The last few weeks on Tyneside has had seasoned observers of the football club both on the edges of their seats and sharing glances of recognition that nothing is ever simple in the world of Newcastle United. In last weeks dramatic turn of events, coming rapidly off the back of the appointment of Allardyce, came the announcement that one of the country’s finest retail businessmen wanted to buy the club. Firing a broadside in the form of a £55m purchase of the Hall family’s entire equity in the PLC, Mike Ashley played an aggressive hand. That the purchase came on a day when Shepherd was in hospital being treated for pneumonia, was typical of this maverick Billionaire who has acted swiftly to secure businesses in the past and probably felt like a sucker punch to the bedridden opponent.

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Over the last week as Big Sam has swapped his mobile for a desk phone and as N.O. can reveal a longish conversation with Mr Ashley, the strained links of the two dozen or so players said to be targets is beginning to solidify. The white melting heat of the shock takeover and the raised hopes of the toon faithful is about to start seeing some product with regard to signatures which I hear will be coming thick and fast.

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When SFX decided to “park” their prized possession, Michael Owen, at St James’ Park way back in summer 2005, it was doubtless with some glee that they shook hands with one of the most gormless Chairmen even to grace a football club, and secured a legendarily bumper contract for Owen (and themselves), riddled with escape clauses that now leer menacingly at Freddie Shepherd.

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While the papers are currently spending their days trying to make up some great puns about the Newcastle takeover and still not managing to come up with anything better than “CASHley for the Toon”, we are certainly not going to let any transfer rumours slip past our radar.

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Freddy and Mega Sam give us their two cents on Mike Ashley’s possible takeover bid for Newcastle - not exactly £55m, but it’s essential reading all the same.

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Newcastle have a new leading shareholder today, as billionaire sports entrepreneur Mike Ashley purchased Sir John Hall’s 41.6% stake in the club for an estimated £55 million. It is reported that the businessman, who came 25th in the 2007 Sunday Times Rich List with an estimated worth of £1900 million, will now bid for the remaining shares at the club. (more…)

While most people are losing their sleep over the color of Owen’s bed sheets, Allardyce seems to be already well on his way rebuilding the black & white defence. That’s if you believe what the papers say.

Tal Ben Haim is a name constantly popping up when you fight your way past the Page 3 girls to the football sections. Saturday’s The Sun reported that the Israeli defender is all set to follow Allardyce to St James’ Park within the next fortnight after turning down Bolton’s new contract offer. Believe it or not, Tuesday’s The Independent didn’t agree. Their information is that Ben Haim is Chelsea bound with West Ham and Portsmouth hot on their heels.

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Cast your mind back to the early 1990s (not too hard for all you Keegan bandwagon jumpers). Those were the days, eh? Sky had invented Premiership football, Andy Gray didn’t talk drivel, Hansen didn’t look perma-bored and the Toon were everybody’s second favourite team. Liverpool 4 NUFC 3. NUFC 5 Man Utd 0. Andy Cole, Peter Beardsley, Daveeed, Sir Les. Keegan with the pointy finger “I’d love, just love it if we beat them”. Everyone loved us, didn’t they, they couldn’t get enough of us!

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So the inevitable transfer rumour circus is already well on its way and in this section we’ll bring you all the hottest gossip from our more or less knowledgeable reporters.

The biggest papers in the country wasted no time after Newcastle decided to end Roeder’s reign and hire Allardyce as the new black & white messiah. Infact they already let us know who the new man was looking to bring in before there even was a new man. Saying that I’m sure you won’t be suprised to hear that one of the biggest targets of the summer was already lost before he was even made a target. That man was obviously Middlesbrough’s star defender Abel Xavier. The hormone hungry portuguese was quick to turn down a proposed move to Newcastle and decided to follow Sir David Beckham to Los Angeles Galaxy.

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Freddy Shepherd will never be a ‘Horse Whisperer’ for it is a kind of art that involves adopting an intuitive and sensitive approach. It is a metaphor for leadership that is more in tune with uncertainty and slowly developing trust to overcome these variables. It is a skill that is as much based in knowing yourself as knowing the foibles of the animal.

The horse whisperer is in many ways at a huge disadvantage when attempting to control a horse; the animal is a huge beast, sometimes it is highly strung, its patience fragile, its wants ever changing.

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Written by Alan Oliver on Mar 6 2006

Those fans who have had a little wager on Sam Allardyce being the next manager of Newcastle United know what they have to do today - tear up their betting slip.

The bookies make Big Sam third favourite behind Martin O’Neill and Roberto Mancini, but there is no way the United supporters will want to see their team playing the way Bolton play - even if it’s another 50 years before they win a trophy.

In fact, it’s a good job Alan Green, the Radio Five man who called Bolton’s football ugly and fell out with Allardyce, wasn’t at St James’ Park on Saturday.

Ugly? That was almost playing Bolton a compliment. It was joyless, brutal stuff, especially compared with some of the one-touch football United played at times.

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What a difference a year makes…

Written by Alan Oliver on May 17 2007

I remember Bolton beating United at the Reebok on the last day of October in 2004. It was Graeme Souness’ first reverse as United manager after seven wins and a couple of draws.

Souness came across to me just outside the United dressing room and started bleating about Bolton’s tactics.

My immediate reaction was to think “well, you are paid £2m a year to come up with ideas to combat whatever tactics opposing managers may throw at you”.

The Bolton brand of football has been perceived as functional, physical, long-ball and unattractive.

Allardyce’s response to those jibes was always the same.

If Chelsea played that way, it was fashionable. If Bolton followed a similar path, it was grubby.

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It doesn’t surprise anyone here at N.O to see the two-faced Mr Oliver arse lick the new manager Sam Allardyce who it is hoped sees right through the Chronicle and Newcastle United employee for what he is.

Mind he isn’t the only one doing a U-turn…

If you can remember any similar Alan Oliver contradictions, wide of the mark reports or other general nonsense, send them in and we’ll publish them.

Sorry Douglas, we won’t be changing the title to ‘Mega Sam: Season 1′ after all. Shepherd changed his mind on the golf course, even after I applied a little negotiating pressure with the sand wedge he still wouldn’t agree. Never mind, he couldn’t say a word at the press conference so all the media was on me. Anyway, here’s the next bit for the book.

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Newcastle United have confirmed that four senior players will be seeking new clubs. The players are Titus Bramble, Craig Moore, Olivier Bernard and Pavel Srnicek. Meanwhile, Oguchi Onyewu will return to Standard Liege having failed to impress while on loan. Such departures would appear to signal that new manager Sam Allardyce intends to strenghten areas of the defence over the summer. (more…)

After keeping quiet about football’s worst kept secret for a week, Sam Allardyce has been confirmed as the next Newcastle United manager, after he agreed a three-year deal, reported to be worth £3 million a year. (more…)

Newcastle-Online received this text in an email this morning. We offer it as it is, without comment, but the level of detail makes us believe this is a credible document.

[Douglas, these are my notes on this mornings call. Type them up and get them over to the ghost writer, and tell him I’ve got a new title for the seasons diary. I want to call it ‘Taming the Biggest Job in the World, the managerial genius of Big Sam’.]

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