quayside

Looking beyond the deadpan sarcasm I know he was loathed by you lot but to what extent was he hamstrung by Ellis keeping a tight rein on the purse strings?

What internal management charges? The £99m came from: Match day revenue - £32m Media revenue - £41m Commercial revenue - £26m = £99M Yes - although Slugsy could well be right with what he says about some of the sponsorship income already having been spent. The words Northern Rock and Michael Owen come into my head for some reason.

As well as removing whatever we think Emre, Faye, Milner and Rozenhal were on as they all left after June. Yeah that's right.

Pretty sure that's wrong and those numbers are from 06-07 and 05-06 respectively. just going off the telegraph http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/championship/newcastleunited/4322723/Newcastle-owner-Mike-Ashley-to-address-escalating-wage-bill.html They've got their numbers wrong, turnover in 07-08 was nearly £100m, which would make the ratio 62% not 70% if the wage bill was only £62.3m. The numbers are right, they exclude National Insurance and Pension costs (11%).

lol well thats what i got it to be around after working the figures out with the incomings and outgoings so it wasnt far away, however, we will have received around 40m from tv money, but not sure how much the parachute payment is? anyone? The last audited reported wage figure was £70 million (excluding Allardyce’s settlement) .for the year to 30th June 2008. The figures in the Telegraph article exclude National Insurance and Pension costs, which costs the club another 11% on top of the basic wage. But you are right in that the £70 million would include all the players who were here during the year to 30th June (incl ex players like Milner and Faye) and the wages of the following wouldn’t be included in the £70 million: Jonas Collocini Guthrie Xisco Bassong Nolan. Raylor To get an estimate off the wage level now you need to add whatever we think that lot are on (adding 11%) before you take off the £22 million.

"When the previous chairman Freddy Shepherd persuaded me to join Newcastle from Inter Milan three years ago I thought it was a great move." Not Roeder

I will never forget some of his wondeful quotes: “We didn't underestimate them. They were just a lot better than we thought.” "Nobby Solano discharged himself from hospital after the Tottenham game and he's driving, living the life and aware of who he is.” "We can't replace Gary Speed. Where do you get an experienced player like him with a left foot and a head?" "Gary Speed has never played better, never looked fitter, never been older." “Alan Shearer has done very well for us, considering his age. We have introduced some movement into his game because he has got two good legs now. Last season he played with one leg.” “He's very fast and if he gets a yard ahead of himself nobody will catch him.” "We don't want our players to be monks, we want them to be football players because a monk doesn't play football at this level."

RIP A man of true character and integrity and also a football man through and through.

How anyone could possibly believe that a) Martins and his agent would allow him to play Championship football and b) the club could afford to keep him on Championship economics is beyond me. But it seems some people do believe such crap.....

We couldn't keep Martins on his package. Huge package apparently. Oh yes

If anyone thinks any owner can afford to keep Obafemi Martins on our books as a Championship club - then they're mad. Perhaps, but how much will another relegation cost. It's becoming more inevitable every day Doesn't matter. Apart fom what he costs the club Oba ain't going to put any part of his arse into gear playing Championship football, he had to go.

If anyone thinks any owner can afford to keep Obafemi Martins on our books as a Championship club - then they're mad.

Would love it if you're right. We haven't had a false dawn for, what, 3 days now.....

You're right mostly and as I said above he had to go - but it's decent business for who? We are in a different place to virtually every other club right now. Rejoicing over transfer fees went out the window in the aftermath of the Milner / Villa deal tbh.

And, of course, it's £9 million that our manager can invest in the squad....... At least it is a sign that there is someone making a decision - Oba had to go, no way can a Championship club keep a player worth anything like that amount and earning £65k (or whatever) a week.

He put in a bid and f***ed off for golf. Hasn't missed a thing has he? He hasn't - but you wouldn't expect wor Fred to expend any unnecessary energy on club business now would you?

Good post by Jimmyc84. If you think Jimmyc84 is me under another name - no sorry.

My guess is that he is engineering a scenario to suit himself, what that is will become clear soon. It could be what you say, or he may just have rabbit in the headlights syndrome - f*cked, in an alien place and nowhere to go. I agree with Slugsy and can't see how Administration helps Ashley. I'm no expert on insolvency law but the idea. floated on here, of syphoning off assets owned by the club into a separate entity and sticking what is left into Administration is surely illegal.

I've been told that Keith Harris is on holiday because Seymour Pierce are in the process of cutting all ties with Ashley. They're f***ed off he wont accept a realistic offer for the club and they believe it's impacting on their reputation quite badly. Why would they care, they get paid regardless. Their credibility as a mover and shaker in the world of brokering deals for high profile football clubs is on the line?

That was way too clever for Ashley's posse tbh.

People need to appreciate that a lot of very rich and successful people are as thick as shyte. Plenty of people have made a lot of money out of doing something they understand and they understand it well and do it well. The problem with some of them is that they start to believe that they have a genuine talent that can be used to good advantage in other businesses and, unless they are exceptional, they are wrong. Ashley is a classic case of this.

Sports Direct sales are up on last year - but profits are down by 90%. But they did at least make a profit unlike many other businesses who have published their results in the last few months.

Yup - he's going to try his arse off next season, he'll get the supply and he'll score goals. We're going to hate it but people need to get used to it and move on. He was a disastrous signing for us, you cannot build a side around Michael Owen and if a club like us pay £17 million then it needs to be for someone who you can build around. It was a case of wrong player, wrong club. Ridiculous decision to make him captain, he is quite clearly not a leader and never will be. His faults were on full view at the end but the club is not blameless IMO. It was quite clearly a smart PR move by Keegan. Paid off as well at the back end of that season tbf. Disgraceful though after Keegan. I enjoyed that little period at the end of last season as much as any (the team really looked like they wanted it) but am unconvinced that anything that happened in that brief spell was down to Owen's captaincy or any PR derived from that decsion tbh. I know why you made that point - I just don't buy it.

Yup - he's going to try his arse off next season, he'll get the supply and he'll score goals. We're going to hate it but people need to get used to it and move on. He was a disastrous signing for us, you cannot build a side around Michael Owen and if a club like us pay £17 million then it needs to be for someone who you can build around. It was a case of wrong player, wrong club. Ridiculous decision to make him captain, he is quite clearly not a leader and never will be. His faults were on full view at the end but the club is not blameless IMO.

No clarification has ever been published on what basis the bids (if any) were made. Agree with your post. A £100 million valuation for the equity and then being expected to take on all Ashley's debt and whatever overdraft will never come close to flying. But I've never been convinced that Ashley wasn't punting that particular deal as his required price and, in his stupidity, thought he might get some takers.