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Various: Mike Ashley in talks with Sheikh Khaled bin Zayed Al Nehayan


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Guest Howaythetoon

Whether this is true or not I don’t know, but I’ve been told about it more than once and could honestly believe it...

 

Anyway, the main reason Ashley pulled the plug on the AS deal and then denied Rafa any real money in the Jan window and following summer window is because he got wind of how cushy Rafa and AS were and that they had been talking for a while well before Ashley sat down with her and it pissed him off.

 

I respect Dokko, top poster, doesn’t bull and knows his stuff, but AS was very serious, had an offer that if it didn’t fully meet Ashley’s valuation or criteria, was enough to go to a stage where the deal was left with the lawyers/legal team of both parties to sign, until Ashley threw a hissy fit and pulled the plug that is. Going public to dismiss AS as a chancer which was unprofessional and totally amateur, but that’s MA.

 

I’m sure she would still love to buy the club, but MA won’t deal with her and I don’t think she and her backers would get involved with MA again either, not after his stunts last time around. She was very serious and very credible and would have been a good owner.

 

I’m unsure about Kenyon, but right now, I’d take Donald Trump over Ashley.

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Guest Howaythetoon

Whether this is true or not I don’t know, but I’ve been told about it more than once and could honestly believe it...

 

Anyway, the main reason Ashley pulled the plug on the AS deal and then denied Rafa any real money in the Jan window and following summer window is because he got wind of how cushy Rafa and AS were and that they had been talking for a while well before Ashley sat down with her and it pissed him off.

 

I respect Dokko, top poster, doesn’t bull and knows his stuff, but AS was very serious, had an offer that if it didn’t fully meet Ashley’s valuation or criteria, was enough to go to a stage where the deal was left with the lawyers/legal team of both parties to sign, until Ashley threw a hissy fit and pulled the plug that is. Going public to dismiss AS as a chancer which was unprofessional and totally amateur, but that’s MA.

 

I’m sure she would still love to buy the club, but MA won’t deal with her and I don’t think she and her backers would get involved with MA again either, not after his stunts last time around. She was very serious and very credible and would have been a good owner.

 

I’m unsure about Kenyon, but right now, I’d take Donald Trump over Ashley.

 

So you're sure Stavely would have been a good owner, despite knowing fuck all about her. Yet you're unsure on Kenyon...despite him being at the top at Chelsea and Fergie's Man U? Come on :lol:

 

PS. Proof I read your posts :smugdog:

 

It boils down to persona and I’ve always thought Kenyon to be dodgy and a bit of a slime ball, I’ve never liked him. But he’s someone who is highly qualified and experienced and if he is to front things, his job will be to deliver success whatever that means. Basically a world away from Ashley and Charnley.

 

Regarding any takeover my wife’s nephew is an academy player, he won’t make it, none of them will, but that’s another topic of debate, anyway over the last few weeks bodies in suits have been present at the academy and training grounds carrying out some kind of review and almost all of them had a Yank accent. I can also confirm Kenyon has visited the academy. I also know several academy affiliated coaches and they have all said pretty much the same thing.

 

My own feelings are that just like with the AS deal this is on, but I feel this is to Ashley like a night at the casino and all a bit of a gamble or a throw of the dice which could go either way.

 

I don’t think this is as far on as it went with AS and her bid and I don’t think we will see new owners any time soon either. Ashley has invited offers  and Kenyon and co are the most serious, but if he is to gamble, the stakes have to be a bit more enticing. 280m is the offer I’ve heard, no clauses, a complete break, Ashley is asking for 320m with no clauses and a complete break, but is testing Kenyon and co with talk of counterbids above their offer which are all false of course.

 

He doesn’t really want to sell IMO, he’s just chancing his arm, seeing what he could get for the club or what he could push for and unless a bidder blows him away with an offer he can’t refuse that matches his desired buy it now price or above that, he won’t sell up.

 

It’s worth 300m tops and even then a buyer is paying a premium based on potential and future income and the more a buyer has to pay for the club, the less they have to spend or would be willing to spend on strengthening areas of the club that require significant investment to justify buying say us over some other club here or abroad. Bearing in mind NUFC are fighting for survival, have a manager with months left on is contract and are also under investigation by HMRC which could lead to all kinds of penalties, embargos, sanctions, fines and even demotion.

 

Right now I would wager takeover rumours will again dominate this thread/forum 12 months from now. We are stuck with Ashley for some time yet!

 

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Eye colours are different.

 

Next.

 

Looks like him mind - it's the ones who they kept showing on the match feed when talking about the takeover so must be someone

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I have no idea who that guy is so did a quick Wikipedia search on him.

 

Cook was born in Birmingham. He moved to the United States in 1985.

 

Nike

Cook started working for sports wear brand Nike in 1996. Cook worked his way up to head of the Nike project "Brand Jordan", working very closely with basketball star Michael Jordan while working at Nike.

 

Manchester City

On becoming the new owner of Manchester City, Thaksin Shinawatra contacted Cook about becoming CEO of the club after the departure of Alistair Mackintosh. Cook accepted the offer and was appointed CEO of the club in May 2008. His wages were £1,500,000 in 2009.

 

One of Cook's first tasks with his new club was to find a new manager after Sven-Göran Eriksson had been dismissed; he targeted Mark Hughes of Blackburn Rovers. On 4 June 2008, Hughes signed a three-year deal with the club. On the day Hughes was unveiled to the media, Cook stated: "I am delighted to welcome Mark on board, In our view he is the brightest young manager in the game and he was our number one target for the manager's job."

 

In August 2008 he criticised club captain Richard Dunne, who the fans had voted player of the year for the previous four seasons, saying "China and India are gagging for football content to watch and we’re going to tell them that City is their content. We need a superstar to get through that door. Richard Dunne doesn’t roll off the tongue in Beijing". He also said of Thaksin, "Is he a nice guy? Yes. Is he a great guy to play golf with? Yes. Has he got the finances to run a club? Yes....Whether he's guilty of something over there, I can’t worry too much about....Morally, I feel comfortable in this environment". Just over a year later Cook said he felt "dreadful" about having made that comment. "I have made some mistakes in my life", Cook said, "but I deeply regretted my failure to do proper research on Thaksin".

 

Cook's new task was player recruitment, completing the signings of Tal Ben Haim, Jo, Vincent Kompany, Pablo Zabaleta and Shaun Wright-Phillips.

 

On 1 September, Manchester City were taken over by the Abu Dhabi United Group. Cook subsequently completed the transfer of Brazilian Robinho to the club from Real Madrid for a British transfer record of £32.5 million. After the arrival of the new Abu Dhabi based owners many thought that they would opt for their own CEO but they decided to keep Cook on. They did, however, appoint a new chairman, Khaldoon Al Mubarak, who replaced the outgoing Shinawatra.

 

After the 2009 January transfer window opened Mark Hughes and Cook sealed signings for Wayne Bridge, Craig Bellamy, Shay Given and Nigel de Jong. However, Cook failed in a world record bid to bring Kaká to the club, blaming the breakdown in negotiations on A.C. Milan, stating, "If you want my personal opinion they bottled it. He clearly was for sale but we never got to meet with the player, the behaviour of A.C. Milan got in the way."

 

Cook also did much work away from transfers introducing the "My first City game" campaign where supporters of the club write in their memories of their first ever game watching the team, these have then been placed around the interior of the stadium. Many fans have contributed to this, including Ricky Hatton.

 

After City finished 10th in the Premier League in Cook's first season with the club, he went about bringing in further targets of Hughes. In the summer of 2009 Cook signed Gareth Barry, Roque Santa Cruz, Stuart Taylor, Carlos Tevez, Emmanuel Adebayor, Kolo Touré, Joleon Lescott and Sylvinho. Cook also built his own team around him with Brian Marwood joining the club.

 

Alongside Al Mubarak, Cook has seen the complete overhaul of the club's training base at Carrington, and scheduled a 2009 summer tour of South Africa where the squad met Nelson Mandela.

 

He made a gaffe by welcoming Uwe Rösler to the Manchester United Hall of Fame instead of the Manchester City Hall of Fame, and was booed by Manchester City fans. He wrote apology letters to 70 Manchester City supporters' clubs.

 

On 19 December 2009, Cook was key in relieving Mark Hughes of his duties as City's manager, after just two wins in twelve games, and appointing former Inter Milan manager Roberto Mancini as his replacement.

 

In September 2011, Cook offered his resignation after insensitive email allegations towards a player's mother. The Manchester City board believed there was evidence to back the allegations and accepted his resignation on 9 September 2011. Chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak thanked Cook for his efforts in transforming the club's infrastructure and direction.

 

UFC

In September 2012, Cook was appointed Executive Vice President and Managing Director of Europe, Middle East and Africa for the UFC. He was fired from the UFC in a later round of staffing cuts initiated after the sale of Zuffa, LLC to WME-IMG.

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Guest Howaythetoon

Lol at HTT’s mega posts about AS and sitting on the Kenyon stuff with all the detail behind it until today.

 

I could say a lot more, but it would be far too coincidental.

 

Sat quiet this time because I was told the AS bid was as good as signed sealed and delivered last time around which I truly believed and posted about. Right now even with a bit of inside info, I’d say a takeover will not materailse, we are stuck with Ashley for a while yet. Kenyon is real though, but if you can accept he is a lot further behind than AS was at this stage who pushed all the way where a deal was all but signed, we will soon find this is just talk and nothing will come of it. I’d wager 500 quid to the Newcastle food bank MA will still own us 12 months from now.

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Lol at HTT’s mega posts about AS and sitting on the Kenyon stuff with all the detail behind it until today.

 

I could say a lot more, but it would be far too coincidental.

 

Sat quiet this time because I was told the AS bid was as good as signed sealed and delivered last time around which I truly believed and posted about. Right now even with a bit of inside info, I’d say a takeover will not materailse, we are stuck with Ashley for a while yet. Kenyon is real though, but if you can accept he is a lot further behind than AS was at this stage who pushed all the way where a deal was all but signed, we will soon find this is just talk and nothing will come of it. I’d wager 500 quid to the Newcastle food bank MA will still own us 12 months from now.

 

:thup: you know I’m only giving you some harmless stick. You’re a class legend of these forums. Hope you have to send that donation too, mind you. Happiest donation you’ll make in some time.

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Guest Howaythetoon

Lol at HTT’s mega posts about AS and sitting on the Kenyon stuff with all the detail behind it until today.

 

I could say a lot more, but it would be far too coincidental.

 

Sat quiet this time because I was told the AS bid was as good as signed sealed and delivered last time around which I truly believed and posted about. Right now even with a bit of inside info, I’d say a takeover will not materailse, we are stuck with Ashley for a while yet. Kenyon is real though, but if you can accept he is a lot further behind than AS was at this stage who pushed all the way where a deal was all but signed, we will soon find this is just talk and nothing will come of it. I’d wager 500 quid to the Newcastle food bank MA will still own us 12 months from now.

 

:thup: you know I’m only giving you some harmless stick. You’re a class legend of these forums. Hope you have to send that donation too, mind you. Happiest donation you’ll make in some time.

 

I’m personally involved individually and through my business so either way they get my backing and to be honest if we do get taken over, I’d match that pledge anyway. Win win for them. If I had my own way our shirts would adorn their logo/brand at home games. While the club and certain individuals from Charnley to Lascelles do a lot for the Food Bank I know deep down key members feel the club do their bit for good PR more than anything.

 

They’ve asked to campaign inside SJP on match days and been met what they consider excuses. To be fair where do you draw the line, the club can’t favour one charity over the other or be seen to take sides.

 

I’m a hard nose cynic when it comes to charity, but this is one cause that really does help people and is to my knowledge 100% volunteer orientated. When I first got involved a few years back I was quite cynical seeing people with jobs using the food bank, but the figures don’t lie.

 

If people with jobs have to use a food bank to feed their kids and themselves that says a lot about modern society right now. I’ve questioned these people and they say we either pay the mortgage or we buy food, we can’t afford both. We end up on the streets or we starve. Without the food bank they lose their home and starve.

 

What I love is those who don’t have a job who live in a council house or are homeless don’t see those with jobs and mortgage as more well off, if anything they regard them as more vulnerable. Again the cynic in me despite my own upbringing of poverty would think aye, a free meal while they go on Facebook via their iPhones, but getting involved I now understand just how important a food bank is for many people, a service most feel ashamed to use.

 

It says a lot when the cost of putting food on the table is just as costly as rent or a mortgage or when the two combined places one into poverty where one has to make a choice where regardless of choice they are still less off and just as poor financially.

 

Btw a good friend of mine helped set up Toon Aid last year which raised 50k in support of our Foodbanks last Xmas and has set a target of 100k this year which is massively ambitious and IMO unrealistic, they have raised 55k thus far though. All monies go to food banks and this year I believe the homeless as well as various child care services benefit too.

 

You won’t read about this in the daily mail or the sun, but the majority of people and businesses behind Toon Aid and the foodbanks are from our Muslim community where many a restaurant donates food and roll out scran vans this time of year to feed the homeless and jobless throughout the City, they also do huge toy delivering runs to kids’ homes and to Christian churches to dole out to jobless families.

 

Makes one proud to be a Geordie far more than NUFC could ever make me feel.

 

Still... Ashley selling up would be a dream come true so fingers crossed. Kenyon and Co are serious, their bid real and the only bid, they’ve checked the books, visited the acadamy, training ground, stadium, conversed with fan groups and are primed to take over, but their bid is way short of what Ashley wants and even if they match it, will Ashley really sell up this time?

 

I can’t see Kenyon and co matching his so-called buy it now price or him accepting their offer. Not even a compromise will seal a deal. Again in truth, I don’t think he really wants to sell and is his hoping he is offered more than what he wants for the club which I’m lead to believe is £320m, some £40m below what he’s been offered by Kenyon and co.

 

 

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