So, this week, to nobody’s surprise NUFC released a green & white third kit. I say to nobody’s surprise as this kit was “leaked” several month’s back with no denial from the club. If anybody thinks this wasn’t done deliberately to test the water, I’d quite frankly be shocked.
Also, if anybody thinks it was a coincidence that the shirt resembles the Saudi national kit, I literally don’t know what to say to you. As per, we got every spectrum of reaction; from social media outrage- the best kind!
Words along the lines of “It’s just colours on a shirt” and also shoulder shrugging indifference.
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Now, imagine, several years back, a United third kit lands. It is in the fetching colours of Sports Direct red & blue and strongly resembled leisure wear sold within their shops. Standard radio silence follows as is the norm from the previous owner- I don’t like saying his name.
I don’t think it’s a stretch to say at the very least questions would be asked. I don’t think it’s a further stretch to say that the fans would be angry. This would obviously be shaped/coloured by the disenchantment with the previous regime.
This week though I think the reaction has been relatively conservative. I’ve seen some questions on it from the fan-base and the issue has been raised by multiple journalists – as is their job-often to defensive reactions.
The crux of the matter I’d say is this: Just because things are going well football wise and we have made a few signings doesn’t mean we switch off from everything else.
The main PIF representative on our board is Yasir Al-Rumayyan and apart from a written statement that landed when the takeover first went through, we have yet to hear more from him. Yes, we’ve heard plenty from Amanda Staveley and this is not a criticism.
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But the facts are she only owns 10% of the club and she had to borrow the money from Mike Ashley for her stake. In my opinion if you fast forward five years she will no longer be involved with the club. She initiated the journey we are on, but in terms of the bigger picture I believe at some point there will be a handover of shares from PCP.
The money and the power lies with PIF and Al-Rumayyan and I believe we should be hearing more from him. Not weekly updates or inviting the fans into the boardroom obviously, but what the overall message/strategy for the club is. What the motivation was behind the green & white third kit was.
It may well be as simple as “flogging the shirts in Saudi” but whilst PIF remain silent all that festers is wider criticism and speculation, which may well be glossed over if the team do the business. But should things falter on the pitch then potential problems loom.
We should be asking those questions of PIF now, not having our attention diverted onto the football because we’ve signed three players. Our majority owners need to speak-up. It won’t put a stop to the criticism, it may even increase it, but the longer they stay silent the bigger the elephant in the room becomes.
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Several years ago, now, George Caulkin and Simon Bird to much acclaim/credit bought shares in Sports Direct so they could attend the Sports Direct AGM and ask our previous owner questions about Newcastle United. It was the only way they could speak to him.
Dan Roan, a much-respected BBC journalist approached Al-Rumayyan at a Saudi LIV golf event earlier this month to ask about sports washing, it was the only way he could speak to him and yet most of the reaction I read was fan criticism of a legitimate question, from a legitimate journalist albeit using a slightly unusual approach/method- much like Bird and Caulkin.
This will continue on until our majority owners speak.
There was plenty of criticism of the previous regime about communication on key decisions which wasn’t forthcoming, for me plastering Saudi colours on a Newcastle United shirt is a decision that merits explanation.
Matty Rogers
The big difference is when I bought the third kit, that profit went to buy Sven Botman, and not into the pocket of a shopkeeper from Shirebrook. And it’s strange that the only people who are not complaining about the human rights in Saudi Arabia are the majority of the population who live in a safer environment than London is. Change that happens slowly is sometimes longer lasting. I seen the Arab Spring, I seen two kids thrown off the roof of a hotel after being accused of being gay. So sometimes those wanting change don’t always want to be like the west. Before you criticise Saudi Arabia, go visit the place and speak to the people.
It’s just a third strip don’t like it myself but as long as they are not just testing the waters like Cardiff bluebirds Malaysian owners changing strip to red – I’ll be ok with it
Marty; what questions do you think our owners should be asked?
All I wanted to know from Ashley was what was his vision for the club and how he intended to grow the club.
We never heard anything from Ashley or his mouthpiece, Lee Charnley.
No-one among the elite press backed the Newcastle supporters fight against Ashley. Ashley could have had the colours of the 3rd strip in the SD colours if he invested in the club. He did neither.
There is no doubt that Staveley is the echo chamber of PIF and has outlined what the ambitions are of the owners of the club.
No doubt the various supporter’s movements will hold the owners to account if they fail to deliver on their objectives and that is fair enough.
If Al-Rumayyan should throw himself to the press pack canis lupus, their agenda will be about the internal mechanisms of the Saudi regime and not about the sporting ambitions of Newcastle United. Therein lies the major difference which is not highlighted in your article.
Why would he do that? Saudi Arabia will have government departments that will deal with those questions, indeed the hounds could ask for an interview with the Saudi Ambassador.
There are legitimate questions to be asked but not the owners or figureheads of a football club.
I’m a fan, I don’t care.
All I have ever wanted is for my team to do well and show a bit of ambition and to make the fans feel a part of it. We have that now, touch wood and for the first time in years we go into a season with a sense of anticipation, rather than dread.
As the average man of the street, I don’t care where the money comes from, or what goes on in another country that I can have no influence on. That’s not me saying I approve of anything that goes on in KSA, it’s just me not being naive about enough to think that my faux outrage can make any difference.
They don’t owe us any explanations, why should they? If they keep on the way they have started, there’ll be more happy than unhappy people.
Just strap in for the ride, I say. Who cares what colour the 3rd kit is?
Just rehashing the same mainstream journo soapbox calls for ‘answers’. Fans don’t give a toss mate. You’re just stirring the shit. We are happy with our new owners so stop with the glass half empty rhetoric.
Whilst the club is progressing and we have the best comms ever from the board, you are shouting in a bucket.
There is no need to explain, it’s their prerogative. Personally, I think it’s awful, but that’s my opinion.
To compare the current owners to Ashley is stretching it to the extremes. Ashley saw NUFC as a very cheap advertising board for his tat sports emporium. The blatant vandalism of his brand logo and renaming of the ground bears testament to his crass stewardship.
I don’t think our new owners need to explain themselves any more than what they want to do is make the club respectable and do it properly….. If that means quality signings for the pitch or a strip that will sell in their homeland…. exposure is key to everything in the 21st century.
Patience…..
Hi Neville, I’m not upset, just wouldn’t mind some communication from our majority owners who haven’t said anything apart from a press release the day they bought the club.
David- “It’s their club, they are entitled to do whatever they like.” Did that apply to Mike Ashley as well when he plastered Sports Direct everywhere? We can’t have it both ways. Again, just wouldn’t mind some communication/explanation from our majority owners who we haven’t heard from since the takeover was completed.
We didn’t have it both ways, Ashley had his tat signs everywhere and we had to put up with it whilst he owned the club just like you and everyone else who takes offence at the shirts will have to put up with the colours. To be honest i find the shirts a lot less offensive than Ashley’s advertising hoardings. Try to think of it this way, sportswashing only exists in the minds of those who choose to believe in it. Any success Newcastle have in the future will not make me see Saudi Arabia differently, I will just put the success down to the money invested and those it was invested in, not the source it came from. I expect the KSI know this too and will have seen how their involvement with sport has actually put a spotlight on human rights issues in their country, which is the opposite of what you suggest so the evidence actually points more to their doing it more for their own financial reasons.
The reason people wanted communication from Ashley’s lot was because we wanted to know how he defended the stagnation and decay at the club that his ownership was causing. We are seeing the opposite from the new owners so quite frankly don’t need to hear from them at all, unless they choose to do so. As for the white and green strip, it’s their club, they are entitled to do whatever they like.
Matty I’ve had to read your rant twice, but still can’t find the point your making or why your upset about a third strip being similar too the Saudi national teams, for me it’s a minor issue, maybe our owners are proud of the country they come from despite criticism by some, just like some of us brits are proud of our country despite some people’s criticism of our controversial involvement in middle East issues.