PK’s Premiership/PATRICK KINMARTIN
Daylight savings time officially ended Sunday morning, but those shiny player checks Newcastle has become accustomed to writing became a thing of the past early last month.
Embattled owner Mike Ashley (pictured above) put his majority share in the club up for sale on the open market, completing his move out from the corner he had been backed into by Magpies Nation. On that front, not much has changed while the wait for the right group of buyers to step forward continues.
There is a reason. Early in September, when the Al Nahyan-led Abu Dhabi team made its overnight swoop of Manchester City, such sweetheart deals done swiftly were imaginable. Now, even though fall is yet to even run its full course, there is suddenly a more pensive quality to the takeover process.
The world’s economic outlook has been registered as bleak. Even those investors holding a reliable hand at the table can’t trust their fortune against the end-game.
“There are still seriously interested parties (in Newcastle),” Keith Harris, the financier of the team’s sale, told The Telegraph last week. “But in a climate like this it is not a simple process to make a big purchase.”
“Everyone has been hurt in the current financial turmoil but for any potential American investors there has been positive news — the dollar has strengthened significantly against the euro and the pound, which would make the club cheaper in dollar terms.”
So Magpies fans should go ahead and cancel all impending fantasies about a City-sized change of hands or Roman Abramovich in shining armor blessing their future. Harris’ words seemed to suggest that the best-case scenario at this point would be for a modest buy more comparable to Randy Lerner’s Aston Villa pickup or the way Bjorgolfur Gudmundsson took over majority share of West Ham.
Both clubs have since become avid consumers, buying playing talent at a fairly eager rate. Neither owner — both have been estimated to have the $1.1 billion-ish tag in overall worth — has hit a home run of the Robinho or Carlos Tevez magnitude, which remain the league’s middle-tier club moves of the century.
This is new territory Newcastle followers might find themselves uncomfortable in.
Their club has been able to exude its historical image of greatness with steamroll signings that masked struggles to produce effectively. See 1996, Alan Shearer, nearly $24 million to set England’s highwater mark. And 2005, Michael Owen, $25 million to break Shearer’s club record with relative ease.
Lest we forget, David Beckham held rather involved negotiations with Freddy Shepherd about continuing that trend — he likely could have vaulted Shearer and Owen in a quick covenant, reported to be $190,000 a week had it been made — before the United States move.
Though exact managerial sums are withheld from view, luring Sam Allardyce away from Bolton and Kevin Keegan out of retirement the past two years alone qualify as two of the more financially demanding quests.
Sitting on a modest wallet doesn’t seem too hazardous for a club that didn’t finish among the top 10 on consecutive seasons with Shearer aboard until his seventh at St. James’ Park. Furthermore, the Magpies are yet to pull that off with Owen around.
A win over Villa tonight can only get them as high as 14th, though it would also mark their second straight — both without Owen, who is not slated to start, heavily involved.
Those tides flow along with what Harris as the sale’s liason believes will be the next team owner’s landlocked perspective from the get-go as the January transfer window continues its approach.
“If there’s to be a deal done, then a new owner would want to be in position with sufficient time to look at what he’s bought, with his management team, to make decisions on whether or not there should be action in the transfer window in January,” Harris said. “How long would someone like to have a look at it for? Well, you’ve got to think four to five weeks. See the players at home, see them train, see them play away. And then form a view. That takes you through to the latter part of November. You can’t just say, here’s the deal, let’s negotiate a contract. Those things take time.”
Not to mention money, which is suddenly no longer a circus piece for Newcastle to fiddle with.
Wrapping up the rest of the Prem weekend…
OWED DRINKS: Niko Kranjcar, who played his butt off enough to get a goal off the bench for Portsmouth in their 2-1 loss to Wigan. It was the third straight match the Kranjcar wasn’t a part of Pompey’s starting runout and yet the only noise he has generated during that span was the roars from fans after Saturday’s goal, despite the anxiousness to prove he isn’t that heralded bust at Fratton Park.
OWES DRINKS: Robin Van Persie picked up a needless red card that not only affected Arsenal’s chance to overcome a 2-1 deficit, but also left the Gunners without one of the prime big-game weapons for next week’s Manchester United clash.
GOAL FULFILLED: The third score of Chelsea’s 5-0 rout of Sunderland. Though Nicolas Anelka gets credit on the stat sheet, the three-pack of passes through the penalty box from Joe Cole to Frank Lampard to Florent Malouda ran its course in approximately 3.2 seconds to set Anelka up.
LET IT BE: Bolton’s first two-goal performance since opening day on Aug. 16, their 2-0 win over Manchester City on Sunday, featured Ricardo Gardner’s goal that had to be labored for and an own-goal from Richard Dunne. With the great holder Kevin Davies playing up front as a spear-head forward, even the Wanderers are going to have to add some degree of prolific offense come transfer time in January to stay around comfortably.
SAY IT IS SO: That the surprise Arsenal loss will fuel the Gunners like nothing else this season going into the United showdown. There is also the task of Champions League action this week that may temper that spirit, but Arsene Wenger’s squad and its showman capabilities playing with reckless abandon is a welcome thought.
3-POINT FINISH: Wigan’s newfound offensive flair that helped deliver Saturday’s 2-1 takedown of Portsmouth is still taking a while to truly change the level of threat to opposing defenses. The team’s fouls-suffered rate is currently at 12.5 per league match, which is only slightly up from 12.2 last year. … More early intrigue for the Red Devils-Gunners faceoff was generated with Cristiano Ronaldo’s two goals in United’s 5-3 roll over Hull City. The star striker has been dogged by opponents backing into defensive shells, but Hull plays a little closer to Arsenal’s vest and the Gunners will give Ronaldo his best opportunity this season yet to show continued effectiveness in the open field since coming back from that injury. … The attendance for the Newcastle win over longtime nemesis Villa at St. James’ was put at 44,567, or 85 percent filled to capacity. That is alarming locally since the Magpies were a surefire fill before the ownership disarray. Still, on the national level, Bolton are the ones genuinely suffering from live support issues. The Wanderers drew 21,095 in the victory over city, filling merely 73 percent of the Reebok Stadium.
