"I'm claiming this much"Kevin Keegan is not claiming £25m from Newcastle United according to The Sunday Express.
Keegan’s constructive dismissal claim, which the ‘judges’ retired to consider over the weekend, has been plagued with rumours of £25m claims that will put the club into administration.
Yet a ‘close Keegan aide’ told the Express: “That is just malicious nonsense. This figure has obviously been leaked to try to place Kevin in a bad light.”
Apparently what Keegan is claiming is the £8m he is owed on his outstanding 3 and half year contract.
I’m not really one for trusting ‘sources’, ‘insiders’ or ‘close Keegan aides’ but I believe the gist of this is correct. £25m is a quarter of the value of the club (at Ashley’s estimate of that value anyway) and there would simply be no justification for such an amount, no matter how wronged Keegan might be. (more…)
£25m pleaseAccording to The Sun (titter ye not) Kevin Keegan is demanding that Mike Ashley pays him £25m to settle their compensation battle.
The figure includes £9m payable for the remainder of his 3 and a half year contract with Newcastle United plus £16m as compensation against the loss of future earnings.
This is of course the sort of thing that fuels fears the club will go into administration.
A ‘source’ apparently said:
“Keegan is crazy. Does he really want to bankrupt Newcastle?
“It is madness to think he should be paid that much but perhaps he sees this as a last big payday.
“For a bloke who says he loves the club, this is all very, very strange.”
I will eat my hat if Keegan is awarded £25m and I’m really quite fond of my hat. £25m is a significant proportion of the club’s value and there’s no way I can see Keegan justifying such a payout, no matter how wronged he may have been by the club. (more…)
Edging close perhapsReports in The Mail and The Mirror are suggesting that Newcastle United may be sold by the end of this week. We’ve heard it all before of course but one of the newspapers will get it right one day and maybe it’s today.
Last week Newcastle issued a statement saying that Ashley’s £100m asking price has been met and all deals were now at the ‘sale and purchase stage‘ and apparently senior staff at the club have been told to brace themselves for ‘a big week‘ this week.
It was speculated that the sticking point was the loan facility with Barclays, so presumably – if a sale is imminent – that has now been sorted out and Barry Moat is in a position to take over the club.
If Moat takes over it is of course widely thought that Alan Shearer will be appointed as manager, although whether or not that’s a good idea still divides fans. At a function last week Shearer was indicating that he would not wait for Newcastle forever and was prepared to consider managing another club, but if the takeover is as close as the newspapers are suggesting it looks like Shearer won’t have to do that. (more…)
Damning emails?It’s the News of the World, so don’t take it too seriously, but they claim that Keegan has a bunch of emails that will prove Mike Ashley made his position untenable and he was therefore constructively dismissed.
‘Sources close to Keegan’ (hmm) claim that the emails will blow Ashley’s case out of the water. One such source said:
“There are emails people have never seen. If the truth comes out about what went on, then Ashley and Wise will be decimated. The last thing Kevin wanted to do was walk out but his position was impossible.”
The article then goes on to claim that all parties in the tribunal have signed a declaration stating that they will not leak information, although that doesn’t seem to have prevented the leaked information that somehow seems to have found its way to the News of the World. (more…)
