C'mon Mike - what's the deal?What is Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley up to and is it time for him to let us in on his plans?
Mike Ashley still divides opinion at Newcastle. Some people like him and think he’s good for the club and others hate him and would have him hogtied, marched to the Bigg Market and placed in the stocks to be pelted with projectiles of choice. Then there are plenty of shades of grey in the middle of that – people who either think some of his ideas are bad and some are okay, or folk that are deferring opinion for now.
One thing Ashley rarely is, though, is predictable. Who, at the beginning of Ashley’s term of office, would have predicted he’d usher in the return of Keegan, precipitate Keegan’s unfair dismissal, put the club up for sale twice, receive accusations of being both cockney and Mafioso, appoint Chris Hughton as manager, sack Chris Hughton for no obvious reason, appoint Alan Shearer as manager, dig up Alan Pardew and make him manager, replace Chris Mort with a man of the owlish persuasion, oversee the team’s relegation, oversee the team’s subsequent promotion, rename St James’ Park to an email address and the plethora of other things he does that keep us guessing?
He’s certainly caused a fair bit of unrest in his time and I understand the sales of bedsheets in Tyneside shops have never been better. (more…)
Newcastle United's transfer warchest yesterday.On looking at Mike Ashley’s transfer spending in the last four seasons, it appears that in total, the club’s overall spending on transfer fees have been by far the lowest in the Premiership, with the club showing a profit of approximately £45,700,000 in the club’s transfer dealings for the 08/09, 09/10, 10/11 and the current 2011/12 seasons (so far).
Just to qualify the above, this figure does not include a series of diasastrous signings made under the previous regime of Freddy Shepherd, Douglas Hall and Sam Allardyce, some of which, though technically finalised shortly after Ashley gained control of the club, but were made under the previous administration. These include players such as Geremi, Alan Smith and Cacapa. However, if all the signings made in that season were included whether they were made under Ashley or the previous owners, spending would still show a deficit of approximately -£41.05 million from the the 07/08 season to the present day, as the clubs spending in that season amounted to approximately £7.65 million. It should also be mentioned that the club’s overall wage costs have also fallen dramatically since Ashley assumed ownership of the club, though in defence of this seeming lack of expenditure on the club’s playing staff, a Mr A.Pardew had this to say on the club’s transfer dealings: (more…)
I wonder what tomorrow will bring?Due to my laptop contracting a rather unfortunate illness, it had been difficult to write about some of the recent events conspiring at the Sportsdirect.com@stjamespark stadium. Nevertheless, being British I shall try to prevail when no hope seems assured, put the kettle on, and soldier on with some recent thoughts I have had this past week or so…
Shy and retiring Alan Pardew has, in what I can only described as a show of pure commitment to us fans, given a long interview this past week with ‘Total Sport’ on BBC Radio Newcastle. Now it has been long overdue hearing from our leader, and many of you, I’m sure, were all relieved after listening (or reading) Alan’s take on the summer so far.
What I found interesting was how he talked about the amount of money FREE transfers cost etc. Now obviously agent fees and signing on fees are part and parcel of the modern game. That is football, that is the game today, we know it is not technically ‘free’ but what we do know is, no transfer fee was paid, so with that, it leaves us to speculate how much indeed has gone to the agents and the players. Demba Ba, Sylvain Marveaux and Yohan Cabaye could not possibly of dented our transfer kitty that much, taking into consideration the ‘£35 million’, TV money, sponsorship deals, gate receipts, sale of Nolan, Shearer’s bar: You get the point.
Would it not just be easier to be honest? If we have no money to spend then just say it? Whatever the ‘truth’ is, Personally, I’m bored of the spins and excuses that I hear frequently from the club every week. Maybe we will spend something, maybe we won’t, but for me it is hard to envisage us spending much.
What's a 'huge fee'?Newcastle United manager Alan Pardew has indicated that a huge amount of fees go to agents for transfers and such, but just how much classes as ‘huge’?
One of the things I picked up on in Workyticket’s transcription of Alan Pardew’s interview is that he (meaning Alan Pardew rather than Worky) claimed we pay huge sums of money to agents as part of any transfer agreement.
What Pardew said was:
“I was listening earlier when you was talking about the money being spent and I just want to sort of make something clear. When you sign someone like Demba Ba and someone like Marveaux there’s huge fees involved in that, it isn’t just transfer fees. This is unfortunately how the Premier League works and a lot of money in those deals doesn’t come back through the system. Ideally, in the old days we would sign someone from the Championship and it would go back into the English game but this money’s going out through agents and stuff like that.”
So I thought I’d do some investigation to try and find out just how much money is spent on things like agents’ fees. (more…)
Owlheed: Has the players he wants.Speaking to The Telegraph Newcastle United Managing director, Derek Llambias has said that Newcastle United now have the players that they wanted thanks to acting early in the transfer window, and once again reassured fans that not a single penny of Andy Carroll’s (up to) £35 million transfer fee has left the club.
He also also protested that the club’s new signings weren’t cheap, even though two of three incoming players were available without a transfer fee as such due to contract expiration in the case of Sylavain Marveaux, and contract release in the case of Demba Ba. However there have been rumours of a fairly hefty signing on fees and agent’s fees, as much as £4 million each for the two signings. Llambias told the ‘Torygraph’.
“I can assure everyone that not a single penny of the £35 million has left the club and neither will it. It is all going back in.
“We have acted early and we have got the players we wanted, but none of them have been cheap. We have paid good prices for them. They certainly weren’t free transfers, there are fees and wages to consider.(more…)
