Lend me £100m mateNothing much new has happened at Newcastle United, although rumours about Barry Moat give me something to write about.
For various reasons I’ve spent the last 5 days largely out of touch with any football news at all, neither having time to read a paper nor to browse the internet.
Upon checking the news this morning I had hoped to find that the long-speculated Moat takeover was complete and that Ashley and Llambias had been tarred and feathered and hounded all the way back to Cockneyland, which would have been doubly inconvenient for them as neither are actually cockneys. I even have a large cigar – rolled on the thigh of dusky maiden no less – in preparation for such news. And I don’t even smoke.
What I find however is that nothing much at all has happened and what has happened has been covered by my blogging colleagues anyway, which leaves me with something of a dilemma when it comes to writing an article. (more…)
Pre-Christmas return for SholaNewcastle United’s Shola Ameobi is likely to return to first-team duty by early December according to Chris Hughton.
Shola suffered a stress fracture of the foot in August but has already begun light training. Hughton said:
“The good news with Shola is that he has no adverse reaction to the original injury and he’s started doing work on it again.
“He’s with us over this fortnight and he’s continuing to work at it. We are looking at a pre-Christmas return for Shola, and we’re thinking it should be early December at the moment, which would obviously be a big boost for everyone because he is a big player for us.
“He is with us at the moment, and I think it is a slightly frustrating time for him because he cannot really do any weight-bearing training with the foot at the moment. Obviously the most important thing is making sure he is right, so we don’t want to rush anything, but his progress has been quite good.
“In his absence we’ve managed to get Marlon Harewood and he has brought some quality to the squad, but obviously the more players that we have capable of scoring goals the better, so it would be good to have him back.” (more…)
No, not that sort of bond manSome newspapers are reporting that a South African businessman is now interested in Newcastle United.
I rather suspect this could be a case of ‘here we go again’ as bids are rumoured and then fall by the wayside but you never can tell with this sort of thing – very occasionally a rumour turns out to be true.
Anyway, this particular rumour has a wealthy South African bond dealer supposedly having met the representatives of Barclays Bank who are involved in the sale of Newcastle United.
This bond dealer is allegedly represented in this country by solicitors Mishcon de Reya and at least one journalist – the Birdman at the Mirror – claims a ‘form of due diligence’ has already been completed by the South African.
The Mail, however, seems to think that no due diligence has been undertaken and warns that we could face a delay of many weeks while it’s completed. (more…)
Should I stay or should I go nowThe press are reporting that Barry Moat has made a ‘substantial’ offer for Newcastle United.
If I had a pound for every time I’ve quoted the press about someone being just about to take over Newcastle United I’d probably be able to buy the club myself. And then there’d be changes I can tell you. If however I had to pay a pound every time such a story turned out to be untrue I’d have to sell my wife and eat the dog to hold off starvation.
Still, if George Caulkin of The Times is to be believed, Barry Moat has successfully negotiated the continuation of the club’s overdraft with Barclays and has tabled a bid of ‘slightly less than £100m’. The Mail and The Mirror are reporting similar things, although all these stories probably have their origin in the same rumour. None of the stories even quote ‘insiders’ or ‘sources’ let alone anyone who might actually be in a position to reliably know anything, so the usual caution is advised.
Nevertheless it makes a certain amount of sense in terms of timing. It was generally surmised that Keegangate was an ‘obstacle’ to the take over and with that now out of the way we could perhaps expect things to start moving again.
The question being asked though is: will Mike Ashley actually sell? (more…)
Foghorn LeghornFormer Newcastle United owner Freddy Shepherd has been having his say on Keegangate, as is his wont in such situations these days, and of course that called for a comparison with his time at Newcastle and how things were so much better back then.
Freddy said:
“There are no winners [I say no winners, you listening to me boy] in this case. There are only losers – the club and its fans. Kevin Keegan and Mike Ashley are just passing through – it is the institution of Newcastle United that is damaged by this episode.
“During my time at Newcastle, when a manager left we always managed to sort it out amicably and agree on a settlement.
“And when Ruud Gullit left he agreed to waive all his rights to compensation. Gullit is the most honourable man I have ever met in football.
“Things weren’t going well and he came to me and told me he had lost the fans. He told me he wanted to go quietly and didn’t want a penny paid into his bank account. There aren’t many men of that calibre in the game. He showed he had true class and integrity [and I aint no chickenhawk, chickenhawk that is].” (more…)
