There is a quote coming out of St. James’ Park addressing the possibility of Newcastle going into administration.
Mike Ashley and Derek Llambias – a disastrous duo
The statements are not attributed to a named source but rather “a senior figure’ at the club. The statement is in regards to reports that Newcastle players and staff are fearing the club will be put into administration.
The quote simply is,
“This is not an option.”
All this administration talk is very suspicious and is probably due to Newcastle playing Leeds this evening. No doubt the media will hype this game as the battle of the fallen.
But Newcastle still have life and dedicated fan base. They just need Ashley to act with some maturity and start running the club professionally until the club can be bought. Newcastle can no longer be put on the back burner.
33 comments so far
Big Dave
Jul 29, 2009 at 11:51 AM
Comment #1I too believe that administration is not an option, but i do think MA wants to pay us back for for all the grief he has got
hitman
Jul 29, 2009 at 11:57 AM
Comment #2if ashley carnt find a buyer for the club,then whats he going to do, i dont believe for 1 second that ashley has not considered administration,if he carnt find a buyer.
shrews mag
Jul 29, 2009 at 12:01 PM
Comment #3I think MAs motivations are ego and money.
His ego has been shattered by one of the worst cases of footballing investments ever made. Due to this he will always be know as a failure by football fans and businessmen alike (regardless of other business ventures).
However I do think that money will prevent him going anywhere near administration. It will result in a worse deal for him and so I am sure as I can be that it will not happen.
I also do not buy into the idea that his is running the club down to spite the supporters.
Selling the club takes time and they are sticking to their end of the NDA.
Stuart79
Jul 29, 2009 at 12:03 PM
Comment #4This is from the the club that has told us that there have been bids for £100m for the club and they also said that they wanted Alan Shearer 110% to be manager.
Don’t believe anything.
Although I feel administration is not on the agenda.
This is Mike Ashley don’t forget….
hitman
Jul 29, 2009 at 12:05 PM
Comment #5ashley should have never put an embargo on player sales,he should of got rid of the high earners then put the club up for sale,the club would have probily been sold by now.
NUFC-0809-Oh Dear
Jul 29, 2009 at 12:06 PM
Comment #6Although I beleive that Administration is not an option, due to the fact that Ashley would loose more money that way.
I do beleive that the club needs to issue a statement to the fans on the back of yesterday’s articles about Profitable ‘pulling out’.
This statement about administration not being an option has not come from the official site, and to be honest, I dont beleive anything till it appears on there!
SO come on Ashley, show us some respect here and issue a statement which addresses:
> Administration
> Sales of players
> State/progress of the sale
> Alan Shearer
> Contingency plans should club not sell
This is OUR club, let us know what is going on!!!
lesh
Jul 29, 2009 at 12:06 PM
Comment #7For heaven’s sake, will somebody please relieve us of this misery that is MA’s ownership!!!!!
Pleeeeeeeeezzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!
Toon Graeme
Jul 29, 2009 at 12:07 PM
Comment #8Stuart79 – wise to be synical – I too think the same as you.
About tonights match – I had a look online and there are quite a few sold out areas compared to the last time I looked!
lesh
Jul 29, 2009 at 12:08 PM
Comment #9NUFC-0809-Oh Dear ….. come off it aren’t you expecting just a tad too much from the great man?
NUFC-0809-Oh Dear
Jul 29, 2009 at 12:12 PM
Comment #10lesh…
I know it is too much to ask, but after yesterdays’ news and now the ‘A’ word being branded around we need to know what is going on, the season starts in 10 days, we cannot possibly go into the CCC with the current squad, wage bill and Hughton in charge.
we need to know MA/DL’s plans and we need to know now!!!
bungus
Jul 29, 2009 at 12:15 PM
Comment #11Surely the ‘lack of communication’ with the profitable group is a positive thing? It indicates that better offers than 70% are around. As Mike decided to sell his wares on ebay – i can say, as an ebayer that i would communicate with a 70% offer only if i had no other bidders? If Ashley had no offers he would have slapped a ‘buy it now’ on Martins and Co?
sahota
Jul 29, 2009 at 12:29 PM
Comment #12DO WE HAVE ANY OPTION ? NO …….lets see where we end up.
Toon Graeme
Jul 29, 2009 at 12:33 PM
Comment #13Another Lee Ryder top scoop!
http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/nufc/newcastle-united-news/2009/07/29/star-trio-heading-for-toon-exit-72703-24266643/
belfast toon
Jul 29, 2009 at 12:49 PM
Comment #1410 days??? Wer fcuked
Whumpie
Jul 29, 2009 at 12:54 PM
Comment #15I’m not certain, but I don’t think you can place a company into administration if you have the cash to keep it going.
Question is: just how badly off is Ashley? If he has no liquid assets – just plummetting shares in Sports Direct – then he could just be able to prove he has no choice.
And if the debts are that bad, then it could be that the club is worth a negative amount, in which case administration is actually better for him – especially given that he’d be the primary creditor and that the loss would be tax-deductible against Sports Direct profits.
So I don’t believe this either. I doubt if administration will happen, but I wouldn’t completely rule it out.
Whumpie
Jul 29, 2009 at 12:55 PM
Comment #16Off topic: does anyone know if you can see tonight’s match online?
Ex-Pat Mag
Jul 29, 2009 at 12:58 PM
Comment #17okay that’s it:
Loose =
1. not firmly attached
2. Slack
3. Not tight fitting
4. Free
5. imprecise
6. promiscuous
where as
Lose =
1. to have something taken away
2. mislay something
3. fail to win
4. Cease having
5. have a loved one die
6. confuse somebody
It’s not rocket science, where did you people learn to spell?????
Sorry, just needed to vent at something other than the NUFC debacle.
Rodzilla
Jul 29, 2009 at 1:19 PM
Comment #18Jeeziz, Ex-Pat, if you’re gona be that pedantic on bloggers’ spelling…
1. “where as” is actually one word – ‘whereas’
2. Your numbered lists incorporate a mixture of upper case and lower case first letters.
😉
lesh
Jul 29, 2009 at 1:33 PM
Comment #19Whumpie, let’s not forget that the football club is a company with limited liabilities. Ashley may be the owner and he has no legal obligation to fund it.
Ergo, if the football company has liabilities that it can’t meet then it’s insolvent – the options being
* administration (where the Insolvency Practitioner [IP] takes over with a view to turning the business around)
* Liquidation ofvarious forms where the IP clears the debts [who’s the biggest creditor? Yup, MA] runs the business down or sells it via a pre-pack.
Hope that helps
Whumpie
Jul 29, 2009 at 1:33 PM
Comment #20How many Ds in ‘pedant’?
Whumpie
Jul 29, 2009 at 1:38 PM
Comment #21Cheers lesh – not sure I understand it totally, but I think you’re saying that Adminstration is a possibility.
What scares me is that it doesn’t take a mathematical genius to add up liabilities for the club which come to more than its worth as a fully-functioning premiership club. That could mean it’s worth nowt.
Ex-Pat Mag
Jul 29, 2009 at 1:45 PM
Comment #22Rodzilla,
I know it’s pedantic (where as actually does work in the US according to the thesaurus(yes I am that sad that I checked)), that’s why I did it.
Heh heh, let’s all lose our minds (or is it loose our minds)
By the way you forgot to end number 1 with a full stop (or period on this side of the water).
Anyway thanx for the lesson, I am humbled, so I shall now return to the ranks of the blog observers until brighter times.
By the way, I generally like your posts (unless of course they crticise my grammar) LOL.
dave 1961
Jul 29, 2009 at 1:49 PM
Comment #23If the club were put into administration Ashley would not be the main creditor the inland revenue is no one then the banks administration fees then it would the rest of the creditors including Ashley and I can assure you he would not take the risk of the Fat Fred & family getting hold of it on the cheap. and lastly I think he was genuinely upset for the fans when we went down
Rodzilla
Jul 29, 2009 at 1:55 PM
Comment #24Cheers Ex-Pat, I was unaware of the American ‘whereas’ – learn something new everyday eh? 🙂
Whumpie // Jul 29, 2009 at 1:33 PM
“How many Ds in ‘pedant’?”
….two, if you’re a knife-thrower’s assistant observing said word from a spinning wheel.
Rodzilla
Jul 29, 2009 at 1:56 PM
Comment #25…actually there are no ‘Ds’, just one ‘d’
(unless you’re a knife-thrower’s assistant observing said word from a spinning wheel where there’d be two of the letter ‘d’)
JinkyGenius
Jul 29, 2009 at 2:02 PM
Comment #26Congratulations to lesh! OF COURSE ADMINISTRATION IS AN OPTION, Wakey, Wakey!
Clearly nobody wants to buy, and, as Whumpie correctly states, assets are outstripped by the liabilities – and these are the ones we are aware of – what of the liabilities hidden in the books?
Financial meltdown doesn’t take long, look at Halifax and Northern Rock, business is about confidence, and a club that has failed to win any domestic trophy in over 50 years is not inspiring investor confidence. And indeed why should it?
Potential investors don’t know why such failure is endemic at the toon, even the fans don’t know why… And if once loyal fans now won’t buy a season ticket why would we expect a non fan risk to 250 million (as that is probably the real risk capital involved) on buying this enigma called NUFC??
I suspect 50 years of s*** is about to hit the fans(s). The whole ‘we are a BIG club but we don’t win anything’ enigma could be past the point of no return, and about to move from ‘laughing stock’ to ‘worthless stock’? Otherwise why bother issuing a denial? Sadder and sadder…
chuck
Jul 29, 2009 at 2:03 PM
Comment #27Chuckle, looks like everyone`s freaking out, like a pack of dogs, barking and biting at oneanother.
Chill guys, what else can happen, dministration ?
Dont think so, not in anyones interest.
Strange guy this Ashley, had a reputation as somewhat of a recluse.
That is untill he bought the club, joining with the fans and buying drinks, flying to N.Y. and throwing a party that was rumored to cost £250k.
Then dissapears back into a reclusive shell, leaving the city and fans completely in the dark, other than informing us he is outa here and intends to sell the club.
Well of course a few things happened besides,
the financial meltdown plus poor management of the club, which brings us to our present condition.
What puzzles me is the total lack of interest in informing we the fans, the secrecy, the arrogance, or perhaps it`s ignorance, who knows.
Most clubs have pretty good PR departments it`s considered an essential part of every buisiness, but the collective PR statements from NUFC could be written on the back of a postage stamp, whats up Mike, dont tell me you are still paying those guys ?
And if my understanding is correct, apparently MA did not reply to the Profitable groups attempted bids ?
And there are still two groups vying for the club following extreme due dilligence and expectations for a sale soon.
Truth is it`s come to the point that I just dont know what the feck to believe, and I`m surely not the only one.
A
lesh
Jul 29, 2009 at 2:12 PM
Comment #28http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/north-east-news/todays-evening-chronicle/2009/07/29/calls-for-mike-ashley-to-show-some-honesty-72703-24268154/
lesh
Jul 29, 2009 at 2:17 PM
Comment #29Re Ashley show honesty…. leopard and spots come to mind?
Potential buyers say they’re being treat with contempt? That’s odd as I’d assumed Seymour Pierce would have been professional about their deed.
Perhaps the alleged buyer’s not provided proof of funds to enter due diligence?
But, the arragance of Ashley reminds me of his last attempt at selling…. remember, slugging booze in bar in a moslem country to boot and waiting for the Arab buyer in waiting to come back after he’d refused £200m.
Honesty and integrity are words outwith of his vocabulary.
I’d love the heavyweight media to run with this debacle and drive the b****** into the ground.
lesh
Jul 29, 2009 at 3:38 PM
Comment #30Whumpie – where administration or liquidation’s a possibility, it’d make sense for MA to block transfers of players (ie assets on the company’s books) as they could be sold off by the IP during insolvency rather than now and the proceeds of the sales go into the accounts then. See them as money in the bank as far as MA’s concerned – monies raised would go towards paying off….. yes, you’ve guessed it, his debt!
Administartion’s not a possibility eh?
Don’t mention the war (apologies to Basil Fawlty)
Mr Books
Jul 29, 2009 at 3:39 PM
Comment #31Administration is highly unlikely, but should not be ruled out. Lesh is correct that as a limited company (both Newcastle Utd Ltd, which is the group level and St James Holdings Ltd which is Mike Ashley’s holding company which owns all of the shares in Newastle Utd Ltd) there is no requirement for Ashley to commit any more money or to pay of any of its debts.
The 2009 accounts haven’t been published yet, and wont be for a good while end of this year/early next year, but the 2008 accounts make good enough reading to understand why the club has not been sold, and is not likely to be sold either.
At the end of the 2007/08 season the club was worth -£36 Million. That is to say if you sold everything (including players stadium etc) at the value they are “supposed” to be worth, and paid all the bills, you would be 36 Million quid shy.
Now the biggest “bill” is the £100 Million loan from Ashley, so theoretically he would get back £64 Million.
Realistically you would get nothing for the players – if there’s no club to play for you couldn’t keep their registration under employment laws – and there is no residual cash in the company, so the club wouldn’t be able to play matches as it couldn’t employ the temporary staff for match days and pay for the police and ambulance presence. – so there’s £40 Million (the “book value” of player registrations) less.
Through administration you are generally lucky to get about 50% of the book value of your assets, because the administrator is interested in getting cash fast, not best value. Also some of the assets are registered at companies house as security against the overdraft facility with Barclay’s (There have been further assets lodged over the last season, which makes me think that the overdraft is going up, not coming down!)
The combination of these two things makes me believe that if the club was wound up, then Ashley would likely get nothing at all back.
The 2008 accounts do however tell us some interesting things about the loan from Ashley. It is listed as being due to be paid back in less than 2 years – in other words by the end of the coming season. The accounts also note that there is a change of ownership clause which would make it immediately repayable. This is what he is hoping for with the sale – some of the cash back that he paid for the shares and his loan paid back – so really he’s asking for £200 Million. To those who accuse him of asset striping or lining his own pockets – that’s already a £35 Million loss for him – he may be incompetent, stupid, uncommunicative and a thoroughly useless owner, but I cant really accuse him of profiting from this mess.
I believe this loan, and his likely unwillingness to write it off yet coupled with the negative net worth of the club are why he can’t sell it.
The reason that administration cannot be ruled out is because the club simply cannot afford to run itself at the minute. it made a loss of £30 Million 06/07, £20 Million 07/08 and I can’t for one minute believe that for all the staff payoffs and the big earners we’ve still had on the books, that the 08/09 season is going o be anything other than a multi million pound loss (especially if we are securing more assets to Barclay’s). With the revenues likely to be significantly down even for only one season in Championship (hey I can dream can’t I). Sure there’s a £20 Million parachute payment, but the media revenue for 2008 at £41 Million, unless someone can convince me that there is a £20 Million TV deal for the Championship, then there will already be further multi million pound hole in the accounts.
So by the end of this season Ashly will have to take a decision between waving goodbye forever to the £235 Million he has already put in – i.e. refuse to put any more in and hope he gets a token something back through administration. This may work because the administrator will often look to sell something for a nominal sum, as long as the debts are taken on by the new owner. I think any potential purchaser “may” hold out for this after looking at the books, but its a bit of a gamble as the 10 points might put us in risk of going down again. Certainly worth having a look to see how the season starts. Alternatively he will have to put more cash in, with no real likelihood that he will ever see it again. I dnt think he has any intention of putting any more money in.
sirjasontoon
Jul 29, 2009 at 4:32 PM
Comment #32No Buyer = Administration….Mike wants to wash his hands of Newcastle and Administration seems a likely proposition from where I am standing as nobody in their right mind would take on such a team of deadbeats not even for 50m.
I think the worst of the Ashley scenario is yet to happen so prepare for many bad months maybe even years of pain and misery.
Thanks for the memories Mike.
Starkadder
Jul 29, 2009 at 5:03 PM
Comment #33We are leaping to conclusions again.
The club have never mentioned administration, one way or another. An the ‘senior figure’ at the club might just be the senior tea-lady.
Until I see names named on a statement on http://www.nufc.co.uk, I wouldn’t believe it one way or another.