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According to Lliambias in this morning's Journal, he is expecting some announcement at the end of the week regarding Shearer, he is expecting something to happen regarding takeover as the Data is available to be viewed from tomorrow, ie. due dilligence can start, he seemed quite confident something would happen  :celb:

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According to Lliambias in this morning's Journal, he is expecting some announcement at the end of the week regarding Shearer, he is expecting something to happen regarding takeover as the Data is available to be viewed from tomorrow, ie. due dilligence can start, he seemed quite confident something would happen  :celb:

 

I hope he's telling the truth.

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Shearer's waiting game almost over

Jun 16 2009 by Luke Edwards, The Journal

 

ALAN Shearer could finally be named Newcastle United’s permanent manager before the end of the week as the sale of the troubled Championship club starts to gather pace.

 

Although it could still be a few weeks before a takeover is complete, The Journal has been told this may not prevent Shearer from being appointed if all of the groups serious about buying the club want him as manager. That would effectively take the matter out of Mike Ashley’s hands and the sports shop magnate is willing to belatedly confirm Shearer as manager – as long as it can not do anything to hinder the takeover.

 

Anyone interested in paying the £100m asking price to take Newcastle off Ashley’s hands has until tomorrow to prove they have the funds needed to go through with the deal.

 

After that, the due diligence process will start and if Shearer (right) is the unanimous choice of all the prospective new owners, he could be in control of the team before the weekend.

 

United’s managing director Derek Llambias was back in Newcastle yesterday to prepare for the final days of the Ashley regime on Tyneside, and he is hopeful a significant announcement is not far away.

 

“There could be some movement regarding Alan Shearer at the end of this week or early next week,” said Llambias, who has been in regular contact with Seymour Pierce, the bank in charge of finding a buyer.

 

“The data room will be open on Wednesday, which will allow the groups who have proved they have the money to buy the club to look at the books. Nobody has been able to do that yet because the data room hasn’t been opened.

 

“We will not be making any decision on Alan as manager, that is not up to us, that is down to the groups who are buying the club. If they want to appoint him, then it’s up to them. We will speak to them about it. If they do want Alan then something could be done in the next few days. That’s where we are at this stage and everything is on going.”

 

Although the identity of the groups who have shown they are serious about a takeover is being kept a closely guarded secret by everyone directly involved in the negotiations, The Journal can confirm that former Magpie chairman Freddie Shepherd is definitely part of one of the bidding groups.

 

Shepherd has already indicated privately he will immediately want to appoint Shearer, although it seems others share the view that the former Newcastle captain and record goalscorer is the only man capable of lifting the club following relegation.

 

Shearer has been patient during all of the delays, despite his frustration at not being able to start overhauling the first-team squad, but he is also hopeful an end is in sight to yet another regrettable saga at St James’s Park.

 

A source close to Shearer said: “Alan has been told that Thursday could be a very big day in terms of his and Newcastle’s future, so it seems things are starting to move in the right direction.

 

“He has been incredibly frustrated by the delay because he wanted to get straight into things as manager and start preparing the club for a bid to make an immediate return to the Premier League. Everything has been on hold for the last few weeks because Alan has been left in limbo while the club is being sold. That process looks to be coming to an important stage – so this week could be an exciting one.”

 

Meanwhile, should Shearer be confirmed as manager, he will move quickly for highly-rated Norwegian midfielder Per Ciljan Skjelbred, even though the talented playmaker has also attracted interest from a number of Premier League sides.

 

Although Shearer has been stuck in limbo because of the uncertainty at boardroom level, he has also lined up deals for Leeds striker Jermaine Beckford and Tottenham’s Chris Gunter.

http://www.journallive.co.uk/nufc/newcastle-united-news/2009/06/16/shearer-s-waiting-game-almost-over-61634-23884719/

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Apparently its an online version of the clubs books. People or groups who have proved they have the cash to buy the club can look at the books before finalising their bid for the club.

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ALAN Shearer could finally be named Newcastle United’s permanent manager before the end of the week as the sale of the troubled Championship club starts to gather pace.

 

 

:facepalm:

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David Craig just been on SSN saying that Shearer likely to be announced late this week or early next week - once bidder has proved they can raise the £100m, they get access to the data room (online books, due diligence etc - designed to speed up the process) and apparently Seymour Pierce are saying they will ask the buyers after they've had a look at the books online whether they want Shearer in or not - and then will discuss that with Llambias and Shearer.

 

If it's true, good news. At least Pierce seem to be doing their best to speed this up - good to wait a few extra days if it means a sale is sped up by a few extra weeks.

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Apparently its an online version of the clubs books. People or groups who have proved they have the cash to buy the club can look at the books before finalising their bid for the club.

 

But if people have proved this already and then surely they didn't have to wait till everyone had before they allowed access, surely they can given individual access. Basically it sounds like we're a joke again.

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Apparently its an online version of the clubs books. People or groups who have proved they have the cash to buy the club can look at the books before finalising their bid for the club.

 

But if people have proved this already and then surely they didn't have to wait till everyone had before they allowed access, surely they can given individual access. Basically it sounds like we're a joke again.

Just going off what David Craig said.

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It's quite unbelievable how a successful (perhaps questionable) business man can make so many mistakes and not learn. Whenever there has been a decision to be made, he has made the WRONG decision EVERY time. I mean seriously, who the f*** advised him that it would be a good idea to advertise the sale of the club on a website aimed at communicating with fans? Beyond belief.

 

Business success involves a hell of a lot of luck.  Being in the right place at the right time with the right people around you can make even a complete moron a lot of money.  With us, Ashley seemed to be content to rely on his luck rather than good management and his luck just ran out.

 

The situation reminds me a bit of what happened with Alan Sugar a few years ago, when he bought Spurs. He ended up having to sack Terry Venables, who was the fans' favourite, and found himself out of control of his own business. Like Ashley, he was glad to get out in the end.

 

The only criterion for success in a business is making money. With a football club, success is trophies and there's a degree of customer involvement and interest in decisions which would normally be entirely up to an owner.

 

True.

Tbh I can understand people thinking that Ashley is deliberately running the club down because his decision making is so catastrophic that it seems inconceivable that he thinks he is doing the right things. But he is a trader and a chancer who got lucky in a market he understands. He thinks that means he has ability to run something else which he doesn't understand and like others before him (Sugar being one as you say) he is very wrong. People like Ashley are used to making decisions in their own time and in their own way, those that work for him know that and set things up around him accordingly. But in a business like a football club decisions are absolutely time critical and success depends upon the assets of the club being moulded into a cohesive unit (and not being viewed as a potential profitable resale). Ashley, though rich, isn't really very clever at all and I have thought since the word go that he was completely out of his depth owning a Premiership club.     

 

I'd kind of agree with your conclusion that there's a different skill-set needed to run a football club, when compared with running a business, and that Ashley has fallen short. I don't think it's the time pressure factor that's significant though, and I wouldn't say that Ashley has necessarily been lucky in his business life, any more than Sugar was lucky. In business, they each saw opportunities neglected by other people and went for it hell for leather.

 

The problem with a football club is that it is only partly a business. The other part is a kind of community institution in which the fans have a big influence, and in that respect it's like running a public service. The strain in running a public service is that you have the press, the government and the public on your back, demanding that you run things in a certain way, and you're not your own master. So a lot of what you would like to do has to be weighed up and compromises reached. So you get the worst of both worlds - you have to pick up the tab at the end of the day, but you don't get the free hand that you would get in business.

 

Like you said, maybe Ashley just doesn't have the kind of brain that can anticipate that kind of difficulty and deal with it. He's also used to shunning the limelight, and may not have the kind of thick skin you need in that very public position. I didn't like Shepherd, but he did have the hide of a rhino when the criticism started flying.

 

Strictly in the world of business, appointing Wise and Keegan together might have made a lot of sense. Keegan would produce an entertaining product for the customers and Wise would look after the long-term strategy and the finances. But in practice, that was a disaster. Keegan is more than an employee - he's a public figure with a lot of support and he wasn't averse to using that status to try to get what he wanted, despite what may have been written into his contract. Ashley has not been in control since that point, because he was never going to win a PR battle with Keegan. It's just not a situation that occurs in the business world.

 

Great response bobyule.

 

Just a couple of points of clarification:

 

I don't know so much about Sugar but I think Ashley was lucky. The flotation valuation of Sports Direct was way in excess of reality as subsequent results have shown (pre recession too) and he coined nearly a £billion in cash on the back of that. 

 

Also my point about decisions in football being time critical was more to do with planning the timing of decisions so that they are made at the best time for the club, given that there is a clear cut season, transfer window, pre season training etc. The timing and significance of these is known well in advance. And if you do have an unexpected event (e.g KK departure and JFK illness) mid season it becomes a matter of urgency to sort something out quickly. The run of results under Hughton's stewardship post KK where we lost to Hull and Paul Ince's Blackburn at home was a case in point.

 

Your second para on the difference between a football club and other businesses is about as good an analysis as I've ever read tbh.

 

Sorry to go back to this, but I've just had a chance to read this thread.

 

Lucky? Luck is where opportunity meets preparation. Luck isn't random.

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It's quite unbelievable how a successful (perhaps questionable) business man can make so many mistakes and not learn. Whenever there has been a decision to be made, he has made the WRONG decision EVERY time. I mean seriously, who the f*** advised him that it would be a good idea to advertise the sale of the club on a website aimed at communicating with fans? Beyond belief.

 

Business success involves a hell of a lot of luck.  Being in the right place at the right time with the right people around you can make even a complete moron a lot of money.  With us, Ashley seemed to be content to rely on his luck rather than good management and his luck just ran out.

 

The situation reminds me a bit of what happened with Alan Sugar a few years ago, when he bought Spurs. He ended up having to sack Terry Venables, who was the fans' favourite, and found himself out of control of his own business. Like Ashley, he was glad to get out in the end.

 

The only criterion for success in a business is making money. With a football club, success is trophies and there's a degree of customer involvement and interest in decisions which would normally be entirely up to an owner.

 

True.

Tbh I can understand people thinking that Ashley is deliberately running the club down because his decision making is so catastrophic that it seems inconceivable that he thinks he is doing the right things. But he is a trader and a chancer who got lucky in a market he understands. He thinks that means he has ability to run something else which he doesn't understand and like others before him (Sugar being one as you say) he is very wrong. People like Ashley are used to making decisions in their own time and in their own way, those that work for him know that and set things up around him accordingly. But in a business like a football club decisions are absolutely time critical and success depends upon the assets of the club being moulded into a cohesive unit (and not being viewed as a potential profitable resale). Ashley, though rich, isn't really very clever at all and I have thought since the word go that he was completely out of his depth owning a Premiership club.     

 

I'd kind of agree with your conclusion that there's a different skill-set needed to run a football club, when compared with running a business, and that Ashley has fallen short. I don't think it's the time pressure factor that's significant though, and I wouldn't say that Ashley has necessarily been lucky in his business life, any more than Sugar was lucky. In business, they each saw opportunities neglected by other people and went for it hell for leather.

 

The problem with a football club is that it is only partly a business. The other part is a kind of community institution in which the fans have a big influence, and in that respect it's like running a public service. The strain in running a public service is that you have the press, the government and the public on your back, demanding that you run things in a certain way, and you're not your own master. So a lot of what you would like to do has to be weighed up and compromises reached. So you get the worst of both worlds - you have to pick up the tab at the end of the day, but you don't get the free hand that you would get in business.

 

Like you said, maybe Ashley just doesn't have the kind of brain that can anticipate that kind of difficulty and deal with it. He's also used to shunning the limelight, and may not have the kind of thick skin you need in that very public position. I didn't like Shepherd, but he did have the hide of a rhino when the criticism started flying.

 

Strictly in the world of business, appointing Wise and Keegan together might have made a lot of sense. Keegan would produce an entertaining product for the customers and Wise would look after the long-term strategy and the finances. But in practice, that was a disaster. Keegan is more than an employee - he's a public figure with a lot of support and he wasn't averse to using that status to try to get what he wanted, despite what may have been written into his contract. Ashley has not been in control since that point, because he was never going to win a PR battle with Keegan. It's just not a situation that occurs in the business world.

 

Great response bobyule.

 

Just a couple of points of clarification:

 

I don't know so much about Sugar but I think Ashley was lucky. The flotation valuation of Sports Direct was way in excess of reality as subsequent results have shown (pre recession too) and he coined nearly a £billion in cash on the back of that. 

 

Also my point about decisions in football being time critical was more to do with planning the timing of decisions so that they are made at the best time for the club, given that there is a clear cut season, transfer window, pre season training etc. The timing and significance of these is known well in advance. And if you do have an unexpected event (e.g KK departure and JFK illness) mid season it becomes a matter of urgency to sort something out quickly. The run of results under Hughton's stewardship post KK where we lost to Hull and Paul Ince's Blackburn at home was a case in point.

 

Your second para on the difference between a football club and other businesses is about as good an analysis as I've ever read tbh.

 

Sorry to go back to this, but I've just had a chance to read this thread.

 

Lucky? Luck is where opportunity meets preparation. Luck isn't random.

 

Luck is not building a business from nothing so that its worth £many millions, there is hard work and skill involved in that. Luck is when so called experts value that business at £2 billion when its worth half that at most. Luck is when a load of investors rely on that valuation and pile in to buy the available shares giving the owner nearly £1 billion in cash.

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They said that the data room wouldn't be ready until Wednesday (NOT that they're just waiting till then, apparently) and it's a new idea, designed to speed the process up.

Tea lady has the key and she has been fired  :crazy2:
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Guest Stephen927

The data room will be like that room in Mission Impossible, with Shepherd going down on a wire avoiding the lazers and bringing the whole building down in the process.

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