Toon takeover latest – Harris speaks.

Posted on September 2nd, 2009 | 32 Comments |

Harris talks but says little
Harris talks but says little
According to previous press reports, Newcastle United’s £39m overdraft facility with Barclays Bank ended on the 31st August and unless some other agreement was reached it was going to be renewed with only a £10m limit, in line with Barclays’ policy for Championship clubs.

If reports that the club owed £20m on that overdraft facility are true, then Ashley would have needed to pay off the other £10m by August 31st.

Barry Moat was apparently in the process of trying to negotiate some sort of deal with Barclays, which would allow the club to maintain a working overdraft facility higher than £10m and thus put him in a better position to take over the club.

I therefore wonder what happened with that, not that I’m expecting to hear anything from the club about it.

Then there’s the US bid originally fronted by Sheard. Apparently members of that consortium have already left the States and are hoping to talk with Ashley and Llambias about their bid over the next few days.

Keith Harris talked about the Toon takeover situation on Sky News, saying:

Gut instinct is that now the transfer window is over, that has led now to a period up until the end of year when I think deals can be done, just more gently.

My predicting ability has been proven not to be very accurate I’m afraid, I don’t mean just Newcastle, just trying to predict how football behaves in this economic environment has not been terrific.

I think what we’ll see is a mixture of local money and foreign money and of all the clubs, arguably, in England and Scotland the one that probably demands some form of local interest more than any other is Newcastle.

That’s not the most inspiring of updates but I think it just means that the club will not be taken off the market and will instead just remain ‘for sale’ for the foreseeable future. It might also suggest that a takeover deal is not imminent, although that last paragraph of Harris’s quote does seem to point to Barry Moat unless the US bid somehow includes ‘local interest’.

Although I’m just speculating of course.

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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32 Responses

  1. Surely Harris is on about Moat. We know he’s in talks and we know he has overseas money.

    Moat has been in talks for a while now and I cannot see it dragging on for another 3 months.

    It is a possibility that Harris mean the deal won’t be completed until before xmas but Moat could agree a deal tomorrow.

    Wishful thinkin I know….

  2. Why doesn’t Moat & this American consortium get together & run the club between them??? sounds like a solid plan to me & probably many other… Moat in charge & the Americans backing him with funds :)

  3. Also lets hope now that the transfer window has closed that we can get on & bring in some loan/free transfers, as we have upto the end of Sept I believe to do this now we’re in the fizzy :)

  4. It did make me smile when he admitted to his poor ability to make predictions and then immediately folloed that up with another prediction…..

  5. Maybe the Americans will wait untill December too see where we are standing in the Leauge . They may be more willing to buy if we are top and heading for promotion and the january transfer period about to open , meaning they can strengthen the squad then for the final push into the premiership .

  6. “I think what we’ll see is a mixture of local money and foreign money and of all the clubs, arguably, in England and Scotland the one that probably demands some form of local interest more than any other is Newcastle.”

    That’s a very polite way of putting it.

  7. I honestly can’t see Ashley selling for a cut price in December, if we’re looking nailed on for promotion. Why would he?!? It’s chucking money away.

    I’ve been banned from Ed’s blog btw:

    “Yes – you have been blocked.
    And please don’t com back and ask me why –
    I’ve been inundated with complaints about your
    inappropriate posts.
    That’s not what my site is for.

    Ed.”

    …it appears quite a few people have no sense of humour.

  8. Rod – your genius is obviously unappreciated. Welcome to the dark side. Thanks for the critique on the match report!

  9. Cheers Bowbs. I could easily log back in under another name but that’s not the point. Quite proud, in a warped kind of way. :)

    I was battered on Monday night so that was probably the last straw. Anyway, day off, gona clean the bike. Laters…..

  10. Rodzilla says:
    September 2, 2009 at 1:38 pm

    “Yes – you have been blocked.
    And please don’t com back and ask me why –
    I’ve been inundated with complaints about your
    inappropriate posts.
    That’s not what my site is for.

    Ed.”

    Ah yes! The drunken stream of consciousness ramblings.

    He wasn’t “inundated with complaints” at all, Rod. If that had of been the case, then there would have been quite a few negative comments about it too, and there wasn’t.

  11. I might have missed the latest stream? Was it from a particular evening or was it just a culmination of a number of episodes of the Friday night/Saturday morning Rodzilla Show?

  12. Worky, that was my email back to him, in sorts. The only negative comment I can remember getting was from ‘Dragonera’ when I told a ‘below the belt’ joke; although as a rule, I never checked back at my posts ‘the morning after’ for fear of embarrassment. This said, I’ve never been an offensively abusive ’51times’ type, and viewed myself as morally upstanding, albeit fond of the odd expletive.

    I guess you can amuse some of the people all of the time eh? Their loss.

  13. Jeez, am I banned from here now? A long post just disappeared into the ether. Bowbs, it was probably a culmination of events, I’d imagine.

  14. I did mention the name of a past blogger in my post. That may have blocked it. ‘Fifty plus one times’. I know you can’t even type that on Ed’s blog.

  15. Rodzilla says:
    September 2, 2009 at 2:10 pm

    “Jeez, am I banned from here now? A long post just disappeared into the ether.”

    Just hunted it out for you, Rod.

  16. If Elektra Records took Ed’s stance against Jim Morrison we would never have been blessed to hear is drunken ramblings!

    Only diffence was that he put music to his…

  17. That’s either a very profound compliment or……

    Mind you, for every other post imparting wisdom, Rod posts a musical snippet from youtube so he does put music to it in a way. He’d probably argue that’s also imparting wisdom mind.

  18. rod ive sent an email to ed harrison complaining that you have been banned and told him he has more hits when you are on and explained that you only go a bit coo coo at night when there is no 1 on he hasent replyed yet and by the way rod he would have blocked your ip adress m8 i should know been banned enough times lol

  19. “I did mention the name of a past blogger in my post. That may have blocked it. ‘Fifty plus one times’. I know you can’t even type that on Ed’s blog.”

    Tyrants always try to erase heroes.

  20. i remember he blocked me once – though completely by accident i had to egt some one on facebook to tell ed he acicidently banned me

  21. Read Ed’s new article? His arrogance is beginning to embarass me. Oh of course, the poor little Championship clubs must be dying to see us at their grounds, they’ll probably have special shirts made to mark the occasion. Maybe have a plaque put in the dressing room, “Newcastle United player here on” followed by the date of the game. I bet thousands of fans all over England cried when they saw the fixture list, so proud are they that we’ll be gracing their towns and cities.

    What wonderful people we are to give them the time of day, they must really love us.

  22. Don’t be a prick worky, I’m willing to let bygones be bygones. Don’t force me to give you shit.

  23. Have I been blocked too?
    Just new and don’t know how I could of upset anyone!!!!
    The one n onli message ive sent was to call (c)ashley n co.?!? Don’t think that would get me kicked out eh?

  24. hope there is some movement soon,this bloke seems to be talking out of his ,arris for the last twelve months.