The Saudi Takeover Rumor Thread

[fezzerUTD]

No but it's partially why I hate City so much. I wouldn't stop supporting United if Saudis took over but I certainly would miss the days the biggest issue our owners had was taking money out of the club

As long as we didn't cheat like city have is my main concern on the footballing side.
I'd prefer supporters to own the club but i cant see that ever happening, and I think the Glazers wont upgrade the stadium which is getting to be a bit of a tired tip, so I'd be all for someone coming in refurbing, spending some on the ground and training facility and then letting the income pay for transfers and wages and not relying on the sugar daddy bank acc for anything else.

 

[Lentwood]

10yrs or so ago I would have been dead against this

Now I think why the hell not, its the only way to compete. Football died the day Chelsea won their first title under Roman in many ways

 

[Kostov]

Yes mate. It really is as simple as me convincing the other 60m people in this country to stop being such uninformed, lazy bastards. I'm sure that will go well, and should be done by the end of the week.

I'm sick of going round in circles with you now. Your posts are no less simplistic and naïve than they were last month, so I'm going to do the simple thing and put you on ignore. Hopefully you'll get a clue or two in the mean time.

Please try, maybe you can form a political party where you all morally correct Brits can join and do something, the whole lot 127 of you.

Ignore is the right thing here, nothin personal but I can hardly find middle ground with people who seem to pick when their morals work.

 

[VorZakone]

What's all this morality stuff? We buy clothes that are made by kids somewhere in China or Bangladesh. We vote for sleazy politicians because they happen to be part of a political spectrum we identify with. We turn a blind eye towards all kinds of shady stuff.

But you'd have trouble supporting United because of a Saudi takeover...?

 

[stevoc]

I’m from England. Born and bread.

And I, along with many from an older generation, would say that modern society is nothing to be proud about as you seem to be!

Modern society isn’t perfect by any means mate but for the most part things are better now than the majority of human history.

 

[Spoony]

I think we've got a very high opinion of ourselves... Our foreign policies have caused a lot of misery around the world. And we've helped prop up a puppet Saudi government for decades. Morals eh.

 

[JPRouve]

What's all this morality stuff? We buy clothes that are made by kids somewhere in China or Bangladesh. We vote for sleazy politicians because they happen to be part of a political spectrum we identify with. We turn a blind eye towards all kinds of shady stuff.

But you'd have trouble supporting United because of a Saudi takeover...?

No, people would have trouble with the Royal family purchasing the club. We are not talking about a crime but the actual criminals, the first one is very difficult to discern, the second one was ordering the chopping of a Saudi national in an embassy just a month ago.

 

[Minimalist]

I think we've got a very high opinion of ourselves... Our foreign policies have causes a lot of misery around the world. And we've helped prop up a puppet Saudi government for decades. Morals eh.

I've done fcuk all mate.

People remind me of that everyday.

 

[nimic]

Football is not the most important thing in the world. I love United, but if we become Saudi-owned then I'll stop supporting the club until the Saudis are gone.

 

[JPRouve]

Football is not the most important thing in the world. I love United, but if we become Saudi-owned then I'll stop supporting the club until the Saudis are gone.

I understand why but how are you so sure about the fact that you would stop to support the club? I would have a real hard time not supporting the club that's why I don't want it to happen, that would be way too bitter.

 

[nimic]

I understand why but how are so sure about the fact that you would stop to support the club? I would have a real hard time not supporting the club that's why I don't want it to happen, that would be way too bitter.

It's hard to say for sure, of course. But at the very least I would stop actively supporting the club, meaning going to games, buying merchandise, that sort of thing. I'm not sure I'll ever be able to shake United, but I think I might even struggle to follow the club on TV or online if we're part of the Saudi PR machine.

 

[Siorac]

I can't ignore the feeling that people are being hugely ignorant here. I've read comments saying "uh no, feck them" - is it because they are from Saudi Arabia? They are business men who've made a fortune and want to invest in our club.

I bet half the people in this place would hardly react at all if you replaced "Saudis" with "Romanians" or "Peruvians".

A degree of racism perhaps?

No doubt there will be people her who may have valid reasons to be fair, just think that there's a few who have just gone 2+2 and thought "Uh, no they are corrupt as shit - I don't want to be a plastic club".

The irony of your first sentence is just wonderful.

These are not some 'businessmen' we're talking about but the Saudi royal family. They are in charge of a country where public beheadings and stonings still happen. Regularly. Let me assure you that the Romanian government does not do such things.

 

[arthurka]

There is nothing in this or if it is the press would be the last to know.

On that note has Mourinho been fired yet?

 

[Siorac]

What's all this morality stuff? We buy clothes that are made by kids somewhere in China or Bangladesh. We vote for sleazy politicians because they happen to be part of a political spectrum we identify with. We turn a blind eye towards all kinds of shady stuff.

But you'd have trouble supporting United because of a Saudi takeover...?

I personally don't vote for any politician who advocates for public executions or the kidnapping, torture and murder of journalists or the jailing of human rights activists. You might, I don't know.

 

[EyeInTheSky]

It is actually. A lot of people from the UK go there to work and even to go on holiday (shock horror)!
As long as you don't steal, rape or do anything indecent, you'll love it.
Of course, if you are criminal, then I do agree, it's not a good place to practise your trade.

I want the freed

Yeah you'll be fine as long as you don't steal, rape, be gay or Dab. All the usual activities criminals get up to, i'm sure its a lovely place to visit.

Dab banning you say? This idea of a takeover is starting to grow on me.

 

[Siorac]

If you go about closing yourself off from everything that has ties to something you don’t like, you’re not going to have much of a life left.

Wouldn’t surprise me at all if the Glazers or Magnier and Mangus or the Edwards had some investments tied into the Middle East anyway.

I pretty much think that about getting worked up about ownership.

Big clubs owned by really wealthy people, which typically means the ownership is already invested in those things and places people are against anyway. It seems a moot point to me.

Ok but this sort of nihilism takes you nowhere. Do you just not care about anything because everything is shit anyway? Do you believe there is no reason to stand up for anything in the world because there will always be bad things?

By this logic, we could just do away with laws and values and let everyone do whatever the feck they want. Someone's murdering children in their free time? Eh, no matter, why should anyone care about that when there are killings all over the world anyway?

 

[Silas]

Ok but this sort of nihilism takes you nowhere. Do you just not care about anything because everything is shit anyway? Do you believe there is no reason to stand up for anything in the world because there will always be bad things?

By this logic, we could just do away with laws and values and let everyone do whatever the feck they want. Someone's murdering children in their free time? Eh, no matter, why should anyone care about that when there are killings all over the world anyway?

That escalated.

 

[Ali Dia]

I think we've got a very high opinion of ourselves... Our foreign policies have caused a lot of misery around the world. And we've helped prop up a puppet Saudi government for decades. Morals eh.

This is true. People calling them shrewd businessmen too. All that happened was they lucked out with an unsustainable natural resource so they are trying their best to diversify their wealth before it drys up. It’s not exactly rocket science. There’s a lot of hypocrisy in this thread,
America and Britain are already totally in the Saudis pocket. All that aside I genuinely think we could catch up with smarter owners who actually know something about football and running a club.

Money aside City’s owners have recently done very well with their appointments on the football side of things. They’ve also scouted much better than us. Mercenary players and owners, sure, but they seem a lot happier to be in Manchester than most of our lot currently.... our wage and transfer budgets are comparable, we just hang onto dross for far too long. If it doesn’t work they quickly ship pkayers out and move on. We take far too long to react. We’ve been reactive not proactive for way too long and it’s costing us big time currently.

The truth is nobody would give a toss about the glazers taking profits out of the club if we were still successful. It’s just that they've handled the post Fergie transition horribly. They have invested a lot but once again in a totally reactive way. 09 was when to keep ploughing on signing the best and widening the gap. Horrible reactive management and no long term planning is why we are where are currently. Look at Bayern, Barca, Juve etc we don’t need these horrible owners to still compete at the highest level.

 

[Carolina Red]

That escalated.

A bit.

 

[Carolina Red]

Ok but this sort of nihilism takes you nowhere. Do you just not care about anything because everything is shit anyway? Do you believe there is no reason to stand up for anything in the world because there will always be bad things?

By this logic, we could just do away with laws and values and let everyone do whatever the feck they want. Someone's murdering children in their free time? Eh, no matter, why should anyone care about that when there are killings all over the world anyway?

Ok but this sort of exaggeration takes you nowhere.

 

[King.of.Red]

If with Saudi family's money we can crush city, then I dont care anymore. Hypocrite? Feck it.. At least we have great history to deserve unlimited money. Hahahahaha

 

[Camy89]

Whilst I don't agree with the actions of the Saudi's and the way their royal family works, who am I to stop this happening if it happens.

I've read a lot of comments here saying that people would stop supporting United if this went through in protest. Whilst I admire the morality of that statement, it's simply not going to happen is it? I know I won't stop supporting them, and I am envious of how well it has worked at City.

I am of the opinion that we, the fans, have no say in who owns our club - the money involved is just too astronomical for that to be a factor. Therefore, can't beat them? Join them.

 

[Red00012]

If they promise to introduce a cheese bar then yes please tell the glazers to Fcuk off.

 

[marukomu]

I would still support United but I would probably stop having the traditional wank after a win in protest.

 

[Enigma_87]

Ok but this sort of nihilism takes you nowhere. Do you just not care about anything because everything is shit anyway? Do you believe there is no reason to stand up for anything in the world because there will always be bad things?

By this logic, we could just do away with laws and values and let everyone do whatever the feck they want. Someone's murdering children in their free time? Eh, no matter, why should anyone care about that when there are killings all over the world anyway?

The market always balances it out mate. It's the best regulator and always has been. It's a money driven world and has been since decades. If you want to make a difference you have to hit some pockets.

Ideas and ideologies usually doesn't stand up against interests, we aren't really ready for this.

 

[Naz]

God I hope not. Pretty much the only country that makes the UAE look good.

UAE is a tiny little state who have little regional or global significance. They don't even own City. One of their ruling family (which is vast - the legacy of local Bedouin tribes) own City.

Lets have it right, the human rights is a nonsense discussion. Britain and America destroyed the Middle East and drew its borders so no one should lecture Arab countries about human rights. You find a Middle Eastern country with a liberal democracy. They don't exist. It makes Utd fans feel better to regard themselves as morally superior to City but deep down I think Utd fans realise this is just an argument of convenience. Utd have ong had sponsorship agreements with Saudi companies and have a strategic partnership with the Saudi state so what on Earth are Man Utd fans doing talking about the UAE all the time?

 

[The Don]

I would still support United but I would probably stop having the traditional wank after a win in protest.

If you REALLY want to stick it to the Saudi's, you could wank someone else off.

 

[marukomu]

If you REALLY want to stick it to the Saudi's, you could wank someone else off.

while dabbing?

 

[spwd]

So has there been any more news?

 

[Aresma7]

The Saudis are allies with the UAE, so I doubt they have any bad blood with Mansour or aims to topple them. Unlike Qatar (PSG) who are at loggerheads with UAE and hence probably grudge the fact that City are a bit ahead of them in their very similar projects.

Saudi takeover would be purely to boost their rep.

Thanks for the heads up. Didn’t know this.

Anyways, I don’t think we’ll develop any further as long as the glazers are in charge. I mean look at Avram. He is balled but still has a man bun!? That man can’t be in charge of this club, when you can’t even acknowledge your hair loss

 

[The Don]

while dabbing?

Well, dabbing automatically makes you a wanker so...

 

[Adnan]

This is true. People calling them shrewd businessmen too. All that happened was they lucked out with an unsustainable natural resource so they are trying their best to diversify their wealth before it drys up. It’s not exactly rocket science. There’s a lot of hypocrisy in this thread,
America and Britain are already totally in the Saudis pocket. All that aside I genuinely think we could catch up with smarter owners who actually know something about football and running a club.

Money aside City’s owners have recently done very well with their appointments on the football side of things. They’ve also scouted much better than us. Mercenary players and owners, sure, but they seem a lot happier to be in Manchester than most of our lot currently.... our wage and transfer budgets are comparable, we just hang onto dross for far too long. If it doesn’t work they quickly ship pkayers out and move on. We take far too long to react. We’ve been reactive not proactive for way too long and it’s costing us big time currently.

The truth is nobody would give a toss about the glazers taking profits out of the club if we were still successful. It’s just that they've handled the post Fergie transition horribly. They have invested a lot but once again in a totally reactive way. 09 was when to keep ploughing on signing the best and widening the gap. Horrible reactive management and no long term planning is why we are where are currently. Look at Bayern, Barca, Juve etc we don’t need these horrible owners to still compete at the highest level.

Bayern, Juve, Barca are FC's not a listed company like us. You can't compare us to them because they're clubs who put everything into the footballing side of things. We're just a club that is very successful commercially that makes the owners a lot of money. The mentality of the people running them clubs is very different to the way we run things at United.

The clubs you mention do everything within their means to reach the pinnacle of the game. We don't do that and haven't done that for a few decades now. SAF worked miracles for years which covered up our reluctance to bang with the big boys.

 

[Ali Dia]

Bayern, Juve, Barca are FC's not a listed company like us. You can't compare us to them because they're clubs who put everything into the footballing side of things. We're just a club that is very successful commercially that makes the owners a lot of money. The mentality of the people running them clubs is very different to the way we run things at United.

The clubs you mention do everything within their means to reach the pinnacle of the game. We don't do that and haven't done that for a few decades now. SAF worked miracles for years which covered up our reluctance to bang with the big boys.

That’s a good post but we’ve recently been outspending all those clubs easily apart from Barca.I totally get your point though. I think the glazers have to shoulder the biggest part of the blame for the state we are in and if they weren’t taking as much money from the club we could do even more. Also the youth system and the stadium were/are neglected under the glazers. As I said above, it’s totally reactive management as opposed to proactive future planning (although at least the youth setup seems to be picking up again). It doesn’t really bode well for us at all with them staying in charge no matter how much they invest. as long as they are reactive we will always be behind.

 

[Patrick08]

10yrs or so ago I would have been dead against this

Now I think why the hell not, its the only way to compete. Football died the day Chelsea won their first title under Roman in many ways

Dab banning you say? This idea of a takeover is starting to grow on me.

. Glazers are not selling. Probably went there as courtesy to refuse politely .

 

[africanspur]

UAE is a tiny little state who have little regional or global significance. They don't even own City. One of their ruling family (which is vast - the legacy of local Bedouin tribes) own City.

Lets have it right, the human rights is a nonsense discussion. Britain and America destroyed the Middle East and drew its borders so no one should lecture Arab countries about human rights. You find a Middle Eastern country with a liberal democracy. They don't exist. It makes Utd fans feel better to regard themselves as morally superior to City but deep down I think Utd fans realise this is just an argument of convenience. Utd have ong had sponsorship agreements with Saudi companies and have a strategic partnership with the Saudi state so what on Earth are Man Utd fans doing talking about the UAE all the time?

It is not a nonsense discussion in the slightest. Britain and American have acted like fecking morons in the ME but as far as I'm aware, the UK government and American governments don't run any football clubs. I'm pretty sure the British royal family don't either.

And you can very easily lecture Arab countries on human rights. They're fecking appalling. In an area with generally quite poor human rights though, Saudi takes the biscuit. And they're not even keeping it in their country like before, they spread their appalling ideology around the world and are currently engaged in a brutal war in Yemen.

What is it with some of you and the ridiculous mental gymnastics to try to ok this? Are you that starved of 'relative' success in the past 5 years?

Ironically for those saying you need this to compete with City, Man Utd are perhaps one of minimum 2, maximum 3-4 clubs worldwide who can actually compete with them financially.

 

[africanspur]

Whilst I don't agree with the actions of the Saudi's and the way their royal family works, who am I to stop this happening if it happens.

I've read a lot of comments here saying that people would stop supporting United if this went through in protest. Whilst I admire the morality of that statement, it's simply not going to happen is it? I know I won't stop supporting them, and I am envious of how well it has worked at City.

I am of the opinion that we, the fans, have no say in who owns our club - the And money involved is just too astronomical for that to be a factor. Therefore, can't beat them? Join them.

Who said anything about stopping this from happening? If the Glazers want to sell and the Saudi royal family want to buy, there is nothing any individual fan can do to stop it.

As of the other stuff, it isn't necessarily a protest. It is just an inability to watch something that you might find deplorable. Will most people do it? Of course not. The reality is a mass murderer could own the club and most people would still blindly follow, as long as they bring success. But some people will stop because for them, the club will no long represent anything that they know or love.

It isn't the usual by any means but I know a few Chelsea fans who stopped watching Chelsea when Roman came along. I don't know any City fans so can't comment on that one. I also even know a couple of Spurs fans who stopped watching when Redknapp was the manager because they thought he represented everything wrong with football and was a corrupt bastard. Which is completely fair enough for me.

Personally, as a Spurs fan, if we were taken over by a rich benefactor, I would struggle. If we were taken over by someone in the Saudi royal family, there would be no struggle. My decision would be pretty clear cut.

 

[Siorac]

Ok but this sort of exaggeration takes you nowhere.

These are murderers we are talking about though.

 

[Gordon S]

So, unless i cut all ties with modern life and go full ”into the wild” i can’t have any complaints about a cruel and vile regime using the club i love as a PR tool?

 

[Siorac]

The market always balances it out mate. It's the best regulator and always has been. It's a money driven world and has been since decades. If you want to make a difference you have to hit some pockets.

Ideas and ideologies usually doesn't stand up against interests, we aren't really ready for this.

If we left it up to the market, there would still be child labour.

I also don't know how this is relevant to this discussion anyway. The market won't balance out Carolina Red's complete and utter apathy and lack of interest in human rights abuses.

 

[Siorac]

So, unless i cut all ties with modern life and go full ”into the wild” i can’t have any complaints about a cruel and vile regime using the club i love as a PR tool?

Yes, you have to live naked on a deserted island, eating coconut and parrot droppings.