Newcastle: First the Cockney Mafia, now the no-name Nigerians

Wednesday, September 24th, 2008

Poor Newcastle. The hapless Geordies have suffered miserably in recent weeks as they aimlessly loiter around St. James’ Park decked out in their black and white uniforms, processing a constant stream of reports which have done little to raise the mood and optimism on Tyneside.

The latest development in the comedy saga that is Newcastle United is the news that a group of rich African businessman have clubbed together to pool their resources, raising £350 million of the £400 million asking-price slapped on the club by Mike Ashley & Co.

After announcing his departure to heed to the demands of the Tyneside faithful, Mike Ashley appears to be doing everything in his power to walk out on the Toon leaving the club in the biggest shambles possible. Having allegedly drunk his way out of a deal in the Middle East, the alcohol-loving chairman of the so-called Cockney Mafia appears to be whoring out the club to the first person willing to pay him off, whether they have any football acumen or not. Ashley is showing no love to his beloved Toon, only to his beloved bank balance.

A nameless and faceless group of up to eight Nigerians hardly offers a sense of stability that Newcastle is heading in the right direction. Having witnessed the unsavoury likes of Thaksin Shinawatra walk through the corridors of the Premier League, eyebrows must be raised when an unknown collection of Africans, fronted by a man (Chris Nathaniel, the Chief Executive Officer of the NVA Management) who made his name in football by unleashing the awful “Rio’s World Cup Wind-Ups” on the beleaguered British public, are looking to move in the North East of England.

Who are these people? Where did they make their money? Why do we not know their names? In this author’s opinion, the whole story just doesn’t sound kosher.

Falling to back-to-back defeats at the hands of the Arsenal (away), Hull City (home) and West Ham (away), Newcastle’s attractiveness to potential buyers is diminishing on a weekly basis. Presently they uncomfortably occupy 19th position in the league, and all signs are pointing to the distinct absence of a white knight able and capable of coming in to resurrect the fortunes of the club. From the outside, the Toon are a quickly depreciating asset, on the verge of being a fire-sale, with regular snippets surfacing that almost every player on the club’s books are up for sale so long as the right price (which is again a rapidly falling figure) is met.

Under such a backdrop, and still managerless, Newcastle are looking set to crash and burn. The Geordies crave the return of their Messiah Keegan, a return to Tyneside grass-root values. Instead, the reality appears to be that the club is quickly slipping further and further away from the locals, with the no-name Nigerians perched as the latest pariahs looking to move in to the North East of England.

This whole Nigerian episode stinks of a quick-fix, slap-dash solution in which a bunch of footballing novices have had a whip-around to purchase a club they know nothing about.

Even the quotes from the leader of the group, Nathaniel, fail to offer any hope that the prospective purchasers know what they are doing. “They will bring back Kevin Keegan immediately as manager and there will be £75m made available to buy players. The interest in the Premier League in Nigeria and the whole of Africa is huge and buying an English club is seen as the next big step for a football-mad country… The ball is in Ashley’s court. The money is there and if he is determined to sell, these men will be round the table with him as soon as he gives the word. They realise how important Keegan’s presence is to the fans and they will be delighted to bring him back.”

The first thing the group should be saying if they want to be taken seriously is to name the moneymen in the consortium, and discuss how they aim to resolve the management and financial issues which crippled the club under Ashley’s reign. As we now know, the club is still paying off old transfers debts, while having already spent the majority of sponsorship payments which arrived to the club upfront rather than in installments.

Yet rather than detailing a prudent financial plan, we have been served with generalised comments, paying lip-service to Kevin Keegan and claiming money will be available for transfers. It just seems so artificial.

As the saying goes, you can put lipstick on a pig, but it is still a pig. Newcastle will be praying they are not bacon.


11 Responses to “Newcastle: First the Cockney Mafia, now the no-name Nigerians”

  1. DA Says:
    September 24th, 2008 at 12:48 pm

    \\\’whether they have any football acumen or not\\\’

    A bit like Mike Ashley then….

  2. JackP Says:
    September 24th, 2008 at 12:52 pm

    Well, I would possibly have given your opinion SLIGHTLY more weight, had you not thought
    “when an unknown collection of Africans… are looking to move in the North West of England.”

    North WEST???

    And as a fan, I’d just like to say that I don’t care WHERE the owner(s) are from. If they can turn the club around, put some money in and appoint a decent manager, that’ll do me. What we need is a manager - and sooner rather than later.

    Football is a global business; the assumption — and while I don’t think you made it, others have — that Nigerians aren’t capable of putting together the money, or of running a football club well smacks somewhat of racism. After all, we’ve had the Americans, the Russians, the Thais, the Egyptians, and even the English, so why not the Nigerians?

  3. JackP Says:
    September 24th, 2008 at 12:52 pm

    …ah, you’ve corrected that now :-)

  4. the messiah Says:
    September 24th, 2008 at 1:24 pm

    well said jackp totally agree with you there mate, this guy who wrote this doesnt know what hes talking about! maybe mike ashley should hire him in his next venture? lol

  5. John Stepps Says:
    September 24th, 2008 at 3:40 pm

    What has being African got to do with running Newcastle. You are happy to have African players but not owners. Mate this is the 21st century, a global world where the best strives. Get off your high horse and feel the wind blowing. The money is not in Europe anymore the developing nations have the money so allow them to splash it where they want, after all the group that bought Man City only is made up of a group of business men fronted by One man.

    If the Nigerians can come up with a better strategy than Ashley then good for them if not they will sell it up in future for another management group. Football is business “simple as that”.

    So In future think about your arguement before posting it. Being African does not mean failure after all majority of the best players in Europe are of Africa Descent and yourself might even be African if you check your DNA.

    Good luck to Geordies, from a true GOONER.

  6. warsamemo Says:
    September 24th, 2008 at 6:44 pm

    this article really hurts me especially since i have been a loyal 101greatgoals reader for years. I really hate the fact the whole premise of the article is to make seem gloom and doom that a bunch of Africans are buying our \

  7. Dash Says:
    September 25th, 2008 at 4:19 am

    Hey mate, if you don\’t know the name of potential buyer(s) of NFC that doesn\’t mean these guys are bunch of no-name Nigerians. Anyway, did you know the name of new owner(s) of Man city before they bought the club? Who one knew Abrahmovic of Chelsea before?

    I think you have your own hidden agenda on this!!! I think what is important for NFC right now is to have a proper owner who is more dedicated than people of your choice, the rest willl be blah blah with sour grapes inside! It\’s time to think by using your head and not your mouth!

    All the best NFC in these testing times.

  8. smith Says:
    September 25th, 2008 at 7:06 am

    what an absolute load of scaremongering, bigoted rubbish. 101greatgoals should hang its head in shame at this article.

  9. tommyblackeyelee Says:
    September 25th, 2008 at 7:28 am

    Nigeria - lots of oil - lots of oil money. Best of luck geordies.

  10. james Says:
    September 25th, 2008 at 7:54 am

    This blog should be removed or at least changed, it seems that it stresses the fact that these men are nigerian than them not knowing much about football. Did the owners of man city or chelsea have previous experience in football? did the yanks at man utd or liverpool know much about football? i dont think so, i dont think the article would have been written like this if the bidders were yanks. shameful

  11. James Says:
    September 26th, 2008 at 2:43 pm

    You lot need to calm down. Its a perfectly good article of which has no racist implemations at all, it doesnt state that they know nothing of football because they are african. It just states that the whole things smacks as an ill advised get money quick scheme for Ashley. Which is class, therell turn up and who knows they might sit with you lot for a couple of games, down a pint and therell be the toast of toon land for a cple of months, a cple of months later youll be relegated and therell be ran out of toon. You lot need to appoint a circus director.


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