Thread by @shaunjlawson

OK - plenty of people have pulled me up on that comment. So I'm going to explain what I meant.

Of course I'm fully aware of Bury, Macclesfield, Oldham, Swindon, AFC Wimbledon, Coventry (where Mark Robins is doing an astonishing job) and many many others.

https://twitter.com/CanariesDU/status/1446650430944002051

But go find me another club anywhere in the world which gets 50K through its gates and has won NOTHING, not a sausage, in getting on towards 70 years.

You can't. Because it doesn't exist. Even snakebitten Schalke, now in Germany's second division, won the UEFA Cup in 1997.

For a huge club to have failed for almost 70 years has required the most epic levels of constant mismanagement. Appalling neglect in the 70s and 80s. Ludicrous overspending in the mid to late 90s (John Hall's investment wasn't grants; it was loans); the appalling Freddy Shepherd.

And then, Mike Ashley. The Cockney wideboy who treated Kevin Keegan like shit, appointed Dennis Wise and Joe Kinnear (!), and has spent the last 13 years not trying to win. At all. And taking the piss out of their fans like no other owner at any major club.

The loyalty of their supporters has been UNBELIEVABLE. Arguably, even part of the problem given how much Ashley took advantage of that.

For this, Newcastle fans, en masse, have been routinely referred to by fans of other clubs as 'deluded'.

Not even Liverpool fans have been so stereotyped so often. I'd paraphrase the attitudes of others as:

"Me and my mates are honest salt of the Earth chaps who just want to enjoy ourselves at the football. You lot are delusional and entitled and deserve to win nothing ever".

Even when Newcastle fans have spent their entire lives following their club and died without ever seeing it win anything.

Even when Newcastle fans long ago gave up on the idea of them ever winning anything, so beaten down have they been by it all.

I'm awfully sorry, but you can't compare Swindon or Coventry or, for that matter, Norwich with the biggest club in the entire north-east of England. The biggest club in what, for so long, was the greatest hotbed of football in England, which produced so many greats and legends.

Take a look at the England side of 1990. Managed by Bobby Robson. In which Chris Waddle, Peter Beardsley, Bryan Robson and Paul Gascoigne were all key components.

Then think of who was managing Ireland at the time. Or of his legendary brother.

That whole region MATTERS. A lot

And the club which represents it much more than any other isn't supposed to not win a damn thing for almost 70 years. It's also the only club on the planet which despite that total lack of success, has continued to be discussed: including on news programmes, let alone sports ones

Discussed by others so often that it completely gives the lie to the "not a big club" bullshit which those others come out with so often.

Oh yes, they've suffered. They're like the Boston Red Sox before the 86-year-long drought finally ended.

And it's very likely because of that constant misery, which Ashley turned into an art form in his horrendous cynicism and absolute poverty of spirit, that they're so ecstatic to finally have hope again. And to have got rid of that complete bastard.

All football fans need hope.

Ashley flat out stole it from them. And trampled on all of them in the process.

So yes, I empathised with them. But not any more. Not now. Not with THIS.

I thought the Super League would've been the worst thing to happen in football in my lifetime. I now think this is.

When a state with the mindbogglingly egregious record of Saudi Arabia towards women, homosexuals, trans people, political opponents, anyone questioning it at all, neighbouring states, funding terrorism, murdering journalists - takes over a major football club, that is a disaster.

When it does so specifically to whitewash that monstrous record and make itself seem all warm and fuzzy, that is a disaster.

When 97% of the fanbase approve, not only is that a disaster - but it shows that this shit WORKS. Regarding which, the mental gymnastics are well underway

- But the Investment Fund is completely independent of the Saudi state!

Bullshit. The Investment Fund is headed by Crown Prince Bone Saw himself. It's the financial arm of the Saudi state. And the Premier League will not release evidence of the Fund's independence. Go figure.

- We can influence them, show them a better way on how to treat women and minorities!

Good grief. The monsters who run Saudi Arabia do not answer to anyone. They'll laugh themselves silly at comments as ridiculous as that. They're using your club for their own benefit. That's it

- The world is bad, and the Premier League has been heading in this direction for decades!

Yes, it has. But this is qualitatively worse than anything that's ever happened before. Not even the UAE's terrible human rights record is anything close to as disgusting as Saudi Arabia's

- Britain trades with Saudi Arabia, so what's the problem?

OK then. Question. How many of you voted Labour in 2019? If you voted to stop those arms deals drenched in blood, to stop the UK profiting from the slaughter of Yemeni children, fair enough. But I bet many of you didn't.

Special shout out here to any Newcastle fans who didn't vote Labour because of 'anti-semitism', and have now welcomed to their club probably the most antisemitic state on Earth, under which the Protocols of the Elders of Zion is a set text in its schools. 🤮🤮🤮

- But the Investment Fund has stakes in so many global companies!

And does it RUN any of them? Does it OWN any of them? I'll give you an example. It has a stake of $522m in Facebook. What's Facebook's total worth? Close to one trillion dollars.

None of the companies it's invested in depend on it for their survival. It's invested in all of them so the Fund grows. That's it.

By contrast, it's bought Newcastle United to try and cover up its never-ending list of crimes.

Good lord. Do you think these people are childhood Toon fanatics who fell in love with the club by watching John Beresford, Darren Peacock or Brian Kilcline?

No. This is a specifically, nakedly political venture for them. You are a sportswashing exercise for them.

And it's because you're a specifically, nakedly political venture for them that that old, pathetic, amoral rejoinder of "keep politics out of sport" is actually a REBUKE of them.

They're the ones who've brought politics into all this. Everything about this is political.

- Why are the media picking on us? Aren't we allowed to be successful?

I'll tell you why the media are 'picking on you' (read: highlighting the inhuman atrocities of this psychotic, terrorist state). It's because it, like me, had a lot of respect for your club.

It, like me, is shocked, appalled, disgusted that you can joyfully sell its entire history down the river to a bunch of monsters. And parade around in Newcastle city centre in Saudi head dress, welcoming the conquering heroes.

Who also happen to be mass murdering war criminals.

- But we couldn't stop the sale! It was out of our hands!

Bullshit. How long did it take six English clubs to run a mile from the Super League? Barely 24 hours. Why did that happen? Their fans rose up against them.

Fans of most clubs ALWAYS have the power... but never use it.

See also: Rangers' demotion to / installation in (delete according to who you support) Scottish Division 3 in 2012.

The fans of all the other SPL clubs made it perfectly clear: if Rangers were allowed to stay in the top division, they would not return. They would never return.

And the fans of the lower division clubs felt entirely likewise. So the clubs had no choice at all.

If enough Newcastle fans had wanted this stopped, it would've been stopped. But hardly any did - so it happened.

- But they're going to bring so much investment to such a neglected region! 2 things.

1) Did you vote Labour for that investment?

2) Since when did such investment also require sportswashing? There's nothing to stop the Fund investing. It doesn't have to buy your club to do it

- The other Premier League clubs are all up in arms - how dare they? Who do they think they are?

a) In 6 of their cases, a bunch of hypocrites given their desire for the Super League but also

b) In all cases, they correctly recognise what a disaster for the whole league this is

Premier League TV rights are handled collectively by the whole league. That's the biggest single reason it's remained significantly more competitive than its counterparts in Spain, Italy or especially Germany.

In business terms, the brand matters to all its members.

But that brand now - a global phenomenon for the past two decades - hasn't just been tarnished. It's been as good as wrecked.

The whole damn world knows about the Saudi regime and how it behaves. So how the heck does the PL sell itself as anything halfway wholesome ever again?

Football inspires kids all over the world.

Football increasingly inspires girls all over the world.

Football - English football at least - tries to be inclusive, family-oriented, fun.

Football, even grotesquely overvalued modern football, is STILL intrinsic to every community

Just about every club does charity and community work. Visiting fans in hospital; helping kids who need cancer treatment; publicising children who've gone missing (note AS Roma's campaign on that).

Recall that Everton were heavily involved in trying to help find Maddie McCann.

Think about the immense support which both Liverpool and Everton have given the Hillsborough families throughout their 32-year-long ordeal.

Well. Now think about THIS. About some of the worst people on Earth being welcomed to Newcastle with open arms. And what that says.

Good luck to the Premier League in dealing with the fallout from that.

And good luck, too, to Newcastle: who will become, quicker than many might imagine, the most hated football club on the planet. The Saudi regime is universally loathed: for very good reason.

There is, finally, one small straw I'm clutching at. Which is as follows.

This deal is so sordid, so sick, so utterly indefensible, I think it's the moment the bubble really might just burst. And lead millions to see English and European football for what it's become.

Heaven only knows, it has to pop at some point.

In which case, in their quest for power and glory, the most historically incompetently run football club anywhere might just have shot the entire sport in the foot like no other club ever has.

If so, that moment cannot come a moment too soon.