Don't blame it on Owen, don't blame it on Freddie

[Neville Neville Neville 0]

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/200...15875-21162409/

 

Michael Owen's £16million move from Real Madrid in 2005 is being used as a smokescreen to disguise Newcastle's crippling financial problems of 2009.

 

Former chairman Freddy Shepherd has accused Toon owner Mike Ashley and his board of trying to hijack the up-front funding of the club record Owen deal to deflect from their own financial inadequacies.

 

And Shepherd has blasted Ashley's net investment over four transfer windows as "a joke".

 

In a blistering broadside Shepherd has warned billionaire Ashley to "stop making excuses and blaming everyone but himself" and remember his own words to his unhappy Sports Direct investors about "acting like cry-babies".

 

Ashley's first balance sheet since his Toon takeover shows the Magpies parent company making a massive loss of £34m on 2007-08 and more than doubling the club's net liabilities to nearly £36m. The Magpies now owe Ashley, who paid £134m for the club in 2007, a staggering £248m.

 

Shepherd has taken off the gloves after Magpies managing director Derek Llambias described as "crazy" Newcastle's decision to pay for the Owen deal with sponsors' cash.

 

Shepherd said: "Newcastle bought England's top striker without borrowing from the bank or being landed with any interest charges. The fact we paid up front was the factor that allowed us to win the Owen race.

 

"It was a gilt-edged deal from a financial perspective, even if the injuries that have blighted Owen's time at Newcastle meant it didn't quite work out on the football front.

 

"The fee for a world class star like Owen was £4m a year over the period of his deal and with turnover in the £90millions it equated to less than four per cent of turnover.

 

"I think fans will question how such a miniscule proportion of turnover could spark a cash crisis in 2009.

 

"They are trying to camouflage the problems they have created and distance blame from themselves with a pathetic PR campaign.

 

"When we broke the world transfer record for Alan Shearer in 1996 the fee was £15m. We borrowed at high interest rates when turnover was much less so it was a far costlier and riskier deal in real terms than Owen's.

 

"I make absolutely no apologies for trying to bring the best to Newcastle. Shearer worked brilliantly, Owen didn't - but that is how football works.

 

"I'd challenge any one to compare the cash I backed managers with to the break-even transfer policy that now appears to be in place."

 

Shepherd believes many of Ashley's decisions have heightened the club's cash problems. He added: "He sacked Sam Allardyce, that cost £4.6m. They failed to back Kevin Keegan above and that's brought a legal claim for a reported £8m.

 

"They have lost the fans which has sent gates down to below 48,000 and cost revenue.

 

They've sold nearly £50m of talent they inherited and lost top players such as Shay Given, James Milner and Scott Parker.

 

"This comes at a time when the net spend on players is virtually invisible. The financial performance of the club is as worrying as what is happening on the field. My salary was criticised but it never matched the £1.35m it cost to bring Chris Mort in as chairman.

 

"Ashley's Sports Direct company advertising is plastered all over the stadium and the club publications but the accounts show that just £42,250 was paid to Newcastle.

 

"And what sort of business sells Shay Given to the world's so-called richest club, Man City, and has to to wait until the summer to be paid?

 

"When blame is being dished out for the present predicament I don't think too many people will be fooled by the excuses coming from the people who have been in charge for two seasons.

 

"I have been attacked for everything from the fact that Ashley failed to exercise due diligence to that I set up a deal to sign a world-class star without borrowing to do it.

 

"I wouldn't buy a secondhand car without checking it was road-worthy and whether there were any HP deals on it, so I don't see how it can be anyone's fault but his that he didn't look at the books before forking out £134m for a football club."

Edited March 1, 2009 by Neville Neville Neville

[Park Life 70]

Some good points tbf.

[Neville Neville Neville 0]

*awaits LeazesMag*

 

but freddie must be loving the fact that ashley in general is making him look the perfect chairman when he was far from it

[Park Life 70]

*awaits LeazesMag*

 

but freddie must be loving the fact that ashley in general is making him look the perfect chairman when he was far from it

 

 

Some feat.

[Ketsbaia 0]

He does have a good point or two. Shame he's a twat.

[Asprilla 96]

Well, I guess we shall see. So far we have yet to see any immediate benefit from Ashley's approach so Shepherd can gloat all he likes.

 

The fact is though, he was reaching the end of our credit card limit so to speak and we'll never know what the consequences might have been.

[LeazesMag 0]

"I make absolutely no apologies for trying to bring the best to Newcastle

 

quite right too.

 

Stick with ameobi Mike lad. Your customers like cheap and nasty alternatives.

[TheMoog 0]

Ohh how we've jumped out of the frying pan...

[JawD 31]

"Ashley's Sports Direct company advertising is plastered all over the stadium and the club publications but the accounts show that just £42,250 was paid to Newcastle.

 

"And what sort of business sells Shay Given to the world's so-called richest club, Man City, and has to to wait until the summer to be paid?

 

Really?

[Tom 13883]

I don't think that sign on the Gallowgate sits well with anyone.

[Howay 12478]

The sign on Gallowgate is a fucking disgrace.

[acrossthepond 707]

Perfectly symbolises what we've become, a charva club run by a charva owner who sells shitty charva sportswear at bargain bin prices.

 

Any time any fan reads any of the lies and propaganda vomited out by Ashley's PR engine and begins to wonder, all he/she has to do is look up at that sign to know what Ashley's plans for the club really are.

[Tom 13883]

NUFC Direct

[Hadrian 0]

love the fact we now owe ashley 250million , yay debt free !!! ..........

 

been waiting on freddy fighting back , as the PR and figures thats came outa sjp lately just hasnt added up for me .

 

some great points raised , not impressed with ashley not coughing up for sports direct advertising .

[Hadrian 0]

Well, I guess we shall see. So far we have yet to see any immediate benefit from Ashley's approach so Shepherd can gloat all he likes.

 

The fact is though, he was reaching the end of our credit card limit so to speak and we'll never know what the consequences might have been.

 

 

he's always said he had future investment lined up , and i dont think he was reaching the end of our credit card limit for a club this size , god knows how he was juggling some finances around and what he had planned , but he's always maintained there was gonna be money there for sam .

for all we know he could have been planning on building flats on the land we own and flogging them off , or any other number of ways to bring cash into the club .

 

did sam bring in the crazy earners before or after freddy left aswell , i know barton was before ? but the weekly wages of the likes of geremi cacapa and viduka is money pissed up the wall .

[Tom 13883]

Freddie was going to make the ground 60'000 and build hotels and casinos etc etc

[Matty 0]

I don't think that sign on the Gallowgate sits well with anyone.

 

 

Makes me fucking sick when I see it. So glad I sit in the Strawberry corner and can't see it during the match.

[Guest alex]

Says a lot that FS, who was 'hitty/missy' in his time as chairman, finds it so easy to poke fun at the current regime. Can't find much wrong with what he says either.