Shepherds Wants Wage For 2 Years After Selling Shares!

Last Updated : 26-May-2007 by
In a time when other directors are backing the big clubs with hard cash, we still have two (Freddy and Doug) who take OUT of the club, and we have two in the top five "earning" directors in the Football League.

Freddy says he won't sell his shares, but you and I both know he is holding out for more money. The only "main concern" to Fred is himself, not NUFC!

The Times reporter George Caulkin, the most informed of the broadsheet media, agrees with Sir John Hall's comments that the present regime had "probably run out of ideas".

Caulkin: Shepherd, who has been laid low through illness, knew nothing in advance of this week's announcement that Hall had disposed of his holding to Britain's 25th-richest man. A partnership that has endured at Newcastle for almost two decades has utterly dissolved.

Tyneside has been electrified by the prospect of Ashley assuming full control of the club. His acquisition of Hall's shares triggers a full £133.1 million takeover bid and it seems inconceivable that Ashley will not obtain a controlling interest in the coming days.

The likes of Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool have benefited from new ownership, while Newcastle have regressed under Shepherd's stewardship and Hall is adamant that Ashley is the best figure to lead the renaissance. "He's very much like me and like a lot of people in the North East, he's a self-made man," Hall said.

"He's a very, very hard worker. He has built these businesses from a small room in his house when he was in his early twenties. He's 42 now and look what he's done. He has this global business and he has a global interest in sport. I've talked to them and I'm certain that if they get the rest of the shares they'll invest [in the side]. His team know the business. Some of them know Newcastle United very well.

"In my opinion, he will take the club to a new dimension. We've probably run out of ideas a bit and you have to make changes every so often. I'm certain he will be good for the club; I wouldn't have sold to him otherwise. He knows the passion of the area. I've been reassured that they have the passion for the club as much as we all have. He has to understand that he has to be attached to the region."