Newcastle hamstrung by Owen and Martins release clauses

Here are the major news stories associated with the Newcastle club for today – in no particular order of priority.

The news today is that Sam Allardyce is having multiple troubles with the release clauses in Owen’s and Martins’ contracts. There is also an exclusive in the Sun that Manchester United are after Michael in a part exchange deal with Alan Smith. We are now very wary of the Sun exclusives.

• Our first story today on the release clauses focuses on how they are caused by panic buying at the end of the transfer window. Interesting that Owen’s deal was done on the last day – as an example. It certainly is making life very difficult right now for Allardyce and he talks about this in the article.

  Sam Allardyce

• There is a story in today’s Sun – an exclusive. It says that Manchester United want to offer Alan Smith plus ₤4M for Michael Owen. We take a look at this but are very wary of Sun exclusives. Only last week they said we had won the race for Smith at a fee of ₤3.4M. Then last Monday said Middlesbrough were in the lead for Smith with a bid of ₤6M – and that story didn’t even mention Friday’s story. We look at what these continual sensational stories mean to Newcastle – and it’s not good.

  Michael Owen

• Our next story on the release clauses concentrates on new statements made by Sam Allardyce to Paul Gilder of the Journal. With Sam not knowing if Owen or Martins will leave before August 31st (via one of these release clauses) it makes it very difficult for Sam to plan for the season – in terms of who his strikers will be. It actually leaves him very exposed – and we look at ways we can possibly solve this.

  Oba Martins

• There is news today that Mike Ashley has now acquired over 93% of Newcastle’s shares. This put him in a position to compulsory buy the remaining shares. His plan is then to take Newcastle United private and off the London Stock Exchange – after 10 years on it. Things seem to be moving nicely along on the business side of things.

  Owner Mike Ashley

• We took a story from the Evening Chronicle yesterday and commented on it at some length. The story said that Newcastle were in the lead for Brazilian star Edmilson and we would get him on a free transfer – since his contract ran out at the end of June. The story by Alan Oliver turned out to have some errors in it. Like Emilson had just had knee surgery a week ago (following his cruciate ligament operation last summer – which caused him to miss the World Cup) and was out for 4-6 months. This means any transfer right now would be difficult.The second thing was that one of Barcelona’s supporters commented that in fact his contract ran out in June next year – not this year.We updated the story on Edmilson’s cruciate ligament injury and offered some input as to how Newcastle may potentially deal with this.

  But we took our stick on this because of the initial inaccuracies in the story. Fans were also concerned we were signing too many older players. We hold our hands up and be responsible for covering the story in the first place – and hopefully we’ll learn from this.

  There is new news today (and it’s good in our opinion) on Edmilson. The Times is reporting that a Newcastle delegation led by Allardyce met with Edmilson and his representatives yesterday and he has said he is interested in joining Newcastle. While his contract still has one year to run Sam is convinced he can get him for a nominal fee. Take a read – looks like he will be coming.

  Edmilson

• Finally here’s some quotes that miss whatever they were trying to say. Today we concentrate on some commentator’s mistakes while doing live commentary – to lighten up the day. 😀
  

  ‘Peru score their third, and It’s 3-1 to Scotland.’ – David Coleman

  ‘Martin O’Neill, standing, hands on hips, stroking his chin.’ – Mike Ingham

  ‘Such a positive move by Uruguay – bringing 2 players off and putting 2 players on.’ – John Helm

  ‘The Uruguayans are losing no time in making a meal around the referee.’ – Mike Ingham

  You don’t score 64 goals in 86 games without being able to score goals.’ – Alan Green

  ‘Celtic manager Davie Hay still has a fresh pair of legs up his sleeve.’ – John Greig

  Martin O’Neill
  

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