Ken

That's what I was thinking, it really is that simple, isn't it? Surely Shepherd hasn't got a leg to stand on if Ashley gets to 50% + 1, which he will do. absolutely, once he has 51% he can do what he likes and no one can stop him He can't take the club private which is will most likely be his ultimate aim. Main thing is, he'll be the big man on campus. Freddy will have to relent. There's no point holding onto them. He'll lose out financially. Ashley will have the power to dictate to Shephard how much his dividend will be worth.

Shepherd doesn't have the money to do that, hence his shareholding is just below the point where he'd be forced to make an offer to buy the rest of the shares. True...unless he did a Malcolm Glazer and borrowed to acquire the shares. Just the thought of that...

As we all know, Freddy tends to put his size 16's in his mouth most times he opens his gob ... and Hall was furious when Shepherd went public saying "I don't know what the Halls are doing offering to sell their shares". And what was supposed to be talk behind closed doors suddenly came out into the open. Shepherd said he was willing to buy Hall's share in Newcastle United to take full control of the club, but Sir John was obviously out to scupper the chairman's plans. So much so he was happy to take what Mike Ashley offered, in order to put Shepherd on the back foot. Rumour has it Sir John thinks the current chairman has "£" signs in his eyes and was hoping to over-price the club to make a tidy sum to the highest bidder, rather than have the welfare of Newcastle United at heart. Today Shepherd, as expected, has warned billionaire businessman Mike Ashley he will have to splash "a whole lot more" cash if he is to complete his takeover of the club. Ashley yesterday bought 41.6% of the club's shares from Sir John and family and has offered the same price of 100p per share to Shepherd - who owns 29.8% - and the rest of the Magpies' shareholders. Shepherd last week claimed that the St James' Park outfit was "impossible" to sell, but now that the Hall has found a willing buyer, he will find his resolve to stay at the club tested to the limit. But Shepherd sees "a big earner" and you can picture him rubbing his hands with glee. Shepherd: "There is nothing Mike Ashley can do with this club unless he gets a 75% stake. He can't take full control, he can't change resolutions or the club's articles of association. "He has spent £50m but he will have to spend a whole lot more, as he must now make an offer not just for my shares but the shares held by all the other shareholders." The news also came as a surprise to manager Sam Allardyce, who has been at the helm only a matter of days after succeeding Glenn Roeder. Allardyce: "I'm as shocked about this as chairman Freddy Shepherd. I didn't know this was going to happen. I will be talking to the chairman to see what it all means and we'll go from here. "I don't know anything about the person hoping to take over. But he must want good things for Newcastle if he's spending such an amount on the club."

Aye. Fuckin great that isn't it. Piss off Fatty, come on board Fatty.

Yoda was the fuckin' beezneez. I adored him!!!

Just been having a quick scan on current owners of Premiership clubs. I'm talking Lerner, Egghead, Hicks and Gillett, Glazer and of course Abramovich. Having a look at these owners' wealth, I rank Mike Ashley behind the obvious front runner of Abramovich and the combination of Hicks/Gillett. Correct me if I'm wrong of course. We are ranked third. Fuckin' hell, if he takes full control, we will be able to compete financially with the best there is. I'm still pinching myself after learning this deal went through yesterday...I thought I was dreaming! I find it ironic that Freddy finds himself in the position that he's in now. Such cockiness. Such ignorance. Goin' down fighting, but of course it being a lost cause for him. If he puts up resistance after Ashley gains 50% plus one share, Ashley can tell FS to go away with a reduced price on Shephard's dividend. I trust John Hall. Johny helped build this club from the second division to what it is now. He's given his blessing to this man. Two weeks in our lives up until now, has made up for three years of going backwards since Sir Bobby. I'm still gobsmacked. Can't believe it. Still skeptical and cautious, because everything that happens at our club is not simply black and white. But you just can't help feelin' a bit of optimism...

Football is dead hey??? It probably has for you SSH since your anti-Sam campaign has come to a stop. Needin' more material then???

Just to add to the gossip page here; Mark Viduka will either re-sign with Middlesbrough or join his Aussie team mate Lucus Neill at West Ham. Despite Anal Oliver's assertions the other day that Viduka wants to come to Newcastle, he has been patiently waiting to see if West Ham avoided relegation and now it'll be either them or to stay with the Smoggies. Damn shame. He'd be an excellent pickup on a free transfer...

Funny that. Not what you posted. More the fact that I basically mentioned every player you don't have on your list who I want to see leave. It's a very big list.

So very true. I remember the way Bolton played when the had the likes of Djorkaeff, Hierro and Jay-Jay Okocha. They weren't playing direct football then. It all comes down to what SA has to work with in terms of playing talent. He'll have a bit more here, that's for certain

Now that we officially have a manager, we can talk about this kind of stuff . Players I would like to see leave. Hmmm, there are many. But since everyone has a clean slate, I'll concentrate on those who I think can't cut it. Babayaro Ramage Onyewu Moore Bramble Carr Sibierski Ameobi That's for starters If the likes of Martins, N'Zgobia or Dyer show anymore petulance or don't show their allegance to the cause than they should be gotten rid of too. The problem with all this is that replacing such a high number of players will prove impossible with only 15m plus the money accumilated from those sold. Maybe 3-4 players leaving this off-season then is more realistic

I do not pick favourites. I hate both of them equally...although Roeder is a decent human being.

The Freddy Shephard - it's designed specifically for large, unnattractive Newcastle women

Sorry sammy, forgot to make my point. Was worried more about a wind up. There were reports a few weeks back that us and Ferdinand were in advanced talks of him coming to the club. When I read that I started doing what the character in my avatar was doing. No really, I was! Nighty night now

Yep. SSH is praying Fat Fred does a backflip and offer Jewell 4m for 5 years.

Quoted for its truth and logic. Might I pose a question here. When was the last time we got in a new manager bang on in line to when the off-season started??? My memory aint what it used to be

For the record, I think Viduka would be a decent signing now that we've got a good manager. I was just indulging in some old-school jokes about Viduka. Dan, your turn now! Ahh good. For a moment there I thought you were going nuts

Yep why not. Viduka is so fat when he runs he looks like he's walking.

What about a blind one legged numbnut playing Aussie Rules like yourself??? hehehe

Neill is excellent. Shits all over our current defenders, that's for fuckin' certain. I stand by my original comments about Viduka. He aint fat. Put it this way, if David Unsworth fell from the roof of your house onto Viduka, than Viduka would have to be hospitalized for 3 months because of internal injuries. Now if Viduka fell off the top of your roof onto Unsworth, Viduka would have to be hospitalized for 2 weeks for bouncing off the bugger and landing on concrete.

To be fair I haven't seen much of Emerton this season. Never was quite a fan tbh, but I'm sure he's 50 times better than Stephen Carr At least Emerton is fit enough to play more than a handful of games...

No Anal Oliver I aint. But it has come to my attention that you are indeed anal yourself. Anally pillaged, anally ravaged and anal enjoyment by you .

As much as I do not want to say it, but I think it has something to do with paedophilia or a paedophile ring as reported. There are networks all over Europe for this dreadful sort of thing. Those sick bastards pay big money for it. Missing for more than a week. Poor little soul. No place is safe. It is irresponsible to keep little children unattended. But her parents must be going through absolute hell, as I fear that that poor little angel must be.

I'll put in on record that I prefer Big Sam than the other two. Take a look at Houllier's transfer market record when he was at Liverpool. Bloody atrocious. Cisse, Sinama-Pongole and add another 6 or 7 French players to that list totalling about 20m. Waste of money. He's doing well in the French League, because he knows the French system back to front and he's managing the strongest French team at Lyon. If he came to Newcastle I'd have absolutely no confidence in him when it came to bringing players in. As for Sven, he was on a ridiculously high salary when he managed England. His aim was toi build for the World Cup last year, and he did absolutely nothing. Some of his selections were mind boggling. How the hell do you pick a 17 year old (Wallcott) with no Premiership experience over one (Defoe) with a proven record playing at the highest level? Why did he rely on a player who was unfit and played no games leading up to the WC (Owen) to score you goals? Why keep faith in a player who broke his foot (Rooney) and wasn't going to be fit enough to do any good anyway? All the decent teams in the WC started slowly and progressively got better as the tournament went on. England didn't. If anything we got worse. As for his days at Lazio, yes he won the Scudetto, but he had money to spend. Lazio had to top the spending list in Italy at the time to achieve what they did. I think Newcastle and Sam are a perfect match. The 4 year contract he's about to sign suggests that the club will not be able to fork out the money that has been made available to previous managers. Hasn't Fred released something like 300m to 5 managers??? Most of it bloody wasted. We are in debt to a tune of something like 80m. Haven't studied the facts and figures but it'll probably take 4 years to clear the debt we have. In saying that, 15-20m will probably be available to Sam every year. 15-20m is a huge amount considering how much Sam was able to spend at Bolton. That's a goldmine for him and he'll spend it wisely. Aty least with Sam he won't buy another Luque for 10m ffs. Sam and his backroom staff also have a proven record when it comes to injuries. Bolton have the best record when it comes to keeping players on the field. Newcastle have the worst by a country mile. Again, a perfect match between Sam and the club. No more getting crock players like Babayaro (who was always injured at Chelsea before we were stupid enough to bring him to the club ffs). If the current training regime and recuperation methods have flaws in it (which it must have) then Sam and his backroom staff will pick up on and fix. Considering where the club is right now, Sam is the perfect manager. I just want to see the club heading in the right direction, like everyone else and I'm sure he's the man to do it. In a perfect world we'd all like to see changes in the boardroom or at least a change in the chairman, but this won't ever happen. Not for a long while anyway. Freddy wants the Hall family to sell up there shares so he can buy them and take full control so we know Fred's at the club for the long haul. What can be fixed though is the coaching methods and the players who are too comfortable at the club. It's the next best thing possible.

Shhh you can't talk about Allardyce on here. Doesn't go down well Talk about him by all means, but don't give us your conspiracy theorist speil...