December 1996
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November 2007, Joey Barton: ‘I’ll prove people wrong about me. But then I’m not on this earth to please every person I come across. I am not here to be everyone’s mate. It’s a man’s world. Nice people finish last.’ January, 2008 The Sun: ‘WEEPING Joey Barton was heard sobbing in his cell after a jail tough guy called him a “scumbag”. He has spent much of his cash allowance buying cigarettes, custard and rice pudding for other lags…’ And the best of the earlier bits. December 1996 – Fred Shepherd is appointed chairman to the board of Newcastle. January 1997 – Kevin Keegan resigns as manager of Newcastle shortly after beating Tottenham 7-1. You might wonder why. January 1997 – Kenny Dalglish appointed. Just the start of Shepherd’s reign…… Summer 1997 – Club finishes a miraculous 2nd, having been likely to finish 5th at the start of play on the last day. In come such long term stars as Tomasson, Andersson, Maric and other “gems”. Shepherd’s handling of transfers is never called into question. 1997-1998 – Kenny takes the club on a spectacular downward spiral, with nice paydays for Rush, Barnes and Pearce. Newcastle play poorly in the cup final. March 1998 – A classic ‘sting operation’ by the News of the World ensured that Shepherd an Hall (the two Newcastle United plc board members) had to resign. The newspaper had videotaped the men on holiday bragging about the amount of profit they made from the sale of replica football shirts which were sold to fans for up to £50 but cost £5 to manufacture. Additionally, Shepherd and Hall allegedly described the club captain, Alan Shearer, as “Mary Poppins”, mocked the ex-club Manager, Kevin Keegan, detailed their sexual exploits and called Newcastle’s women “dogs”. Fans of the club and women all over the North East were outraged at these remarks and since the company was publicly listed on the stock market, the tabloids claims may have started to adversely affect it’s share price. At the following board meeting, three of the company’s other board members threatened to resign unless the two departed. Mr Shepherd and Mr Hall finally did agree to resign provided that Mr Hall’s father, Sir John Hall returned to the Chairmanship. August 1998 – Ruud Gullit replaces Kenny Dalglish. Shepherd in full effect on this one – ensures Dalglish can’t spend a penny during the window, then sacks him after it’s closed. Gullit comes in with a succession of dismal signings (Dumas, Marcelino, Domi, Ferguson) and another Cup Final defeat leads to a another manager going. September 1999 – Bobby Robson is manager with Shepherd having little to do with the appointment. . August 30th 2004 – Robson finds himself at odds with the right wing politics of the board and not always kept up to speed with transfer deals. He is dismissed by Shepherd after a poor start to the season. Robson stresses that there was an agreement that he would not be sacked. Afterwards, Shepherd said that sacking Robson was “the hardest thing I have ever done in my life”, but then added “I didn’t want to be known as the man who shot Bambi.”…….. Robson had made a negative remark about the club’s fans that found its way to publication – he called them over-expectant fools. He is still held in the highest esteem by the Newcastle fans. and was granted the Freedom of the City of Newcastle-upon-Tyne on 2nd March 2005. Odd that. Shepherd meanwhile speaks at the 2004 Dubai Soccerex international football forum, stating that large and successful clubs should not be concerned about those struggling at the lower end of the industry. Shepherd said “When we have got 52,000 fans at each home game, the last thing we are worried about is clubs in the third division,” and added, “There is no sympathy here”….. September 2004 – In came Souness – oh joy oh joy. Out went tactics and planning, in came Boumsong, Tunks, Saunders and 5 year contracts all round – all agreed by Mr. Shepherd. Four managers sacked, and all done at the END of the transfer window. May 2005 – Newcastle United chairman Freddy Shepherd says big-name stars will be arriving at St James’ Park this summer. Souness is keen to completely overhaul his squad after a disappointing season with players like Patrick Kluivert, Craig Bellamy and Laurent Robert tipped to leave the club. Shepherd says, “If I told you who wants to come to Newcastle, you’d be astounded. Of course they want to come to Newcastle, they all want to come to Newcastle. Anybody leaving here, unless they go to Chelsea, is going down. Let’s face it, one of the big reasons for Chelsea is the rewards at Chelsea. Fine, I have not got a problem with that and I would probably be the same if I was a player. But where do you go when you leave Newcastle?” February 2006 – Souness sacked after a 3-0 defeat at Man City. In comes Glenn Roeder and he seems to say the most strange things. November 2006 – 4th bottom of the Premiership and there is talk about someone about buying this very odd little club. .Shepherd own 28.01% of the club, up from about 22% in April 2005. Since 1997, the Shepherd’s have made ₤8,351,298 from Newcastle United, ₤5,489,239 in share dividends and ₤2,862,059 in salaries. In 2005, Shepherd’s annual salary from the club was £552,954. Newcastle posted a loss of £12m under his financial leadership. May 2007 – The Big Sam and Funny Freddy show takes over. To see the impact of this we have to consider what Big Sam said during his time with Bolton:
To which Fat Fred said
Source with a bit of editing and some extra stuff added. http://www.reallifenews.com/football/archive/clubs/newcastle/the_life_times_of_william_fred.php Take a look at http://www.reallifenews.com/index.php – lots of fun. |
