Roeder in danger as Newcastle go out of Europe and drift nowhere in England
Uncertainty from the boardroom to the pitch deepens Tyneside gloom, reports Michael Walker
Saturday March 17, 2007
The Guardian
Dispirited Newcastle United supporters making their weary way back from Alkmaar yesterday will hardly be reassured by the notion that things may get worse before they get better. Tomorrow brings a trip to Charlton that apparently everyone on Tyneside regards as a home banker, Monday has the Football Association's hearing with Emre Belozoglu over his racial abuse charge and, in the longer term, there is a growing consensus locally that the chairman, Freddy Shepherd, is expected to mount a bid for the shares of his fellow directors Sir John Hall and Douglas Hall.
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If Shepherd were to do that successfully, then he and his increasingly influential son, Kenneth, would effectively run the club as a family concern.
Barely 48 hours after the announcement in January by the investment group Belgravia that they were withdrawing from their potential takeover talks - a process stimulated by the Hall family's desire to sell their 41% stake in the club - Shepherd put himself forward as a possible bidder, saying: "I would consider buying the Halls' shares at the correct price."
Due to the "whitewash" agreement concluded with Belgravia, they would be entitled to match or beat any Shepherd offer for the Hall shareholding within six months of their announcement but there has been no fresh contact between Belgravia and the Halls or with the club since January and a spokesman for the group said yesterday that Belgravia "is maintaining a watching brief; we keep all investment opportunities under review".
There was no sub-text to the comments and Belgravia is not anticipated to revisit the club's books imminently. With Polygon, the other company who entered discussions with the Halls, also understood to be not returning, it leaves the Halls with a dilemma.
"Sir John Hall has to decide what his role is," Shepherd said in January. "The future of this club is in his hands. He has to decide whether he wants to stick or sell. The uncertainty is making it hard for me to run the club. Sir John identified two potential buyers and it hasn't worked. How many more potential buyers has the club to cope with?"
It is believed that Belgravia were prepared to offer around £130m for Newcastle and take on the club's unknown debt figure. Newcastle's share price enjoyed a small rise yesterday but the paper value is approximately £85m. To acquire the Halls' 41% would mean Shepherd finding tens of millions that few analysts think he has.
Some fans might consider this dry detail but until the ownership of the club is settled, strategic planning will suffer. Shepherd already runs the club on a day-to-day basis but he cannot drive it with a 29% shareholding.
Therefore, despite the unambitious manner of their Uefa Cup exit on Thursday night in Alkmaar, Glenn Roeder may remain in place until the moment when Alan Shearer decides he has had enough of Match of the Day. That will not be for another 12 months, it is said.
But if Newcastle's form implodes over the coming weeks, and the noises coming from senior players such as Shay Given and Kieron Dyer do not convince that there will be some rousing resistance witnessed at The Valley and elsewhere, Shepherd may remove Roeder. Considering the chairman fought the League Managers' Association among others to get Roeder appointed last year, that would be done reluctantly but there is billowing dissatisfaction with Roeder among those who buy season tickets.
Yet Roeder is already engaged in summer planning and Reading's Steve Sidwell is expected to join as a free agent. But Emre's future is uncertain, as is Titus Bramble's, and Michael Owen's return from injury may now be delayed. There would be logic to Owen having the entire season off rather than risk himself at its end. And it does feel at an end. "What can we say?" asked Given, "we've let the fans down again. The whole team didn't play well and we're out of Europe, so it's the end of the season."
Dyer, meanwhile, looked ahead to Charlton tomorrow and said: "While we still have to try and win as many points as we can and climb up the table, tonight [Alkmaar] will take a long time to get out of our system. I honestly believe that."
Supporters will not enter The Valley's sold-out away section confident and, if there is a downturn, then further anti-Shepherd protests of the sort that followed the home defeat by Sheffield United in November cannot be discounted. Even fans numbed by year after year of disappointment can still get angry.
