the same.

And yes, I can see how those celebrations might have been interpreted by the more socially-conscious amongst us. But before we condemn them, there are a number of things we need to consider.

How many of these kids have even heard of Jamal Khashoggi? How many of these kids are aware that the Saudis are currently using British and American weapons to commit genocide in Yemen? Shit, I'd question how many of them are even aware that Saudi women are not allowed to drive.

And that is perfectly understandable. Because as long as I've been alive, the Saudis have been our allies. As longs as I've been alive, our news outlets and political leaders have been turning a blind eye to all kinds of atrocities and human rights abuses. As long as I've been alive, we've been selling them billions of pounds of killing equipment, every single year. We allowed the Saudis to export their disgusting brand of violent Islam to madrasas all over the world. We ignored their involvement in 9/11, instead punishing the citizens of Afghanistan with a pointless, twenty year war.

If the American and British governments wanted to drag Saudi Arabia into the 21st Century, they could. They could stop selling them weapons. Stop giving them billions and billions in foreign aid every year. Withdraw our political and military protection. Leave them vulnerable to the tanks and missiles of Israel. Ban their children from our schools. Ban their colours from our racecourses. Stop glad-handing and licking the collective arse of the cunts at every opportunity.

We could have done all of that. But we didn't. And now look what's happened.

Anyway, there was a really good piece in the Guardian yesterday. Sums up my feelings quite well.

The Saudi takeover of Newcastle United is a symptom of England’s political failures

 

That article makes me think about how governments like the UK and US have left parts of their country to rot, so it's no wonder that desperate people are willing to turn to sinister regimes for help.

The neglect of Newcastle FC kind of reflects the neglect of the North as a whole. 

And this is the legacy of Thatcher's sociopathic view toward the world (everyone must just look out for themselves, there's no such thing as a society blablabla); her actions created a landscape where people are so beaten down they don't have the energy to care about a regime's human rights record.

[BigFatCoward]

1 hour ago, Heartofice said:

Nobody should be complaining about moral issues around the takeover because that horse has already bolted.

Here is a fun article listing each club by how reprehensible their owners are, and guess what, there are maybe 3 or 4 that aren’t entirely evil… Delia included 

https://www.football365.com/news/ranking-premier-league-owners-morals-bin-salman-abramovich-mansour

Burnley, best chairman, most vile team. 

[Spockydog]

Abramovich. You don't get to be last man standing in the post-Soviet aluminium wars without dropping a significant number of bodies.

 

[Darryk]

Damn I knew Joe Lewis was a tax dodger but I didn't know about him commandeering Argentinian land.

[polishgenius]

It's weird because a week ago I wanted someone to rescue Saint-Maximin so he could play with some proper footballers, and now I want someone to rescue Saint-Maximin so he can play somewhere I can enjoy seeing his joy.

[Spockydog]

SCOTLAND! What a game of football. Unbelievable second half. 

[john]

John McGinn : “The fans could have all went to the pub last five.”

Phew, the boys sure know how to string out a win. 94th minute, 2 yards, in off the thigh? Stomach? Who cares! Now you’d think we can definitely beat Faroes and Moldova …

[Raja]

That Mcginn finish for scotland's goal was delicious.

[Spockydog]

Arseblog knows.

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You have to laugh really, don’t you? Can you imagine a meeting where Man City’s owners try to take the moral high ground, with Roman Abramovich giving them the ‘Go on my son!’ as support.

Stan and Josh Kroenke (net worth $8bn) sitting next to Aston Villa’s owners ($10bn), the Glazer family ($6bn), Fenway Sports who own Liverpool ($3bn) Wolves ($9bn), Everton ($3bn – but some access to Umsanov’s $17bn), with the billionaire owners of Southampton, Leicester and others, all tut-tutting about how they don’t approve of this kind of thing.

It’s pathetic.

Again, it’s not that I don’t understand why there would be objections to it, and that the whole issue appears to have been based around piracy of the Premier League’s TV coverage than any genuine concern about the potential owners makes me think that some wheels have been greased to make it happen. It’ll be a bit like Goodfellas, see whose wife turns up in a new fur coat. Nevertheless, it’s a bit rich coming from some of them. Especially as I bet there’s a significant portion who would present like a cat in heat if that same Saudi investment group had expressed interest in buying them.

Football has had so much time to put in place new structures, rules, and guidelines on ownership mechanisms, as well as financial mechanisms to at least try and make the sport more competitive, but it just followed the money the whole time. Then something comes along as a consequence of that and now there’s some outrage. Give me a break.

I suppose the bigger point is that it isn’t just football, is it? This is the way it goes and how money’s influence on society sees this kind of thing happen in business, finance, property and government. When you can get away with using a pandemic to line the pockets of your mates – to the tune of billions and billions of taxpayers money, tens of thousands of whom have died gasping for air – why would anyone think a football club is the thing to get angry about, or expect people who benefit from deals like this to do any different? But this is where we are.

 

 

[MercenaryChef]

I'll only say this.

so few footy fans had shit to say regarding Saudis until their clubs were suddenly financially irrelevant. they weren't up in arms about all the money they poured into disney/marvel because the avengers weren't about to become brilliantly wealthy and lift up a club they were used to smacking the fuck around for the last 2 decades. and had the money come their way instead they would also be building squads in their heads of mbappe, Lewandowski, neymar and pretty much whomever the fuck they could imagine. hell, the toon can afford a cloned Maradona if they like. 

let's not pretend the majority of supporters actually give a fuck about human rights and whatnot. it all comes from someone else being wealthy enough to compete with the big boys.

get the fuck out of here. 

[Spockydog]

4 minutes ago, MercenaryChef said:

hell, the toon can afford a cloned Maradona if they like. 

Jurassic Narc. 

[john]

I love how Toon fans get so belligerent about not being consistently in the top twenty of a country with like 40,000 football clubs. What about Bishop Auckland FC? Give them some fucking money.

[BigFatCoward]

1 hour ago, john said:

I love how Toon fans get so belligerent about not being consistently in the top twenty of a country with like 40,000 football clubs. What about Bishop Auckland FC? Give them some fucking money.

Bishop Aukland is a dump. Fuck em. 

[Consigliere]

Reports that Bruce's sacking is imminent. He's due to receive compensation of a little under £8m. Graeme Jones is expected to be appointed caretaker while the club search for a permanent manager. Ralf Rangnick, among other candidates, are being considered for the Sporting Director role. 

[MercenaryChef]

27 minutes ago, Consigliere said:

Reports that Bruce's sacking is imminent. He's due to receive compensation of a little under £8m. Graeme Jones is expected to be appointed caretaker while the club search for a permanent manager. Ralf Rangnick, among other candidates, are being considered for the Sporting Director role. 

yup.

goodbye, dear cabbage. 

i cannot wait to see what exorbitant statement signing we will see in january. 

funny a lot of toon faithful keep forgetting we are deep in the dropzone. we actually need to win games and stay up. being the richest team in the world doesn't have quite the same bite when your side is doing away trips to luton town and barnsley.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

2 hours ago, MercenaryChef said:

yup.

goodbye, dear cabbage. 

i cannot wait to see what exorbitant statement signing we will see in january. 

funny a lot of toon faithful keep forgetting we are deep in the dropzone. we actually need to win games and stay up. being the richest team in the world doesn't have quite the same bite when your side is doing away trips to luton town and barnsley.

Doesn't matter much in the bigger picture, if you get Rangnick. He knows how to turn a shitty bilionaires plaything into shitty bilionaires plaything that can play football. Just might take you 2, maybe 3 seasons longer to get the project where you want it to be. Not ideal for the new bin Salman toon army, but not the end of the world.