• Since October 7, Newcastle has changed hands, to fall into the hands of a consortium dominated by a wealthy Saudi fund.

  • Former players and supporters of the former club of Paul Gascoigne, David Ginola and Alan Shearer start to dream after years of very lean cows.

  • They ensure that they do not fear for the identity of the very popular Magpies, despite the sulphurous character of the buyer.

Imagine a child deprived of gifts for years, and suddenly found himself in a toy store with almost unlimited credit.

It is, since October 7, the life by proxy of the supporters of Newcastle, historical club of English football, but in full decrepitude.

After a soap opera of more than a year, the Premier League (PL) authorized the buyout of the Magpies, current penultimate of the championship, for more than 350 million euros, by a consortium including the public investment fund ( Saudi PIF), PCP Capital Partners and brothers David and Simon Reuben.

The wealthy PIF alone wins 80% of the club's shares.

🇸🇦 SAUDI ARABIA 🇸🇦


🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 NEWCASTLE 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿



It's done, Saudi Arabia is finally running its football club!



On October 7, the Saudi sovereign wealth fund (PIF) acquired Premier League club Newcastle United for nearly € 350m.



Why this investment?



THREAD ⤵ pic.twitter.com/opxLA6vInJ

- Football Club Geopolitics (@FCGeopolitics) October 11, 2021

Amnesty International was offended, like the fiancée of Jamal Khashoggi, journalist assassinated at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018. But promised, sworn, spat, the PL has "received legally binding guarantees that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will not control the Newcastle United club ”. Appearances are safe, competitors can plague in the void and the metropolis of 300,000 inhabitants in the north-east of England nurture dreams of glory.

“Most of the fans haven't had much sleep while they waited for the news and formalization of the takeover,” said Samantha Rees, who runs the Newcastle United FC Fans Facebook page, followed by some 115,000 people.

We are so happy.

This overflowing and hoppy joy spread around the boiling Saint James'Park, hardly the announcement of the redemption fell.

An intact fervor despite sluggish results

"It is for me the most beautiful stadium in the country, the one where there is the most fervor", ignites Laurent Robert, one of the French who was most successful in the Magpies between 2001 and 2006, among a innumerable and disparate tricolor legion, from David Ginola to Gabriel Obertan.

“I followed the file very, very closely.

I have received a lot of messages from supporters and I am very happy to see them happy.

"

Because if the Geordies have always adored their club, it is a long time since this one does not give them back this love.

The last title (apart from the folkloric Cups of the Fair Towns and Intertoto) dates back to the Cup gleaned in 1955. The turn of the millennium was hectic (second place in the championship in 1996 and 1997, Cup finals 1998 and 1999), around charismatic figures (Alan Shearer on the field, Bobby Robson on the bench).

Mike Ashley, hated owner

But, with a few jolts, Newcastle has been dragging its feet since the arrival at the helm in the summer of 2007 of British billionaire Mike Ashley, as popular with fans as Voldemort at Hogwarts.

With even two short stints in the Championship.

"Finally, we will no longer fight for maintenance, blows Jonathan, a young Frenchman of 25 years, host of the Newcastle United France Twitter account from Saône-et-Loire. A lot of fans wanted Ashley out, it's a big moment. At the end of the 1990s, we were a big club. It would be nice to find this splendor again. "

“We never thought we would win anything in the past,” says Samantha Rees.

What we've always wanted is a team trying to do it.

“Nice formula, which will speak to all fans of training whose trophy cabinet has been dusting since the tenure of René Coty.

But the new strong woman of the club, Amanda Staveley, prefers to adopt a tone of "winneuse".

“Of course we have the same ambitions as Manchester City and PSG in terms of trophies, but it will take time,” she told the

Daily Mail

.

Upcoming upheavals

Abu Dhabi (City), Qatar (Paris), Saudi Arabia… The Champions League may look like a giant game of Risk in the coming years. “We saw what happened at PSG, City and other clubs all over Europe, it's a good thing, assures Laurent Robert, totally focused on the sporting aspect. The club has been in trouble lately, the new investors are going to bring something big. "

So, soon finished the frosty evenings at Saint James'Park, a fish and chips in hand and a pint of the other, hopefully a boost from Allan Saint-Maximin brightens up the gloomy daily life of the team. led by Steve Bruce? Yes, without a doubt. Since the announcement of the takeover, the names have been jostling. Frank Lampard, Lucien Favre or Antonio Conte as Bruce's successor, to lead Nabil Fekir, Jesse Lingard, Eric Bailly or Anthony Martial… Newcastle are not yet in the elite, but it should not be long.

“I had two or three reactions from fans who feared that we would become a club where players only come for money, it's a risk, asserts the French Jonathan.

But again, most people are happy.

The ideal would be to qualify for Europe in the next three to four years, and to be champion in five years.

When we haven't been since 1927, we can still wait a bit.

"Fans of other teams are jealous"

But if not, won't the popular fiber of a 129-year-old club dissolve in contact with petrodollars? We still remember the outraged reactions of the supporters of the six English clubs eager to join the lucrative but iniquitous Super League, which had led to the putting under the extinguisher of the project. “The buyers are very intelligent people who will ensure that the identity remains, but by bringing new things, wants to believe Laurent Robert. We're talking about a working-class city, with a loyal following that fills the stadium with every match. This club will grow. "

“We know that fans of other teams are jealous, piques Samantha Rees.

We followed our players at home and away, we saw terrible football.

We have supported them through the difficult times.

We will always have our story, and will never forget it.

"

Come on, let's give it a go: what about human rights?

"It's madness that people are now criticizing Newcastle," retorts the absolute fan of the club who gave birth to Paul Gascoigne.

Which draws the example of Sheffield United, taken up in 2019 by a Saudi prince without triggering a wave of indignation, the Russian World Cup in 2018 and the upcoming World Cup in Qatar, for which the planet will be passionate without thinking too much about workers who died while building stadiums.

So it looks like this, an unstoppable answer?

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