9:06am Tuesday 5th August 2008
By Scott Wilson
PRE-SEASON is supposed to be a time when plans come together, but as Newcastle United’s players and officials returned to English soil yesterday following an unsuccessful Majorca Cup campaign, uncertainty was once again the order of the day.
On the field, weekend defeats to both Hertha Berlin and Real Mallorca provided further evidence of the problems facing manager Kevin Keegan as he prepares for the opening game of the Premier League season in 12 days.
And away from the action, a further raft of takeover stories asked renewed questions of Mike Ashley’s long-term ambitions for the Magpies.
Summer is traditionally a time of speculation, but only at Newcastle does that stretch to who will actually be in charge of the club when the new season begins.
Sporting his seemingly ubiquitous replica shirt in Palma’s ONO Estadi, Ashley briefly broke his long-standing silence to claim he was “going to have a bit of fun”
during the coming campaign.
Whether that “fun” involves selling all or part of the club to new investors remains to be seen.
While Newcastle officials were quick to rubbish weekend reports linking Ashley with Reliance Communications, an Indian telecommunications company owned by Anil Ambani, the sixth-richest man in the world, and Profitable Group, a Singaporebased investment company that employs former Liverpool midfielder Steve McMahon, talks aimed at attracting potential investors are clearly ongoing.
Ashley has previously admitted that he would benefit from outside investment – “if we had some multi-billionaire that wanted a stake in the club, it would help” – and having spent more than £210m to buy Newcastle and clear the club’s debt, city sources claim the sportswear magnate is struggling to commit any more capital to the purchase of new players.
Securing additional investment is proving difficult, though, and after talks with an American company, Inter- Media Sport, collapsed last month, the latest names to have raised supporters’ hopes on Tyneside appear no more likely to make a formal offer for a proportion of the club.
An official statement from Reliance Communications said: “The news report is completely false and baseless.
There are no such plans.”
Representatives of Profitable Group refused to comment, but sources claim that if any interest exists, it is tentative at best.
That would mean Ashley starting the new campaign as Newcastle’s sole owner, but while the takeover speculation is hardly beneficial, an acceptance that there will be no new injection of funds is arguably just as worrying.
Only two new players have arrived at St James’ Park this summer, and while Argentina international Fabricio Coloccini is expected to become the third when he completes a £9m move to Tyneside this week, the lack of depth in the current squad is a major cause for concern.
Sunday’s 1-0 defeat to Real Mallorca saw Newcastle field Alan Smith as a lone centreforward – the striker has still to score a senior goal more than a year after moving from Manchester United – and the Magpies’ bench comprised Fraser Forster, Frank Danquah, Ben Tozer, Mark Doninger, Ryan Donaldson and Jonny Godsmark.
The likes of Michael Owen, Obafemi Martins and Nicky Butt should all be available for the August 17 opener against Manchester United, but after missing a significant chunk of the pre-season schedule, it is questionable how fit they will be.
Neither Owen nor Martins are expected to play in tomorrow’s friendly with PSV Eindhoven, meaning Saturday’s game with Valencia will provide their only opportunity to warm up ahead of the daunting trip to Old Trafford.
“People will look at the situation and make their own minds up,” said Keegan. “But our job is to try to fulfil all the promise we’ve got in the squad.
“We don’t know and neither do the other teams what lies ahead for us in terms of injuries, suspensions and luck.
But I’m really looking forward to the start of the season.
“It’s a very tough league, the Premier League. But at this stage there’s no reason why we can’t have our dreams.
“We might do better than a lot of people think – we might not do as well as we think we can. That’s the fascination of a season. But with everyone fit, we have a very strong squad.”
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