So I haven't actually posted substantively about my thoughts yet, and this seems as good a time as any to set them down. Primarily, I am sad.
I'm sad because if Newcastle actually do go on and win something now, at least part of the glory will go to a despot whose political and ethical positions are almost literally the opposite of my own. I'm sad because the preceding 14 years under bad ownership--"bad" here meaning "an owner who is bad at owning things" not "an owner who is a bad person", although he is that too--has so sapped the club that lots of supporters are cheering the takeover. I promise you that if you turned back the clock 15 years and the Saudis tried to buy then, there would have been riots in the city centre with "Our History is Not For Sale" banners all over everything.
More broadly, I'm sad because I enjoy watching English soccer, the highest level of which is now liberally studded with dingbat owners who either are repressive dictators, are affiliated with repressive dictatorships, or got their money by looting the corpse of a repressive dictatorship. (And hell, those were the owners who *stopped* the Super League, primarily because they use their clubs as combination pet/merkins rather than piggy banks.)
That said, when the football starts I think I'm not going to care very much. I've already watched hours and hours of Olympics held in China and Russia. I'll do the same for the WC in Qatar, despite the fact that the stadia were built in part by Bangladeshi indentured servants. (And to be as clear-eyed as possible, I will probably watch while unknowingly wearing at least one article of clothing made by Bangladeshi wage slaves.) I didn't change my opinions of those regimes by watching, but I did lend them my eyeballs. I'm going to do the same here, and I am going to be happy if NUFC win. I do not see a way out of the Matrix. I'm also sad about that.
Finally, Coutinho is an overpriced dilettante and they should not sign him.