Extended ‘Match of the Day’ highlights from Saturday afternoon’s game between Aston Villa and Newcastle United at Villa Park.
Alternative highlights. (more…)
Date: Sat 14th Sep, 2013.
Kick off: 3.00pm.
Referee: Mike Dean.
UK TV: None.
The resumption of Premier League action after the International break see Newcastle United travelling to Birmingham’s Villa Park for this afternoon’s game against Aston Villa.
Previous results.
Newcastle United and Aston Villa come into this game at 12th and 13th in the Premier League respctively with 4 points to Newcastle United, and 3 to Aston Villa. Looking at their Premier League form so far this season, Aston Villa got off to an excellent start, convincingly beating Arsenal 3-1. However, this was followed by two successive defeats, 2-1 to Chelsea and 0-1 to Liverpool. Meanwhile, as you probably know, Newcastle’s results have been getting steadily better. After a 4-0 mauling by Manchester City in their opening game, this managed a 0-0 draw with West Ham, finally scraping 1-0 win against a toothless Fulham in their last game. (more…)
Very brief highlights of the very well attented (over 50,000) testimonial match for Steve Harper against a team of AC Milan legends, a tribute to his twenty years of loyal service to the Magpies. They mostly feature Paolo di Canio being booed, Harper and Alan Shearer being cheered then Harper missing his penalty when the game went into a shootout after a 0-0 draw. The Milan legends side won on penalties in the end.
Full penalty shoot out. (more…)
As has been the norm with Sports Direct for quite some time now, the figures were obscene, with profits rising a whopping 23.2% to £260.1 million.
What caught my eye however was the current Sports Direct share price standing at well over £7 and rising three or four times just as I was reading it over the share ticker. This means that Ashley’s current 64% holding in Sports Direct International is now worth over £2.75 billion, and this is after Ashley cashed in some 4% of his shares for over £100 million back in February.
To put this in perspective in terms of Newcastle United and it’s importance in the scheme of things to Ashley, that is well over 10 times the value of what Ashley has invested in the club, around £262 million. This includes a debt of around £129 million to Ashley, most of which is repayable on demand with the rest secured on future broadcasting revenue. (more…)
However, writing as someone who used to be an protester and fundraiser myself in the past, not over Newcastle United but over causes such as civil liberties, racism and the like, from what I have read and seen of Newcastle United fans’ planned protests so far, the chances of success don’t seem to be that great at all. This isn’t because the protestors don’t have a case, more that the protagonists don’t seem to be protesters, quite simply, they don’t know how to do it properly. They’re more like brickies and plumbers who are blundering around in a field they don’t understand, a bit like Mike Ashley trying to run a large Premier League football club really!
Please don’t misunderstand, this is not to be unecessarily disparaging at all, it’s just an appeal to realism, a plea for the protestors to consult with people who know what they are doing this time before they go blundering in once again with their size 10s and misspelled bedsheets. In a David and Goliath struggle, you don’t just need all the help you can get, you need the right help to avoid falling at the first few hurdles. (more…)