There was a report from ESPN last night about Freddy Shepherd wanting to buy the Newcastle United club, and it came from ESPN so it seemed that it could even be true – maybe.
Mike Ashley with Chris Hughton at Benton
So we put out the report and of course it would bring up so many questions like is Freddy’s time at Newcastle now over, and what happens with the recent stability on Tyneside under the under-stated Chris Hughton, and would it mean we start to pay out daft money in the transfer market again, and in addition pay our players ridiculously high wages?
Lots of questions came up, as you may expect, but then Newcastle very quickly issued a one sentence statement denying any bid, and that the club was not even for sale, and that seemed to stop the speculation in its tracks.
The full club statement released was as follows:
“There has been unfounded speculation today suggesting that Freddy Shepherd intends to put a consortium together in a bid to buy Newcastle United FC from its owner, Mike Ashley.
“The club can confirm that it has not received any contact from Freddy Shepherd expressing an interest in buying the club, nor is the club for sale.”
It’s good the club came out quickly with that statement because it stops all the unsettling talk of Freddy coming back, even though he may still want to buy the club – whatever he may say publicly.
But Chris Hughton has brought some great stability and some success to Newcastle, and we think lots of Newcastle want his reign to continue, and we’ll see just how good this man can become as manager of Newcastle United.
If Chris gets ultra successful on Tyneside that will become part of Geordie folklore as he has already surprised many of his former coaching colleagues with his perfomance so far as Newcastle manager.
Pundit Jamie Redknapp only last week came out and said what a great job Chris had done on Tyneside, but when Jamie was at Tottenham as a player, he didn’t see Chris as a future top manager – so he’s been surprised at just how well this modest man has done so far.
He’s been so much better than we ever thought possible – so we hope Chris keeps making us wrong – and keeps Newcastle successful – because that’s so much more important to us.
He’s certainly brought the very best out of the squad he has, and has made some great buys in Tiote, Williamson, Campbell, Gosling and Simpson for just peanuts in the transfer market.
After winning our last two league games we seem to be in decent shape to do quite well this season, especially when we still have to see Campbell, Steven Taylor and Dan Gosling play lots of games for Newcastle this season.
But we’re not getting too carried away with things, and quite honestly, if we can get a draw against Arsenal next Sunday afternoon, that would be a very good result – we’re not really expecting to get anything from the game.
But we are very willing to be surprised again on Sunday.
Howay The Lads!!
Comments welcome.
9 comments so far
Sav
Nov 2, 2010 at 11:03 AM
Comment #1That’s ok, because Chris never saw Jamie Redknapp being a decent pundit – and he was right.
GeordieGerman
Nov 2, 2010 at 11:08 AM
Comment #2I’ve been onto the official site (nufc.co.uk) Ed and can’t find the statement?
geoff777
Nov 2, 2010 at 11:22 AM
Comment #3Not sure yet about Campbell … great back-up and fantastic to have in the squad or as a future coach.
I hope he doesn’t get too many games as Willo & Colo are playing a lot better in this league than I thought they would.
Our defence has allowed less shots on goal than any other team in the league.
Howay The Lads!
RichK
Nov 2, 2010 at 11:53 AM
Comment #4Sav – Jamie Redknapp is a great pundit, he’s one of few who actually talks any sense!!
estechco
Nov 2, 2010 at 12:05 PM
Comment #5RichK: Whilst I wouldn’t disagree with you, I think you probably need to turn your irony detector on?
dave 1961
Nov 2, 2010 at 12:34 PM
Comment #6Chris is Ashley’s man, mike Ashley looks after his people, the hassle will be Chris sorting out transfer policy, I bet money has never been a problem, i just hope he says to Ashley, if you want perches’ or best’s that’s 1-2 million if you spend 4-5 million you get tiote & ben arfa, who do you want.
kevymartins
Nov 2, 2010 at 1:16 PM
Comment #7ED we havnt herd nothing about Hatem ben arfa in a while??
should get a artical letting us know how hes doing
Hopefully we go into the arsenal game high in confidence an the twin towers up front get a few goals
HWTL
GeordieGerman
Nov 2, 2010 at 1:36 PM
Comment #8kevymartins, Take it that you weren’t here yesterday. Try this link.
http://www.nufcblog.com/2010/11/01/ben-arfa-watching-newcastle-on-tv-cant-wait-to-get-back/
AndyMac
Nov 2, 2010 at 6:39 PM
Comment #9Ed: At the risk of repeating myself look who’s behind yesterday’s brief article on ESPN (that well known tome of all things football).
Harry Harris has history with Shepherd as does Alan Oliver. Harris alegedly “broke” the story of Dalglish getting sacked and Gullitt moving in (wonder how he got that information?).
Alan Oliver, while working at Thomson House, was so far up Shepherds poop chute that he couldnt differentiate between seeing shlte and writing it.
So in conclusion I can only put two and two together here and summise that Shepherd, with his cronies, is seeking to destabilise the club from without.
If I’m wrong Freddy, you Fat Parasite, then sue me !!!!
People should be made aware of that!