Appointed permanentlyWho sang Twilight Cafe in 1981? Ah, hang on, not that sort of ‘bits and pieces’. No indeed, just some bits and pieces about Newcastle United from the last few days that haven’t managed to get their own article.
Much has been said of Hughton’s now permanent role as manager for the rest of this season and the next one, but it’s probably worth mentioning that Colin Calderwood has taken up a similar length contract as Hughton’s assistant. Calderwood recently turned down a job at Tranmere Rovers to remain at Newcastle working alongside Hughton. Hughton said:
“Once I had my own deal sorted, the first thing I did was to get Colin sorted and he will continue now in the same role.
“Colin has been fantastic. He is someone I have known for a long time and someone I trust very much. He is an experienced football manager and that is a huge help. He’s also a fantastic coach and someone the players respect.But we’re both delighted to have this opportunity and we’re fully focussed on achieving promotion.” (more…)
Making the best of it?Trick or treat? Which one does Mike Ashley have in store for Newcastle United over the next season and a half?
Undoubtedly there are many fans who would like to celebrate Halloween by tying Mike Ashley to a stake and setting fire to him, not least because of his crackers plan to sell the naming rights to St James’ Park.
It’s the sort of plan that will probably have people thinking about demonstrations of one kind or another, often involving bedsheets and references to the “Cockney Mafia” and strange words like ‘boycoutt’. Others suggest that the best way to get the message through to Ashley is to ‘hit him in the pocket’, as demonstrated by this letter to the Chronicle:
ASHLEY must go now. Yes, I know he has the money, he cannot be that daft, you say – let’s face it, he got lucky on the stock market and has dragged us down to gutter level and this is the final insult.
Q. How do you get him out?
A. Get the Geordies to stop going to the ground, all 40,000 of them – no income equals no soul, equals the landlord throws in his hand; 40,000 supporters to see Doncaster Rovers – it beggars belief – that is more than Chelsea get most home games!
There is however a problem with that plan. It’s fair enough asking Ashley to ‘get out of this town’ but where is he going to go? He has just tried to sell the club and failed, so his options are limited. He’s not going to give the club away and, whatever his sins, no reasonable person would expect him to do so. (more…)
Here we go againMike Ashley has taken Newcastle United off the market after 5 months and appointed Chris Hughton as permanent manager until the end of the 2010/2011 season.
Emotions were running high when this was announced last night but I wanted to try and analyse the situation a little more objectively in the cold light of day.
It looked like Barry Moat might actually have been in with a chance at one point. According to the press, he’d had a £40m up-front plus £40m at the end of the season deal rejected and had come back to Ashley with a £60m-£20m upgrade to that, having been led to believe by Ashley that it would be accepted. Ashley however did not accept it and decided to take the club off the market amongst a lot of familiar-sounding rhetoric.
The rhetoric sounds familiar because it’s pretty much what he said the last time he took the club off the market. He stressed his commitment to the future of Newcastle United then too and he put some money into the club, but then we were relegated and the club was up for sale once again. So I have no reason to believe that Ashley’s aim is to do anything but maximise the club’s appeal so that he can put it up for sale yet again. (more…)
Ashley to remain for nowThe following announcement was made on the Newcastle United site tonight:
NEWCASTLE United are delighted to announce that Chris Hughton has been named the permanent manager of the Club, his contract will run until the end of the 2010/11 season.
At the same time the Club has confirmed that it has been withdrawn from sale and is no longer on the market.
The Club had been trying to broker a deal with a number of prospective buyers in recent months however none of those deals came to fruition. With regard to the possible sale of the Club to Barry Moat, that particular bid has now fallen through due to the cash price of £80m not being met.
In confirming the news, Mike Ashley stated that he is totally committed to the future success of Newcastle United and will be focussing on gaining promotion back to the Premier League. Mike will put a further £20m into the Club this week.
Derek Llambias, Managing Director of Newcastle United, said:
“We are delighted that Chris has accepted the post of full time manager. He has done a terrific job this season and we wish him every success for the rest of this season and beyond. He will continue to receive our full backing and support.” (more…)
Mike's been there, seen it, got the t-shirt!No honestly, I really do. I mean he’s clearly absolutely crackers. What, you think all of this apparent contempt towards Newcastle United fans and his bad behaviour is all down to arrogance and spite? No man, he’s nuts. How else do you explain his actions and this reckless and continual ‘p*ssing on his own chips’?
I mean for the big G’s sake Mike, where do you pick up your PR finesse from? It’s out of this world, really it is. You’re clearly on a different planet. He generally says nothing for such long periods that you’d expect when he does that he’d say something that would have a big impact. Well he does, but not for the right reasons. Even following the tribunal result and the monumental cause and effect, there followed no explanation, no excuses, no apology, nowt. I’d heard rumour while at work today that he’d been speaking to The Sunday Times and then I read the brief summary piece that .com did and both found what he had to say astounding and myself agreeing wholeheartedly with their response.
