Saudi Arabia PIF are stalling with Newcastle United

When Kaiserslautern, also known as 1. FCK (I kid you not), won the Bundesliga in 1997–98, it was one of the most astonishing achievements in modern football.

They became the only club in German history to win the Bundesliga immediately after coming up.

Their adventure with the Champions League was one season and by 2006 they were relegated back down to Bundesliga 2.

They filed for insolvency (bankruptcy) in 2020 while in the 3rd Division. They clawed their way back to the Bundesliga 2.

What happened to them happens to every team that shows promise but does not have the financial infrastructure or backing to support their success.

Kaiserslautern didn’t have the financial muscle to:

Keep top players long term
Replace them with equal quality
Absorb mistakes in the transfer market
The vultures smelled success without financial backing and duly picked off their best players.

In the 2015–16 season, Leicester City F.C. did the impossible and won the Premier League.

Oh how everybody celebrated the miracle — oh wonderful. Less than a decade later, they were relegated.

What happened? The same that happened to Kaiserslautern: no financial infrastructure to support their success. Once again, the vultures came sniffing and picked at the carcass.

The same thing has happened to Southampton. Their best players, year on year, got plucked by Liverpool and they got relegated. This season we are seeing the kneecapping of Crystal Palace, with the loss of Olise, Eze, and Guéhi over the past two seasons, now Mateta wants to leave.

If you show any success, if you have the audacity to put your head above the parapet without money, you will get crushed. This is how it is. It is brutal. Talk about football romance all you want — this is cold, hard reality. Money is the only thing that matters.

The Old Lady and the oligarch

The Agnelli family (Fiat and Ferrari) have owned Juventus (aka the Old Lady) for decades. In the last decade they have pumped a billion into the club financially but this kind of support cannot go on indefinitely.

What Juve, for all their trophies, including 36 Serie A titles and success, don’t have is a huge stadium to support that success. Their revenue is currently less than Inter Milan and AC Milan, both of whom have larger stadiums.

When Abramovich owned Chelsea, his losses over his tenure were about one million a week. For all their trophies and success, one thing Chelsea did not do was build a new stadium. Little fact: Tottenham are richer than Chelsea based on the latest financial results. They can outspend Chelsea if they choose to now that the financial loopholes have been closed. If Chelsea succeed on the pitch, they may go above Tottenham, but Tottenham can sit there year on year failing and we would need decades of success to match their revenues. Once that success is not sustained, Tottenham will be outspending us.

To the Yellow Wall

In the 1994–95 season, Dortmund won the Bundesliga. Based upon that success, they increased their capacity. It currently stands at 81,000+. They are the second richest club in Germany. They can have barren years without success and it doesn’t matter because the stadium will provide income for years to come to keep them at the top end of the table.

So it comes down to three options

Option 1:
We become victims of our success and the vultures year on year pick our players off, leading to disillusionment in the dressing room, leading to more players who want to leave, and this can cause teams to implode.

Option 2:
We, by some miracle, become very successful with less money than the competition and have sustained success for decades until it all goes pear-shaped and revenue drops and we are no longer able to compete financially with the highest clubs in the league.

Option 3:
We build the biggest damn stadium possible, giving us more money and the opportunity for sustained success for the next 100 years. The San Siro was built in 1926 and the Milan teams have been reaping the benefits of the stadium for 100 years.

Man United and Arsenal are forging ahead. Arsenal are looking to increase capacity to 80,000, Man United in excess of 100,000. So 80,000 for us should be the minimum. That should be enough not only to stave off the vultures but to compete.

The be careful what you wish for brigade.

Look at West Ham, look at Arsenal, yeah, we have and we can see their mistakes so we don’t follow them. It is not rocket science, build the stands as steep as possible, build the stands as close as possible to the pitch and get the acoustics right. do all three and we’re on to a winner.

Right now we are stuck in Option 1.

The vultures have already struck with Isak and his replacements are currently inferior. It seems Tino Livramento will be the next player to be ripped out of our hands. Meanwhile, we’re discussing as a fanbase whether we should stay or go. When you look at it, there is only one viable option, and the sooner the better.

So stop dithering while our team gets picked apart and get it built anywhere. Town Moor, Leazes Park, either will do. Just get it done quickly, for 1. FCK’s sake.

Football is brutal and Saudi Arabia PIF are stalling with Newcastle United.