Matt

Contact with employees of a target company is typically restricted as part of an NDA. But gobbling off about the fact you’ve bought a company isn’t? Depends on how complete the deal actually is. How do we know they haven't been given permission to speak with Benitez? Rafa is sensible enough to not say anything publicly until everything was complete.

Contact with employees of a target company is typically restricted as part of an NDA.

For me this makes no sense. Ashley to leak a fake bid from the middle-east to continue talks with Rafa? which will become exposed much faster than the date his contract expires? Even if Rafa believed it, surely he would say "OK - I will sit and wait for the new owners to talk to me". And is there any reason to distract the fans when it's the off season and when there is a good 48 hours or so to enjoy the meltdown over on the Wear? There has been some PR bluster in the past to defuse toxicity in upcoming home games, but before the first person goes through a turnstile next season, we'll know Rafa's future one way or another.

Great call by the ref in the MLS game here- attacker has his shirt pulled when through on goal but tries to keep his feet but ultimately can't cleanly get his shot away. Ref pulls it back and gives a red card. If more refs made those calls, we could stop with players feeling they need to hit the deck to get a decision.

Also, my first thought this might be a nifty way for MA to put cash into the business for some better security than just equity, but if it was a related party transaction then it would have to be disclosed. The company they sold it to appears to have been formed so quickly it hasn't even appeared on Companies House yet (or perhaps is an offshore vehicle).

The sale proceeds won't go to Ashley, they will stay in SD. It does show signs that SD's shopping spree is starting to weigh on their balance sheet. Hopefully they keep it up and MA disposes of NUFC to rescue his baby.

Relative to what though? In 17-18 the club went from a net cash position of -12.2m to +29.6m. Now obviously there will be other variables this season, but it's a good indicator of the sort of cash the club would have generated this season and what would be stable if there were no other changes.

I reckon about £40m, but it's hard to tell exactly due to the timing of payments for both incoming and outgoing transfers. Of course would be more if the club had a proper commercial strategy rather than their current zero-effort approach.

How is £60m plus sales tiny? That level would require MA putting more cash in, which is never going to happen. I don't think the big issue here is about transfer funds. It's about building the infrastructure and allowing Rafa to manage the sporting operations without interference. Totally against Ashley's usual MO of micromanagement (which is why he has family & friends as lackeys in all of his businesses).

Let me fix that:

I think the whole 'asset stripping' talk is overdone. Asset strippers see the sum of the parts as being worth more than the whole and move fast and get out with a quick profit. Ashley's been here over a decade and has sold off the Gallowgate plot and one by the training ground with the vast amount of his invested capital still tied up in the main business of the club. What's more important is the complete lack of maintenance on the ground and the lack of capital spend on training facilities which means any new buyer will have a hefty bill to get us back up to the standards that would be expected of a top flight club.

Oh it's thrill a minute stuff.

Brace yourself....(this isn't the actual NUFC dataroom)

I would be surprised if the deferred consideration due to Short (the ones secured on the marrachute payments) did not come with Change of Control provisions.

Why would that development stop the expansion of the Metro, if they ever felt so inclined? What would be the engineering issue?

Has Ashley sold the land already to the developers? I remember reading it somewhere that he had, but can't find it.

Didn't realise that South Shields still have to win two more games- one against Warrington then another against the playoff winner from the Southern Central Premier. If they get it, they'll have earned it for sure. Blyth at Altrincham tonight. A tough ask but 7 wins on the bounce means they arrive on good form.

Christ that's a lot of old shite there, HTT.

The actual wages number quoted for this 16/17 and 17/18 are totally meaningless due to the adjustments made but that hasn't stopped the media using them and doing analysis without taking any normalisation into account.

Ah, the shareholder loan thing again. In corporate finance terms it's all equity and any repayment of the loan or interest paid on it should be considered a dividend.

The 33 doesn’t impact the P&L

The irony drips like vomit from a power drinker’s fireplace. No direct impact on NUFC from this - this was SD money spent a while ago. Might make him readjust his outlook on life though, you never know.

Accompanied by shovelfuls of his own cash, no?

I suspect not, just seems the money has ran out. I think they've been on borrowed time for years when you look at how poor their attendances are. This guy personally took over the manning of the turnstiles (cash money) and got rid of the club volunteers who had done so in the past. Draw your own conclusions from that. He also has form from trying to buy other clubs in the past, hence why he got an acquaintance to front the bid.

So far, it more or less has with the exception of Ashley taking cash out of the Carroll sale. Clearly same thing happened last summer but we just have to wait to see how much it actually was- that was our first year with the new PL TV deal cash which is a game changer. It's so difficult to pick out the truth when it takes so long to get accounts- especially given Ashley's persistent abuse of the rules to delay their release.