Time to get behind Ashley, says ShepherdFormer Newcastle United owner Freddie Shepherd has surprisingly good things to say about the man who took over from him.
Freddie Shepherd celebrated his 70th birthday yesterday and in his after-dinner speech he actually heaped a load of praise on Mike Ashley which, given some of the criticism Shepherd has slung Ashley’s way in the past, is a bit of a surprise.
Shepherd said:
“I am still a massive Newcastle fan. True to say Mike and I have not always seen eye to eye but you’ve got to give him some of the credit for what is happening this season.
“I think it’s time for the fans to get fully behind him and give him a chance. After all, no one really owns Newcastle because it’s simply a football institution.
“Maybe he is right in his policy and I was wrong. Maybe we gave our managers too much money to spend in the transfer market. I reckon we spent around £300m on players like Alan Shearer, David Ginola, Les Ferdinand, Tino Asprilla and Michael Owen.(more…)
Ashley:Turned his back on Pardew for two months?It’s somewhat of a rare occurrence to hear from Alan Pardew, as it’s not often he conducts interviews…
Obviously, I’m being extremely sarcastic, and Alan Pardew has been talking once again, this time in regards to Mike Ashley and Derek Llambias. I’m not entirely sure where the interview originated from, but I picked it up via the Sky Sports website.
Interestingly, Pardew not only talks inevitably about the “efficient” job Mike Ashley is doing with Newcastle United’s finances, but also there is a little bit about last seasons final game, the 3-3 draw at home to West Brom. That game consisted of Newcastle having a 3-0 lead at one stage, only to be pegged back. This resulted in Newcastle dropping from a potential 8th placed finish, and ending up finishing in 12th.
Rumours circulating at the time said that Mike Ashley was extremely upset with the failure to protect that three goal lead, but these rumours were quickly dispensed. From Pardew’s recent comments I’ve included below, you’ll see that Ashley was indeed slightly annoyed with the result.
Same master plan for world domination.In the wake of Newcastle United’s 2-2 draw with Tottenham Hotspur this afternoon, Managing Director, Derek Llambias, has released another club statement.
The statement once sgsin highlights the clubs finances, summer transfers, youth development, managing / coaching staff, training facilities and supporters. Basically, I’m still struggling to dissect the differences between this statement, and the recent Q&A with the Evening Chronicle a few months back.
Either way, it’s good to have some communication from boardroom to fans, and below I have included the whole statement for your viewing pleasure. I hasten to add also that the statement, unsurprisingly, has a little bit of information about our new under-soil heating.
Enjoy…
Introduction
Now that the summer transfer window has closed and the new Premier League season is underway, the board of Newcastle United Football Club wish to present this review of our progress and set out our aims for the 2011/12 campaign and beyond. (more…)
Owlheed: Nothing to hide.As question’s are asked over the alleged £2.5 million in agent’s fees involved in Joey Barton’s transfer to Queen’s Park Rangers, Newcastle United’s Managing Director, Derek Llambias, washed his hands of the affair, insisting that he is “more than happy” for Newcastle United to be probed by the FA over the deal.
According to the Sun newspaper (I know, I know), The FA have been “urged” to probe Barton’s transfer to the west London “Hoops”, more specifically, the issue of alleged fees paid to Barton’s agent, Willie McKay, and a mystery company brought in to represent Barton. There has even been specultion that this mystery company may even be Barton himself, or someone else very close to the player.
To explain: In this case according to the Stun, rather than McKay acting for Barton as his agent, as would usually be the case, he is alleged to have acted for Queen’s Park Rangers instead, with the above mentioned mystery company acting for Barton’s interests.
There fees were said to be £1.3m to McKay, and £1.2 million to the mystery company who acted as Barton’s representative. The newspaper also alleged that a £1.5 million signing on fee was paid to Barton himself on a four year contract with £40,000 per week salary. Beisdes this, it also said that Barton would be paid a £250,000 end of season bonus if QPR avoid relegation at the end of the season.
When grilled by a Stun reporter on the unconventional arrangement, McKay said of the deal:(more…)
I couldn't help myself!I swore to myself I wouldn’t get involved and would stay away from this fight as Ashley has got the fans at each other throats with the current state of affairs at SJP but after reading a recent ‘blog by my colleague on here, and the fairly large response to it, I couldn’t hold my water any further!
I had decided i would reserve my judgement on the current regime and thought it would be fair to see where we are at after the window has closed and we are a few games into the season, hopefully with a new striker and some sensible investment in place, I had hoped we wouldn’t be having the Ashley argument again as we all just want NUFC to move forward with sensible investment. But after the appalling lack of squad strengthening and ambition from the current regime, the nonsense printed in the Chronicle’s Q&A and amazingly some fans actually backing Ashley as a master of business and Professor in the school of running a football club, I feel the need to point out a few things missing from this boiling pot. What immediate springs to my mind is:
What about the fans feeling more interested and enthused and therefore more inclined to forking out more money to support Newcastle United as well? (more…)
