Jimbo 133 Posted May 24, 2009 Share Posted May 24, 2009 Saving a relegated Newcastle Would it really be such a tragedy for Newcastle fans if the club went down? I don't think so, not if you believe that the club can only go forward once Mike Ashley sells the club. Imagine you're a prospective buyer. You have, say, £300 million to spend. If Newcastle are in the top-flight, it will probably cost you somewhere north of £200m to buy the club, leaving £100m to spend on the playing squad. But if Newcastle were relegated, it would be worth less money. A lot less, probably no more than £100m to £120m. That's how the economics of football tend to work, once you're out of the Premier League, you're worth a lot less, because you don't enjoy that fat TV contract. Of course, if that were the case, you, the prospective buyer, could snap up the club for between £100m and £120m and then have between £180m and £200m to spend on the squad. And that's a fair whack of cash with which to rebuild the team. Even without a new buyer, relegation wouldn't necessarily spell disaster for Newcastle. Here are some useful things you might want to do if you're Newcastle and you go down this summer: - Let Peter Lovenkrands, Mark Viduka, Claudio Cacapa and, especially, Michael Owen leave on a free. They're all out of contract in June and their departures will save you more than £15m. - David Edgar is out of contract too. Might as well keep him around if you think he can help, he won't cost much. - Your main problem is that your better players may want to leave. You probably won't be able to hang on to some of them, especially if they're foreign. Obafemi Martins will probably have to go, but he should fetch some £10m, plus you'll save around £3m on his wages. You should probably sell Habib Beye as well. He's a very good fullback, but you can get some money for him now, whereas you won't get anything at the end of next season since his contract expires in 2010 (and you sure as heck don't want to renew it now). You should get £1m for him (he's thirty-one after all), while saving yourself £1m in wages. - Steven Taylor will stick around since he loves Newcastle, and you've got Edgar too. Sebastian Bassong is a legitimate footballer, he's twenty-two and has a contract through 2011. If you're clever, you can persuade him to not ask for a transfer and, instead, sell him on your long term plans for the club. You should try to move Fabricio Coloccini as well (I doubt he'll want to play in the Championship). It may have to be on loan as his wages will scare off a few clubs and you probably don't want to take a massive loss given that you spent a fair bit of money on him. But a loan will do, you get his £2.5m wages off your books (more savings) and, hopefully, put him in a shop window somewhere. With Taylor, Bassong and Edgar (plus, of course, Steve Harper, who, loyal as ever, has already extended his deal and isn't going elsewhere) you've got the makings of a decent back five. You'll need a leftback: Jose Enrique is not everyone's cup of tea, but, he's still young and you may yet find a taker, even on loan. Or you may choose to keep him around. He's not on massive money. That said, you'll want to bring in two defenders to add some depth. - In midfield, Nicky Butt has a year left on his contract. Yes, he's ancient, but he's dependable and up for a challenge and gives you some experience. Keep him and keep Danny Guthrie. You need some steel at that level. Kevin Nolan will probably find some takers in the Premier League. If your manager likes him and can persuade him to stay, then keep him, if not, move him one, you'll get £3 or £4m for him and get his wages off your books. Jonas Gutierrez seems to enjoy himself on Tyneside, he can be very effective in the Championship. If not, sell him, you'll get Nolan-type money for him. Ryan Taylor is unassuming and relatively young, no reason to get rid of him (especially since he doesn't make a lot of money). Geremi will be a year away from gong on a free, no reason to keep him around, take whatever you can get and move on. Ideally, you'd do the same for Alan Smith, except he has a huge contract which runs through 2012 which basically makes him impossible to sell (unless you sell him to a fool, which is always a possiblity). Odds are, you're stuck with him. Damien Duff is a slightly different issue. He's thirty and makes big money (with two years left) but he probably will find takers. You should get around £4m for him, take it and enjoy the £2.5m a year savings. As for Joey Barton, unless he goes back to prison or you get some really clever lawyers who can cancel his contract, you're stuck with him. Keep him around as a reminder not to repeat the mistakes of the past. Do all that and you're left with Guthrie, Butt, Ryan Taylor and, possibly, Smith, Gutierrez and/or Nolan. Could be better, could be worse. You probably just need one more quality signing (two, possibly three if Nolan and/or Gutierrez leave). - Up front, with Viduka, Lovenkrands, Owen and, likely, Martins gone, you'll need bodies. Shola Ameobi and Andy Carroll deserve a shot at this level, but they'll need help. Invest in two strikers: an up-and-comer with a sizeable upside and a proven veteran who regularly scores goals in the Championship (a Kevin Phillips type, though, obviously, not him). - You'll still have some flotsam and jetsam on your books - Nacho Gonzalez, Xisco, etc - but, if you followed the above recipe just in terms of departing players, you will have brought in around £18m, while saving yourself between £20m and £25m in wages. That's roughly a third of your total wage bill. - You'll still have the parachute payment, you'll have a spine which can more than hold its own at Championship level, you'll still sell out every week. Now if only you could sort out your managerial situation and, possibly, find the kind of buyer who will kick Ashley into touch once and for all... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMoog 0 Posted May 24, 2009 Share Posted May 24, 2009 I live in hope Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Fish 9103 Posted May 24, 2009 Share Posted May 24, 2009 Well seeing as it's that easy, they may as well give us the Championship trophy now, saves them polishing it up twice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Kelly 1117 Posted May 24, 2009 Share Posted May 24, 2009 Is he getting paid for that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ImpossiblyDaft 1 Posted May 24, 2009 Share Posted May 24, 2009 How do I get money for planning what I'm going to do on next season's Football Manager game? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ayatollah Hermione 12857 Posted May 24, 2009 Share Posted May 24, 2009 It's not going to be easy as this though, is it? Isn't the club still wracked with debt? Who will the manager be? Who will these mystery replacements be? Also, no chance of Bassong staying IMO. He's too good to drop with us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kid Dynamite 6052 Posted May 24, 2009 Share Posted May 24, 2009 Is he getting paid for that? Cant really argue with what the man says Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TicTacWoe 0 Posted May 24, 2009 Share Posted May 24, 2009 Is he getting paid for that? Cant really argue with what the man says He's ridiculously optimistic regarding who we'll keep and how much we'd get for those we sell. We wont get 10 for Martins, 4 million for a 30 year old Duff? 4 million for Nolan? Not gonna happen and we almost certainly will lose Bassong. Also I don't think we should necessarilly get rid of Lovenkrands. And this whole thing about Butt being dependable, what a load of shit, people just say this because he plays all the time and gives it his all, but he's fucking hopeless. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimbo 133 Posted May 24, 2009 Author Share Posted May 24, 2009 Can't get shot of Nolan until at least January unless he goes back to Bolton. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ketsbaia 0 Posted May 24, 2009 Share Posted May 24, 2009 Marcotti talks so much shite it's unbelievable. If he didn't have an accent he'd be below Garth Crooks on the "pundits who know what the fuck they're talking about" scale. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TicTacWoe 0 Posted May 24, 2009 Share Posted May 24, 2009 Can't get shot of Nolan until at least January unless he goes back to Bolton. True, and also Marcotti talks about us getting rid of Gonzales, who is on loan, and soon gone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TicTacWoe 0 Posted May 24, 2009 Share Posted May 24, 2009 Marcotti talks so much shite it's unbelievable. If he didn't have an accent he'd be below Garth Crooks on the "pundits who know what the fuck they're talking about" scale. Well he actually knows a great deal about world football, usually knows his stuff regarding the south american leagues and what not, but lately he does seem to be spouting some shit alright. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paddy 9 Posted May 24, 2009 Share Posted May 24, 2009 it looks sooooo easy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kid Dynamite 6052 Posted May 24, 2009 Share Posted May 24, 2009 Is he getting paid for that? Cant really argue with what the man says He's ridiculously optimistic regarding who we'll keep and how much we'd get for those we sell. We wont get 10 for Martins, 4 million for a 30 year old Duff? 4 million for Nolan? Not gonna happen and we almost certainly will lose Bassong. Also I don't think we should necessarilly get rid of Lovenkrands. And this whole thing about Butt being dependable, what a load of shit, people just say this because he plays all the time and gives it his all, but he's fucking hopeless. Our players are on contracts, if we want to keep them then we keep them. Shearer wont be fucked about Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ketsbaia 0 Posted May 24, 2009 Share Posted May 24, 2009 Is he getting paid for that? Cant really argue with what the man says He's ridiculously optimistic regarding who we'll keep and how much we'd get for those we sell. We wont get 10 for Martins, 4 million for a 30 year old Duff? 4 million for Nolan? Not gonna happen and we almost certainly will lose Bassong. Also I don't think we should necessarilly get rid of Lovenkrands. And this whole thing about Butt being dependable, what a load of shit, people just say this because he plays all the time and gives it his all, but he's fucking hopeless. Our players are on contracts, if we want to keep them then we keep them. Shearer wont be fucked about Shearer might not be here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fop 1 Posted May 24, 2009 Share Posted May 24, 2009 About the only "positive" outcome of this could be that someone else can buy the club "cheap" and then have more to spend. But it requires there to be a buyer, and it requires them to be willing to spend more than Ashley (and even with his credit crunch losses he's still got quite a wedge behind him).... and not to be so fucking stupid as Ashley to boot. The opposite of that is of course someone that can't afford us buys us "cheap" and it gets even fucking worse. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ImpossiblyDaft 1 Posted May 24, 2009 Share Posted May 24, 2009 Can't get shot of Nolan until at least January unless he goes back to Bolton. Is it calendar year based, I thought it was based on seasons? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken 119 Posted May 25, 2009 Share Posted May 25, 2009 It'll definitely be hard to shift all these players. In my world I would only keep S.Taylor, Bassong, Beye, Duff, Guthrie, Carroll, Martins and yes the fatty Viduka - who would strictly be on an incentives based contract. Still need some old heads and Beye, Duff and Viduka would provide that. Everyone else in the current squad I would get rid of. I would then try and promote a bit of pace (eg. first team regularity for Lua Lua and Ranger), and scout really hard for some triers on smaller wages. But of course this won't be so easy in the real world, and the likes of Bassong, Martins and Beye will most likely want out, and wasters like Smith, Geremi, Ameobi and Butt will not want to go anywhere. I am looking forward to the new season though. Things need changing at the club and has done for a long while now. Being in the Championship will force that change, even if it means a couple of seasons down there. You never know, Ashley may just walk away and we really could start afresh with Shearer and HIS own staff rebuilding things. That is all we really have to look forward to now anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob W 0 Posted May 25, 2009 Share Posted May 25, 2009 well you may knock what he says but at least its a plan - I see no sign of one at SJP......... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meshman 0 Posted May 25, 2009 Share Posted May 25, 2009 I live in hope only 3 miles down the road from shitheap tbh Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandman02uk 0 Posted May 25, 2009 Share Posted May 25, 2009 the one shinning star I see in ll this is that Ameobi wants to play for a premiership side get fucked then son, lets see if its about the football or if its about the money Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JawD 31 Posted May 25, 2009 Share Posted May 25, 2009 Its going to be interesting. See what players will drop down with the club to try and drag us back up again, and which players wipe their hands and want away, not really giving a fuck about the club at all. Then those in the middle, players that we just have to sell to make revenue to keep the books right. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaddockLad 14803 Posted May 25, 2009 Share Posted May 25, 2009 well you may knock what he says but at least its a plan - I see no sign of one at SJP......... Driving to Villa yesterday listening to BBC 5live,a journo described as "fact" that NUFC have on the books 15 players earning 50k or more per week with no clause in their contract for relegation.Wages are 70% of turnover,where the accepepted ration is that it should be no more than 50%. We lost 70 million in the last financial year we have audited books for because of this on the third highest gates in the league. Marcotti is advocating keeping up to half a dozen of these players on 50k a week or more. I think he's living in a paralell universe if he thinks thats going to happen. With income being slashed to a huge extent for next season I think the only player I'd be interested in definetly keeping is Habib Beye who seems to have a great affinity with the club,has ability, and at 32/33 may be interested in division one football if he's made captain and he can keep his salary. As for the rest, they don't really deserve the chance to fight for promotion considering they've been largely gutless all season (e.g. second half yesterday) regardless of how miuch they earn. Shearer/whoever comes in needs to change the whole ethos and character of the club from being a holiday camp to being somewhere where you have to play for the shirt. I do know this is virtually impossible when many players are millionaires by the time they are barely out of their teens. We need players who know how to really want something, who are not cushioned by a huge contract and have forgotten all about the desire that got them to the posistion of earning the huge contract in the first place. If we go down this road, we may well watch some real shit for a couple of seasons, but we'll emerge leaner and fitter with a club where desire and bottle are the most important things, not a place where bog standard players come to pick up hollywood wages for virtually fuck all in return. I really wouldn't miss a single one of our current playing squad if they all fell off a fuckin cliff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bombadil 0 Posted May 25, 2009 Share Posted May 25, 2009 £10m for Martins, £4m for Duff and £4m for Barton? What a load of crap. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob W 0 Posted May 25, 2009 Share Posted May 25, 2009 Martins maybe the other two....................................................... unlikely Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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