Joey Barton: Saying what he sees.Well, Joey Barton did promise on Twitter that he would “tell all when the time was right” and he’s finally kept his word.
Speaking in a long audio podcast interview for the Queen’s Park Ranger’s ‘blog “Open All R’s,” he finally lifted the lid on his time at Newcastle United and his strained relationship with the infamous Ashley / Llambias regime. In the interview, he revealed what he felt were the real reasons why he and other senior members of the squad have been forced out St James’ Park, how the club tried to force him to sign a contract on a fifth of his old wage whilst he was in Walton prison, what he feels were the real reasons behind the sacking of Chris Hughton, how despite his profound hatred of Mike Ashley and Derek Llambias, he still feels a strong affinity with the club and more…
Some (misquoted) sections of the interview have already appeared in the media and other ‘blogs, so I decided to make a more accurate and extensive transcription of all the sections which related to Newcastle United. I’ve have also included the mp3 podcast of the entire interview at the bottom of the piece.
Responding to a QPR fan’s question on what swung it for him to come to Queen’s Park Rangers, Barton began by outlining the reson’s why he had to leave his former club saying:
“I was obviously deemed by the board at Newcastle “Persona non grata” (Person not welcome). They didn’t want me because I asked questions.(more…)
What's in a name? Lots of potential damage seemingly.I was planning to write a follow up to my previous piece on why Mike Ashley’s “rebranding” of St James’ Park was ill conceived from the very start and doomed to fail.
In it I was going to outline how the value of Newcastle United’s brand has been damaged so much by this that it will lose far more in the long term that the minimal amount gained through selling the stadium’s naming rights. Going on similar deals on considerably less problematic new build stadiums, this amount will be nowhere near the £8-10 million foolishly quoted in public by Derek Llambias in an interview with BBC Radio Newcastle. Going on similar examples such as Arsenal’s Emirates Studium and Borussia Dortmund’s Signal Iduna Park, it will be more like a third to a half of that sum unless a shirt deal is also included and even then, the price is still somewhat ambitious.
As most of you will know, current shirt sponsors, Northern Rock, recently pulled out of their recent rather meagre £2 million per annum shirt sponsorship deal, and it has even been suggested that the furore over the Ashley’s second attempt at a stadium rebrand will jeopardise this sponsorship, as potential sponsors distance themselves from this now toxic brand. As I mentioned in my previous piece on the subject the offer has been almost universally derided by the people in the sponsorship industry who advise corporations on the efficacy of such deals, with one exception, from someone called Jonathon Gabay, who was reported as being an “unofficial consultant” to the club on the renaming issue. (more…)
Ashley, Llambias and Pardew - Did they deceive us over Carroll?A few days after Newcastle United’s already despised Managing Director, Derek Llambias, announced the club’s corporate renaming of the club’s traditional home as “The Sports Direct Arena”, it would be hard to imagine his or Mike Ashley’s reputation sinking any lower.
However all that has changed now after one simple drunken rant in a bar which was recorded by fans and passed on to the Mirror newspaper. My erstwhile collegue, Hugh, has dealt with his jealous and contemptible potty mouthed rants about former managers, Alan Shearer, Kevin Keegan and Chris Hughton in this piece. Here I will concentrate on how his words about Andy Carroll’s move to Liverpool seem to suggest that both he and manager, Alan Pardew, deceived the fans about the circumstances leading up to the controvarsial transfer, leading fans to brand Carroll a “Judas” for deserting the club he had supported since boyhood.
If you recall, after a completely bogus story was put around the media about a very large Tottenham bid for the Bensham Bomber, Liverpool’s first bid for Andy Carroll was a lowly £30 million (what on earth were they smoking that day???). When one fan asked Llambias if he thought that Andy Carroll was worth that amount, Llambias replied:
Potty-mouthed tirade against past managersNewcastle United Managing Director Derek Llambias serves up an expletive-ridden speech against Keegan, Shearer, Hughton and Carroll.
Amidst all the furore of stadium renaming, you’d think one of the things our Managing Director would try to do is talk around the fans and sweeten them up to the whole fiasco.
Well that might be what a professional would do but Delboy’s response, it seems, is to get sloshed and launch a foul-mouthed tirade against the various managers he’s appointed and dismissed in the past. Unfortunately for Delboy, he did so in front of Toon fans, some of whom taped it.
On Keegan he said:
“Kevin Keegan can’t take pressure. His f****** head was all over the place. Mike Ashley was selling to the Arabs and they wanted Kevin Keegan. The Arabs wanted him, the fans wanted him — perfect!” (more…)
It's St James' Park!To say there’s been some opposition to Mike Ashley’s rehash of his previously botched plan to sell the St James’ Park naming rights would be an understatement.
However as more details have emerged it’s become ever more obvious that this 2.0 version is scarcely better than the previous one, and it seems more than likely that the club will once again end up with the worst of both worlds, a cheap tacky stadium with an awful name and nothing whatsoever to show for it.
Referring to sponsorship consultant Tim Crow’s “Six golden rules” of stadium naming rights, quotes from experts from the world of sports sponsorship about the naming rights offer, and some of my own personal thoughts, I will attempt to outline some of the reasons even this revamped naming rights offer will have scant chance of success.
Let’s begin with golden rule number one:
1. The stadium must have only one short name. If there are two names, one of which is the sponsor’s, guess which one the media, and the fans, will edit out? ‘The Reebok Stadium’ works: so does ‘The Emirates’. Conversely, horrors like ‘Sports Direct.com@St James’ Park’ always quite deservedly bomb.”(more…)
