Jimbo

He can sell us for whatever he wants in my opinion as he sells us soon to the a buyer with the right ambition.

Spurds fans must weep when they see how well Martin Jol is doing at Hamburg:

Winter is one of the few journos that I've any respect for.

I actually don't believe these meetings are happening full stop. More 'paper talk. shit journalism, propaganda, delete as applicable.

Looks like some sucker bought it

Newcastle owner Mike Ashley last night flew into Abu Dhabi as he stepped up his desperate bid to sell the crisis-torn club. The billionaire businessman joined directors Dennis Wise and Tony Jimenez in Dubai over the weekend to make contact with Dubai International Capital (DIC), who have pulled out of a takeover of Liverpool after more than a year of negotiations. But yesterday he moved on to Abu Dhabi, home of ADUG, the group who pulled off the £200million takeover of Manchester City last month. Ashley and his directors have made contact with powerbrokers in that deal in an attempt to secure interested parties. Empty seats: Newcastle owner Mike Ashley and director of football Dennis Wise missed Saturday's defeat to Hull Ashley is looking for a quick sale after announcing his desire to find new owners following protests by furious supporters before, during and after the 2-1 home defeat to Hull City on Saturday. But he has been warned by fans he still faces continual demonstrations at matches, despite his heart-felt statement on Sunday night. In a joint statement, fanzine editors Mark Jensen and Mick Martin warned: ‘The situation has not altered with Mike Ashley telling us something we already knew, that he wants to sell Newcastle United. The protests at the running of the club need to continue.’ Sheikh Mohammed’s DIC group are desperate to invest in a Barclays Premier League club and are one of a number of options for Ashley, who revealed he has ploughed more than £250million into Newcastle. The once reclusive businessman will be looking to recoup that money. Ashley and his directors will be encouraged by the unexpected announcement from a DIC spokesman yesterday which stated talks with Liverpool had fallen through ‘nor is DIC or any other Dubai based party aware of any consortium or vehicle involved in a bid.’ Sports shop tycoon Ashley has already held talks with a number of groups over new financing for the club. Mike Ashley Hard times: Mike Ashley wants to find a buyer for Newcastle Reliance Communications, fronted by multi-billionaire Indian businessman Anil Ambani, last week distanced themselves from a takeover, but that was before Ashley announced his intention to sell. Ambani is continuing to monitor events at St James’ Park. Singapore-based Profitable Group were linked with a buyout during the summer, but the group, fronted by former Liverpool and England player Steve McMahon, denied claims they were prepared to launch a bid. Another option could be a consortium of local businessmen, led by former chairman Freddy Shepherd, but they would also require serious investment from abroad. Shepherd was in talks with Finnish billionaire Poju Zabludowicz, whose wife Anita is a Geordie, before selling his shares to Ashley 18 months ago. Although he has denied plotting a full-scale sale of the club for several months, Ashley did not hide his desire to find new investors during the summer. But months spent hawking the club around the Middle East and the United States failed to attract new business. The uncertainty surrounding the club has cast doubt on the identity of Kevin Keegan’s successor as manager. Gus Poyet, the Tottenham No 2, has turned the vacancy down, leaving Ashley to retain caretaker Chris Hughton for now. Shepherd, meanwhile, has dismissed Ashley’s claims that the club might have folded without the takeover in 2007. The former Newcastle chairman said: ‘It’s absolutely ridiculous. The club was in good shape. We didn’t have any problems when I left.’

BTW Jimbo, heard your email read out on Talkshite this aft

Is Ramos still a tactical genius ?

RIP

The Sum of all fears ?

Any Given Sunday Loved it Under performing team, undermined by its overly interfering owner, upsets charismatic manager...... sounds familiar.

SHAY GIVEN went berserk in the Newcastle dressing room after the home defeat by Hull. The Republic of Ireland goalkeeper, a highly-respected figure at the club he has loyally served for 11 years, was fuming at the mess United find themselves in. As the shell-shocked players sat down to digest the 2-1 loss and the events of the past fortnight — which have seen manager Kevin Keegan quit then almost return — Given lost it. A dressing-room insider said: “Shay was going absolutely nuts. He cannot believe what is happening at Newcastle. “He was flinging things around the dressing room and getting very annoyed. “He was saying how the board should be talking to the players, telling them what is going on instead of hiding. “The rest of the squad look up to Shay and have never seen him so angry. “He is a real professional and doesn’t think this is any way to run a club.” Given has made 440 appearances for Toon, while veteran midfielder Nicky Butt is another finding the situation intolerable. The insider added: “Nicky was at Manchester United where these sorts of things do not happen. “He is completely frustrated by what is going on.” -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- THE lunacy of St James’ Park reached new levels of farce on Saturday when injured players Obafemi Martins and Habib Beye were stopped from entering the ground because they did not have a ticket. A bystander told SunSport: “It was unbelievable. The security man told them Ashley had said no one was allowed in without a ticket. “When they argued the security guy said there were no exceptions. It was a really embarrassing situation. Finally, a bloke who seemed like the head of security let them in.”

FOR a hard-nosed business man, Mike Ashley is going without much of a fight. As soon as the Toon Army flexes its muscles, he’s out the door. He will, of course, attempt to make as much of a profit as he can on his £220million investment — which was probably his aim all along. What is certain is the club will remain in a shambolic state of limbo for some time. Ashley talks about how he bought a club owing millions. But surely he knew that when he came in or did he really not do due diligence? Prospective buyers will realise that, to get fans back onside, the Cockney mafia will have to go. That means the end of the road for Dennis Wise, Tony Jiminez, Derek Llambias and the rest of the gofers brought in at St James’ Park. And who will fund their pay-offs? If Ashley has the best interests of the club at heart, the money has to come out of his own pocket — not just added to the purchase price. And what happens about a new manager? How can any candidate put his name forward when he knows new owners will bring in their own man? How can Ashley, who axed Sam Allardyce because the former Bolton boss was not his choice, make any appointment himself? The reinstatement of Kevin Keegan will be seen by many Newcastle supporters as the way round the problem. It was certainly the conclusion Ashley himself came to last Friday night. Recognising the folly that induced Keegan’s resignation, he called the former manager in for talks. The tactic was obvious: raise the possibility of Keegan returning and the dogs might be called off. Newcastle fans, though, made it clear they were not going to be suckered in again. Here was another blatant attempt by Ashley to use people for his own benefit — not the club’s. Newcastle faithful saw it as the deliberate ploy it was: Get the hero back in as a stabilising force then sell the club. Just as he thought things couldn’t get any worse, Newcastle then lost 2-1 at home to Hull. A defeat accompanied by such obvious discontent the owner was forced to admit: I get the message. Yet even yesterday morning one of his highly-paid acolytes was still claiming he wouldn’t be deflected from his aims at the club. Which came as a surprise to the rest of us, who believed he had already achieved them. To make Newcastle an even greater LAUGHING STOCK. Never had a manager been treated with such contempt. Nor a set of supporters. Ashley’s failure to get the point led him to believe Keegan, the Toon Army and the rest of us were as stupid as one another. When the wheels first started coming off, the club issued a statement that read: “Kevin Keegan was allowed to manage his duties without any interference.” When this was laughed out of court, they started leaking misinformation that Keegan wanted to sign Ronaldinho, Thierry Henry and Frank Lampard. The innuendo was clear: Keegan was so out of touch the only players he knew were the obvious big-hitters. This cheap shot was followed by an even bigger insult yesterday when one of those famous “club sources” turned on a set of fans most people thought had been denigrated enough. Ashley’s “ally”, using the example of Leeds ending up in the old Third Division through financial mismanagement, gloated: “Is that what Newcastle fans want? They say there’s up to 400,000 of them in the area. “If they all put in £1,000 they can buy the club and run it themselves. They can vote for the manager and buy and sell players.” This flippancy, though, couldn’t disguise one home truth: Newcastle fans WOULD make a far better job of it than the clowns in charge. Ashley’s mate concluded: “I bet you it doesn’t happen. “It’s just so much easier to stand on the sidelines, moaning and complaining and pointing the finger.” That cheap comment was a fatal, puerile error. The last thing you do is turn on your own fans. Ashley made his fortune by flogging sports gear to a faceless public. As such, so long as his football shirts weren’t full of holes, he could treat them with as much contempt as he wanted. But you can’t do that to the identifiable public you get at a football club. Especially in a one-club city like Newcastle. The Cockney Mafia had probably never even heard of Milburn. They maybe even thought Macdonald was something that came with a banana milkshake and large fries. They and Ashley know better this morning.

Louise Taylor The Guardian, Monday September 15 2008 Article history Derek Llambias chose to watch Newcastle United's latest undoing slouched in a seat adjacent to an exit with a supercilious smirk playing round his mouth and minders hovering close by. The club's managing director seemed to have perfected the impression of a man running scared while affecting not to care but at least Llambias actually turned up, which is more than can be said of Mike Ashley and Dennis Wise. On a day when true leaders would have faced the music, Newcastle's thin-skinned owner and his director of football passed up the chance to confront a Toon Army still incandescent at events prefacing Kevin Keegan's resignation. Granted, Ashley put the club on the market last night but, having insisted it will not be a "fire sale", the billionaire sports retailer could find himself stuck with Newcastle for some time. There is talk of an interested Chinese property developer but the global credit crunch allied to Ashley's desire to at least recoup his £250m investment may delay things. In the meantime, relegation could be a real possibility if the club is left rudderless. All the organisation on view on Saturday derived either from Hull City or protesting Newcastle fans. When it came to skilled choreography, Michael Owen and co never looked like producing a move remotely as eye-catching as the sight of thousands of supporters sweeping around the south-west corner of St James' Park and temporarily barricading the main reception where, just eight months ago, they had serenaded King Kev's second coming. Displaying a certain selective amnesia - remember how the replica-shirt-wearing, pint-swilling Ashley spent several months as "wor Mike, the toast of the Toon" after ousting the then-reviled former chairman, Freddy Shepherd? - those fans variously bellowed "Cockneys out" and "Walking in a Keegan wonderland". One suspected that, had Shepherd suddenly appeared, he would have been lifted on to willing shoulders, garlanded with flowers and feted as a returning saviour. Romantics cling to the hope of Keegan's restoration under a new regime but, given his insistence on the removal of Ashley's muckers, Wise, Llambias and Tony Jimenez, that seems a forlorn notion. Moreover, for all his virtues, Keegan perhaps does not represent the best way forward for a club too sentimentally attached to handing the job to someone born within spitting distance of the Tyne or boasting a past association with the club. The usually perceptive Sir Bobby Robson was peddling such an approach yesterday when he advocated Steve Bruce but if Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal can all thrive under foreign coaches why should Newcastle be any different? With the team in disarray, whoever takes over - and now that Paul Ince has apparently withdrawn, Newcastle's shortlist comprises Gus Poyet, Didier Deschamps and Tony Adams - cannot be appointed quickly enough. Their first act could be to strip Owen of the captaincy. While Hull fans chorused "Are you Grimsby in disguise?" Owen sulked rather than got on his team-mates' cases. Tellingly, when Chris Hughton, Newcastle's caretaker manager, offered tactical advice, Owen's face turned thunderous. In mitigation the striker, who worked hard enough at his own game, could hardly be blamed for Danny Guthrie's petulance. The ill-disciplined midfielder was sent off in the 90th minute for twice kicking Craig Fagan. Refreshingly, Phil Brown, Hull's animated manager tended to receive thumbs-up signals when he, sometimes unceremoniously, told players to do things differently. Their captain, Ian Ashbee, was an equally galvanising central-midfield leader. In the 34th minute Hull's impressive Marlon King opened the scoring from the penalty spot after Nicky Butt felled Peter Halmosi. Wise's failure to buy a left-back was one of the reasons Keegan resigned and watching the gifted but horribly out of position Charles N'Zogbia offer his ersatz interpretation of that role it was easy to see why. N'Zogbia was badly at fault for King's second, allowing the striker to cut inside him and curl a fabulous left-footed shot beyond Shay Given. Xisco - signed against Keegan's wishes on transfer deadline day - applied an unexpected gloss to a generally shocking debut by tapping home the rebound after N'Zogbia's late shot ricocheted off a post. But Brown was not about to be denied revenge for the beating-up he took while watching Sunderland here in the 1970s. No shrinking violet, Hull's manager - who seemed highly amused by the content of a congratulatory text from Keegan's predecessor, Sam Allardyce - and his players had been involved in lively exchanges with a Geordie wedding party staying at the team's Northumberland hotel on Friday night. Although he dismissed the incident as "a storm in a teacup", Hull checked out of Slaley Hall shortly before 10pm and diverted to alternative accommodation. A controversial last-minute decision it may have been but at least Brown possessed the leadership qualities to make that call. Man of the match Marlon King (Hull)

3% at £200m

He's sniffing around Everton isn't he ?

Former Newcastle chairman Freddy Shepherd has told Sky Sports News he has already been approached by two consortiums interested in taking over at St James' Park. Mike Ashley's decision to put the club up for sale, amid vociferous criticism from the club's supporters over the departure of Kevin Keegan, has already alerted a number of consortiums weighing up a takeover. Sports Direct owner Ashley bought a 93 per cent share of the club for £134.4million in May 2007 but his regime has been beset by problems. Shepherd claims two separate 'big-money players' have approached him; although he will not be lending his name to their possible bids. Two consortiums "There are people who would buy that club, there is no doubt about that," he told Sky Sports News. "I've been approached by two consortiums to add my name to it. I didn't fancy adding my name to the consortiums that were offered to me, but there are always people who would buy that club." When quizzed on whether he would ever consider returning to his boyhood club Shepherd remained coy, although he did state he was firmly in favour of reinstating Keegan as manager. He said: "One thing I've learnt is never say never. "I'd take a bet we haven't heard the last of Kevin Keegan. I would definitely bring Kevin back, he's the right man for the job. "It's entirely up to Mike Ashley. When I worked with Kevin he used to identify the players and put a value on them and we used to try and get the money to buy the players. We didn't try to get involved in judging the player - it was left to Kevin." Failed set-up Shepherd believes the infrastructure at Newcastle, set up by Ashley to have Dennis Wise oversee all of the club's transfers, has not worked out and needs dramatically modifying. He continued: "Nobody wants to see what's happened but I think the way the club has been structured has not worked for Newcastle. "It's a fantastic club, it's got everything there, a great training ground, as everybody said it's got great fans and the team must be wondering what's going on - it's certainly affecting them. "I think the position needs to be calmed, it needs to be stabilised. There is far too much emotion running around." Stinging rebuke Ashley's criticism of the financial situation he inherited upon buying the club did not sit well with Shepherd either. "To get back to what he paid for the club, he got us for the right price. He couldn't even build half the stadium for what he paid for that club. He got a great deal," Shepherd concluded. "As far as the money is concerned I think he should take the advice he gave to Sports Direct shareholders: 'Don't be cry babies'. "He seems to be whinging now about the money, well if I was a Sports Direct shareholder I'd be whinging about the money as well. He should take his own advice. The debt he had to pay was if you like, the mortgage on the ground."

In Bruges? Correct-a-mundo ! brilliant movie.

By putting the club up for sale, Ashley is effectively shelving his long-term plans for the club, and if his heart is in the club and wants what is best for NUFC as his statement would suggest, why not bring Keegan back in, carte-blanche and give him full control, rather than let the club fester with a caretaker manager at the helm.

If he wants to imitate the Arsenal model, why did he undermine his manager by taking away is control of transfer affairs, could you imagine Arsene Wenger tolerating being dictated to by distant members of the set up like Keegan was ? not a chance. After reading his statement I do feel some slight sympathies for Ashley, but why has it taken so long, and for such a level of collapse before he opens his heart to the fans, he's made massive errors, and is paying the price.