Source: Daily_Mail
Charles Sale: Newcastle owner Mike Ashley dithers over £80m sale to Barry Moat
Mike Ashley's sale of Newcastle reached new farcical levels over the weekend with the owner - having given the impression he would finally accept the reduced offer of £80million from long-time prospective buyer Barry Moat - delaying his decision yet again.[LNB]This is the third time in less than two weeks that Ashley had called supposedly definitive meetings having indicated he was prepared to do a deal with Moat. This is despite Moat continually falling short of raising the £100m that Ashley has wanted from the start of this interminable selling process. [LNB] [LNB]Deal or no deal? Don't ask Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley[LNB]And sports retail tycoon Ashley, whose Newcastle thinking differs on a daily basis, has made these promises of an imminent sale while at the same time offering caretaker manager Chris Hughton the role on a permanent basis - which wouldn't be in his gift if he sold the club. [LNB] More from Charles Sale... CHARLES SALE: £160k-a-week Chelsea skipper John Terry gets a paper round23/10/09 Arsenal share war: Billionaires Alisher Usmanov and Stan Kroenke set for takeover battle23/10/09 Arsenal WILL end this season with a trophy, insists birthday boy Wenger22/10/09 Charles Sale: A good deed by Newcastle bad-boy Joey Barton21/10/09 Charles Sale: Marcel Desailly signs on as a pundit for ITV's World Cup and Champions League coverage20/10/09 CHARLES SALE: Chelsea chief Peter Kenyon rules out move to new club19/10/09 CHARLES SALE'S SPORTS AGENDA: Blue Square in talks over whether to join football sponsor exodus and terminate Conference deal18/10/09 Charles Sale: Nationwide anger over Becks' man-of-the-match farce16/10/09 VIEW FULL ARCHIVE To complicate further a mess that the near 44,000 fans who watched Newcastle beat Doncaster on Saturday don't deserve, Geoff Sheard's rival consortium were ruled out of the sale, having failed to place £100m in their lawyers' client account by last Friday's deadline. [LNB]Yet the Sheard team claim the money will be in place this week - and no one else has been rejected from this circus.[LNB]There was dismay from West Ham fans before their draw with Arsenal yesterday that the London derby was presented as a Sky Sports afterthought with no build-up following the hype of Liverpool's win over Manchester United. This was especially as the scheduled Upton Park kick-off was put back 15 minutes to 4.15pm, seemingly to allow time for post-match chat from Anfield. Sky counter that Wolves v Aston Villa was originally scheduled yesterday but returned to Saturday following Villa's Europa League exit.[LNB]England coach Fabio Capello has yet to decide the make-up of his backroom team in South Africa but his pony-tailed interpreter Danny Tartaglia is doing all he can to demonstrate that he is indispensable even if Capello's English improves. This week saw Danny, a West Ham steward, crouching uncomfortably to the side of the stage at the NFL global sports conference in case Capello needed any help.[LNB]The BBC are understood to have received 60 applications for the post of sports editor made vacant by Mihir Bose's sudden departure following an unhappy time in the job. Despite Bose demonstrating how difficult print journalists find doing live broadcasts, approximately half the candidates are from the newspaper world.[LNB]In bags of troubleThe last word on the £230 Mulberry handbags that the England 2018 World Cup team were buying for the wife of every FIFA ExCo member is that the plan backfired. The first gift was given to Jack Warner's wife, Maureen, who, having been out shopping with Anne Thompson, wife of former FA chairman Geoff, received it on her birthday and presumed it was a present. So it won't please the Warners to discover that everyone's getting one. On another 2018 World Cup matter, it is very surprising after the board of England's bid made a strong request to chairman Lord Triesman to find ways of ensuring he can concentrate on the bid or his FA duties - but not both - that his quandary was not even discussed at the FA board meeting last week.[LNB]Only at Premier League joke club Portsmouth could the media chief Gary Double have to ring journalists to apologise for originally telling them the Saudi Arabian newspaper Asharq-al-Awsa's interview with new owner Ali Al Faraj was fictitious when it turned out to be true. The chat between the Saudi journalist and Al Faraj took place on the speakerphone of his brother Ahmed's car. The interview reported Ali as saying he is 'no billionaire' and could keep the club for as little as six months. Pompey say Al Faraj meant he will spend six months stabilising affairs before reviewing progress. [LNB] [LNB] Explore more:People:Fabio Capello, Jack Warner, Gary Double, Mike AshleyPlaces:Newcastle, London, South Africa, United Kingdom, Upton ParkOrganisations:National Football League
