Freddy and his pearls of wisdom.Former Newcastle chairman Freddy Shepherd has backed the decision to sack Chris Hughton just 16 games into the Premier League season.
Shepherd claims that the writing was on the wall for Hughton, and had been for some time, so the decision shouldn’t have come as a shock to people. He even claims he would have done the same himself had he still been in control of the corridors of power at St James’ Park.
That doesn’t surprise me to be honest as Shepherd did have a bit of a penchant for sacking managers in his time, usually having to fork out millions of pounds in compensation in the process. The departure of Hughton will have not warranted a large sum of compensation, but it still came as a shock to a lot of people who had thought that Hughton was doing reasonably well.
Shepherd said: “I may be the last guy to tell anyone how to run as football club but no-one should be surprised. The signs were there, no contract, no transfer funds and no replacement for assistant Colin Calderwood. I’m surprised anyone is surprised. The writing was on the wall.”(more…)
Hughton: Target of speculation.On the eve of Newcastle United’s home derby clash with the Mackems, Sunderland manager, Steve Bruce, ex Newcastle United chairman, Freddy Shepherd, and current club captain, Kevin Nolan have all come out in support of manager, Chris Hughton.
Hughton’s position as Newcastle manager has recently been called into question by journalists such as the People’s Alan Oliver and the Daily Hate Mail’s Colin Young, and bets on whether Hughton would be sacked were suspended at Ladbrokes recently. In response, the club issued a club statement after Wednesday’s League Cup defeat against Arsenal. The statement said:
“Chris is our manager and will remain our manager, and it is our intention to renegotiate his contract at the end of the year.”
Speaking in an interview for Talk Sport meanwhile, Freddy Shepherd said of Hughton’s time as the Magpies’ manager:(more…)
Mike Ashley - Bad, but is he the worst?Much of a din is being made about Mike Ashley at the minute, and how the man is not fit to be owner of our beloved club. Which does have it’s own valid points I guess.
However, when I hear that I always say that we have had it worse, much worse than what we have now. Of course it is largely irrelevant as the past can’t be changed, but neither can Mike Ashley and his apparent business approach to running Newcastle United, unless you have the required funds to buy him out of course.
Despite all that has gone on in the past few years though, I still maintain that Ashley is far from the worst owner/chairman/president or whatever we have had, mind you he is trying his hardest to steal the title! In fact Newcastle have been ‘blessed’ with poor management structures for many many years, which is easily forgotten, time is a great healer and all that, so why don’t we have a look at just what some of our previous bastians of power have achieved in their time ruling the iron fist over St James’ Park. (more…)
Howay the New Year!This time ten years ago, we were staring into a brand new millenium and the late great Sir Bobby Robson was halfway through the first season of his popular reign as manager at Newcastle United. The slightly uninspiring capture of Diego Gavilan was the only January transfer that Robson made and the little Paraguayan never made the impact he would have hoped for at St James’. Sir Bobby, conversely, went on to create one of the most exciting sides of a Toon generation.
Despite falling short as Keegan had done back in the ’90s, with his wealth of experience, Robson played a brand of football that the supporters could once again get behind. And the football wasn’t just good to watch but effective as we flirted with European and domestic success. But of course, the end of his reign was somewhat soured by it’s nature as many fans welcomed the decision feeling he’d lost the dressing room, and he was unceremoniously dumped by Freddy Shepherd.
2000 actually saw Robson get rid of one of our most infamous and old-fashioned bad-boys, Duncan Ferguson, but the new millenium brought the advent of a new type of bad-boy. The ‘noughties’ became the decade of the ‘naughties’ as Robson built his side around ‘bling boys’, such as the likes of Keiron Dyer, Jermaine Jenas, Titus Bramble and Craig Bellamy. (more…)
I wouldn't do itFormer Newcastle United chairman Freddy Shepherd has blasted Ashley over his plans to sell the stadium naming rights.
Freddy said:
“I suppose nothing surprises me about the current regime, so news they are ready to sell the naming rights isn’t exactly a shock.
“I appreciate we are living in a commercial world, but there are some things money can’t buy.
“St James’ Park is one of the most famous stadia, not just in Europe but in the world. You can go anywhere and everyone knows St James’ Park is the home of Newcastle United. The two are synonymous.
“I just can’t imagine St James’ Park being called anything else. Whatever next? Why don’t they just go the whole hog and change the name of the club itself?
“Fans will be horrified, angry and upset about this. They’ve had to put up with a lot in recent months, but this is just another blow.”
Well, quite, but let’s not forget that Freddie Shepherd described Ashley as “an excellent custodian of Newcastle United’s heritage” when he sold his shares to him a few years ago. Not his best call eh? (more…)
