Rick Draper
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Registered: 10th Feb 01
Location: Cheshire
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http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/article6396030.ece
quote:
THE sportswear tycoon Mike Ashley is to put Newcastle United football club up for sale with a £100m price tag.
Ashley will appoint Keith Harris, chairman of Seymour Pierce, or bankers at NM Rothschild this week with a mandate to achieve a quick sale. His decision comes just days after the club was relegated from the Premier League.
The asking price is £34m less than Ashley paid for the club two years ago. Since then he has ploughed £110m of his own money into the northeast team to pay down its debts.
Ashley told The Sunday Times: “It has been catastrophic for everybody. I’ve lost my money and I’ve made terrible decisions. Now I want to sell it as soon as I can . . . advisers will be appointed shortly.”
If Ashley manages to find a buyer it will put an end to his controversial and occasionally acrimonious two-year spell in control at St James’ Park, having initially put the club up for sale for £400m last September because of a series of protests and demonstrations following Kevin Keegan’s departure as manager.
But dropping out of the top flight of English football has slashed the value of the club.
There has been some interest from Nigeria and South Africa but no firm takeover offers. The club’s demotion will make it harder to drum up bid interest.
Asked if he regretted his decision to buy the club two years ago, Ashley, who owns the sportswear chain Sports Direct, said: “Of course I regret it. I never said I was an expert in football clubs. I was just a fan – although a very wealthy fan. But I’m not so wealthy now. I put my money into it and I tried my best. But I accept my best was woefully short. I am genuinely sorry for everybody about what has happened.”
Ashley landed a £929m pay-day when he floated Sports Direct on the London stock exchange in 2007, but the credit crunch and a string of ill-fated gambles have slashed his wealth from £1.4 billion to £700m, according to this year’s Sunday Times Rich List.
The news comes as talks to give Alan Shearer, the care-taker manager, a full-time contract to rebuild Newcastle United were continuing this weekend.
Ashley also praised former interim manager Joe Kinnear, who took temporary charge of the club after Keegan quit last autumn. “I personally thought Joe put the club back on the right track. He took it from second bottom to 13th but things went against him,” said Ashley. Kinnear was forced to stand down because of ill health.
After its relegation from the Premier League, the club faces a big restructuring that is likely to lead to a clear-out of the first-team playing squad to balance the books. At present, Newcastle relies on a £40m work-ing-capital facility from Bar-clays bank.
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Marc
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Registered: 11th Aug 02
Location: York
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Either way, I doubt we'll see them back in the Premier League any time soon.
Ipswich, Leicester, Leeds, Southampton are prime examples.
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Rick Draper
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Registered: 10th Feb 01
Location: Cheshire
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Leeds is the best example lol
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Richie B
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Registered: 18th Apr 04
Location: Newcastle
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There was interest last time tbf just he totally priced out any sale with his huge demands.
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corsa - gus
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Registered: 8th Jan 07
Location: Aberdeen, Scotland
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Newcastle have potential, if they find a buyer who is willing to invest on a large scale I think they could well bounce back quickly. They do however need a proven manager imo, and they need to pretty much sell their entire squad and start from scratch
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liamC
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Registered: 28th Feb 04
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We've had potential for about 4 decades now.
We have not won anything for 40 years. We will never win anything for the next 400 years. We have accepted this for a number of years.
The media seem to think we are too demanding.
Just a bit of decent football and a bit of stability would be ideal. Just ideal.
The only positive thing that has came from Ashley's stay in charge, is that it makes every single person on this planet think that this utterly clueless mong can become a billionaire, then anyone can.
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Rick Draper
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Registered: 10th Feb 01
Location: Cheshire
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYrLSMQy35E
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Mad Moe
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Registered: 14th Jun 01
Location: Northumberland
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quote:
Originally posted by Rick Draper
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYrLSMQy35E
Apparently His Majesty Sultan Qaboos Bin Said of Oman is leading a consortium to by out Ashley, god knows how much truth is in that one though!
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