Newcastle United – News Roundup – 21 August 2009.

Posted on August 21st, 2009 | 20 Comments |

Hughton stakes his claim
Hughton stakes his claim
If you remember, the press were claiming that ‘D-Day’ for the club sale saga was either going to be Tuesday, Wednesday or Friday this week.

Since Tuesday and Wednesday have been and gone without anything happening, the big day must be today. I suppose if Tuesday was ‘D-Day’, Wednesday must have been ‘E-Day’ and today must be ‘F-Day’, which is really rather appropriate.

As it stands at around 6AM while I’m writing this, F-Day doesn’t look too promising. The Mail claims that Llambias has said Moat is ‘there or thereabouts‘ with his bid for Newcastle, which I believe The Mail pinched from an interview with Llambias on the ‘Total Sport’ radio show for BBC Newcastle.

My colleague has reported on the alleged bid by Graham Roberts and ‘Fanbase 410’, which I simply don’t believe has a chance.

But that’s it on the sale at the moment.

Shola has expressed his concerns about our tiny squad. He told The Chronicle:

“We haven’t got many players.

“I thought that showed. There are a lot of heavy legs.

“There’s a lot of games, and we haven’t got many players to rotate.

“The games are coming thick and fast, and we had to dig deep now.

“We haven’t been used to playing back-to-back games like that, but we ground it out and produced the win.”

Chris Hughton has been indicating that he might be happy to give the manager’s job a crack on a longer term basis. According to The Telegraph he said:

“If the club is sold at any stage I might get a knock on the door and told that things will change but I have very much enjoyed the challenge so far and I am very happy to continue it until told otherwise.”

Responding to Shola’s recent praise of him, Hughton said:

“It’s always very nice when you are hearing comments like Shola’s. The most important thing for me is that I have to focus on the job I am doing. If that takes me through a lot longer period than I anticipated then I would be very, very happy to do that.

“We have started the season well and we have also been able to restrict the injuries we have had. We have had a smashing group of lads that have remained here and are very much fighting for the cause. Plenty of players have left but anything this has all brought them closer as a group of lads.”

According to The Mail, we’re having trouble getting rid of Coloccini due to his huge wages. Espanyol have apparently shown interest, although they’ve sensibly balked at the idea of paying him £60k/week and want us to sub those wages if they take him off our hands. Wages are of course a problem for us and I’m sure we’d wouldn’t really want to be paying any part of them, although that might be the only option.

Anyway, let’s hope today really is ‘F-Day’ and that the new owner is announced or – perish the thought – Ashley takes the club off the market. We really need to strengthen the squad and start concentrating on the football now.

NUFCBlog Author: Hugh de Payen I'm a baby-boomer of the punk rock persuasion, currently exiled in Somerset for crimes committed in a previous life where locals keep trying to poison me with something called 'scrumpy'. Hates sprouts, coat-hangers, Cilla Black, ornaments, Steven Seagull movies and 50 Cent (he's not worth 10). Hugh de Payen has written 634 articles on this blog.

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Comment on this post

20 Responses

  1. Morning Hugh
    Let’s hope today is the day and we have a new owner. Got to admit I’m still concerned if this Barry Moat character has the funds to support the club properly going forward. We’re all sick of the turmoil and just want a nice steady period under new ownership and no nasty surprises.

  3. I am a huge Newcastle fan living in South Africa and everyday I hope to read something awesome that has happened with Newcastle and everyday I am dissapointed. The pain is 2 much, can`t imagine how the people are feeling that live in Newcastle. Let`s hope something positive happens today!!!

  4. Been away for 3 weeks getting married in Rhodes. I see not much has really happened. Beyethegreat has a new name, nice. ;-)
    Didn’t hear about these different D days before but it sounds like the same old tripe to me. We need something sorted asap well all know this. Has Barry Moat got the funds to firstly get back in the premier and secondly keep us there? I hope so.

    ps
    I never thought S Taylor would leave us.

  5. What is Ashley playing at? This sale is dragging on, and I wouldnt suprise me one bit if he ends up keeping it. He is selling good players (duff esp who was “commited to getting us back up”) and no doubt that money is going straight in his sky rocket instead of back into the team like it should be.

    You cannot keep selling the best players without bringing someone in. We only have Carrol and Shola up front (who I have been VERY impressed with, despite not rating the latter!) and god forbid something should happen to them – we will be screwed if it does.

    Now taylor is on his way, no doubt he wont be the last. The deadline fast approaches and we have no troops spare. Something needs to happen now. Come on Mr Moat, hurry it all up and get the club bought. Get the waste of space that is Collocini off the books, get Sol Campbell + one other in, and whoever else we can afford, and lets get cracking and try to get straight up!
    We’ve made a GREAT start with very limited resources, but they wont be able top keep up a 50 + game season without more players coming in.

  7. I certainly hope something’s sorted out today Deb.

    What a complete waste of a summer if Ashley just keeps the club though.

  8. BBM – I didn’t answer your question about my interview in the other thread. Anyway it was a toughie. I went in there all prepared to knock them dead and they went in a direction I never really expected.
    Anyway I think I managed to hold my own and if I get the job it will be a cracker. A massive company with brilliant reward package.

  9. Oh, I suppose I should comment on Hugh’s thread, seeing as I’m here. :-)

    I’m thinking more and more that the club will be as is for the rest of the year. If it is going to be like this, then lets hope he keeps on Houghton. He can’t do any worse than JFK.

  10. MT, I agree.

    I think Ashley will probably keep the club. Like you, I really don’t want JFK as manager either – I’d prefer pretty much everyone else who’s been mentioned, even O’Leary.

    I also worry how much Ashley will cut the squad. I do of course understand the wage bill has to be reduced, but that has to be balanced against keeping a squad good enough to try and gain promotion. It must be financially beneficial to pay a slightly higher wage bill now if it gets us promoted.

    Of course Ashley may figure promotion is unlikely, in which case a much reduced wage bill is preferable in preparation for a number of seasons in the CCC.

  16. geordie deb says:
    August 21, 2009 at 1:38 pm

    “Used to love the Dandy and the Beano”

    Never read the Dandy very much, I was more of a ‘Beano’ person.

    My last find was “Top Pop Stars” from the ‘sixties. The cover has Tony Blackburn leaning sexily on an E-Type Jag. I usually collect records with absolutely awful covers though.

  18. I posted this on .com

    “Well SSN have just said that Lamearse has told them that there have been no offers for Taylor and they are not seeking any offers.

    Also everything will be done and dusted on Monday. Either the club will be sold to one of the three interested parties or Ashley will stay for another two years.”

    I remember my mam always used to say tomorrow never comes. Looks like it’s going to be the same with the sale of the club. Like Hugh said, first it was Wednesday, no wait, Thursday, yes Thursday will be the day the club is sold. Oh wait we mean Friday. Actually scrub that you’re going to have to wait until Monday. :-|

  20. Lets face it, this sale is not happening. We all know how Ashley operates, and I wouldnt be suprised if this whole “club is for sale” thing was just a big smokescreen to get us through to the end of the window without spending a penny on new players.
    Either he wants the club or he doesnt, and if he does he has got a very funny way of showing it. J.K. was a mistake, as was wise etc. Now were down in the championship, and the squad is still being broken up with no new faces coming in, other than a promising young lad on a temporary deal. He’s bought some money in, now he needs to get a bloody manager in and let that person bring in some new players. Which is exactly what should have happened in July.
    If I had the money, Id buy it myself and do it properly!