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NUFC owner Ashley calls in football's Mr Fixit


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MIKE ASHLEY has called in football’s top Mr Fixit to help him sell Newcastle United.

 

And Ashley and his team of Dennis Wise and Tony Jimenez will sit down on Thursday and have a look at the managerial situation – after the Carling Cup tie with Tottenham Hotspur at St James’s Park.

 

The Chronicle revealed on Tuesday that Ashley was on the verge of calling in former Football League chairman Keith Harris, who now holds a similar position with top City investment bank Seymour Pierce, to find a buyer for the club.

 

And after having no luck in Dubai, Ashley has now put the situation into the hands of the man who brokered the deals that saw Russian Roman Abramovich installed at Chelsea and American Randy Lerner take over at Aston Villa.

 

And my information is that, despite inaccurate reports Ashley was asking for £480m in Dubai, the United owner will be happy to get back the money he invested in United – around £200m.

 

Keith Harris usually does not mess around and there has to be a good chance that he can come up with a buyer in the near future.

 

It has to be remembered that when Mike Ashley bought Sir John Hall out a year gone May, everything was sorted out in just 24 hours

 

But reports that a Nigerian consortium is ready to pay £350m for United will have to be taken with a pinch of salt.

 

It’s no secret that while Ashley has been trying to sell United, there has been no progress on either a short-term or permanent manager to replace Kevin Keegan.

 

And certainly reports that eight managers have turned United down could not be wider of the mark.

 

:icon_lol::rolleyes::icon_lol::icon_lol::nufc:

 

For United have NOT offered the job to anyone. Indeed, headlines yesterday saying Terry Venables had turned Ashley down to answer an SOS were not correct.

 

As reported in the Chronicle on Saturday night, I spoke to the former England boss on Friday night and he said that he has not been approached by United and saw no point in discussing the matter any further.

 

Now the latest name being linked with United is their former boss Kenny Dalglish.

 

The only consolation for United is that Wednesday’s opponents are in a worse state than they are on the field, with Spurs having made their worst start to a season for 34 years.

 

Before heading to Tyneside, Spurs and their manager Juande Ramos were booed after yesterday’s goalless draw with Wigan Athletic at White Hart Lane.

 

http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/nufc/newcas...72703-21871389/

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THE Board of Newcastle United can today confirm it has appointed the London-based (:nufc:) investment bank Seymour Pierce to act on the potential sale of the Club.

 

All matters relating to the sale of the Club, including inquiries from interested parties, should go through Seymour Pierce.

 

The Club will be making no further comment at this time.

Edited by smoggeordie
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THE Board of Newcastle United can today confirm it has appointed the London-based investment bank Seymour Pierce to act on the potential sale of the Club.

 

All matters relating to the sale of the Club, including inquiries from interested parties, should go through Seymour Pierce.

 

The Club will be making no further comment at this time.

A bit of professionalism at long last

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THE Board of Newcastle United can today confirm it has appointed the London-based investment bank Seymour Pierce to act on the potential sale of the Club.

 

All matters relating to the sale of the Club, including inquiries from interested parties, should go through Seymour Pierce.

 

The Club will be making no further comment at this time.

A bit of professionalism at long last

 

You reckon?

 

Seymour Pierce has brought more underperforming companies to AIM over the past three years than any other City stockbroker, an analysis by The Times has shown.

 

....Two weeks ago, John Thain, chief executive of the New York Stock Exchange, criticised AIM for a lack of stringent corporate governance requirements and said it needed to continue raising standards to avoid harming the City’s reputation.

 

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/busi...icle1329291.ece

 

:nufc:

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THE Board of Newcastle United can today confirm it has appointed the London-based investment bank Seymour Pierce to act on the potential sale of the Club.

 

All matters relating to the sale of the Club, including inquiries from interested parties, should go through Seymour Pierce.

 

The Club will be making no further comment at this time.

A bit of professionalism at long last

 

Lol, might as well stick a hand-written 'For Sale' sign in the foyer window while they're at it :nufc:

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THE Board of Newcastle United can today confirm it has appointed the London-based investment bank Seymour Pierce to act on the potential sale of the Club.

 

All matters relating to the sale of the Club, including inquiries from interested parties, should go through Seymour Pierce.

 

The Club will be making no further comment at this time.

A bit of professionalism at long last

 

You reckon?

 

Seymour Pierce has brought more underperforming companies to AIM over the past three years than any other City stockbroker, an analysis by The Times has shown.

 

....Two weeks ago, John Thain, chief executive of the New York Stock Exchange, criticised AIM for a lack of stringent corporate governance requirements and said it needed to continue raising standards to avoid harming the City’s reputation.

 

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/busi...icle1329291.ece

 

:nufc:

 

Whoever buys the club will not be looking at it as an investment

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THE Board of Newcastle United can today confirm it has appointed the London-based (:nufc:) investment bank Seymour Butts to act on the potential sale of the Club.

 

All matters relating to the sale of the Club, including inquiries from interested parties, should go through Seymour Pierce.

 

The Club will be making no further comment at this time.

 

 

:rolleyes:

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THE Board of Newcastle United can today confirm it has appointed the London-based (:nufc:) investment bank Seymour Pierce to act on the potential sale of the Club.

 

All matters relating to the sale of the Club, including inquiries from interested parties, should go through Seymour Pierce.

 

The Club will be making no further comment at this time.

 

So the trip to Dubai with Wise and Labia was a bluff and just a beano after all, then?? As I said at the time, why would Jimmy Crankie be involved in any sale discussions??

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THE Board of Newcastle United can today confirm it has appointed the London-based (:nufc:) investment bank Seymour Pierce to act on the potential sale of the Club.

 

All matters relating to the sale of the Club, including inquiries from interested parties, should go through Seymour Pierce.

 

The Club will be making no further comment at this time.

 

So the trip to Dubai with Wise and Labia was a bluff and just a beano after all, then?? As I said at the time, why would Jimmy Crankie be involved in any sale discussions??

:rolleyes:

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More chance of selling the club now, I think this will see the asking price come down- they have to justify the club valuation and clearly there is little to justify Ashley's valuation on a sensible business basis.

 

I think we'll see this concluded (before due diligence) in the next two weeks.

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More chance of selling the club now, I think this will see the asking price come down- they have to justify the club valuation and clearly there is little to justify Ashley's valuation on a sensible business basis.

 

I think we'll see this concluded (before due diligence) in the next two weeks.

 

I really hope you're right. We'll be bottom of the table by the time any takeover is concluded anyway, but if this goes on for much longer, it will be too late to climb back to safety.

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More chance of selling the club now, I think this will see the asking price come down- they have to justify the club valuation and clearly there is little to justify Ashley's valuation on a sensible business basis.

 

I think we'll see this concluded (before due diligence) in the next two weeks.

 

I really hope you're right. We'll be bottom of the table by the time any takeover is concluded anyway, but if this goes on for much longer, it will be too late to climb back to safety.

 

the only thing I'm bothered about here, again, is whether or not the new owner have the good of the club at heart and understand that it all revolves first and foremost on how successful the first team is.

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More chance of selling the club now, I think this will see the asking price come down- they have to justify the club valuation and clearly there is little to justify Ashley's valuation on a sensible business basis.

 

I think we'll see this concluded (before due diligence) in the next two weeks.

 

I really hope you're right. We'll be bottom of the table by the time any takeover is concluded anyway, but if this goes on for much longer, it will be too late to climb back to safety.

 

the only thing I'm bothered about here, again, is whether or not the new owner have the good of the club at heart and understand that it all revolves first and foremost on how successful the first team is.

 

I understand and share your concerns however I think most of us agree that almost anything is better than what we have now. If the new lot are worse then we are fucked, plainly and simply fucked.

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I just hope that the lessons of the latter years of ShepHall and the farcical reign of Ashley are duly noted, we can't keep on making these mistakes.

 

Ashley will sell out to the highest bidder- rest assured his 'concern for the long-term future of the club' is paper thin.

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More chance of selling the club now, I think this will see the asking price come down- they have to justify the club valuation and clearly there is little to justify Ashley's valuation on a sensible business basis.

 

I think we'll see this concluded (before due diligence) in the next two weeks.

 

I really hope you're right. We'll be bottom of the table by the time any takeover is concluded anyway, but if this goes on for much longer, it will be too late to climb back to safety.

 

the only thing I'm bothered about here, again, is whether or not the new owner have the good of the club at heart and understand that it all revolves first and foremost on how successful the first team is.

 

I understand and share your concerns however I think most of us agree that almost anything is better than what we have now. If the new lot are worse then we are fucked, plainly and simply fucked.

I still think that Ashleys intentions and actually even his "plans" for the club were well-hearted and sensible. It just went downhill the moment he started to appoint drinking buddies for jobs that were far beyond their limited abilities.

 

If any takover goes through I have several concerns. Al Leazes said, first of all the new owners must have the club at heart. But there are more issues. How are they taking it business wise. Will they transfer the debts from the purchase onto the club (something that Ashley after all didn't do). Will they really act professinally (something Ashley only did until after the appointment of Keegan)? Will they invest to fulfil their ambition both with the present and the future of the club in mind?

 

At the moment I am not sure what to want. On paper I think Ashley was the ideal owner. English, interested, with a heart for fan's demands. Unfortunately he was either or both a liar and a dumwit. With new obscure owners like companies looking for a quick profit (too?) or with questionable credibility (Nigeria, China?) I am not sure it is really the direction of the club I want it heading too. The only unfortunate thing I know is that I do not seem to care as much as I did a couple of weeks ago...

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I hate to say it but I think the Mackems have the sort of setup I'd like - okay the backers aren't locals but they have a bridge to someone with the club's interests at heart with Quinn.

 

The local consortium sounds good in principle but I think if it was feasible they'd probably just stretch to the asking price leaving nothing for large investment in players.

 

I guess it is following stereotypes but I can't help being worried by the possibility of Nigerians. As I said before the Chinese one sounds okay in terms of any property development meaning a full scale investment in the club and city but again we don't know what plans they'd have for transfers.

 

A lot of the Arab investors courted last week seemed to be strictly interested with a view to investing in the true sense of the word which is probably better from a business angle but again unsure about the football side.

 

I agree with Isegrim that in many ways Ashley was ideal (though we would have liked more transfer funds) if he had been serious about being in for the long haul (which I now seriously doubt).

 

So What we really need is an over-subscribed in terms of money allowing a major splurge, local consortium which would have links to the club, an inherent long term plan but probably not linked to Shepherd - not much to ask for surely.

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