Nobody has any money to buy the Toon.
Posted on October 12th, 2009 | 59 Comments |
For various reasons I’ve spent the last 5 days largely out of touch with any football news at all, neither having time to read a paper nor to browse the internet.
Upon checking the news this morning I had hoped to find that the long-speculated Moat takeover was complete and that Ashley and Llambias had been tarred and feathered and hounded all the way back to Cockneyland, which would have been doubly inconvenient for them as neither are actually cockneys. I even have a large cigar – rolled on the thigh of dusky maiden no less – in preparation for such news. And I don’t even smoke.
What I find however is that nothing much at all has happened and what has happened has been covered by my blogging colleagues anyway, which leaves me with something of a dilemma when it comes to writing an article.
My skin was somewhat saved by an article in The Telegraph this morning which insists that Barry Moat is set for ‘crunch talks’ with the club this week. The Telegraph’s rumours suggest that there is also new interest from people in India and South Africa (presumably the bond dealer?), although it insists that nobody has met Ashley’s asking price yet.
In fact the Telegraph quotes a ‘Tyneside Source’, who says:
“No one has come up with any money – no one.
“Barry Moat and the South Africans have one thing in common – they are all talking but they have no produced any money.
“There will be some preliminary conversations late in the week and I would think Barry Moat will have some provisional discussions with them although I can’t underline provisional enough.
“Until someone comes up with the money Mike Ashley has got to stay in control of the club. He has got no choice.”
Whilst I applaud the Telegraph for quoting unnamed sources again – such quotes have been sadly lacking from the press lately and we just love them – this is at odds with some of the stuff that was being speculated a week ago which suggested Barry Moat was on the verge of a takeover.
If this story is true, I can sympathise a little with Ashley. It’s all well and good people showing an interest in the club but ultimately they have to find the money to buy it and until someone does that we can hardly expect Ashley to “get out of this town”.
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.
Is this the same Telegraph that 2 months ago were saying that Moat will complete the deal ‘at the end of the week’?
They Sun claim that a Toon insider has said Moat has the money and wants to get the deal done.
I think it’s more than obvious that no newspapers actually know anything.
The only thing we know is that he is the only bid on the table.
This week we will know where the club is heading.