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http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/jun/10/newcastle-united-alan-shearer-freddy-shepherd

Alan Shearer meets Freddy Shepherd as the former chairman plots return

 

• Ashley's predecessor has to prove he has the required £100m

• Shearer promised manager's job should takeover succeed

 

    * Simon Williams

    * guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 10 June 2009 22.00 BST

 

Alan Shearer has met Freddy Shepherd to discuss what will happen should the former Newcastle United chairman succeed in buying the club back from Mike Ashley. Shepherd has been desperate to regain control at St James' Park ever since he was ousted by Ashley when the sports retailer secretly purchased Sir John Hall's majority shareholding two years ago.

 

And his interest is serious enough for Shearer to have met him this week should he declare an intention to buy the club. Several groups are in talks with the man in charge of the sale, the chairman of Seymour Pierce, Keith Harris, and Shepherd's is one of them. In common with most of the prospective buyers – reports have also claimed interest from Oman and South Africa – Shepherd has guaranteed Shearer will be named manager as soon as a takeover is complete.

 

That would suit Shearer, although he has not given up hope he will be appointed by Ashley before the sale has been completed so that he can start to plan for life in the Championship.

 

The former England captain was expected to be given a long-term contract to manage the club as soon as the season ended but he has been left in limbo for more than a fortnight, a delay Ashley's people say is the responsibility of the banks who are restructuring the club's finances after relegation.

 

Although Shepherd's interest is known by Ashley, sources have indicated he is not sure who is providing the money needed to meet the £100m asking price.

 

As a result, the Newcastle board have responded cautiously to the approach and will not move any further until Shepherd is able to provide proof of funds. That will involve £100m being deposited into an offshore bank account to prove they have the resources to complete the deal.

 

Newcastle have taken a similar stance with the Singapore-based Profitable Group, which officially made its interest known to Seymour Pierce on Wednesday, but they remain sceptical about whether the interest is genuine and have asked for immediate evidence of their ability to fund a takeover.

 

I'm not sure what I'd think tbh. :undecided:

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:)

 

Need a new management structure before we run the risk of two relegations in a row. Plus i believe Shepherd, to an acceptable extent, will have the club's interests at heart. I really can't be arsed arguing that should anyone disagree, i just do.

 

It's about as ideal as oral herpes but fuck it, we need things to start happening asap.

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Guest WashyGeordie

Beggars can't be choosers, and with the situation we're in atm, I'd probablies take Shepherd back tbh.  :-[

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I think everyone knows there were a sizable portion of fans who were happy to see the back of Shepherd, myself included. But let's look at the positives:

 

  • He has ambition.
  • He already knows the club inside out.
  • He'd have effectively had the finances sorted out for him.
  • He might have learnt from his mistakes(!) and realise this time the club needs building on a solid financial base.
  • The bit he probably got most wrong in his time - appointing a decent manager - would be virtually done for him.
  • He could have a proper sit down with Shearer and agree the plan for the future instead of lurching from one idea to the next.
  • His desire for the club to do well is pretty sincere (IMO).
  • He'd need backing from others to buy the club back in the first place - these others could maintain some control over spending.

 

:dontknow:

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I think everyone knows there were a sizable portion of fans who were happy to see the back of Shepherd, myself included. But let's look at the positives:

 

  • He has ambition.
  • He already knows the club inside out.
  • He'd have effectively had the finances sorted out for him.
  • He might have learnt from his mistakes(!) and realise this time the club needs building on a solid financial base.
  • The bit he probably got most wrong in his time - appointing a decent manager - would be virtually done for him.
  • He could have a proper sit down with Shearer and agree the plan for the future instead of lurching from one idea to the next.
  • His desire for the club to do well is pretty sincere (IMO).
  • He'd need backing from others to buy the club back in the first place - these others could maintain some control over spending.

 

:dontknow:

 

It's a better option than the mess were in now, still not the right answer.

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Guest firetotheworks

I'd take him, but only as an absolute last resort. Would it be fair to say that is what most people are thinking?

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You can question the morals behind this if you want but i'd trust Shepherd over some oil-rich Arab who knows fuck all about football. Shepherd made his fair share of mistakes and we were fair enough to see the back of him, but Mike Ashley makes him look like a fucking God in the grand scheme of things - and Freddy Shepherd would be a massive improvement on the situation we're in now. What matters is the here and now; it'd be pretty depressing but Shepherd is a vast improvement on the cretins we've got at the top now; irrelative of where we were three or four years ago.

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Freddy took £35m from the sale didn't he?  No doubt he's coming in to this at at least 25% if not 33%.

 

It will just end up with him doing his level best to get more % of the club dragging us back down with hidden loans and dodgy deals.

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If we could get some rich investors on his side then I'll be more positive. Good thing about Shepherd is that he's ambitious, knows the club and is craving for success like everyone else. Can see us getting back into the Premiership on the bounce with him at the helm. Our finances would be fucked up totally, of course since it's Freddy, but here is where the rich investor part comes in.

 

He's better than Ashley but not by much. If we could get anyone else in who's filthy rich I'd take that, but that's not going to happen unfortunately..

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I'd take him, but only as an absolute last resort. Would it be fair to say that is what most people are thinking?

 

Yeah, probably. The thing is I always strongly criticised Shepherd for his mistakes in the latter years of his regime but a period away from the club might have given him time to reflect on what went wrong. He can't possibly be stubborn or stupid enough to believe the finances were hunky-dory at the time he left, and the appointment of Allardyce probably confirms that. Allardyce turned out to be a shit manager but the thinking behind it and the timing/manner in which he was appointed was fairly sound iyam.

 

Would he do things differently this time around is the question.

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Guest firetotheworks

I'd take him, but only as an absolute last resort. Would it be fair to say that is what most people are thinking?

 

Yeah, probably. The thing is I always strongly criticised Shepherd for his mistakes in the latter years of his regime but a period away from the club might have given him time to reflect on what went wrong. He can't possibly be stubborn or stupid enough to believe the finances were hunky-dory at the time he left, and the appointment of Allardyce probably confirms that. Allardyce turned out to be a s*** manager but the thinking behind it and the timing/manner in which he was appointed was fairly sound iyam.

 

Would he do things differently this time around is the question.

 

Well he's never admitted to any mistakes in public. He might do privately, but who knows. Although he was more liberal with the purse strings than Ashley, its essentially the same problems we had with Ashley in terms of players transfers that does it for me. Selling Big Dunc and Speed without SBR knowing, or being told otherwise. Going straight for Butt when SBR wanted Carrick. Paying over the odds for Luque, even though Souness wanted Boa Morte at a price that was 6million cheaper. If he's learned from that, then OK. But its a big ask considering he did it regularly and with different managers.

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I'd take him, but only as an absolute last resort. Would it be fair to say that is what most people are thinking?

 

Yeah, probably. The thing is I always strongly criticised Shepherd for his mistakes in the latter years of his regime but a period away from the club might have given him time to reflect on what went wrong. He can't possibly be stubborn or stupid enough to believe the finances were hunky-dory at the time he left, and the appointment of Allardyce probably confirms that. Allardyce turned out to be a shit manager but the thinking behind it and the timing/manner in which he was appointed was fairly sound iyam.

 

Would he do things differently this time around is the question.

Championship might be better for him because he wont even get close to having the opportunity of wasting money on high earners like Michael Owen

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No, no, no, no.

Remember why you were so happy that Fat Cunt Mike bought him out in the first place? Because he was a shite chairman who was running the club into the gutter. Just because he wasn't as good as Mike at doing this, doesn't mean we should want him back. Settling for bringing FFS back would be like being happy about Dyer coming back as he's better than R.Taylor.

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I'd have Dyer back in a flash if it meant fucking off Ryan Taylor. :lol:

 

Shepherd is a huge improvement on the situation we're in at the moment, and he wants to do well for the club.

 

He's an acceptable candidate for me in that case, and if there's no other bugger about that meets that criteria then Shepherd it is. We've got literally no time to dilly dally around.

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I don't really want him, I like the idea that the profitable group have, sort of like a President that the supporters vote in, at the moment I want the profitable group to take over, because they have (some) experience in football, they can provide spnsers to the club aswell as investors, they seem to have near on world wide access and the nature of their work goes hand in hand with the conference centre and facilties we have at St James' Park. If Shepard was to throw his hat into the ring as president then fair enough, if you want him vote for him, but this bloke even though did make some good choices for us, but it was all in aid of his own cause.

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Any quotes like or is it total bollocks like usual?

 

I wouldn't want him back like, but tbf he'd be prefered to Ashley but that's not saying much, can anyone actually remember the crack on here and around the town before he was forced out? he was practically the second coming of Hitler ffs..

 

I suppose it just shows how truly shite Ashley has been, 2 years ago he was meant to be the bloke that saved us from Shepherd.

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