Flog it

a-Lost-9uY SG

Mike Ashley

Ashley.. Newcastle owner

MIKE ASHLEY has tried to flog Newcastle to the company who want to buy Liverpool.

Toon owner Ashley’s people have approached a third-party financing firm called PCP in a bid to get Dubai Investment Capital to switch targets from Anfield to St James’ Park.

They were told Newcastle was available for £300million but word came back that DIC were not interested.

Despite the knockback it seems clear that Ashley wants out.

The multi-millionaire sportswear mogul bought the club last summer for £130m and took on debts of around £100m.

Ashley hoped bringing back Kevin Keegan as boss would give the club a boost but it has not worked.

His decision to appoint Dennis Wise as scouting director was also attacked.

An unnamed consortium, which is hoping to get Toon legend Alan Shearer as boss, are prepared to pay £250m for the club. But that is £50m below Ashley’s valuation.

A Toon insider told SunSport: “If Ashley is serious about selling there will be plenty of interest — but possibly not at the price.”

DIC are determined to buy Liverpool but Americans George Gillett and Tom Hicks have vowed to keep the club.

a-Lost-9uY SG

Kevin Keegan

Keegan.. nightmare

IS it just me or has the second coming of Kevin Keegan at Newcastle got the look of disaster about it?

Special K, King Kev or whatever else you want to call Mighty Mouse, turned 57 this week.

But it was hardly a birthday to celebrate as Newcastle start to sink into the mire. His record since returning to St James’ Park reads: Won 0, Drawn 2, Lost 3, Goals for 2, Goals against 11.

Granted two of these games were against Arsenal. Yet it was more the second-half capitulation against Aston Villa last week that should have set alarm bells ringing in Geordieland.

Keegan went whiter as the game went on and was unable to do anything about it.

Some are already wondering whether Mike Ashley was hasty in sacking Sam Allardyce. I am convinced of it.

While Allardyce is a manager for the time Keegan is a manager behind the times — from a distant, if exciting, past.

People only had to witness the way Keegan’s Manchester City team played in his final season to realise the magic had gone.

In the three years since he quietly departed Eastlands he claimed he had not watched a match. Hardly preparation for one of the high-pressured jobs in football.

Mere knowledge of what this special club and area was all about was enough, he claimed. So why did he allow the appointment of Dennis Wise?

Allardyce proved at Bolton he was at the cutting edge of what was new in football. He used the latest technology and methods to get the best from his players.

He was trying to do the same and needed time for the team to adjust. But it wasn’t the football of Keegan’s era we were told so it wasn’t good enough.

But this nonsense about preferring to lose 4-3 rather than win 1-0 is just that. I’ve not met a Newcastle fan who came away from Anfield happy at having lost 4-3 in 1996.

I have met plenty of fans happy at having won a game 1-0.

When Keegan was appointed people who were still mastering Subbuteo the last time he was at St James’ told us it was the best thing for the club.

Why, how, what!

If he was that good England would have won Euro 2000 and Manchester City would have challenged for the Premiership on the back of his £50million spending spree.

The point is he was the right man for a certain time at St James’ but that time has gone. Dreams are just that. This one is turning into a nightmare. Next game up is Manchester United at home. Good luck!