Keegan vs Ashley and Co case settled - KK awarded 2m

[johnnypd]

The main feeling I got from reading the PDF was that KK must be soft in the head to have taken the job in the first place.

 

Eh?

 

There's a massive fucking section about how it wasn't made clear to Keegan that he wouldn't be in charge of signings. That's the basis of the entire outcome, that Keegan took the job in good faith and was repeatedly misled. Not only that, the club were deliberately lying to the fans (that includes you, I think) and not telling Keegan the 'real' position.

 

If it wasn't clear -- and it clearly wasn't -- he should have acted on his misgivings and said no before all this bollocks started.

 

That's what I wish he'd done.

 

As for being lied to, when have we not been? Freddie was hardly the paragon of Truth and Honesty. KK's told a few porkies in his time, too. It hardly changes anyone's opinion of Ashley, does it? We know he's crap.

 

i agree with this to an extent. the one thing i would say keegan is guilty of is rushing into the job and not helping to set out some proper ground rules first. I suppose that firstly he was caught up in the excitement that secondly he didnt think he'd be working with such lying, unprofessional con men.

[Ashley17]

i think there's a certain sweetness about the fact that this much lauded scouting system and network of contacts ended up being about doing mate's favours and scouting players based off grainy youtube compilations. this is the system they were prepared to lose Keegan to protect? 

 

I think that's what sums it up...all the things we laughed about in a "surely they haven't been as stupid as that!?" kind of manner turns out to be true. And the fact that they've admitted things they say in the press are a lie, well, we've all thought as much for a while but now it's confirmed. This lot are a fucking disgrace, and although we've thought that all along, there's no longer an "if.." belatedly following that statement.

[maybe_next_year]

glad the case has finally been closed.

 

 

who knows, maybe even people will stop arguing about it.... who am i kidding 

[Interpolic]

i think there's a certain sweetness about the fact that this much lauded scouting system and network of contacts ended up being about doing mates favours and scouting players based off grainy youtube compilations. this is the system they were prepared to lose Keegan to protect? 

 

How close do you think that it was to the Arsenal model?

[cp40]

glad the case has finally been closed.

 

 

who knows, maybe even people will stop arguing about it.... who am i kidding 

 

 

maybe next year eh?

[Dave]

i think there's a certain sweetness about the fact that this much lauded scouting system and network of contacts ended up being about doing mates favours and scouting players based off grainy youtube compilations. this is the system they were prepared to lose Keegan to protect? 

 

[Taylor Swift]

Some people need to read the pdf before commenting.

[abcdefg]

I'm just glad it's over, 2m won't kill the club, Keegan's basically vindicated...bollocks to the past, time to worry about other things we also have no control over.

[cp40]

I'm just glad it's over, 2m won't kill the club, Keegan's basically vindicated...bollocks to the past, time to worry about other things we also have no control over.

 

guess we will just have to argue them out in here,.....its nice to know some things wont change

[SteveMc]

It's a regrettable affair all round imo.  The club the main culprits without a doubt. Scouting on youtube, favours for agents, BARE FACED LYING TO US FANS IN OFFICIAL PUBLICATIONS, misleading Keegan etc.  They simply can't be trusted again.

 

KK though had no need to go for 25m - he's looking at claiming full wages until he 65 and yet he hadn't worked at that level for years.  Real shameless opportunism that could have fooked up our whole future.

[abcdefg]

I'm just glad it's over, 2m won't kill the club, Keegan's basically vindicated...bollocks to the past, time to worry about other things we also have no control over.

 

guess we will just have to argue them out in here,.....its nice to know some things wont change

 

What I mean is it's one less problem in the way of any takeover, not that I'm convinced that's imminent anyway.

[Dave]

Caulkin:

 

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/article6859550.ece

October 3, 2009

Damning verdict on Mike Ashley era is there for all in black and white

 

George Caulkin

 

The full, extraordinary details were documented in black and white. Welcome to Mike Ashley’s Newcastle United: a club where senseless transfers can be conducted as a “favour” to South American agents; where directors tell a baffled manager to look up his new signing on YouTube; where officials consistently mislead supporters “as an exercise in public relations”.

 

The chaos that has blossomed since Ashley bought Newcastle in 2007 — a billionaire benefactor promising “a bit of fun” — was exposed in brutal fashion yesterday. Even the legalese of a Premier League arbitration panel’s report into Kevin Keegan’s departure could not cloak some devastating findings. Their assessment produced a verdict of constructive dismissal and a vindication of the former manager’s point of principle.

 

To see it in print felt like a return to the maelstrom of transfer deadline day last year. After confusion regarding the delineation of duties between Keegan and Dennis Wise, the club’s executive director (football), the catalyst was the mooted loan signing of Ignacio González, a Uruguayan midfield player, from Valencia. The three-man independent arbitration panel, chaired by Philip Havers QC, took up a scarcely credible story.

 

“Mr Keegan was unimpressed and told Mr Wise that he did not think the player was good enough,” the panel reported. “Mr Wise then told him that the player was on YouTube and that Mr Keegan could look him up there, but he [Keegan] found that the clips were of poor quality and provided no basis for signing a player to a Premier League club. Moreover, no one at the club had seen him [González] play.”

 

In spite of Keegan, the deal was completed. “The club did so, according to its witnesses who gave evidence before us, because it was in the club’s commercial interests to do so . . . that the signing of a player on loan would be a ‘favour’ to two influential South American agents who would look favourably on the club in the future. The loan deal cost the club nearly £1m in wages for a player who was not expected to play for the first team.”

 

Keegan was left with no alternative. “I do not believe that there is any manager in football who could have remained at the club in the light of their conduct,” he said. “This is something that I was not prepared to be associated with in any way. The club knew that I objected strongly to this transfer and were aware that by continuing with it I was likely to feel that I had no option but to resign.”

 

The last 12 months have not been kind to Keegan, whose reputation has been targeted by some toxic leaking while he waited for his case to be heard. Amid the club’s painful descent towards relegation, the arrivals and departures of Joe Kinnear and Alan Shearer, the ugly headlines and poor results, his motives for walking away have been questioned. He has been painted as embittered, compromised and a serial quitter.

 

Finally, he has been able to address the issue. “The decision to resign was one of the most difficult that I have ever had to take in my life,” he said. “I believe that anybody who knows me and my attachment to Newcastle United and the North East in general will understand how difficult this must have been . . . I felt that I had no option but to resign from the position as manager of the club that I love.”

 

That decision initiated a lengthy legal battle between Keegan and Newcastle, with the former arguing he was effectively dismissed and the latter responding that he had breached his contract. The key issue was whether Keegan knew when he returned to Tyneside for his second stint in the dugout that he would or would not be responsible for acquiring new players.

 

Wise and Chris Mort, who was Newcastle’s chairman when Keegan was hired in January 2008, had both said publicly — Wise through the club’s official website — that Keegan would be the final arbiter on transfers, but in front of the tribunal the club argued the opposite.

 

“The club’s explanation for these statements, which, on their case, were simply untrue, was that they were nothing more than an exercise in public relations carried out so as not to undermine Mr Keegan’s position and made necessary, in the first place, by statements made by Mr Keegan himself to the press,” the panel reported. “We found this explanation to be profoundly unsatisfactory . . . we do not understand why the club could not set out publicly and truthfully what they maintain was the true position.”

 

Or as Keegan put it: “The tribunal’s decision makes it clear that I did have the final say on transfers and the club’s allegation that I did not, which was publicised widely at the time of my resignation and subsequently, was simply untrue. The club admitted to the tribunal that it repeatedly and intentionally misled the press, public and the fans of Newcastle.”

 

Other inconsistencies were highlighted, from Kinnear being appointed under the same “continental” structure as Keegan, yet being wholly responsible for transfers, to the “lack of clarity” and “confusion” in the club’s evidence. A letter to Keegan from Derek Llambias, the managing director, dated September 4, 2008, promised that “no player will be bought for the first team without your approval, save of course for commercial deals”. Wise denied that Keegan ever had the final say.

 

Newcastle are top of the Coca-Cola Championship and face Bristol City at home today. In difficult circumstances, a pared-down squad has unearthed unity and spirit, but that heartening response to demotion is balanced by the continuing presence of Ashley and Llambias at the club. A takeover cannot come soon enough. Yesterday, the hierarchy issued a short statement. “The club will be making no comment on this matter,” it said. Nothing else would have been believable.

[Guest dover]

After reading that pdf im left feeling - meh.

 

Director of football buys players having never seen them. Ashley thinks this is ok.

Club mislead fans. Ashley thinks this is ok.

Structure set up to buy young talent and sell them on at profit rather than build a team around them. Ashley thinks this is ok.

Club sets budget for wages and then buys players to burn it who will never see first team football. Ashley thinks this is ok.

Club dont want manager to have final say on player transfers. Ashley thinks this is ok.

Club trust Wise judgement with zero footballing achievements over proven top flight manager Keegan. Ashley thinks this is ok.

 

Thats what I got from the pdf. It just reminded me how good it felt at the start of the season attacking and drawing at man utd with Keegan in the dug out and what i thought was a structure for the club to go forward and challenge in years to come. And the stomach churning kick in the nuts ive been feeling ever since.

 

Fuck off Mike your killing us.

[SteveMc]

Nothing else would have been believable.

 

Quote of the year

[SteveMc]

 

Club sets budget for wages and then buys players to burn it who will never see first team football. Ashley thinks this is ok.

 

And if that 1m quid had been spent on a wage rise for Milner.....

[timnufc22]

Just utter utter bastards.

 

Leading a club legend down a garden path to sell 3 year season tickets, its just shambolic, and this lot, try as they might to save their own arses, are not going to (or should not be allowed to) mess up a Legend's repuation.

 

Keegan was right, and is someone who is always welcome back at SJP.

[johnnypd]

regardless of people's agendas, surely those who had previously been sympathetic to ashley, and there were still one or two around, must now admit that his running of the club has been a shambles? and that it's had nowt to do with Keegan sabotaging all his good work (like the awesome scouting system - ha!) they couldn't even muster up coherent testimonies in court ffs.

[Guest pont-toon]

Nothing else would have been believable.

 

Quote of the year

 

quoted for truth by Caulkin - anything the club say to the public or press is tainted that it could be/probably is complete horseshit

 

"GET OUT OF OUR CLUB".................. sing it louder baby

[madras]

just read the entire judgement and a few little things i'd like to point out.

 

what happened about the other transfers ?

 

the club fucked up by using terms like "usually" instead of specifics in the contract. it seems like the club thought it had itself covered by saying coaching,selection motivation etc

 

keegan fucked up by agreeing to clause 14.8.1 (iirc) and by the sounds of it he did try to claim for £25mill (so much for it being a smear).

 

i'd have no problem with the club bringing in players without the managers say so if they are hopefully to be sold on at a profit providing the manager within reason gets players agreeable to him to use in his team.

 

still no mention of the players keegan actually wanted.

 

not too fussed about the lies,all clubs and businesses tell them.

 

i hope the FA/UEFA/FIFA look into the "favour" for a pair of south american agents.

 

 

[Thespence]

what happened about the other transfers ?

 

They state

 

6. Although we heard a considerable amount of evidence as to events which took place

in the months which followed Mr Keegan’s appointment, in view of our conclusions,

we can proceed at once to the events which culminated in Mr Keegan’s resignation on

4 September 2008.

 

which I work out covers everything before & are really looking at the straw that broke the camel's back.

[madras]

what happened about the other transfers ?

 

They state

 

6. Although we heard a considerable amount of evidence as to events which took place

in the months which followed Mr Keegan’s appointment, in view of our conclusions,

we can proceed at once to the events which culminated in Mr Keegan’s resignation on

4 September 2008.

 

which I work out covers everything before & are really looking at the straw that broke the camel's back.

i can't see it that way without the evidence. for example, keegan agrees with it but goes mental over ganzalez is totally different to everyone being bought without anysay form him and him having reasonable targets of his own.

[SteveMc]

just read the entire judgement and a few little things i'd like to point out.

 

what happened about the other transfers ?

 

the club f***ed up by using terms like "usually" instead of specifics in the contract. it seems like the club thought it had itself covered by saying coaching,selection motivation etc

 

keegan f***ed up by agreeing to clause 14.8.1 (iirc) and by the sounds of it he did try to claim for £25mill (so much for it being a smear).

 

i'd have no problem with the club bringing in players without the managers say so if they are hopefully to be sold on at a profit providing the manager within reason gets players agreeable to him to use in his team.

 

still no mention of the players keegan actually wanted.

 

not too fussed about the lies,all clubs and businesses tell them.

 

i hope the FA/UEFA/FIFA look into the "favour" for a pair of south american agents.

 

 

 

It does allude to the players he wanted (though not specifically) by saying he was kicking off about the small squad.

 

The favour for the agents sounds fine to me (and the tribunal say as much)  They loaned a shitty player (waste of money mind) and hoped the agents would get them better players in the future.

 

The bigee for me IS lying to the fans and the manager not being given a suitable nsquad that was fit for purpose. 

[SteveMc]

No mention of Xisco either

[madras]

just read the entire judgement and a few little things i'd like to point out.

 

what happened about the other transfers ?

 

the club f***ed up by using terms like "usually" instead of specifics in the contract. it seems like the club thought it had itself covered by saying coaching,selection motivation etc

 

keegan f***ed up by agreeing to clause 14.8.1 (iirc) and by the sounds of it he did try to claim for £25mill (so much for it being a smear).

 

i'd have no problem with the club bringing in players without the managers say so if they are hopefully to be sold on at a profit providing the manager within reason gets players agreeable to him to use in his team.

 

still no mention of the players keegan actually wanted.

 

not too fussed about the lies,all clubs and businesses tell them.

 

i hope the FA/UEFA/FIFA look into the "favour" for a pair of south american agents.

 

 

 

It does allude to the players he wanted (though not specifically) by saying he was kicking off about the small squad.

 

The favour for the agents sounds fine to me (and the tribunal say as much)  They loaned a shitty player (waste of money mind) and hoped the agents would get them better players in the future.

 

The bigee for me IS lying to the fans and the manager not being given a suitable nsquad that was fit for purpose. 

it's those specifics i'd be interested in.

[Thespence]

what happened about the other transfers ?

 

They state

 

6. Although we heard a considerable amount of evidence as to events which took place

in the months which followed Mr Keegan’s appointment, in view of our conclusions,

we can proceed at once to the events which culminated in Mr Keegan’s resignation on

4 September 2008.

 

which I work out covers everything before & are really looking at the straw that broke the camel's back.

i can't see it that way without the evidence. for example, keegan agrees with it but goes mental over ganzalez is totally different to everyone being bought without anysay form him and him having reasonable targets of his own.

 

Were not going to see the evidence for stuff that went on before.