Newcastle United fans' view: 'We don't need to wave the Saudi flag'

There is a tendency to think that every takeover will make a club the next Manchester City.

Farhad Moshiri was supposed to upgrade Everton to top-four regulars. When Flavio Briatore, Bernie Ecclestone then Tony Fernandes pitched up at QPR their supporters sang their names and told one another that these rich businessmen “did not do failure”. Rangers spent millions and somehow got worse. Even Newcastle supporters initially embraced Mike Ashley, in his Bigg Market-visiting, replica shirt-wearing honeymoon period.

Few new owners are the white knights they seem at first, but there is a different feel to Ashley’s successors at Newcastle. Despite unease from the wider football community, the response of Newcastle supporters has spanned a narrow emotional range from euphoric to delighted. But once the dust settles, has something fundamental changed forever about the club now they are among the richest in the world?

To understand the fans’ joy you must recognise the misery of their unhappy marriage with Ashley. They have consistently turned up in great numbers to support a rudderless club, but while the body has been willing minds have wandered.

“It’s been as bad as I’ve ever known it this season for supporter apathy,” says Alex Hurst, chair of the Newcastle United Supporters Trust. “I was at Wolves on Saturday and it was one of my worst ever games supporting Newcastle. Not because the result was catastrophic, just that there was nothing left to support, really. The away end was very quiet, people had just run out of patience.”

Hurst wants the club to preserve its singularity in its brave new world. “Look at how Liverpool manage their big-club status. They spend a lot of money on players, but compared to, say, a Manchester United, or a Manchester City who have a lot of fans who travel in and out of the city on a match day but aren't necessarily from the area. That has an impact on the atmosphere.

“I really would hope Newcastle United retains its identity as a club in the heart of a city and a region. I don’t think there’s any reason to suggest that isn’t going to happen just because there’s a potential for the club to be more successful. If anything those feelings become more embedded with success.”

'The fans deserve new owners'

Rob Lee was a key player in the club’s most glorious modern era, joining in time for promotion to the nascent Premier League, starring in the Kevin Keegan team which so nearly won the title in 1995-96, and starting in back-to-back FA Cup finals in 1998 and 1999. He foresees a return to those good times.

“It’s the best thing that’s happened to the club for many years,” he says. “The fans deserve these new owners, I just hope they’re going to be what everybody thinks they’re going to be

“Pep’s been whinging about Man City fans not turning up, you wouldn’t get that at Newcastle. No way.

“At times we had six or seven thousand locked out. I think you’d get that again if you had people driving the club the right way.”

Both Lee and Hurst highlight the need for steady investment in infrastructure rather than a galactico shopping spree. “You hold that glimmer of hope that you're going to sign Erling Haaland or Kylian Mbappe even though realistically you’re not,” says Newcastle fan Jonny Sharples. “Even Manchester City started with Gareth Barry, James Milner and Joleon Lescott.”

Sharples is excited about the future but describes himself as “constantly mindful” about the source of new riches.

“There are no ethical billionaires. But there's a difference between the way Mike Ashley is seen as unethical, and allegedly murdering dissenting journalists which is the reality that we're facing.

“It is okay to be glad that Mike Ashley is gone and be mindful of where this money is coming from. You don’t need to wave the Saudi flag. But as fans we don’t have that final say on who our owners are, so it's unfair for us to have to answer for them.”

'Enjoying sports shouldn't be a moral test'

Another fan, Rob McGregor, is still weighing up the takeover. “It has left me somewhat conflicted or uncomfortable,” he says. “The murder of Jamal Khashoggi shocked the world and was front page news for a long time. Those things don't just go away because they've bought a Premier League football club.”

Equally, he is unhappy about the incursion of such grim realities to the ritual of watching a team he fell in love with when visiting St James’ Park with his uncle as a boy. “Enjoying sports shouldn't be a moral test. It should be a thing that you like doing on a Saturday afternoon with your friends and family and you don't have to worry about it too much beyond maybe a discussion in the pub afterwards about team selection or transfer policy.

“Seeing Amnesty International lobbying the Premier League is not a situation most fans should be in. You do it for the enjoyment, not to have your moral compass tested.”

That will weigh more heavily on some supporters than others. For the foreseeable future the club will be prefixed as Saudi-owned, for better and worse. That will change how the club is perceived, but should it affect individual fan’s relationship with their team?

The sights must be trained appropriately. It is the league and the wider footballing landscape which has brought English football’s new arrival. The supporters are giddy now but functionally powerless. They should not be the target of anyone’s opprobrium.