Fans accused of anti-Semitism towards Mike Ashley.Newcastle United have threatened legal action over a piece by Jim Armitage in the Independent newspaper.
The piece is a sickly hagiography of Mike Ashley entitled “Is Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley the best boss in the world?” In it’s original version, it alleged that Newcastle United fans had abused the club’s owner on the basis of his Jewish background, despite the fact that he isn’t even Jewish..
On the club’s official Twitter page they tweeted:
“The club is aware of the article in today’s Independent and has referred the matter to its lawyers. Thanks to fans who have raised concerns.”
There is also an image of the original tweet below. To get to the meat in the sandwich though, the anti-Semitic parts of Armitage’s piece were rapidly edited out, but it was too late for the Independent and the original part of the piece which made the slur is preserved below.
Uncle Joe: Why no word from the club?Since yesterday evening, there has certainly been no shortage of statements from Joe Kinnear on being appointed as a new Director of Football at Newcastle.
Like his new colleague Alan Pardew, keeping his mouth buttoned has never been one of Kinnear’s stronger points, though even he has surpassed himself this time with a verbal Tsunami of what he is going to do at Newcastle United over the next few months.
However, at the time of writing, there hasn’t been one word of confirmation or denial from Newcastle United.
Bearing in mind Kinnear’s previous, the club could perhaps be forgiven for not arranging a full press jamboree with Simon Bird in attendance to unveil their new key member of staff. However, at the time of writing, there hasn’t even been a small announcement in the news page of Newcastle United’s official website. Is it just me or is this rather odd?
To borrow the words of Marvin Gaye “What’s going on?” (more…)
Part of Mike Ashley’s £25 million transfer profit.Below are a series of tables showing the profits and losses (mostly profits) made by Mike Ashley in player trading since he assumed control of the club early in the 2007-8 season.
Firstly, they are broken down season by season from 2007-8. However, it should be noted the major transfers into the club in his first season as owner were either done in the days of Freddy Shepherd, or were arranged by Shepherd and completed in the transitional period of Ashley takeover, or the first days under the club’s new Chairman at the time, Chris Mort. Players in these two catagories include signings such as Viduka, Barton, Rozehnal, Smith, Cacapa, Enrique, Faye and Beye.
The following ones then display the season by season figures from the 2008-9 season (Ashley’s first full season as owner), with the first purely Ashley signings such as Fabricio Coloccini, Jonas Gutierrez, Xisco and the rest starting to come in. Of course, these are then followed by successive seasons up to the present day. (more…)
Cabaye: Monaco medical?Goal.com’s French football correspondent Robin Bairner has been tweeting that French sports channel “L’Equipe 21” are reporting that Yohan Cabaye has actually passed at medical at moneybags Monaco.
The first if his tweets on the matter said:
“Newcastle midfielder Yohan Cabaye has passed a medical with Monaco, according to L’Equipe 21’s evening edition.”
Which was swiftly followed by:
“L’Equipe’s report comes from a “sure source” who works in Monaco’s medical centre. Would be v surprised if story was run with no foundation.”
And finally:
“A Sports TV station run by L’Equipe. 21 is the channel it’s on.” (more…)
NUFC’s latest accounts: Turnover up, profit down.As many of you out there will be aware, Newcastle United recently announced their figures for the year ended 30th June, 2012. This corresponds to our second season back in the Premiership which, of course, is last season.
In the last few days the accounts were finally made public thorugh Companies House, and as usual, I obtained a set there to publish online here. You can peruse these at your leisure by downloading them from the link below:
