Newcastle United – News Roundup – 07 August 2009 [updated]
Posted on August 7th, 2009 | 19 Comments |
The club has confirmed that Alan Smith will be captain against West Brom as Nicky Butt is still injured and that Danny Guthrie will miss the game due to a hamstring injury picked up in training.
In terms of the management situation, the club have apparently ruled out the idea that Kinnear will return – although there’s nothing on NUFC’s official site to that effect – and The Mail are claiming that David O’Leary has also turned down the opportunity to become manager. This latter claim by The Mail contains no direct quotes from O’Leary though, so it could just be nonsense.
An awful lot is printed about Newcastle these days but, besides the confirmed transfers, most of it just appears to be speculation, so there is little of substance to actually report today.
The Barry Moat situation dominated most of the speculation yesterday but The Chronicle wonders if that’s all a ruse to flush out other bidders, which wouldn’t surprise me at all.
I think whether the club gets sold or not depends on how much Ashley is prepared to drop his £100m asking price, and the fact that the club hasn’t already been sold probably means Ashley isn’t prepared to drop that price much at all. The club simply isn’t worth £100m and I’d be surprised if Keith Harris didn’t make Ashley aware of that at the outset, so I really do have to wonder at what Ashley’s thinking.
Who knows though – maybe Keith Harris really does have a buyer at close to £100m, one that’s kept under the radar and will take the club off Ashley’s hands shortly after the new season gets under way.
I hope so because the prospect of Ashley hanging onto the club is terrifying.
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Update – 10:25:
First up I have to say I have no idea where this information comes from or how true it is, but The Journal is reporting that the Barry Moat bid may be collapsing and Ashley is preparing to take the club off the market again.
Apparently the talks are locked in a stalemate because Ashley is reluctant to drop his £100m asking price, although he has apparently offered to take £20m down and £80m in 12 months time. Ashley’s stubbornness is allegedly now causing friction between him and Keith Harris as Harris, Llambias and Moat begin a second day of talks to try and reach some sort of compromise.
As I stated, I’m very nervous about this article because there are no direct quotes and the source of the information is not revealed. For all I know it could be total speculation.
However, the fact that the club has been on the market since May and has still not been sold might tell us that nobody is prepared to meet Ashley’s asking price and that Ashley is indeed reluctant to drop that price. To be honest I think £100m is rather a lot for Newcastle United, particularly now after we’ve simply drifted into the start of the season without even attempting to build a squad to tackle the Championship or restructure the club for long-term success. I think Ashley would be very lucky to get £70-80m.
If Ashley keeps the club, what will he do? Presumably he’ll have to invest some money in new players and operating costs, but does he actually make a genuine attempt to make the club a long-term success or does he simply spend as little as possible and hope that by some fluke we gain promotion? Surely the latter course of action will just see Ashley’s investment in the club drop even further and is therefore unthinkable … isn’t it?
NUFCBlog Author: Hugh de Payen
I'm a baby-boomer of the punk rock persuasion, currently exiled in Somerset for crimes committed in a previous life where locals keep trying to poison me with something called 'scrumpy'. Hates sprouts, coat-hangers, Cilla Black, ornaments, Steven Seagull movies and 50 Cent (he's not worth 10).
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Bye Bye “Billy” Bassong…you could have been a star at a real football club, now you will forever live in the shadow of Arsenal……