Very brief highlights of the very well attented (over 50,000) testimonial match for Steve Harper against a team of AC Milan legends, a tribute to his twenty years of loyal service to the Magpies. They mostly feature Paolo di Canio being booed, Harper and Alan Shearer being cheered then Harper missing his penalty when the game went into a shootout after a 0-0 draw. The Milan legends side won on penalties in the end.
Mike Ashley: Laughing all the way to the bank again.With the news that Mike Ashley’s downmarket sports chain, Sports Direct, is about to be included in the reshuffled FTSE 100 Index of the top 100 UK companies, I took a peek at their latest figures, as I do from time to time.
As has been the norm with Sports Direct for quite some time now, the figures were obscene, with profits rising a whopping 23.2% to £260.1 million.
What caught my eye however was the current Sports Direct share price standing at well over £7 and rising three or four times just as I was reading it over the share ticker. This means that Ashley’s current 64% holding in Sports Direct International is now worth over £2.75 billion, and this is after Ashley cashed in some 4% of his shares for over £100 million back in February.
To put this in perspective in terms of Newcastle United and it’s importance in the scheme of things to Ashley, that is well over 10 times the value of what Ashley has invested in the club, around £262 million. This includes a debt of around £129 million to Ashley, most of which is repayable on demand with the rest secured on future broadcasting revenue. (more…)
The fans are revolting, but Will they be effective this time?Newcastle United fans are revolting!
However, writing as someone who used to be an protester and fundraiser myself in the past, not over Newcastle United but over causes such as civil liberties, racism and the like, from what I have read and seen of Newcastle United fans’ planned protests so far, the chances of success don’t seem to be that great at all. This isn’t because the protestors don’t have a case, more that the protagonists don’t seem to be protesters, quite simply, they don’t know how to do it properly. They’re more like brickies and plumbers who are blundering around in a field they don’t understand, a bit like Mike Ashley trying to run a large Premier League football club really!
Please don’t misunderstand, this is not to be unecessarily disparaging at all, it’s just an appeal to realism, a plea for the protestors to consult with people who know what they are doing this time before they go blundering in once again with their size 10s and misspelled bedsheets. In a David and Goliath struggle, you don’t just need all the help you can get, you need the right help to avoid falling at the first few hurdles. (more…)
Pardew: Persisting with phony Cabaye narrative.In the latest chapter in the Yohan Cabaye saga, Alan Pardew has been speaking further on what he calls “the situation” with the French midfielder.
Despite a constant campaign of innuendo against the French midfielder, and ably assisted by his friends in the local media, he still steadfastly refuses to mention whether the player actually went on strike for the first two games of the season, instead preferring to hide behind vague terms like “the situation.”
Whether Cabaye went on strike or not, the idea, as stated by Pardew himself that he has been “protecting” the player from the savagery of we fans if he reveals the real facts is obviously ludicrous, not to mention an insult to we fans. He knew perfectly well when he said that he was protecting Cabaye from being savaged by primitive fans that most of us would only assume one thing, that Cabaye was refusing to play. If he really wanted to protect him, he would have kept his mouth firmly shut (If that is possible for Pardew?). It was either very stupid or very devious, and I’m pretty sure it wasn’t the former. We are being played again, just as we have been so many times in the past. Meanwhile, being almost certainly bound by a gagging clause in his contract, Cabaye probably can’t speak for himself. (more…)
Tyneside: Now a haven for sharks. As some of you regular readers may recall, I posted this blog a few days ago, asking readers for their views on 1. The Yohan Cabaye transfer situation and 2. Wonga’s sponsorship of Newcastle United now that the season has started.
I compiled the results into two seprate pieces for my blog on metro.co.uk and though the first one on Cabaye was published on there, the second one on Wonga was “rejected due to unsuitable content.” So, I am publishing it on here for your delectation and delight!
Hello and welcome to the third blog here on metro.co.uk where I take a look at what Magpies fans are thinking about the burning issues of the day at Newcastle United. In this one I take a look at what my fellow fans are thinking about the club’s latest shirt sponsors, the controversial payday loan sharks perfectly respectable ‘Digital Finance Company,’ Wonga.
As with the last one about the current Yohan Cabaye controversy, I published a blog on my own site requesting 50-60 word comments from readers on giving their thoughts. As space is tight though, I won’t waste any more space with my own waffle except to say that the comments have been arranged to gradually move through the spectrum of opinion from one extreme to another, so here goes! (more…)
