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.

His first position of strength though, came from being able to offer a deal to a man on the board who believed that the time for change had come. Speaking on BBC Newcastle, Sir John Hall said “It is now time for me to move on and let others take up the challenge of competing in the global market place”. Sir John firmly believes we need to move on and going on quotes from the other interested party, Shepherd does not agree with him nor knew that his long term partner was about to give him a very large vote of no confidence.

The speed at which the deal occurred posed the question about the absence of a process of ‘due diligence’ much hyped around Christmas as a signal of intent from Polygon and Belgravia. Ashley obviously felt that he had already acquired enough information about the business to make an immediate and quite Machiavellian strike. He has apparently done this sort of thing before. According to the Telegraph’s Business pages last Friday, “Legend has it that when Ashley offered to buy Lillywhites in 2002 he tabled an offer at lunchtime and completed negotiations the same day. And the 2003-4 report and accounts filed by Sports World International, since renamed Sports Direct, revealed that Ashley paid £40m for Dunlop Slazenger in 2004, despite not having audited accounts for the group or its subsidiaries.” He clearly relies on his instinct when making decisions and his style has raised more than a few eyebrows amongst investment managers.

Round 2 will commence later this week when a representative of St James Holdings Limited will walk through the boardroom doors as the majority shareholder for the first time. He purchased the totality of the Hall’s 41.6% holding of shares and made an offer of 100p for the remaining. Just over 32% is known to be held by Shepherd and a loyal low-key shareholder. The remaining 28% is held by private investors who must now decide if the time is right to realise their investment. By the time this meeting happens later this week, he will have acquired more shares, yet he may not have significantly increased his holding to a point that gives him control of the club.

Business, like Sports and Politics, needs rules to function in a sustainable way. In the same way we have the rules of the beautiful game, a constitution of the land to determine governments, business needs a rulebook to govern its powers structure or an ‘article of association’. As one member of this website explains it ‘each shareholder is associated by the articles’. It’s the constitution of the club in the same way a political constitution sets the levels of votes required for executive power. Shepherd has already hinted that 75% might be a key figure in the way decision making at the club occurs and how authority is executed.

He said “There is nothing Mike Ashley can do with this club unless he gets a 75% stake. He can’t take full control, he can’t change resolutions or the club’s articles of association. He has spent £50m but he will have to spend a whole lot more, as he must now make an offer not just for my shares but the shares held by all the other shareholders.”

This is a confused issue though, as 75% is also a key marker in the process of owning a PLC according to stock exchange rules. Was Shepherd muddying the waters? Or was he referring to elements of the NUFC constitution that mean Ashley will need to think harder about the price he wants to pay?

My view is that Shepherd is not yet beaten, he can posture to Ashley about how problematic he can make it for him and threaten to be a thorn in his pursuit of total ownership. If the articles of NUFC protect against a 50% + 1 shareholder becoming a dictator, then Ashley may not be able to fire Shepherd, or even change his remuneration having acquired all of the remaining shares on the market. He can even make a counter offer but that would require finding £55m to buy back what Sir John just sold. Since Shepherd’s position on Tyneside would be untenable if he prevented this deal going through, the only thing Round 2 should produce is a man at least £23m richer walking away and heralding in a new era.