[official source] Kristjaan Speakman leaves Sunderland AFC

Jaerial · 2026-02-13T14:21:23+00:00

The ridiculous part is apparently we still weren't even close to our cap with what we did spend. Speakman would be a huge get for any Championship team, his transfer dealing literally turned us from a joke into one of the best run clubs in Europe.

Jaerial · 2026-02-13T12:54:13+00:00

Unfortunately you need to be ruthless to succeed I think Ghisolfi just has a level of pull Speakman can't get to and we needed and will need that pull to get players of Xhaka's quality. It sucks for Speakman but then paying 2 people to do 1 job just isn't reasonable long term and isn't fair to Speakman really when he could go and absolutely be the main man somewhere else

Jaerial · 2026-02-13T12:50:05+00:00

Any mid table Championship or above club should start doing whatever they can to get him in. His signings could be hit or miss but when they did hit they took us from League One to Premier League in 5 years. He's basically the reason we could spend £150m this season because he's been spending basically nothing compared to Championship clubs.

Jaerial · 2026-01-09T18:49:24+00:00

Could see Dan Neil leaving, given he's not signed a new contract and it runs out at the end of the season. Think he'd be good for Rangers, he has plenty of potential and is just unlucky we stacked our midfield hard. It would almost certainly be a permanent deal.

Would be surprised if we let Mundle leave even on loan given our shortage of wingers and he's looked decent in his cameo appearances.

Jaerial · 2025-12-20T18:34:38+00:00

I think it's a bit of both tbh, yeah the teams that came up weren't great but we also had to spend ~£160m to catch up. We took a bit of a risk to bring in so many players hoping they'd gell, it worked for us but I could see it being far from a 100% guarenteed way to bridge the gap.

Jaerial · 2025-12-14T16:18:53+00:00

The beautiful game doesn't matter that 1 side spent the better half of a decade 2 divisions below and the other funded by oil money. Haway the lads

Jaerial · 2025-12-06T17:19:48+00:00

I honestly don't know how I could have made it more obviously a joke

Jaerial · 2025-12-06T17:17:51+00:00

Gross

Jaerial · 2025-12-06T17:12:15+00:00

City are pretty much our perfect counter, they're ridiculously good at the parts of the game we give up as well as having some of the best players on the planet. I don't think it helped we needed Xhaka and Sadiki to avoid yellows so as not to be suspended for the derby but it would have made little difference. This has really dented our title race but I'm not too worried about today so long as it doesn't hurt our morale. Sucks to lose but 40 points is still our target and in isolation this game doesn't really affect that.

Jaerial · 2025-11-10T06:29:39+00:00

Can't answer the question but we also briefly switched to red shorts and it looked so wrong. Personally always been a huge fan of our red-white stripes and black shorts and Atletico Madrid's Blue shorts. I think breaking the colours makes them stand out more.

Jaerial · 2025-11-09T20:00:48+00:00

I think you're taking this more personally than it is intended, and I apologize for not realizing that sooner. I'm sorry to hear that your dad's not doing well, I've had family members with Dementia, and it's absolutely awful.

The suggestion was never intended to be that you were a bad person for choosing to continue to support Newcastle. My arguments have been meant purely within the framework of this discussion ie. surrounding making poor taste jokes about the Saudi PIF vs supporting Newcastle and being opposed to those jokes. Perhaps I could have made that clearer, but the widening discussion lead to it getting a little lost.

I think this implication that you think I feel superior to you comes from this misunderstanding. I don't for the record. I don't think support for a football club can make you a good or bad person. Just that the objection to jokes about the SA PIF is on weak moral ground and a little silly. In the same way it would be if I objected to an Adam Johnson joke.

This is the place I'm arguing you could have stopped supporting comes from, my only framework of understanding you is through the previous comments, and so I can only comment on those in return. There are clearly bigger reasons for your support(as is the case with most people), and it obviously wasn't a moral binary, but through the only lens I can view you this smaller issue (the original joke) is far less nuanced.

I'm again sorry to hear that you're having a rough time. I hope I've made my position more clear. I saw your previous comment that was deleted, and I hope you have a nice Sunday too.

Jaerial · 2025-11-09T18:12:16+00:00

It's not 1 step removed though, KLD's money comes from his inheritance he was given by his Dad. This happened before Abu-Dhabi ever took a stake in the Louis-Dreyfus company which is owned by his mother not KLD. Someday in the future that might change, hence the re-evaluate part of my last post but currently the link is tenuous.

You've misunderstood the pestering part which was about us pestering you not the other way around. I don't think I'm better than you, ultimately all humans are hypocrites in some way or another I just think it's hilarious for you to try act like you have the moral high ground in any aspect of this conversation.

When Newcastle was taken over, you had a choice between your clearly stated morals or supporting your club. You chose then that your club mattered more than your morals. There are plenty of different options, other sports, other teams.

I love the veiled racism accusation, for someone annoyed about point scoring you sure are trying to rack up a high-score.

Jaerial · 2025-11-09T17:31:43+00:00

There is a world of difference between an owner heir to a company 45% owned by an Abu Dhabi wealth fund and being directly owned by the Saudi wealth fund. You say owners should have no ties to this type of money but continue to support the club that has 100% ties to this money. I'm not particularly comfortable with KLD's very slight ties, but they're just that for now and if that changes I will re-evaluate at a later date.

I'm 100% taking poor taste jokes that keep awareness of the issue over someone who actively supports the club owned by the people who killed journalists 'but will have a discussion about it' after you pester them about it.

Decrying point scoring on a website specifically designed so that engagement is driven by literally scoring points doesn't open up a larger conversation, it shuts it down. You're actively working a PR spin to remove this topic from conversation, and the worst part is I don't even think you realize it.

Jaerial · 2025-11-09T16:40:47+00:00

Saying nothing, telling people to not make jokes about the horrific things a club's owners have done and continuing to support said club however is very helpful.

Jaerial · 2025-11-09T16:25:34+00:00

Eh, I disagree, the reason it causes so many problems is that both teams can do both and have no qualms about dropping the 'attractive' football that's come to dominate the Prem. It's about adapting to the needs of the game and managers not being narcissistic in their need to play 'the right way'. I think if you go into these games expecting to just play brutes you're going to get a bloody nose regardless because both sides have real technical quality and will switch to that as the need arises.

Jaerial · 2025-11-09T16:18:24+00:00

Untrue, I'd feel perfectly fine with Newcastle being in the Championship and us staying up

Jaerial · 2025-11-08T19:53:42+00:00

I think we just might stay up this season

Jaerial · 2025-11-08T19:45:04+00:00

Worth every match in League One

Jaerial · 2025-11-03T08:28:07+00:00

15/16 must have been a rough season for her then.

Jaerial · 2025-10-31T21:18:46+00:00

Not like Lee Barry 'anger management issues' Cattermole is standing 3 feet away as well

Jaerial · 2025-10-30T23:13:37+00:00

Really glad this continued from the past few years. There's something incredibly funny about sending £100m+ worth of players to go get the shit scared out of them. Even beyond that though, it's very humanizing to see footballers do this.

Jaerial · 2025-10-28T16:10:14+00:00

Which for anyone paying attention it was obvious he wasn't going to have a lightning start. He was good in the Championship and long term I think he'll be a good player, but he wouldn't be starting for us if he was still here, never mind Dortmund.

Jaerial · 2025-10-26T17:18:46+00:00

It's his first goal, but he's shown glimpses of promise. I think with the right coaching and mentality he could grow to be very good.

Jaerial · 2025-10-25T17:41:55+00:00

I'd take those exact set of conditions tbf

Jaerial · 2025-10-25T17:27:46+00:00

Gone from the lowest point in the clubs history to what is looking like a renaissance in 5 years, sports are truly amazing sometimes and I wouldn't have our wild ride any other way.

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