Author Archives: keenosafc

Newcastle, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Guendouzi and more…

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Good morning.

I have takne the international break as a chance to give myself a break from writing. Bar the blog about whether fans should care about where their owners money comes from, there just has not been much to write about.

On that blog. It seems people were split 50/50.

Some people agreed with me that we should care about where money comes from. Others said it does not really matter as long as we are successful – and we do not care who the shareholders of Starbucks, Disney, etc are.

I am still in the camp of we should care. I do not want “dirty money” built on asset stripping a nation or slavery.

I am not sure how fans of Newcastle or Man City can talk about “Black Lives Matter”, applaud players taking the knee or have a say on slavery whilst celebrating their owners.

It seems they are happy to turn a blind eye to the behaviour of the owners of their clubs when they are spending billions to try and win them a trophy.

Likewise, I am not sure how they can stand there and be “Against modern football” when state owned clubs is very much part of modern football.

Newcastle fans would have complained bitterly for years about how Mn City owners made the league unfair. And now they celebrate being in the same situation.

Moving on, last night saw some ugly scenes at Wembley.

It is time UEFA / FIFA enforced proper sanctions against these nations where racism is part of their society.

A few imbeciles on Twitter were saying “England fans are no different”.

Well, having travelled abroad with both England and Arsenal I can tell you we are very different.

Yes there might the odd idiot. And they usually get the comeuppance. but for countries like Hungary, it is not one idiot. It is the majority.

Those people trying to compare Hungary fans racist, violent abuse to a couple of hundred fans breaking into Wembley for the Euros final need to give their head a wobble. They are not comparable.

Only other thing that has happened in the last 5 days is Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s agent linking his client to Arsenal.

As predicted, Ox’s move to Liverpool has been a flop – despite media and Liverpool fans originally trying to state otherwise.

He is no different to when he was at Arsenal – has one good game followed by 5 bad games and is then injured for half a dozen games.

Taking into account the age and profile of players we have signed over the summer, a move for Oxlade-Chamberlain would make zero sense.

Finally Matteo Guendouzi won the Nations league over the weekend.

The usual suspects came out of the woodwork pointing out that Guendouzi now has more itnernational trophioes than Mikel Arteta had spanish caps.

For me, Guendouzi winning the trophy is irrelevant.

The Nations League is a glorified international friendly tournament, and Guendouzi is still uncapped by France.

Him celebrating his “success” is like a fella celebrating his wife giving birth knowing it is not his child.

As I have previously stated on this blog. I would rather celebrate thosre players still at the club – such as Albert Sambi Lokonga – rather than obsesse over “achievements” of players not at the club.

Have a good Wednesday

Keenos

Should football fans care where their owners money comes from?

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Yesterday the takeover of Newcastle United finally went through.

Following a court case, a Saudi Arabian-backed consortium bought the club for £350m from Mike Ashley.

The Newcastle fans celebrated like they had one the lottery.

Part of the celebrations was due to the departure of Mike Ashley – an owner they have hated from almost the day he took over.

The other part of the celebrations is that they see the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) takeover as a a quick route to winning the league.

Their fans have seen Chelsea, Manchester City and PSG bank rolled to success. And the wealth of the PIF blows all of their owners oit of the water.

They think being owned by PIF will see billions spent on new players and the side bankrolled to their first league title since 1927.

But at what cost would this success be bankrolled to and should fans care?

Amnesty International have urged the Premier League to review their decision and take into account the horrendous human rights issues in Saudi Arabia. They state:

“As with Formula One, elite boxing, golf or tennis, an association with top-tier football is a very attractive means of rebranding a country or person with a tarnished reputation. The Premier League needs to better understand the dynamic of sportswashing and tighten its ownership rules.”

We have mentioned sportswashing numerous times in this blog.

From day one when Roman Abramovich took over Chelsea I questioned whether someone who built his wealth in questionable circumstances should be applauded.

When Alisher Uzmanov looked to take over Arsenal, I took the stand that I did not want his kind involved in Arsenal.

I would rather win nothing than be bankrolled to success by someone with Usmanov’s questionable history.

At Manchester City, the ‘Manchester thanks you Sheikh Mansour’ banner has always left a sour taste in my mouth.

Sheikh Mansour is a member of the royal family of Abu Dhabi and deputy Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates.

The 2021 Human Rights Watch reportfor the UAE makes grim reading.

Manchester City fans turn a blind eye to what is happening in the UAE. The lack of democracy, modern slavery. These things seem to not matter when you are winning trophies.

And the same is seemingly happening at Newcastle.

Their fans seem to not care about the human rights abuses that occur on a daily basis. They just want to be bankrolled to success.

How many of their fans joined a BLM March over the last 2 years. Have pointed out corruption in the Conservative party. Have spoken up against racism and inequality in the UK.

How many of their fans have tweeted that slave owners statues in the UK should be taken down – meanwhile they celebrate slave owners buying their club.

PIF probably will bankroll Newcastle to their first trophy since 1969. It will be written as another glorious story of a sleeping giant returning to its glory days. A bit like Manchester City.

Personally, I would rather win nothing than be owned by a state with a horrendous human rights record that is basically using my club to wash over that record.

I would rather win nothing than be owned by a former KGB agent that earned his billions during the break up of the Soviet Union.

Hopefully I am not alone in this. I have my morals and they will not change regardless of my football clubs success.

But many people do not seem to care who owns their club as long as they are being bankrolled to success.

So I ask the question; should football fans care where the money comes from?

Keenos

0-0 a disappointing result but not a disaster

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Are we at the point now where everytime we do not win a game we are going to see an overreaction from fans?

Saturday was a horrendous game.

Neither team played particularly well or looked like winning the game. Just 2 shots on target combined. It was a tough game to watch.

For those fans that went, they would have returned home cold, wet and demoralised.

Brighton in the sunshine is a fantastic place. In torrential rain it is one of the worst towns in Britain. And anyone that has been to their new ground will know it is one of the worst away trips going.

For those that do not know, Brighton’s ground is not actually in Brighton but in a small village outside of Brighton called Falmer.

That means when you get to Brighton, you still have to get another train to make your way to Falmer.

At the final whistle it can take up to an hour to get yourself on a train back to Brighton.

With the weather we had Saturday, being forced to either queue outside the station or standing on an exposed train platform is not a nice experience.

Add this into a limp Arsenal performance and you can understand why fans that went are calling it “one of the worst away days I have been too”.

But despite all the circumstances, the result and weather does not justify the fall out I saw after the game.

If you are going to put yourself into a pit of despair every time Arsenal do not win, then it is going to be a very long season for you..

In fact, if that is your mindset, then maybe sport is not for you – Arsenal will fail to win as much as they do win.

Then there is the weird group of Arsenal incels who seemed to get more joy from Arsenal failing to win then they did when Arsenal beat Tottenham.

These fans have spent the week being negative about the sides victory in the North London Derby. Saying we shouldn’t celebrate the win. But then there they are celebrating Arsenal not winning a game.

This is a really odd group of Arsenal anti-fans that get no joy from Arsenal winning.

I saw Arteta Out trending on Twitter after the game and it just baffles me. It is simply over-reactionary.

Brighton look a good team this season. Just a single defeat to Everton in the opening 7 games. Only Chelsea and Liverpool had conceded less.

Anyone that thought we would turn up a d role them over the as deluded.

Graham Potter has got them set up well. Hard to beat. Well organised and strong at the back.

With their back 3 turning into a back 5, they will be very hard to break down this season.

It is disappointing to not win the game, and we did not play well. Bit drawing 0-0 away to Brighton in those weather conditions is not really that bad a result.

So some advice.

If Arsenal drawing a game sends you into the pit of despair, then maybe it is time you found a new hobby.

Keenos