When the new broke yesterday that Mike Ashley, an English BillionaireTycoon had bought Sir John Hall’s 41.6% in the club – the statement issued by Ashley indicated he too was excited about the new manager coming in (Sam Allardyce).
Yet it turns out that Allardyce had not knowledge whatsoever of the pending takeover bid as it was played with significant stealth – like all good takeover bids.
Sam Allardyce on 15th May meets Reporters
Sam must have been surprised as anyone when he heard yesterday’s dramatic news that Mike Ashley had bought Sir John Hall’s shares at 100p each.
Here’s what Sam had to say about it yesterday to the Sun:
“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.â€
“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,â€
Ashley’s prospective takeover will almost definitely leave Allardyce with a much-improved summer transfer kitty – and an initial estimate is that he could get as much as ₤40M rather than the ₤15M Shepherd had allocated.
In fact we think a good ploy for Ashley would be to have it leaked how much he would make available for summer transfers – if he can secure Newcastle United.
By that means – and assuming it is a significant amount – he would have us all salivating at the potential of new players coming in – and a very good season ahead of us – which would put even more pressure on Shepherd – but only because it’s in the best interests of Newcastle.
Finally, put yourself in Big Sam’s shoes. Here’s a man who for eight years – has had very little money available to him at Bolton – and he scrapes together players bought on the cheap and from obscurity – and he makes Bolton successful – to his immense credit.
He then secures his dream job at Newcastle – and is told he can have at least 15M to spend last week. So he goes on holiday in France – obviously feeling very good – and within eight days a billionaire attempts to buy the club, speaks well of Allardyce – and no doubt will be able to give Sam a lot more than $15M.
We think Sam is having one or two more celebration drinks in the evening while relaxing on holiday – he must be walking on air – we are!
3 comments so far
Sagar
May 24, 2007 at 10:00 AM
Comment #1You just gotta hope that the takeover happens quickly rather than being dragged out like the Man Utd saga. I don’t think there will be much resistance apart from probably Freddy Shepherd who I hear has been in quite a defiant mood about the takeover.
Ed Harrison
May 24, 2007 at 11:32 AM
Comment #2Sagar – yes you’re right – I just put up article on Shepherd’s defiance. We think the pressure will be too great on him not to finally give up control of Newcastle. But Sam’s transfers will change somewhat because of this.
Jacob
May 24, 2007 at 5:10 PM
Comment #3Yes, without Shep pulling the strings and bulldozing through his own trasfer targets , Big Sam might be able to bring in some of his own players. Hopefully, with a bit more money to spend, minus a chairman who likes to throw his considerable weight around, we might end up challenging for something1? Here’s hoping.