TK-421

Guess Edwards has been waiting to publish that article for a while, pretty much trying to rubbish Staveley and her attempts buy NUFC, but also mentioning the failure to buy Liverpool.

Not sure of exact figures now, but Chronicle articles from 2016 talk of a '£129m debt being owed to the owner'.

'a measly 50 million' That measly £50m might be a sizable chunk of the transfer fund they intended to give Rafa. As stated already, they have seen the books, and valued the club as such with all given risks. He probably thought he was selling to a group who had bottomless pockets, and would just stump up his inflated price tag, paying off his original purchase price, plus debts/loans, and still give him a sizeable profit.

I don't think the tunnel is closed.... yet, but.....

To those questioning the £250m bid by PCP, and questioning whether that was a realistic price - PCP have gone through significant Due Dilligence, and seen all the books. So presumably they are in a better position to value the club than any of us, and that as a one-off price is what they value the club at. Any higher, and they want clauses put in, due to the relegation risk. Seemed perfectly reasonable to me.

Caulkin has just tweeted the asking price was met but included clauses and instalments The clauses were perfectly understandable, instalments, not so much if true. Did Ashley not suggest installments would be an option, when he put it up for sale?

You don't see how much has changed? The language used was pretty insulting to someone who brokers big deals for a living People like Staveley are not in business to make friends. I don’t actually know what language you’re referring to, but if you think an investor like Staveley would walk away from a £300m deal because someone said something a little bit mean, I’d call that a bit niaive (with all due respect). Saying she is a time waster, we’ll see how it pans out but it seems pretty inflammatory to someone who brokers big deals as an occupation Just Ashley Bantz, innit?

Not sure what's going on with Craig Hope tonight. But in a Twitter to-and-fro with Caulkin, he seems to be suggesting Ashley is right to ask for a deposit off any future buyers, and now suggesting tonights developments might lead to 'a flood of new interest'.

New banner for 'the flags'?

Can't wait for Wraith's 'told you so' tweet(s). Hold on... yes I can.

Will she/they though? She/PCP have already failed to buy Liverpool once or twice - did they make any sort of statements after those failed bids? Everything so far has been form 'sources close to'... not them directly (I believe), so maybe we wont really hear much from their side, if it is a completely dead deal with them. This is just a big kick in the stotts.

Can only hope the plan is to allow a few signings, and try and secure our top flight status ASAP, still with a view to selling up to PCP (or whoever) once that is achieved, thus removing any possibility of relegation and associated clauses. Pity its taken so long for the penny to drop with him. And that line about Ashley finally accepting Benitez' argument for new players is pretty embarrassing - the fact Benitez has pretty much had to go begging for new players, and he's now allowed up to 3.

Just wish either party would come out and give make some sort of comment/update, instead of all this newspaper bollox.

If Fulham get the £20m they quoted us, maybe they'll have time to take Gayle off us on Deadline day.

Been trying since the summer! In fairness, this seems to be Chelsea messing us about. However, to spend so long pursuing a Chelsea reserve, and still not get him is a joke.

Could do with Hull and Burton winning today, start cutting these adrift.

Did he not work for the club as communications officer at some point or is that another journalist? Aye, that was him. He also did the interview of players and stuff for the club website / NUFC TV thing.

KNM09 seems to be a flight number, but is still associated to Ashleys Heli (G-MAOC). https://www.radarbox24.com/data/flights/knm02#604303372 For what its worth, the tracker says it left Newcastle at 1:51pm https://www.flightradar24.com/data/aircraft/g-maol#10185bbb Maybe he's been dropped off to deal with 'stuff', and its heading back south?

That flight tracker has another flight scheduled for today (no details yet). but if you click on it, the green line is heading up here. https://www.flightradar24.com/data/aircraft/g-maol#10183120 Maybe he's ultimately heading north for a summit meeting with Rafa ,and stopped for a cheeky Ginsters on the way. hehe. And, picking Amanda up on the way. EDIT: Soz KI

Is that where she lives? Theres a boozer in Ripon named after her family. Must be her turn to buy the bait!! Just hope it aint got a fireplace.

Guessing they'll (the players) leave or ask to move on, much like the others did who lost in allegations against him (and Kenny Wharton) back in 2003. James Beaumont, Ross Gardner both joined Forest, and Neale McDermott joined Fulham.... all in 2003.

Guess they can't sack him yet until they have the full statements from the players involved, which is gonna happen this week. After that, he may get the spanish archer.

I suppose one shred of hope is that in the January 2013 window, we managed to make a number of signings (the french influx) quite late in the window, once Ashley decided to release some cash... Debuchy signed on 4th January Sissoko signed on 21st Janury Mbiwa & Gouffran signed 22nd January Haidara signed 25th January then Mbabu signed on 31st January. So as long as Rafa has his targets lined up, if/when someone is able to give him a budget, then we can hopefully make a move. The clock is ticking, but still time to make significant moves, if allowed.

Hehe, aye on BBC it'll be... "We have an exclusive interview with New Newcastle United Chairwoman, Amanda Staveley, but first, lets just relive that Ronnie Radford Thunderbolt from 1973." EDIT: DOH... should have remembered it was '72.

You do wonder how a Leyton Orient fan gets to become North East sports writer. At least the other Journo's have some sort of tie/connection to the North East to begin with.