Mike Ashley - 3 years at the helm.Between the vast swathes of speculation in these last few weeks, I nearly managed to forget that a certain anniversary is about to be upon us.
That is an anniversary to mark Mike Ashley having owned Newcastle United for three years! Doesn’t time fly when you’re having fun eh?
Technically, Ashley completed the sale three years ago this coming Sunday, but with me being faced with the very real possibilty of having a stinking hangover from Saturday night, and the fact the nearly all of us will be wrapped up in the World Cup by then, I thought it would be best to, errr, ‘celebrate’ this milestone prematurely and get it out of the way. To say Mike Ashley’s reign on Tyneside has been a turbulent one would be a wee bit of an understatement. His tenure includes having had five different managers in three years, two failed attempts at a sale, and one very big falling out with Kevin Keegan, and that is the one thing Ashley will probably find the hardest to come back from, plus countless others that I have probably either forgotten or haven’t got enough time to write about. (more…)
Muppet!Dennis Wise is not remembered with great affection around Newcastle after his part in the fiasco which brought the club to it’s knees, and ultimately cost us a Premier League place.
And it looks like the smooth negotiator has dropped another clanger that will see the club miss out on any extra income from any potential transfer of James Milner to Manchester City.
Why only yesterday I thought that the club must surely have entered some form of sell-on clause in the deal that took the then 22-year old player to Aston Villa. It’s what anyone would do right?
Surely a player of such a young age will move on again at some point in his career? Well that does now indeed look like it could be a possibility, but Newcastle willl not benefit from it as Dennis Wise didn’t insert a sell-on clause into the deal whilst in negotiations with Aston Villa. It appears that Villa wanted to pay £8 million for Milner, and Wise wanted £12 million. Villa said fine to that but took any sell-on clause out of the deal, which Wise accepted. Superb negotiation skills from Wise, and it makes you wonder how he was qualified to be put in such an important position within the club, despite the controversy it ended up causing. (more…)
Maggie bird v Baggie bird. Who'll get the juicy 3 point worm?Newcastle United take on West Bromwich Albion in a crucial top of the table encounter on Monday night at St James Park. With the Toon drawing the Baggies in the FA Cup 4th round, the two teams are forced to play each other twice in the space of six days.
We will be looking to extend our unbeaten home run of nine wins and three draws at SJP but Albion will be a real test for the lads. Recently knocked off second spot after a defeat at home to in form Nottingham Forest, Roberto Di Matteo will be looking to his team to win the two games they have in hand
over Forest to position themselves back in second place.
Di Matteo was a great midfield player, who, you will remember, enjoyed a very successful playing career with Chelsea and Italy before being forced to retire following a horrific injury. His first steps into management in 2008 with Milton Keynes Dons proved successful, as he led the League One club to within two points of their second successive automatic promotion while they played attacking, attractive football. (more…)
Keegan: 'There's nothing been hidden'.Speaking in an inverview with Ray Stubbs in his new role as a pundit for ESPN, former Newcastle United manager, Kevin Keegan, spoke in some depth about his £2 million pound payday from the club, and his possible future in football.
When asked by ‘Stubbsy’, “would you ever consider returning to a club you love so much?” Keegan replied:
“I don’t think it’s on to return back there now, I think the fans have had enough of that but you never know in football.
Meanwhile, over on rival, Sky Sports News, old sparring partner, ex NUFC DOF, and Geordie Pantomime villain, Dennis Wise, gave his own thoughts on Mike Ashley’s plans for the future of Toon. More on that story after the Keegan show.
What follows is a full transcript of the Kevin Keegan interview.
Stubbsy:Kevin, a Premier League arbitration panel ruled in your favour in regard to the situation at Newcastle United. I’m sure you’re relieved it’s all over. What was the main purpose of your claim?
Special K:Well, really to clear everything up. It wasn’t a great situation. I don’t think there are really any winners in it but we’ve got to move on now. The club have got to move on and I’ve got to move on. It’s out in the open. An independent arbitration panel have made a judgement. People can read it, it’s out there for everyone to read so there’s nothing been hidden.
Stubbsy:“Was it important to you that the truth came out?” (more…)
Nacho: The intrigue continues.]In the wake of the Newcastle United / Mike Ashley / Keegan tribunal fiasco, the Daily Mail published a story asking if a Nacho Gonzalez video on ‘YouTube’ was the one Kevin Keegan was supposedly asked to watch by Dennis Wise? A video which was, supposedly, the only thing he had to go on in deciding whether he should be signed on loan for Newcastle United. However, the video linked to was only uploaded to YouTube 7 months ago, so that would be impossible.
After researching more closely, it is highly likely that it was actually this video, uploaded by Brazilian sporting agency, ADM Esporte well over a year ago.
Are they, perchance, the mystery Brazilian agents Dennis Wise and the NUFC recruitment squad sought to curry favour with in the one year loan signing of Ignacio ‘Nacho’ Gonzalez? The ones of which Keegan said:
“I was being asked to sanction the signing of a player in order to ‘do a favour’ for two South American agents. No-one at the club had seen this player play and I was asked to sign him on the basis of some clips on You Tube…” (more…)