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…)
Dix - Nee politics at Reading game. Newcastle United’s honourary Vice-President, Malcolm Dix, says he does not expect fans to wash their dirty linen in public during our home clash against Reading on Saturday evening. Speaking to Tyneside rag, the Chronic, he said:
“For 90 minutes I think the fans will divorce the politics from the club and get behind the 11 players who are picked for the Reading game.
“This club is ultimately about what happens on the pitch.
“I think there was a good team spirit displayed at West Brom and it’s a start we can build on against Reading.
“If Newcastle can win well it can lay the foundations for a good season, one we all hope that we can return to the Premier League in.
“The game is also in front of the TV cameras and judging our crowd over the years, it’s usually the sort of occasion in which the fans get right behind the lads.”
Dix, an accountant who was an important part of the John Hall Politburo at Saint James’s Park in the ‘nineties added: (more…)
What's gannin on Mike?Still nothing on the takeover and some reports have indicated that Ashley has not set a deadline for completion, although I think it’s reasonable to assume that some sort of deadline will eventually be set to allow him time to do some work on the transfer market if he has to keep the club.
As we know, the press often claim to have ‘sources’ giving them the inside story on these things, but there seem to be lots of contradictory opinions about this takeover and I doubt the validity of these ‘sources’ even more than usual given the strict non-disclosure agreements signed by Ashley and the bidders.
For example, depending upon what you read, Barry Moat is either the only bidder with a hope of taking over Newcastle United or he’s way out of the running and instead two unnamed bidders are much more in contention.
As to the manager situation, for all we know a lot of that could be a ploy by Ashley to make it look like he’s serious about staying on if necessary, sending a message to potential bidders that they’d better not wait until the last minute in the hope that he’ll lose his nerve and accept a low bid.
Then again, he certainly will need a manager if he doesn’t sell, so sounding out various managers is no bad idea anyway.
What I’m really saying is that I think a lot of what the press are writing is a load of old toot and we may as well just wait for something official. (more…)
