Chawke and cheesey smiles for Newcastle United?

Posted on July 12th, 2009 | 4 Comments |

Is new suitor a right Charlie?
Is new suitor a right Charlie?
While we shared the luck of the Irish in our recent pre-season game against the mighty Shamrock Rovers reserves, it seems Irish eyes were smiling in our direction.

According to reports, Charlie Chawke, formerly a shareholder at the geographically-challenged down the A19 is making advances on the club. Chawke recently sold his shares to Ellis Short after being part of the Drumaville consortium which bought S********d three years ago.

And as an interesting(?) alternative to the usual ‘insiders’ and gossip-mongers, Irish broadcaster RTE actually has quotes from the man himself –

“We’re trying to put together a syndicate interested in football and then investing with us in Newcastle,” Chawke told Irish broadcaster RTE. “Newcastle would fit very nicely into our portfolio. It is a great club.”

“It’s on sale for about £100m, which is about £500m less than what it was worth a year-and-a-half or two years ago,” added Dublin publican Cawke. “We’re thinking about possibly the same as we had in Sunderland, about eight people maybe, depending on what money we can get.”

“It’s a great city, Newcastle. It’s a bit like Dublin – vibrant, full of fun – all the best things in life are there. It makes perfect sense if I could just swing it.”

According to the report, the consortium is in talks with legal and account representatives of the club.

Forgive my negativity but there seem to be several issues with this:

  • Even if they have the wherewithal and nous to do this, is this not all a little bit late in the day? Assuming the ‘current suitors’ were realistic options, it’s taken a bloody long time to get nowhere since sale doors opened. Unless something has gone on which would mean a new bid would be expedited, then this could mean even if they were to get hold of us it could be when the season was well underway.
  • Why make noises about it and why now? Surely if you were serious, you would just go ahead and do it, sign the NDA and keep schtum until an announcement could be made?
  • He was effectively a Mackem for a three years. Even, assuming, there is any substance to the speculation, has really come to this, when one of that lot is riding to our rescue?

It’s beyond my comprehension to make sense of what’s going on with this sale anymore but I’m sure something we’ll hear something official soon…..

:roll:

Postscript: There is a link to the Charlie Chawke interview here.

NUFCBlog Author: bowburnmag bowburnmag has written 234 articles on this blog.

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Comment on this post

4 Responses

  1. “It’s on sale for about £100m, which is about £500m less than what it was worth a year-and-a-half or two years ago,” added Dublin publican Cawke.

    Eh? So it was was worth £600 million around the same time that Ashley bought it for £134 million, then had to pump in a further £100 million plugging all the debt?

    This is either a misprint, or the gadgie’s as nutty as a fruitcake!

  2. worky – I failed to recognise that glaring mistake! Probably could have been one of the ‘issues’ I was talking about.

    I caught a snippet of his interview on SSN last night. He sounds barmy.

    Banging on about why Newcastle is like Dublin and how it’s a great city because apart from it being “vibrant and fun”, “all the best things in life are there……..like the universities.”

    He rambled on and on and I could hardly make sense of it.

    It sounded like a wind-up.

  3. What I don’t understand is why Seymour Pierce are getting into dialogue with them. If everything looked as if it was heading towards a conclusion with our preferred bidders, why engage with someone like this who still hasn’t raised the cash, hasn’t been through the due diligence process etc? Does it mean we are no longer anywhere near having a new owner? It just seems ludicrous that we have new consortia entering the process this late in the day unless they have no confidence the current offers on the table are likely to be accepted.

  4. Bowburn,

    I found a link to a recording of the interview itself, and the gadgie did say £600 million. I don’t think that Seymour Pierce will be taking them too seriously.

    Link to the interview is at the bottom of the story.