Feedback
« Ashley U-turn On Full St James’ Park Renaming | Home | Thanks Ed – A Tribute Post »
Financial Woes Used To Justify Ren@ming Scandal
By Dave NU Blogger | November 5, 2009
Derek Llambias lifted the lid off Newcastle United’s financial state after being demoted to the Championship.
After losing several players over the summer, the club is still dealing with Premiership style wage bills to fund our promotion battle. What’s worrying is that Penfold-lookalike, Llambias is still unhappy with the wage bill which could hint at a further cull in January in favour of loan signings. Names touted is Jonas Gutierrez and possibly rumours that Alan Smith (who has been a shining example of a player so far this season) who could head for the exit.
Llambias explained further of our plight:
Of relegation: “It’s been extremely painful – it was a shock, it was unthinkable,”
“We did have a business plan in place at the time that we just put into a cupboard, because we thought we never needed to use it.
“We’ve had to move on since then and it’s given us an opportunity to bring the wages down to an acceptable level in the Premier League, but not in the Championship.
“We’ve got the highest wage bill in the Championship and that will increase over a period of months to make sure we give Chris (Hughton, the manager) and the team 100% to get us to where we belong.”
He continues…
“We’ve dropped from £100m revenue to £50m. A good chunk of that is TV money from the Premier League – £40m. We get a parachute payment of £12.5m.
In the Championship itself you get £2.4m income. You get a drop in your season tickets, attendance and retail – it all drops.
“That shortfall needs to be made up. Mike is picking the shortfall now and it’s very, very difficult, but we’re getting through it.
“We purposefully kept a nucleus of the team we felt could take us up. It’s working and we’ll add to that.”
This is basically Llambias on the offensive. Us fans have given the board plenty of stick and deservedly. We understand that the Club needs money in this situation and so far, the squad is delivering results with what players we have. Maybe a little scrappy at times but we are sitting pretty on top of the table and a win against lowly Peterborough wouldn’t do us any harm. What we object to is the dumb decisions which the board subject us fans to. Naming sportsdirect.com@StJamesParkStadium sounds just wrong and really convoluted. No thanks Llambias, but fans would stick to St James’ Park.
“In the Championship itself you get £2.4m income. You get a drop in your season tickets, attendance and retail – it all drops.
“That shortfall needs to be made up. Mike is picking the shortfall now and it’s very, very difficult, but we’re getting through it.
“We purposefully kept a nucleus of the team we felt could take us up. It’s working and we’ll add to that.”
