Jump to content

PIF, PCP, and RB Sports & Media


Yorkie

Recommended Posts

Sir John Hall: Newcastle fans live their lives through this club – Mike Ashley forgot that

The former owner tells Martin Hardy that Newcastle’s buyers can deliver glory if they avoid the mistakes of the past

 

Sir John Hall was shopping for trees in Kew Gardens, back in 1992, when, as the chairman and owner of Newcastle United, he was invited to meet the next manager of the club.

Having been involved in his own takeover saga, he understands the parallels to now — how it took a similarly lengthy period for Amanda Staveley and the Saudi Arabia-backed consortium to wrestle power from Mike Ashley — and knows better than anyone the importance of that first managerial appointment.

Hall’s company had built the Metrocentre in Gateshead, Europe’s biggest indoor shopping mall, in the 1980s, which was then sold. He had been pressured to get involved at Newcastle, who were a Division Two club in a decrepit ground, and initially invested £500,000 for a non-controlling stake. But he ended up in a bitter battle before taking control of the club from the McKeag family in 1991, when they were mired in a relegation fight.

 

rT6LITn.png

 

Before that trip to Kew, Hall had even gone into print with a dreaded vote of confidence for the manager at the time, Ossie Ardiles, with the club second from bottom in Division Two — unaware that his son, Douglas, and the Newcastle board member Freddy Shepherd had flown to meet Kevin Keegan in Spain.

The Hall family had just purchased Wynyard Hall, a country house built in 1820 with 6,000 acres of land, when Douglas phoned and told him to leave the Royal Botanic Gardens in Richmond and meet the man who would eventually lead Newcastle to within touching distance of the Premier League title four years later.

 

“We came in [to Newcastle], and basically we’d never been in football before,” Hall says. “I didn’t want to be in football, but I got trapped. I had invested and then the club nearly went bust, so I launched a takeover.

“We were all new, and it was Alastair Wilson from Newcastle Breweries [the club’s sponsor at the time] who said that Kevin had been coming back for talks and [that] he wanted to come back.

 

“They whipped across [to Spain] and saw him. As soon as I met him, his knowledge of the game was unbelievable. He must have been sitting in Spain watching the papers and watching television. He knew the players he wanted straight away. We were novices and we were very lucky.

“You’re always hoping in your first choice you get the best, but you can never tell. Look at the managers we’ve had after that, some of whom were quite useless.”

Hall is 88 now and still super sharp. He has warned Staveley and the consortium looking to rebuild Newcastle to appoint the right people, and to make those appointments quickly. “I would want to see someone of the intellect and knowledge of Arsène Wenger,” he says. “He was brilliant. [But] it’s very difficult. There are very few Arsène Wengers around.

“It’s not going to be easy — football isn’t. They will learn, but if they get the right manager and the right chief executive and the right people behind them it will take five years.

“It is up to them now. They cannot complain about anybody. The first thing they have to do is make sure they don’t go down. Then build the team up over the next five years — and the fans have to go with them.

“They cannot expect to be spending £100 million on this player overnight. I wouldn’t do that.

 

“The club is going to have to change if they are going to challenge at the top, to attract players, because the facilities aren’t good enough, they belong in the Nineties. We are in a new era and a new period. They are coming in with new ideas. Talk is easy. You’ve got to see if they carry out everything they are saying and if they do, then the club has a wonderful future, but it ain’t going to happen overnight.”

 

Hall and Keegan would produce a free-flowing football side. Freddie Fletcher joined from Rangers as chief executive and St James’ Park was rebuilt. Newcastle, who have not been champions of England since 1927, missed out on winning the Premier League on the final day of the 1995-96 season, and that summer the club broke the transfer world record to sign Alan Shearer for £15 million.

“It was magic,” Hall says. “You couldn’t believe it was happening, you just rode the wave. Then you can’t stop it. You think, ‘This is never going to end.’ I offered Kevin a ten-year contract. It did end, but it was magic.

“What came home to me was, you have your business and you have your job, but a lot of people in the area live their lives through the football club. I could not believe how passionate they were and how much it meant to them.

“The responsibility you have as an owner, for the life of your fans, is very difficult to control.”

Hall is forthright in his criticism of the Premier League’s present power base and 

cautious over the club’s majority shareholder being Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.

“There is another kid on the block now,” he says. “If we do it right, we will be challenging them [the top clubs], and I look forward to that.

 

“If you look at things the way they are now, we are getting a lot of criticism. How dare those six clubs criticise us when they were going to break away and form the Super League? They didn’t think of anybody but themselves. It’s ironic that they are criticising us. I’ve got two words for them: ‘Get stuffed!’

“I think we all have feelings [on Saudi ownership] but basically we are all just ordinary supporters. Who is to argue with the people in power at the Premier League? They declared them [the consortium] fit and proper and the government continues to supply the Saudis with arms.

“The consortium could put a lot of money into the region. They have decided, where other people wouldn’t, to invest and now you have to wish them the best and hope things turn.”

It was 1997 when Hall stepped down as chairman, after Newcastle had beaten Barcelona in the Champions League at St James’ Park. He remained on the board until selling his family’s shareholding in the club to Ashley in 2007.

 

“What changed it for me, as a businessman, was the moment Roman Abramovich came in at Chelsea,” Hall says. “He came in for reasons other than football — and they criticise the Saudis for coming in.

“I said, ‘There is no way we can compete with this man. I am not going to risk my family business.’ I tried for two years to sell. I went to London on business on a Monday and I got a call from an agent to say someone was interested in buying Newcastle.

“I got picked up at the station and in the boardroom were lawyers and Ashley’s men. He wasn’t there. The deal was done by Wednesday. His team said, ‘We’re in sports goods and we want a successful football team to help sell our products in the Far East.’ That made sense, and they would globalise Newcastle in the way I couldn’t.

 

“He came in with a lot of cash and I was just disappointed it didn’t work out, but he came in for the right reasons. Unfortunately it went wrong, he thought he was doing his best by bringing his London pals in . . . but they weren’t the right people. You have to take the fans with you.”

Hall is just back from walking his dogs when we speak. He sounds as full of energy as when Newcastle were top of the Premier League in the 1990s — their strongest period since the Fifties, when they won three FA Cups, the club’s most recent major domestic honour. He will be there, at St James’ Park, to see Newcastle play Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday.

“We will let the rest of soccer know we are back,” he says. “When you get to 88 you don’t know how many years you have left, but I hope I might see us win something. If they give us excitement and hope that would be enough. We need hope.”

Link to post
Share on other sites

Imagine if it all turned out to be a master plan by Ashley to shift some tickets and get a bit of atmosphere to move them away from danger:

 

  • Bruce ends up being here until the end of the season, to give them time to get the right man in
  • Sports Direct signs here for a 'short period', which also turns out to be the end of the season
  • No need for many signings in January as we've got a few wins on the board in the meantime, and not in massive danger, but rest assured, the cheque book will be out in the summer

 

And then come summer, Ashley be like:

 

 

 

:lol:

 

 

Edited by Paullow

Link to post
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, Paullow said:

Imagine if it all turned out to be a master plan by Ashley to shift some tickets and get a bit of atmosphere to move them away from danger:

 

  • Bruce ends up being here until the end of the season, to give them time to get the right man in
  • Sports Direct signs here for a 'short period', which also turns out to be the end of the season
  • No need for many signings in January as we've got a few wins on the board in the meantime, and not in massive danger, but rest assured, the cheque book will be out in the summer

 

And then come summer, Ashley be like:

 

 

 

:lol:

 

 

 


After years of supporting NUFC and mental torture from the boot cut jean wearer, I wouldn’t even be surprised. :lol: 

Link to post
Share on other sites

Sir John Hall, you made the biggest mistake of your life selling to Ashley, but who was to know, we certainly as fans lapped it up at the time, you gave us back our club and the best days and most exciting times ever and are truly an NUFC legend in my eyes, you didn’t get it, but you did, and in KK you trusted your man and gave it everything as a team on and off the pitch to bring back a title we last saw in 1927 and you almost did it, for that you go down in history as a saviour of our club and a true bastion of what NUFC means to us all. 

Link to post
Share on other sites

7 hours ago, HaydnNUFC said:

A Freddie Fletcher type would be superb for the new owners. The commercial side of the club has been destroyed by that rancid parasite, need someone like him to regrow it.

He was the driving force behind the scenes in terms of commercialisation, we went from 6m in debt to being a few million behind Man Utd’s turnover in under 5 years who had a bigger capacity stadium than ours, were a PLC and had a global worldwide fanbase. That was down to him, he was ruthless and was behind the Black and White magazines, the videos, the Odeon matches, the Adidas links, Newcastle Breweries, the lot. KK in a talk-in said he had a great relationship with him and he should be credited as much as anyone for our meteoric rise at that time. Ironically he was against the flotation of the club on the SE from what I’ve been told. 

Link to post
Share on other sites

29 minutes ago, HTT II said:

He was the driving force behind the scenes in terms of commercialisation, we went from 6m in debt to being a few million behind Man Utd’s turnover in under 5 years who had a bigger capacity stadium than ours, were a PLC and had a global worldwide fanbase. That was down to him, he was ruthless and was behind the Black and White magazines, the videos, the Odeon matches, the Adidas links, Newcastle Breweries, the lot. KK in a talk-in said he had a great relationship with him and he should be credited as much as anyone for our meteoric rise at that time. Ironically he was against the flotation of the club on the SE from what I’ve been told. 

Do you think the floatation killed us?

 

Certainly the reason KK gave for leaving. Even if KK had lasted until the summer of 97, or hell even 98. SBR would have been available. Sliding doors and all that...

Link to post
Share on other sites

18 minutes ago, TheGuv said:

Do you think the floatation killed us?

 

Certainly the reason KK gave for leaving. Even if KK had lasted until the summer of 97, or hell even 98. SBR would have been available. Sliding doors and all that...

Definitely 

Link to post
Share on other sites

8 hours ago, HaydnNUFC said:

A Freddie Fletcher type would be superb for the new owners. The commercial side of the club has been destroyed by that rancid parasite, need someone like him to regrow it.


Always was against the rumoured Kenyon takeover but wouldn’t mind him in this capacity. Went to Chelsea at the start of the Abramovich reign so knows what he’s doing to grow a club commercially.

Link to post
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, maze said:

Not very impressed with their first week as owners. I had expected them to sack Bruce a week a ago and let GJ run it in the mean time:dontknow:

 

How did you do in the first week of your new job? Did you make any significant changes?

 

Link to post
Share on other sites

:lol: New owners make no moves a week in to their tenure, even allowing a literal lump of shit continue as manager, because they don't want to make make any brash decisions.

 

Paul Merson: 'THIS ISN'T FOOTBALL MANAGER FOLKS!!!!'

Link to post
Share on other sites

Merson’s such a difficult person to not dislike. I read about his gambling issues and think, fuck, poor guy but he has possibly the most relentlessly shit footballing opinions from almost any pundit, especially about us. Would be good if he could just hold his hands up and say “you know what, I don’t have much to say on this topic as I’m thick as fuck and completely uninformed”

Link to post
Share on other sites

Sky have always had their quota of pissheads on their football shows tbf, Georgie Best being the ultimate, but he was such a handsome fella, and had some charisma so you couldn't help like him, the cheeky scamp. Merson just looks like he's went to sleep face down in a bowl of cider and come straight on air after combing his hair. 

Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...