Ashley set for quick sale if Toon are relegated
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Ashley set for quick sale if Toon are relegated
MIKE ASHLEY is facing an £840million 12-month LOSS to his fortune by flogging Newcastle if the club go down. The Toon owner, who has poured £260m into the Magpies, is ready to sell for £120m. That deficit is on top of the £700m he is reported to have lost in the recession.
Sportswear tycoon Ashley is prepared to sell Newcastle on the cheap if Alan Shearer cannot fight off relegation. Two consortiums are believed to be lining up approaches for a quick and comparatively cheap takeover.
Ashley, who bought the club for £180m and has spent another £80m, failed to find a buyer when he attempted to sell the club last year, but then he was asking for more than £300m.
Now he is facing a massive £140m LOSS with the club's value expected to hit rock bottom. It comes at a time when Ashley's fortune has been HALVED by the recession.
Revenue
Last year, the Sunday Times Rich List reported he was worth £1.398billion - but in the new list, published today, the figure is down to £700m. And the Geordie club will see revenue cut by around a third if they cannot hang onto their Premier League status.
The severity of their financial position means any cut would lead to wage levels almost matching turnover. Newcastle's turnover last year was £99.4m - but their wage bill spiralled to £62.6m. Experts reckon they will lose £35m a year if they drop out of the top-flight.
Drop
They would face a cut in TV revenues, a drop in corporate hospitality, merchandising sales would fall and gate receipts would suffer.
A city source said: "If Newcastle go down, things will change very quickly. "There will be conjecture over plans and terms but it will be a quick sale. He will cut his losses and run."
Crucially, as revealed in Sport of the World earlier in the season, there are no relegation clauses that would decrease player salaries if they go down.
Deals
Newcastle have 10 players picking up more than £50,000 a week and eight of those deals have more than 12 months to run. That would increase any desire to sell - and see a firesale in an attempt to balance the books.
But significantly, Alan Shearer has so far given every indication he sees his role in the Toon hot-seat as a permanent one. He will not discuss the position or any contract until the club's predicament is finalised and Joe Kinnear's position is resolved. But he has laid plans beyond this season and his desire to arrest Newcastle's dramatic demise has greatly increased the appeal to would-be buyers.
Assured
Sport of the World has learned that the stand-in Newcastle boss has met and assured disaffected players that they will be part of next season's plans. Shearer held crunch talks Habib Beye last week and told the Senagalese defender he had a big future at the club.
He also met with the Oba Martins and Mark Viduka and told them they would be key to Newcastle staying up, despite injury-ravaged campaigns. Beye said: "Everyone is pulling in the same direction now. Shearer has brought spirit. If you are in the bottom three, it is for a reason. He came to bring heart.
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Greediness.... and now youre pwned!!!
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as expected
he's like that -
Turd turd turd, Ashley is a turd.
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i think the fans dislike him.
with a new owner newcastle will recover.
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who will buy? its a depreciation club
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He was too greedy...
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i hate this guy.
i thought he is going to be newcastle saviour. but no. with the firing of keegan i hate him to the core
newcastle for ever even if the relegate.
just hope they come out next season.. shearer. even relegate we won't blame him
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Originally posted by Aang:
who will buy? its a depreciation club
well, someone bought MCity, so why not Newcastle?