Muppet!Dennis Wise is not remembered with great affection around Newcastle after his part in the fiasco which brought the club to it’s knees, and ultimately cost us a Premier League place.
And it looks like the smooth negotiator has dropped another clanger that will see the club miss out on any extra income from any potential transfer of James Milner to Manchester City.
Why only yesterday I thought that the club must surely have entered some form of sell-on clause in the deal that took the then 22-year old player to Aston Villa. It’s what anyone would do right?
Surely a player of such a young age will move on again at some point in his career? Well that does now indeed look like it could be a possibility, but Newcastle willl not benefit from it as Dennis Wise didn’t insert a sell-on clause into the deal whilst in negotiations with Aston Villa. It appears that Villa wanted to pay £8 million for Milner, and Wise wanted £12 million. Villa said fine to that but took any sell-on clause out of the deal, which Wise accepted. Superb negotiation skills from Wise, and it makes you wonder how he was qualified to be put in such an important position within the club, despite the controversy it ended up causing. (more…)
We're NOT in the money, yet!I was just having a quick look through some of the key points of the latest accounts that have been submitted, and came across something rather interesting that I missed in my initial assesment of them a few weeks back.
It’s concerns money that is owed to the club from player sales, and could explain partly why cash at the club seems to be thin on the ground at the minute.
In the footnotes, it seems the club is still owed £17 million from the transfer of players like Damien Duff, Charles N’Zogbia, Obafemi Martins and James Milner, of which £13 million is due to be repaid this year. Of course this is a trend in football at the minute, to buy players over a number of years on a capital outlay, never never basis, which it seems is the way that some players have been bought off of us. In contrast though, our theory is to buy players using cash upfront only, which could be part of the reason why we can only expect a few signings to be made this summer. (more…)
What are they up to?There is one piece of Newcastle United’s latest statement which has caused much consternation with some fans, it reads:
“The first team squad that won the Championship this year will form the basis of the team for next year in the Premiership, there is no plan for new capital outlay on players”.
This led to a rash of disingenous and sensational stories from the usual mischief makers in the media, led of course by the Guardian’s Louise Taylor declaring that Newcastle United will definitely not be buying any new players for the coming season. Now, this may indeed be the case, or it may not, only time can tell for certain on that one. However, to clear up a misunderstanding, saying that there will be no “capital outlay” on players in the 2010/11 season does NOT necessarily mean that players will not be purchased under any circumstances, or that existing players would have to be sold before any new transfers could be even contemplated. (more…)
Mike Ashley: Playing a dangerous game.So now we know where we stand with Mike Ashley, we know what the plans and intentions are regarding the clubs latest five year plan, and upon first glance it makes grim reading.
However, this is my club, and there is only one person on here that really knows the depths of depression I can work myself into over affairs at Newcastle, he is just the same as me. So after I have been away, reflected, debated, slept, woke up, reflected a bit more, took the wife to work, popped into my work to check on things, and had breakfast, I have come to the conclusion that long term, Mike Ashley’s new strategy is just what the club needs. In five years time the club will be a much more viable prospect to invest or for someone to purchase. Which of course is great and all that, securing the future of Newcastle United blah blah. It’s the short term I worry about though, a theme I reflected upon in an article yesterday. (more…)
A lot depends on these twoNewcastle United have now released the latest set of club accounts, and they don’t make good reading, that’s for sure. I’ll go into more detail later on, but the financial results show just how precarious things could have been if we didn’t have an owner with a huge personal fortune to bankroll us. Whether you love him, hate him, or sit somewhere in the middle of the two, it can’t be denied that Mike Ashley has put his hand in his pocket to keep the club afloat.
Of course we all know the turmoil of last season, but it’s only now that the true financial extent of it is becoming clear. As a football fan, I want to watch my team without worrying about anything else and I want to see the best players and biggest names playing for my club week in week out. However, football fans up and down the country have had to become increasingly more understanding of just what is happening to the financial side of things at their respective clubs. What is happening at ours isn’t pretty and gives a strong indication as to just why the club were unable to find a buyer when the ‘for sale’ sign went up. It will only get worse this time next year as the true cost of falling out of the Premier League will be revealed. There is however some light at the end of the tunnel, albeit a very distant light, but it is still there. (more…)
