The Gulf between us and The Premiership.

Posted on June 4th, 2009 | 23 Comments |

An extremely wealthy Sheikh from Dubai.
An extremely wealthy Sheikh from Dubai.
Boy is it difficult to take.

For every football site I visit now, I scroll to the Premiership expecting to find Newcastle listed amongst the participants. Sadly, no longer is that the case and it may take some getting used to. It’s also extra mileage on the scrolling finger.

If I get arthritis in future years, I’ll be looking back and blaming the current incumbent for my ailments.

Rumour and conjecture abound that Mr Harris, he of Seymour Pierce, is once again in the Gulf soliciting our good club to prospective buyers. It seems desperate times call for desperate measures and anybody with between £80m and £100m spare in their sky rocket and a penchant for purchasing ailing and disillusioned football clubs could get themselves a bit of a bargain.

According to The Guardian, it seems the targets are very much away from these shores, though that hardly comes as a surprise these days. But there is a very definite hard-sell going around Dubai and UAE.

Let’s hope Keith H. shows some manners unlike the previous party.

As for our potential owners, Mr Harris could quite possibly be persuasive, given his links and reputation over there but are they the sort of people we want at the helm? Are they money-grabbers or are these people perhaps naïve to the running of a football club but nonetheless enthusiastic about it (and possibly loaded). Either way, worryingly that all sounds dreadfully similar to a debate we were having a couple of years ago and look where we are at present.

As a collective, what do we really want from our owners?

For now, there is a huge gulf between us and a place amongst the best of English football and maybe only the other Gulf can help us bridge that gap.

NUFCBlog Author: bowburnmag bowburnmag has written 234 articles on this blog.

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Posted on by bowburnmag in category: Bowburn Mag and NUFC gossip and speculation and Thoughts and reflections
Comment on this post

23 Responses

  1. “As a collective, what do we really want from our owners?”

    Stability would be nice.

  2. Agree Hugh, I think stability is key, both from a financial and personnel perspective.
    Ideally I would prefer a local consortium, as long as they had the necessary funds, as that may provide us with more long term stability. My worry with foreign billionaires who just see us as a bargain that they can make some money out of, we could be any team there is no affinity with the club, so if the chips are down and they’ve made some money, they will have no real hesitation in cutting and running to their next venture. Don’t get me wrong as long as the owner is commited to developing the club over the long term, stays in the background, appoints knowledgable people to manage the running of the club, ensures sensible funds are available to develop and move the team forward, they ensure the club are more open in their communication with the fans that would be the ideal scenario and I wouldn’t care where they come from.

  3. nice to see the stories on the home page.geordiedeb iwould love local business men to buy the club ,but it wont happen,your reet this club needs stability but i carnt see that happenin for a long time,why coz i think ashley will struggle to find a buyer.

  4. Agreed: A consortium (local or otherwise) that looks to the long term stability and profitability.
    Foreign Billionaires do not invest cash, they banroll the clubs with massive debt.

  5. I want money, money and more money from an owner!

    Only way to compete now!

  6. hitman says:
    June 4, 2009 at 8:44 am
    nice to see the stories on the home page.geordiedeb iwould love local business men to buy the club ,but it wont happen,your reet this club needs stability but i carnt see that happenin for a long time,why coz i think ashley will struggle to find a buyer.

    I’m not too sure Ashley can afford NOT to find a buyer!

    I think he will do whatever it takes.

    Potential buyers have him over a barrel and he knows it.

  7. I see Gazza’s in full training for the Masters tournament, can’t c how we can lose !

  8. As long as the owner appoints someone who understands football and how to run a football club, does it matter where the owner or owners are from? If they appoint the right person to take care of the club for them then there should be no worries on either side. He will make sure their money is being spent wisely and will also be able to put forward a good case for further investment. Owners should be slight background noise, nothing more. For this reason I am puzzled as to why the Glaziers are given stick for not being at every game. Personally I couldn’t care if I never saw our new owner, ever, as long as they do what is right for the club.

  9. MT – “As long as the owner appoints someone who understands football and how to run a football club, does it matter where the owner or owners are from”

    I think we will do well to find a buyer let alone one who understands football.

  11. Been thinking this morning, now Ashleys going what his epitaph would be post Newcastle.

    Mike Ashley “Inherited a bad squad and even worse financial situation, good intentions, paid 150million of club debts off from his own pocket, put faith in the wrong people, chased out of town for not talking to the fans”

    What say you?

  12. No perplexed me that one Batty, its obviously part soft loan and it was 07-08 so it wont be a true reflection of the current standing.

  13. Be fair stardust, he was hardly chased out of town, was he? Last year he probably felt like that, but then he changed his mind and decided to stay on. No further protests have taken place and it looked like he was going to stay on, having learned from his mistakes and was ready to take the club forward. Instead he’s ran off with his tail between his legs.

  15. Stardust says:
    June 4, 2009 at 10:21 am
    No perplexed me that one Batty, its obviously part soft loan and it was 07-08 so it wont be a true reflection of the current standing
    <<<yeah ur right m8

  16. “batty says:
    June 4, 2009 at 10:32 am (Edit)
    mike ashley backed red ut it landed on black r i p fat ash”

    Class lol

  17. Incidentally, on the subject of local ownership, the Fenwicks and the Percys (Duke of Northumberland) are still the richest Geordies in Toon.

  19. £3-400 million for the Fenwick’s I seem to recall, Johno. Not so sure about the Percys, but I’ll check it out.

  21. and what would the chance of either been interested in us or in some sort of consortuim,

  22. Divven’t knaa Johno, but they’re just about the only locals with that kind of clout, financially speaking.

  23. When you talk about how much someone is worth it’s baring in mind that they might be “worth” £500m but how much of that is capital? It’s like MA he’s apparently worth £700m, but when he asks for a balance at the cash point it won’t say £700,000,000 available.