NUST Spokesman, Mark Jensen.The Newcastle United Supporter’s Trust have today named the financial advisors who will guide them in their battle to oust current owner, Mike Ashley from the club.
First cab off the rank is the Delphi Partnership. They are a corporate finance business based in London, but they have strong North East connections through partner, John Sands, a former North East “Executive of the Year”, and neighbour of former Toon owner, Sir John Hall.
The second company to be unveiled is Whickham firm, the HRC Group, a financial management company. They will work with the NUST on compliance issues, which have been a major stumbling block for the NUST so far.
It was also announced that Leeds accountants, Hentons, have been working with the trust in an advisory role. NUST also announced that the Trust have also been working with a “leading Newcastle legal firm”, however their idendity is been kept a closely guarded secret at this stage.
On the grand unveiling, NUST spokesman, Mark Jensen said:
“Our partners have a proven track record in providing the very best advice and we will be announcing further partners in the next weeks.
“We’re entering an exciting phase and since the current owners have set out their exit strategy we are keen to speed up our campaign and ensure the legal position is portrayed correctly. (more…)
Mike Ashley: £7 million pounds per month claim NUST.On the NUST’s website today, Tony Stephenson claimed a source had told the NUST that Ashley has performed the financial miracle of turning a company which lost over £20 million last year, into a company which was now making as much as £7 million per month. This would be the equivalent of approximately £84 million per annum, with a turnover that is almost half as much as it was in the preceding year.
Mr Richardson was writing about this seemingly remarkable feat in a preamble encouraging members to fill out the Trust’s latest survey, which, say the Trust:
“will be used to show interested potential partners the strength of feeling in the city and beyond about the current regime – the answers you give will form the basis of potential negotiations but are not binding on you. Its a massive marketing exercise to see if the fans are up for it.”
Later on in the piece, Mr Richardson goes on to stress: (more…)
The NUST's Malcolm Shiels, Steve Hastie and Mark Jensen. The Newcastle United Supporter’s Trust have recently completed the first phase of their “Yes We Can” campaign, a 6 week “education” programme.
Now, they have embarked on phase two of the campaign. On the NUST’s website. It says of the new phase that they are:
“…setting out our plan that will lead to negotiations with our club on a ‘fan led movement’ that will bring about new ownership with as little pain as possible for both sides.”
As a part of this launch of the second phase, NUST Spokesman, Mark Jensen, said in an interview on Friday that this phase would:
“Convince serious figures in the financial community that Newcastle United, run properly, is a viable, long-term investment”.
He then added on the January transfer window: (more…)
NUST making some noise...No, not top spot in the league, although that’s hopefully looking like a good bet at the moment. I’m talking about music (finally a relevant musical reference in my headline!). Love ’em or loathe ’em, though the latter I know seems to be more fitting for most on .org, NUST continue their quest to bring ownership of Newcastle United to the fans, and this time they’ve taken to the recording studio for it.
‘The Steady Boys launch their new single “Yes We Can – The Terrace Song”. All proceeds are split between NUST and the Royal British Legion. The track will be available to download from iTunes soon and the CD will be available in record shops.’
Here’s a sneak preview of it though in the meantime.
So will it pip Geordie Joe (come on, it’s inevitable isn’t it?) and his single to Christmas No.1?
Heroes or villains?Gathering my thoughts, my notes and my open mind, I ordered a pint of Deuchars last night and settled myself against the bar of The Strawberry at approximately 7.25pm, ready to listen to what the committee representatives of the Newcastle United Supporter’s Trust (NUST), had to say for themselves.
I was under no illusions that with a number of pressing questions sitting snugly in my pocket, that despite my ambivalence (bordering on enthusiasm), I would be seen to be playing Devil’s Advocate nonetheless. However, clearly they had been asked the same questions on a few occasions and have consider the same issues themselves. They answered my questions fairly candidly, although they could not digress on certain key aspects which will no doubt frustrate some people. Unfortunately, these same details are the ones which have led people to distrust the motives of the individuals within the Trust.
Having stood and listened to the commitee members, namely Colin Whittle of True Faith and a solicitor by profession, Mark Jensen of The Mag, Bill (unfortunately not sure of his full name or background) acting as compere. And I spoke at length to Tony Stephenson, who does a lot of the online stuff for NUST (I missed out on Ando doing his ex-player turn, and hope I didn’t put him off with my incessant chat to Ton).
This is what I gathered from the roadshow: (more…)