Lakenheath Old Boys

We are all former students at Lakenheath High School and other public schools in East Anglia. We were in school in the 70s and 80s and drank deeply from the well of British culture of those decades - the pints, the telly, and of course the footie!

Friday, October 08, 2021

Newcastle United's Saudi Take-over

The big news out of Blighty today was of the end of Mike Ashley's 14-year rule at Newcastle, who have been bought by a Saudi consortium. The Toon Army celebrated outside St. James' Park today, no doubt hoping that the move will have the same impact on the club that the Emirati takeover of Citeh and the Roman Abramovich ownership of Chelsea have had on those clubs. But is it a good move for English clubs? 

Your thoughts, gents? 

posted by The Blue Devil @ 8:08 PM 

2 Comments:

Blogger gooner71 said...

The genie's been well out of the bottle but the Saudi takeover stinks so high because the MBS regime has thumbed their nose at the EPL's complaints that it's not doing anything to discourage piracy of the Premier League's coverage. All of us can remember sneaky illegal feeds of the games with Arabic letters in the corners and hyper-enthusiastic Arabic commentary. It's harder for US and UK audiences to find those, but not African audiences whose ISPs track to Africa.

Oh yeah, and there's the little fact that the MBS regime murders people critical of it.

Say what you will about the odious Kroenke family, but they only dream of getting away with bone-saw involved murders. And Willian is safe from even them now.

5:35 PM  
Blogger The Blue Devil said...

You're absolutely right about that, Steve. It's probably only "legacy fans" like us who will complain. The audiences around the world don't give two shits about who's paying the bills, as long as they get to see the product on the pitch. And sadly, even the traditional fans begin to sell their souls once they come to see the success.

All of this makes me happy with where Leeds are. We'll never get back to where the top clubs are, but I'm okay with that. It's a club that the city of Leeds can be proud of. Arsenal are, too. Like United, they've built a foundation. Sure, the Kroenkes are the money men right now but if you were to take them out, the club would remain. Could you say the same thing about Citeh without the Emirati money or Chelsea without Roman Abramovic? Don't think so.

10:50 PM  

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