Simon Jordan has been speaking about our future owners, and fan expectations ahead of what promises to be a seismic shift for all Newcastle fans.
Jordan has incurred the anger of Newcastle fans several times with his skewed opinions of us as fans and our club, and he has also been quite pro-Ashley in his comments at times.
However, and this is completely my personal opinion, he has owned a Premier League football club and at times makes interesting arguments.
This time, he explains why we can’t expect to ‘do a Man City or Chelsea’ and buy our way to Premier League glory. Here’s what he’s had to say:
“I don’t know how it [the takeover] can give them [Newcastle United] unlimited funds because of what is going to happen.
“Newcastle are only going to be able to operate at a certain level given the nature of FFP.
“The window that Roman Abramovich [with Chelsea] snuck through, and to a lesser extent Sheik Mansour [with Manchester City] got through, is not necessarily going to be as wide open.
“They [Newcastle] will be able to buy bigger players and spend more money,
“They will be able to spend £50m, £100m that Mike Ashley did not want to spend during his tenure.
“But the idea that they [potential Saudi PIF NUFC owners] are going to go ‘hang on, we are going to spend a billion quid’
“I think it is naive of Newcastle fans to think that is the case.”
Now, I actually think he’s spot on with a lot of what he says here, except that last line.
Now while we’ve all been watching and posting memes and dream teams and making jokes about our reported new found wealth, I don’t think there are many Newcastle fans out there who seriously expect us to make a billion quids worth of signings!
As usual the media have been making these outlandish claims of how much we’ll spend, then the same people use it as a stick to beat us with for unrealistic expectations.
Take for example Paul Merson, who last week said it doesn’t matter how much we spend we’ll never break into the top 4, and that we’d never sign Kevin De Bruyne (no one suggested we would), but then almost straight away also said we should nip in ahead of Manchester United and sign Jack Grealish for £60m!
One thing Simon Jordan is spot on about is these lines: “They [Newcastle] will be able to buy bigger players and spend more money, “They will be able to spend £50m, £100m that Mike Ashley did not want to spend during his tenure”.
This takeover is about giving us back a feeling that any football fan has the right to feel, and the right to demand from the owners. Hope.
If Simon Jordan paid attention to anybody’s opinion other than his own, he’d quickly realise that the Geordie fans aren’t interested in spending a billion quid.
No fan I know wants to go buy the league. All we’ve ever wanted is owners who have ambition (unlike Ashley) – who will hire the right people to grow our club (we have very few board members growing the club commercially) – to employ the best people possible (not promote the tea boy Charnley) – to invest in proper training facilities (which has never been done under Ashley) – up keep our stadium (which is falling to bits, held together by SD signs) – hire the best manager possible (only Rafa would fit that bill under Ashley) and invest money in playing staff (something Ashley has only done in 2 windows in his tenure).
We want to be entertained and compete above anything else.
If the Saudis can do that, they will be adopted Geordies. If they invest in the area and improve communities in and around Newcastle – that’s what most Geordie fans would love more.
Sharpy17(Quote)
I’m a man city fan Simon Jordan is right about ffp it will stop you from doing what we did which is why I’m against ffp an owner should be able to invest as much of his wealth as he wants and you the fans should be able to have your dreams realised just like us best of luck
paul barber(Quote)
Disagree with Paul Barber. To eschew restrictions on spending gives smaller clubs a chance.
If this takeover happens, I expect to see money put into facilities and an investment in personnel that Mashley would not countenance
Leckworth(Quote)
No it does not give small clubs a chance the smaller the revenue the less you have to spend Leicester winning the title a one-off
Paul(Quote)