"It's my money so I'll have the final say on transfers"Mike Ashley is now prepared to take £80m for Newcastle United but will there be any takers?
Amidst another petulant stab at the fans in yesterday’s Times, Mike Ashley announced:
“Barry Moat has been driving me mad for two years. If he wants to buy the club, he’s got a one-off opportunity to come up with the cash – £80m upfront.”
So one question is: can he or anyone else find the money? Another might be: is Newcastle United worth £80m?
The Times speculates that Barry Moat has agreed to pay the £80m that Ashley’s asking, but not ‘upfront’. Apparently Moat wants to pay £40m now and £40m at the end of the season. It’s anyone’s guess as to why Barry Moat wants to do things like this. Perhaps he has only been guaranteed the second £40m from his backers if Newcastle gets promoted, although that would be a huge risk for Barry Moat to take because if we didn’t manage promotion and the funds didn’t materialise then Moat is stuck with an outstanding £40m debt that, it seems, he won’t be able to pay. (more…)
No Toon job this seasonAlan Shearer reveals that whilst he’d take the Newcastle United manager’s job today if it was offered, he’s prepared to get on with life in the interim.
With Barry Moat’s bid – or indeed anyone else’s bid – looking less likely to succeed as time goes on, Shearer’s chances of becoming Newcastle manager this season are fading. It looks like we’re stuck with the current regime for the moment and Shearer has been reflecting on this, saying:
“I can’t revolve my life around that any more because I have other things going on.”
The future Toon manager then touches on the philosophy of determinism, saying:
“If it happens, it happens, and if it doesn’t, it doesn’t. Whatever has happened has happened. If anything else happens then it does – I will just get on with it.”
Which seems to me to be a clever rewording of Laplace’s Demon* – deep stuff indeed from the former number 9. After that philosophical interlude, Shearer goes on to praise Hughton, saying: (more…)
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…)
Thinking of us?The traditional Sunday trawl of the back pages has begun, except technically I’ve gone all modern these days and access the back pages online (partly because I’m hungover and don’t fancy the walk to the paper shop). Anyway, so what do they have to say?
Well first of all, an amusing story of Freddie Shepherd and his righteous and gallant spirit in not pursuing the two million pounds, that he claims the club owes him from his contract when Ashley took over the club in 2007. This is because until Ashley makes indications that he will be here for the forseeable, Shepherd doesn’t want to jeopardise the sale of the club. He’s all heart is Fred…….In the same article from The Sunday Sun, they also mention the latest takeover news but there is no more conclusive evidence of who the ‘new suitors’ are and it’s just speculation that it’s an Indian-based group, as is the suggestion Moat and Sheard have sat down for a chat about poolin’ resources. Just speculation you say? Well it is Sunday. (more…)
Here to save the world!With the air thick with takeover talk, real or imaginary, now feels like a good time to throw in a spanner, or two. It is widely acknowledged that, under impossible circumstances, Chris Hughton and his staff have done an astounding job thus far managing Newcastle United. With a pre-season filled with doom-laden mutterings of “Doing a Leeds”, crashing though the divisions and into financial meltdown….while nothing of the sort has transpired. There’s still time yet, of course, but to the untrained eye all in the garden looks rosey.
Let’s make an assumption. Let’s assume that Barry Moat’s bid goes sailing through and, within minutes, we have the mighty Alan Shearer at the helm. How do the collective feel about that? Is he a white knight riding in to save us or an egomaniac sating his need for attention, and doing us more harm in the process? As Stardust (and David Frost on ‘Through the Keyhole’ ) would say….”Let’s look at the facts”.
His managerial record:
Played 8, Won 1, Drew 2, Lost 5.
….it’s not great, it’s not even mediocre. But, is he really to be judged on eight, end-of-season, scrambled bunfights with a dispirited squad, and a ton of behind-the-scenes pressure? Arsene Wenger said, at the time of Shearer’s appointment, that any manager coming in, with 8 games left, and expected to turn things around. Well that man wouldn’t be a manager, he’d be a magician. (more…)
