Wise is suing Jimenez over a £500,000 investment in a French golf course that the pair, along with other backers, were hoping to build into Europe’s answer to Augusta.
The former Chelsea captain handed over the sum of money in July 2007 as part of a £23million plan to buy the ‘beautiful’ Les Bordes site in the Loire Valley but now wants it back, claiming promises have been broken.
Wise and Jimenez earned infamy on Tyneside five years ago for their role in Newcastle’s transfer policy that ultimately led to Kevin Keegan quitting the club. They were branded key members of a ‘Cockney Mafia’ brought in by owner Mike Ashley.
Joe Kinnear, who succeeded Keegan as boss in 2008 and on Sunday returned to the club as director of football, worked with both Wise and Jimenez in his first spell.
The court heard how the two bonded initially at Swindon, where Wise was in the dugout in 2006, and then at Leeds, before moving to Newcastle.
So close was their friendship that Wise made Jimenez godfather to one of his children.
But the ‘relationship soured’, judge Penelope Reed was told, after another business deal ended bitterly and Wise subsequently demanded his £500,000 be returned.
The case continues.
Source: Newcastle United Mad
Source: FOOTYMAD
