Ashley to remain for nowThe following announcement was made on the Newcastle United site tonight:
NEWCASTLE United are delighted to announce that Chris Hughton has been named the permanent manager of the Club, his contract will run until the end of the 2010/11 season.
At the same time the Club has confirmed that it has been withdrawn from sale and is no longer on the market.
The Club had been trying to broker a deal with a number of prospective buyers in recent months however none of those deals came to fruition. With regard to the possible sale of the Club to Barry Moat, that particular bid has now fallen through due to the cash price of £80m not being met.
In confirming the news, Mike Ashley stated that he is totally committed to the future success of Newcastle United and will be focussing on gaining promotion back to the Premier League. Mike will put a further £20m into the Club this week.
Derek Llambias, Managing Director of Newcastle United, said:
“We are delighted that Chris has accepted the post of full time manager. He has done a terrific job this season and we wish him every success for the rest of this season and beyond. He will continue to receive our full backing and support.” (more…)
Not a single serious bidderAfter a summer of discontent at Newcastle United, with the club having been up for sale since May, we’ve failed to attract a single serious buyer.
It seems Moat was all mouth and all the other ‘bidders’ were either publicity hunters, time-wasters or chancers who only expressed an interest in the hope of purchasing way below Ashley’s £100m asking price.
A few weeks ago I posted an article which quoted the Telegraph’s ‘source close to the club’ as follows:
“No one has come up with any money – no one.
“Barry Moat and the South Africans have one thing in common – they are all talking but they have no produced any money.
“There will be some preliminary conversations late in the week and I would think Barry Moat will have some provisional discussions with them although I can’t underline provisional enough.
“Until someone comes up with the money Mike Ashley has got to stay in control of the club. He has got no choice.” (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…)
