GafferTape 0 Posted May 19, 2009 Share Posted May 19, 2009 http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/ma...fer-mike-ashley Newcastle United could play themselves out of a £140m takeover if they are demoted from the Premier League this weekend. A consortium made up of multi-millionaires from the United States and the Middle East wants to buy out the club's unpopular owner, Mike Ashley, but only if Newcastle pull off a last-day escape from relegation. The consortium has been taking advice from the football powerbroker Chris Nathaniel about a deal that would potentially make Newcastle the latest Premier League club to fall under foreign ownership. The men behind the takeover, including two NBA owners, have been putting together a potential deal for the last few months and are led to believe that Ashley is willing to sell even though he took the club off the market at the end of December. The prospective buyers are waiting to see whether Newcastle can climb out of the relegation zone at Aston Villa on Sunday before deciding their best strategy. Newcastle's valuation would plummet if they were to fall into the Championship but the businessmen involved in the proposed deal see little mileage in taking on a club that is not involved in the Premier League. As such, they will automatically turn their attentions elsewhere if the results go against Alan Shearer's side and Newcastle's 16-year spell in the highest tier of English football comes to an end. If Newcastle escape the drop, Ashley will be given the opportunity to end his controversial and occasionally acrimonious two-year spell in control at St James' Park, having initially put the club up for sale last September because of a series of protests and demonstrations following Kevin Keegan's departure as manager. Ashley, who bought the club for £134m and has spent another £100m on the club, was blamed at the time for not allowing Keegan to have control of the club's transfer policy and claimed he was unable to continue watching the team due to fears for the safety of his family. "I'm now a dad who can't take his kids to a football game because I am advised that we would be assaulted," he said. The asking price was initially set at around £400m but that has been shown up as unreasonable in the present economic climate. Ashley has returned to watching games, having been unable to find a buyer despite appointing a team of advisers to market the club's availability as well as making his own trips to the Middle East to try to drum up interest. Freddy Shepherd, the club's former owner, has reputedly been exploring the possibilities of putting together a consortium and there has also been interest from Nigeria and South Africa. However, Newcastle have found attracting new buyers almost as difficult as Shearer has found it to turn around the team's fortunes on the pitch. The club is in the third relegation spot going into the final weekend of the league season and Shearer has won only once since taking over from Joe Kinnear as interim manager at the start of April. The 1-0 home defeat by Fulham on Saturday leaves them one point behind 17th-placed Hull City, who face Manchester United at the KC Stadium on Sunday, meaning Newcastle will be relegated if they lose at Villa Park. Newcastle have appealed against the red card shown to Sébastien Bassong against Fulham and will learn today from the Football Association whether the defender will be available. A victory, or even draw, might be good enough to save Shearer's side but their chances of a dramatic late escape have also been undermined by Sir Alex Ferguson's insistence that he is entitled to play a weakened side against Hull, resting key players such as Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo for the Champions League final against Barcelona at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome three days later. While Ferguson is acutely aware it will open himself to allegations of favouring Hull, the United manager said last night he had to think selfishly. "I've got a fantastic squad. I could pick two teams and the team I will pick on Sunday will reflect that." Ben Amos, the club's fourth-choice goalkeeper, could be promoted to make his league debut. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gemmill 46027 Posted May 19, 2009 Share Posted May 19, 2009 Isn't Chris Nathaniel the bullshit artist that was fronting up the Nigerian bid that came to nothing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paddy 17 Posted May 19, 2009 Share Posted May 19, 2009 yeah he is Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Craig 6700 Posted May 19, 2009 Share Posted May 19, 2009 More media bullshit. Need to be concentrating on Sunday and Sunday alone at the moment - tell these fuckers if they have any interest in the club, they'll leave us alone until we know what league we'll be playing in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest alex Posted May 19, 2009 Share Posted May 19, 2009 Another non-story imo. Comes out when we're practically down anyway, which can't be a coincidence. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gemmill 46027 Posted May 19, 2009 Share Posted May 19, 2009 Aye "aww look what you could have won, you poor feckless Geordies". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Park Life 71 Posted May 19, 2009 Share Posted May 19, 2009 Trying to put package together with a consortium for a measley 140m? What are they the blokes that stand outside McDonalds? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gemmill 46027 Posted May 19, 2009 Share Posted May 19, 2009 There's an extra 100m repayable to Fatboy immediately on acquisition anyway. Another due dili-what?! story in the making. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Park Life 71 Posted May 19, 2009 Share Posted May 19, 2009 There's an extra 100m repayable to Fatboy immediately on acquisition anyway. Another due dili-what?! story in the making. Our only hope is FS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peasepud 59 Posted May 19, 2009 Share Posted May 19, 2009 I fully expect Peter Lee to resurface in the next few weeks at this rate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Fish 10963 Posted May 19, 2009 Share Posted May 19, 2009 I'm sure between us we could script a letter to Mr Bill Gates and convince him to throw a billion quid our way... it's not like he needs it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fop 1 Posted May 19, 2009 Share Posted May 19, 2009 I'm sure between us we could script a letter to Mr Bill Gates and convince him to throw a billion quid our way... it's not like he needs it. HF surely could. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sonatine 11542 Posted May 19, 2009 Share Posted May 19, 2009 I fully expect Peter Lee to resurface in the next few weeks at this rate More chance of Peters and Lee tbh Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peasepud 59 Posted May 19, 2009 Share Posted May 19, 2009 I fully expect Peter Lee to resurface in the next few weeks at this rate More chance of Peters and Lee tbh I would trust his vision over the charlatan that was Peter Lee tbh Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigChrisfgb 0 Posted May 19, 2009 Share Posted May 19, 2009 It would be funny if we stayed up, they bought us out, we became the worlds richest club (untill Bill Gates buys Everton or something), spent about £100m on players, then became successfull at our first attempt, awww poor fucking media can't take the piss out of the Toon anymore, awww, lets all alugh at Leeds again who are stilss down their, fucking Northerners. Bunch of bastards, thats all they are. I remember seeing a txt in the paper the other day from a Everton fan, saying he can't believe we will stay up, were the most hated team in the Premiership, says it all when he can't say anything bad about Liverpool, because they will come back with 18 Titles and 5 Europien Cups shit, so he looks over at us, he must say the same to every club who have a bad season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foreverer 0 Posted May 19, 2009 Share Posted May 19, 2009 Bollocks that we are the most hated, that title would go to Chelsea, Liverpool or ManUtd Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chaser 1255 Posted May 19, 2009 Share Posted May 19, 2009 I wouldnt be adverse to FFS coming back with some wedge, provided that he didnt send us to financial ruin trying to make us great again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Fish 10963 Posted May 19, 2009 Share Posted May 19, 2009 It's like an ex-girlfriend, you should never go back. I'd rather we got a new Owner who can look at the mistakes made by both Shepherd and Ashley and avoid making those. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AmericanMag 0 Posted May 19, 2009 Share Posted May 19, 2009 It's like an ex-girlfriend, you should never go back.I'd rather we got a new Owner who can look at the mistakes made by both Shepherd and Ashley and avoid making those. That's exactly what someone said to me about Keegan... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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