call me a cynic but i have a feeling Lamarr hunt is going to buy into our club. this will mean buying dougs shares. he says we are going to buy quality like rivaldo and the price goes up - dh makes a nice profit. lh comes in and spends big ( he has a policy of buying until he gets success) dh basically makes a mint

am i being cynical?

however IF dh has got this cash wouldn't it be wiser and a bit sexier to not say a word and then buy big out of the blue and maybe save money. they'll see us coming now!

thirdly, does this sort of claim have implications in the city, ie, can he claim this and not come good? become a liar of sorts to the city? .........

-- Anonymous, March 19, 2001

Answers

DH has also stated that he won't sell his shares to anyone. So would he make sucha statement if he really intended to sell?

I suspect money, which is a figure speculated upon by the press not stated by DH, will inlcude the current level of the wage bill so therefore is not as much as first thought.

What is our wage bill? £20 - 30 million?

-- Anonymous, March 19, 2001

Did last years financial statement reveal we had large amounts of cash? Do we as a Plc have to declare such a reserve?

If is didn't show the cash, where indeed has it/going to come from?

-- Anonymous, March 19, 2001

how honest is doug though? i can't imagine he'd mess about much, thats a big statement to make how much could we make in sales? 10mil tops?

either way it takes attention away from our current state of shitness

-- Anonymous, March 19, 2001

TO DB Do we have to show our true cash position. The answer is most decidely YES. But that is only item on the balance sheet.One can increase cash position by reducing assets or increasingly liabilities and by the addition of income. Increasingly liabilities, for example, might be by borrowing(unless there are restrictive covenants. As I saiid on an earlier thread, Hall's rantings should not be taken seriously.

-- Anonymous, March 19, 2001

DB,

The last published accounts show £5.9 million cash. However, that reporting period ended April 2000 - that is before the season ticket income from the increased capacity. In addition, BR has significantly reduced the wages bill, and made a small profit on player trading. So, it seems probable that the cash-in-hand will have improved.

I mentioned on another thread that I believe the £100 million that DH quoted will represent fees and wages over the 2 year period. In the year ending April 2000, wages and salaries were some £24 million, and has probably been reduced now to around £20 million.
If you assume with 2 or 3 three top-class players coming in the wage bill will increase to say £25 million, it seems likely that DH is projecting spending ca. £25 million in each of the next two years on players. Given the new regulations, of course, the mix of fees and wages may be different, but the total the same.

Somewhat cynically I also suggested this might just about be enough to keep us in the PL, assuming we are still there!!

-- Anonymous, March 19, 2001

Cheers Floridian and Clarky for the input.

So a transfer budget of around £25 million in each of the next two years. It depends on this transfer system which will dictate how much we would, for example, pay for Bridges.

In the current climate that £25 would get us 2.5 very good English players!! I think we need slightly more than that unfortunately.

-- Anonymous, March 19, 2001

My point precisely DB - and that is why I think DH's ramblings are a tad disingenuous, but probably reasonable projections of what we can afford. The disingenuous part relates to suggesting we will look to acquire players like Rivaldo - that would need considerably more 'mullah' than I believe is likely to be available.

Neverthless, it is at least a start, and a welcome indication that our Deputy Chairman lives, and has finally got his brain out of 'neutral' - even if it did take the share price to get to 33p, and relegation to become a threat, for him to take some notice.

-- Anonymous, March 19, 2001

I believe what DH said was "I would be crazy to get rid of my shares now". The way I read that is that they are worth a lot less than they were and hence he will not sell until the price goes up. Perhaps the reason for the positive press releases. remember boys and girls, this is a business to him. It's all about making money.

-- Anonymous, March 19, 2001

...... then he must have a very curious view of 'business' and 'making money' to have sat in on his @rse in Spain/Portugal/Gibraltar for three years and watched the Club/playing squad/share price go down the toilet before showing any real concern. Un-bloody-believable!

I just wonder if 'Dad' has given him good kick up the @rse, and told him to get it bloody well sorted.

-- Anonymous, March 19, 2001

Share price down another 1 and a 1/2 today - if mad doug is trying to talk up the price he's making a pig's ear of it - not too surprising really given his track record.

He's basically a very lucky boy who does not have the first fraction of any business sense. Have we ever heard David Dein or Martin Edwards bragging about what kind of financial clout their respective clubs possess?

This Season's been enough without having all crazy Doug's ramblings to contend with.

-- Anonymous, March 19, 2001

I'm afraid DH's ill-timed utterings have had the opposite effect to what I'm sure was intended at essentially every level - from the Stock Market to the suffering supporters, and everyone in between, including those tasked with getting new players into the Club.

-- Anonymous, March 19, 2001

I despair.

Hall emerges from his self-imposed silence, says that he has great ambition for the club, wants to get top quality players, and indicates that the recent financial prudence has put us in a strong postion to achieve those objectives.

And the response from the BBS? Hmmmmm.

OK what COULD he have said that would have cheered you up?

The way I see it the club has been through tremendous trials ever since the Messiah ascended into - Fulham(???). We've had the fiasco of TSM, there was the terrible Shearer injury coinciding with the Sir Les sale, we've had the vast cost of the stadium, the hiatus of the SOS campaign, Gullit reinstilling the fighting spirit but only amongst our own players apparently, deliberate destabilisation by the press, recent uncertainty about the transfer system etc etc. It only needed a plague of locusts and the taking of the firstborn and we might as well have shut up shop.

Now Hall emerges after maintaining a profile in keeping with the share price, and says that we are now in a position to start moving forward again. Where does all the money come from you ask? Gate receipts from the 2nd biggest ground in the country is a major part of the answer. No club in the land has advanced so far over the past 10 years. No club has spent so much on players or on a stadium. We have done both.

So why the hell do you doubt the ambition of this club? Rejoice, or at the very least, permit yourself a degree of optimism over the Hall announcement. If he was planning to sell surely he would maintain his low profile and sneak away unnoticed. Why put himself back in the public eye? This is the man who put our club on the map with the purchase of the World's most expensive player. He's a Geordie and a passionate fan by all accounts. Let's give him our support. Let's be Newcastle UNITED.

-- Anonymous, March 19, 2001

If the Halls are responsible for all the success they must be equally as responsible for all failure ?

If we are to ignore what they said in the NOTW three years ago then we have take the weekend comments with a SJP size piece of salt.

-- Anonymous, March 19, 2001

I wouldn't regard the Halls as solely responsible for all the success and likewise wouldn't regard them as solely responsible for all the failure. I think messrs Keegan and Dalglish played a significant role in both.

If we are to ignore what they said in the NOTW three years ago then we have take the weekend comments with a SJP size piece of salt.

Come on Mac - you're smart enough to know the difference between a stated policy direction in a freely given interview and some drunken snippets of conversation carefully prompted by a rat journalist pretending to be somebody he wasn't. (All you have to do now is work out which is which!) :-)

-- Anonymous, March 19, 2001

Jonno asks what could Hall have said to cheer us up. His responsibility as a director is not to be a cheer leader, but to give a realistic appraisal of the club financial health and its prospects. If I were a city manager looking to invest pension funds, i would be scared to death by what the fool said.

-- Anonymous, March 19, 2001

>"taking away of the first born...."

Carrick[s]? Shearer? Stone? Bruce?

How many more will it take to get a world class academy up and running?

-- Anonymous, March 19, 2001

Well that's a fair point Flo and I'm sure I'd be scared as an investor. Of course WE are fans, so any indication that money will be spent I would expect to be welcomed, at least cautiously. Even from an investor's viewpoint, wise investment will get the club up the league and increase the revenue via Europe etc.

The trick is making the investments good ones, and our record in this area in recent years has been poor.

-- Anonymous, March 19, 2001

Right coat on ready ...

How many more will it take to get a world class academy up and running?

People will keep badgering on about that ... :-)

-- Anonymous, March 19, 2001

Just remembered didn't bring a coat. And these italics have taken on a life of their own.

-- Anonymous, March 19, 2001

Can't separate Dalglish and Gullit appointments from the people who made them. Again praise for Keegan and Robson appointments MUST mean slap on wrist for other two.

-- Anonymous, March 19, 2001

Who is Lamarr Hunt

Its the fisrt I've evr heard of him?

-- Anonymous, March 27, 2001

Some mega-rich American dude - owns the Cleveland pro footy franchise. The Toon hierachy got to know him during the US tour last summer when they played in Cleveland, and apparently got on well with him.
Rumour has it he is looking to buy into a PL Club.

-- Anonymous, March 27, 2001

From a pretty dodgy family of business men. Big brother, Bunker, was noted race horse owner and owner of silver bullion in the 70s-80s. The family decided to try and buy up all the silver in the world (as you do) and then bump the price up and make even more bilions. I think they got prison instead.

I'd guess NUFC would be small change to them

-- Anonymous, March 27, 2001

Actually Hunt owns the Columbus pro soccer team and the Kansas City American football team...and the Toon was in Columbus last summer. ;-))

-- Anonymous, March 27, 2001