I have just been reading these quotes again from Gary Neville back in the day, about the Newcastle United takeover.
Five years ago today when Newcastle United fans heard it officially, Mike Ashley had left after a shocking decade and a half of destroying our football club.
I was never the biggest fan of his as a player but Gary Neville has developed into one of the very best pundits.
Nowhere more so than when debate moves away from discussing what happens on the pitch and instead looks at difficult issues away from the match action.
For example…the Newcastle United takeover.
When the breaking news came five years ago, there was lot of nonsense coming from a lot of people, following the takeover finally concluding.
There were also some decent more balanced contributions, written and spoken, from a minority of people.
However, I think this was easily the best yet.
Gary Neville absolutely smashed it I believe, in summing up in a way that so many agree with, whether it be Newcastle fans or the more reasonable neutrals.
Gary Neville speaking back in October 2021 about the Newcastle United takeover on the Overlap:
“There are people who I really respect, admire and like, who are absolutely 100 percent against this Newcastle United takeover and I can completely take their point. Can’t disagree with that stance.
“In terms of football itself, once you accept money from Abu Dhabi, you have already basically accepted that countries and states with human rights issues have entered into the Premier League…Russia, China. So when there is money coming from these countries, you are already accepting the state involvement from Manchester City.
“Now Saudi Arabia has a poor, poor record on human rights, women can’t partake in most parts of economic life, it’s absolutely wrong, there’s absolutely no doubt about that.
“Where I come from on it, is that you either take the stance that our country should never accept investment from these countries and that you should never allow them into English football. Or, you say, actually we will allow them into English football it is part of what be the softening of their human rights issues, part of what would be the change that they are going to go through as a country. I don’t think England were particularly great three or four hundred years ago.
“So my view is that I would want Saudi Arabia to change, I would want Qatar to change, I would want Abu Dhabi to change, I would want them to have good human rights records, I would want them to have the right standards, I would want women to be able to partake in economic life, I would want them to deal with all the issues that they have in those countries.
“I always believe you are better off round the table with these people, to be to allow them to change, rather than saying you are not coming in.
“And what I would like to do through football, [is to] pressure Saudi Arabians to change far more quickly than they have been doing. I know they have made changes in the last few years but they have to change, they wanted to invest into sports, production and sports clubs, as have Qatar, as have Abu Dhabi, as have Russia, as have China, over the last five or ten years.
“It has been a strategy that these countries have used for western acceptance and western integration.”