One of these will own the club.There are rumours that Newcastle United will make an announcement about the sale of the club on Monday, although I can’t find a direct quote from anyone at the club about this announcement. Other rumours suggest it may be late next week before we find out anything.
Sky Sports claims that talks are continuing with Barry Moat and two other consortia, as does The Guardian, and both claim some sort of announcement is set for Monday.
The Telegraph claims that negotiations between Moat and Ashley are at an advanced stage and some sort of deal could be closed next week. They also mention that Barclays would like to see a reduction in the £40m loan the club uses to operate before they’ll stamp their authority on any deal for Barry Moat. (more…)
Krishnan - No interest in NUFC.Malaysian billionaire, Ananda Krishnan, has issued a statement declaring that he isn’t interested in buying Newcastle United. The statement, issued by one of his companies, Usaha Tegas, reads:
“News reports were carried on July 5 and July 6 in various newspapers in Malaysia and Singapore that Mr Ananda Krishnan or companies owned by Mr Krishnan had expressed an interest in purchasing Newcastle United Football Club and that his representatives had been engaged in talks to explore or even conclude such a deal.
“There is in fact no truth or foundation to this story.
“Mr Krishnan has not expressed an interest in purchasing Newcastle United Football Club, has not sent any delegation to Newcastle to engage in such talks or authorised any representatives to negotiate on his behalf and is not considering any such purchase,”(more…)
Llambias: 'More than two bids at £100m'Derek Llambias has informed local rag, the Evening Chronicle that “more than two bids at £100m” have been received for Newcastle United, and insisted that the price for the club was never going to be less. He added:
“At the moment we are in the hands of lawyers and it is all ongoing.
“We are giving interested parties all the help that they need.”
Of course, Llambias did not reveal the identity of the bidders, as this would almost certainly breach the protocol of the sale process.
The Chronic also reported that Llambias has once again pooh-poohed the credentials of highly questionable Singaporean land bankers, “The Profitable Group” as serious bidders for the club. However they report that “The talk in the capital today was that the group, who have former England man Steve McMahon on board, had put in a bid on Friday”. (more…)
The famous drawl "Howay the Lads!" Today, as Americans celebrate cutting their ties with Great Britain after becoming an independent republican state free from British rule, wouldn’t it be ironic if some of their fellow country men were planning to strengthen their relationship with the Brits by buying Newcastle United, one of the nation’s most famous sporting institutions? As they wait for the outcome of the bids to be known do they have a grand vision already mapped out? Big plans to transform our poor bedraggled neglected club into an efficient, successful sporting colossus? If so I say bring them on. We so desperately need a bit of TLC. We need someone to put their proverbial arm round us and say you know what it’s going to be fine, I’m here now. I’m going to help you forget the hurt, the embarrassment, the anger, the humiliation of the past 10 years (give or take the small number of good memories) and turn those bad times into a positive future. I will make you feel good again. The cynics will say we’ve heard it all before, but an era with new professional owners and a decent level of investment will cause the champagne corks to be popping on Tyneside. (more…)
Could it be a nightmare? According to yesterday’s Sunday Mirror (don’t snigger), Ashley will receive two bids for the club this week. Apparently Freddy Krueger Shepherd is one of the bidders and the other is believed to have Geordie roots but overseas finance.
The Mirror reports that neither bid is for the £100m Ashley wants but will be somewhere around the £80-90m mark. Apparently due diligence has already been performed and the deal could be finalised within a few weeks.
There may be some truth in this but the Mirror’s report looks a bit suspicious. There were no direct quotes and there weren’t even any ‘sources close to the club’ or ‘insiders’ mentioned in the report. It has all the look of an inventive guess by a bored journalist.
Nevertheless it’s raising the frightening prospect of Freddy Shepherd taking over the club again, which is a fairly depressing thought. We’re stuck between a rock and hard place: is it better to carry on ownerless or is it better to have Freddy Shepherd take over? That’s like someone saying you must lose either an arm or a leg but you can choose which. Neither prospect is appealing and I hope a third option emerges as the eventual solution. (more…)
