Nile Ranger in action yesterday.Firstly, apologies for the lateness of today’s roundup.
Well, first cab off the rank today is, of course, Newcastle United’s first friendly of the season. Toon emerged fresh from their gruelling Irish “boot camp” to face the mighty Shamrock Rovers at Shamrock’s Tallaght stadium.
The Mirror’s Ciaran O’ Raghallaigh describes how “wobbly” Newcastle teetered on the brink of disaster, finally managing to “scrape” through by the narrowest of margins, three goals, scored by Steven Taylor, Shola Ameobi and Nile Ranger respectively.
Meanwhile, a report in the Mirror’s sister paper, The People, focused on Joey Barton in a piece by the risable Dale Finnigan, which describes how the Toon blacksheep, apparently, “failed to finish the game” and was “continually abused by the Irish supporters”. Translation: Hughton let the bairns have a bit of a run in the second half, and Barton received a few boos from the crowd when his name was read out. (more…)
Smith & Taylor - staying or gannin'? The general consensus in the press is that things will reach a conclusion regarding Newcastle’s new owner soon. I don’t think the press actually have a clue who will be the new owner and I’m sure they just make most of it up, but I think they’re probably right that something will be announced by early next week.
Why do I think that? I don’t know – it just feels about right. Call it gut instinct. In fact let’s call it ‘sources close to the club‘ – my fictional sources are as valid as the fictional sources the press use.
So, let’s reword that: sources close to the club insist the new owner will be in place by next week. Now I’m sounding like a real journalist.
What I wanted to do was speculate as to what needs to be done in terms of players when the new owner takes over.
We have already started pre-season training and our first pre-season match is on Saturday 11th July. It’s feasible that the new owner will be in place by then and a new manager will have been appointed, particularly if that new manager is Shearer because he’s just sat around with his thumb up his bum waiting to get started. If the new owner doesn’t favour Shearer then it might take a bit longer to get a manager in place. (more…)
We asked the fans who they want as manager, our survey said... I guess it was inevitable that it would happen, should Friday come and go without any further update on the progress of the club’s sale, even with the salt taken on the speculation of a proposed ‘meet’ about the sale.
And so it would seem some of us have had quite enough of sitting around waiting and the NUSC have put together a new campaign.
They are urging Mike Ashley, to do what they see as the right thing for the sake of the club’s short term future. The ‘right thing’ in their eyes is to appoint Alan Shearer as manager. (more…)
Could it be a nightmare? According to yesterday’s Sunday Mirror (don’t snigger), Ashley will receive two bids for the club this week. Apparently Freddy Krueger Shepherd is one of the bidders and the other is believed to have Geordie roots but overseas finance.
The Mirror reports that neither bid is for the £100m Ashley wants but will be somewhere around the £80-90m mark. Apparently due diligence has already been performed and the deal could be finalised within a few weeks.
There may be some truth in this but the Mirror’s report looks a bit suspicious. There were no direct quotes and there weren’t even any ‘sources close to the club’ or ‘insiders’ mentioned in the report. It has all the look of an inventive guess by a bored journalist.
Nevertheless it’s raising the frightening prospect of Freddy Shepherd taking over the club again, which is a fairly depressing thought. We’re stuck between a rock and hard place: is it better to carry on ownerless or is it better to have Freddy Shepherd take over? That’s like someone saying you must lose either an arm or a leg but you can choose which. Neither prospect is appealing and I hope a third option emerges as the eventual solution. (more…)
Bed-sheets oot for wor Al this time?So; the NUSC (Newcastle United Supporter’s Club) have issued a call to arms, calling for Mike Ashley to immediately appoint Alan Shearer as manager.
Speaking on the planned wor Al insurgency, NUSC spokesman Colin Whittle said:
“The time has come to show the outside world that the supporters of Newcastle United are ready to move on and get behind the club.
“We believe that the appointment of Alan Shearer would send out a massive signal to potential buyers and, most importantly, the fans, who have so far been ignored.”
Hmm, what signal would that be exactly? That they want to scare off all potential bidders with their bellicose demands and threats, and keep Ashley as the owner of the club, perhaps?
Speaking of a potential future takeover bid of the new owners (whoever they may be), Whittle goes on to add: (more…)
