Sportswear tycoon Ashley is prepared to sell Newcastle on the
cheap if Alan Shearer cannot fight off relegation. Two consortiums
are believed to be lining up approaches for a quick and
comparatively cheap takeover.
Ashley, who bought the club for £180m and has spent another
£80m, failed to find a buyer when he attempted to sell the club
last year, but then he was asking for more than £300m.
Now he is facing a massive £140m LOSS with the
club's value expected to hit rock bottom. It comes at a time when
Ashley's fortune has been HALVED by the
recession.
Last year, the Sunday Times Rich List reported he was worth
£1.398billion - but in the new list, published today, the figure is
down to £700m. And the Geordie club will see revenue cut by around
a third if they cannot hang onto their Premier League
status.
The severity of their financial position means any cut would
lead to wage levels almost matching turnover. Newcastle's turnover
last year was £99.4m - but their wage bill spiralled to £62.6m.
Experts reckon they will lose £35m a year if they drop out of the
top-flight.
They would face a cut in TV revenues, a drop in corporate
hospitality, merchandising sales would fall and gate receipts would
suffer.
A city source said: "If Newcastle go down, things will change
very quickly. "There will be conjecture over plans and terms but it
will be a quick sale. He will cut his losses and run."
Crucially, as revealed in Sport of the World earlier in
the season, there are no relegation clauses that would decrease
player salaries if they go down.
Newcastle have 10 players picking up more than £50,000 a week
and eight of those deals have more than 12 months to run. That
would increase any desire to sell - and see a firesale in an
attempt to balance the books.
But significantly, Alan Shearer has so far given every
indication he sees his role in the Toon hot-seat as a permanent
one. He will not discuss the position or any contract until the
club's predicament is finalised and Joe Kinnear's position is
resolved. But he has laid plans beyond this season and his desire
to arrest Newcastle's dramatic demise has greatly increased the
appeal to would-be buyers.
Sport of the World has learned that the stand-in
Newcastle boss has met and assured disaffected players that they
will be part of next season's plans. Shearer held crunch talks
Habib Beye last week and told the Senagalese defender he had a big
future at the club.
He also met with the Oba Martins and Mark Viduka and told them
they would be key to Newcastle staying up, despite injury-ravaged
campaigns. Beye said: "Everyone is pulling in the same direction
now. Shearer has brought spirit. If you are in the bottom three, it
is for a reason. He came to bring heart.