Source: SKY_Sports
Mega Toon takeover
Former Tottenham, Rangers and Chelsea player Graham Roberts has lifted the lid on a consortium takeover plan that would provide Alan Shearer with £20-25 million to spend at Newcastle per year.
Roberts was speaking on Soccer Extra ahead of a 'big meeting' at Newcastle on Monday night, and he rated the consortium's chances as 'about 75 percent'.
The idea is to set up a Barcelona-style hierarchy at Newcastle, with fans electing their own president and generating their own cash.
So far Roberts admits the Newcastle board have been sceptical, but he insists it's time it was taken seriously for the good of the club.
"There's a few people who have put some money together, we went to meet the Newcastle board but they didn't turn up. [Derek] Llambias didn't show up, we had the financial director and the club secretary," Roberts told Soccer Extra.
"They think we're just wasting their time but let me assure them... we're not.
"We want to do a Barcelona. You get the supporters to buy into the football club, they have six or seven proper members on the board, you have a chairman who is voted as President, and the supporters who invest get financial gain back out of it.
"We're not sure how much they would have to invest, maybe between £10,000 and £20,000, but you can do it through your pension scheme and the supporters who have invested gain a dividend each year - plus they get a season ticket out of it.
"The Supporters' Trust is on board, they think it's a wonderful idea, I've got 2,500 members who are all going to join up to this, one fella phoned us on Friday night and gave us a £1 million donation.
"We've got some money already [among the founders of the consortium], it's not the £100 million but we've got somewhere near that.
"And the way this works is, under our plan, the club becomes very very rich."
Roberts revealed he is aware of the debt that Newcastle are carrying, but the figure is different to the one being released for public consumption.
That does not deter the former Spurs man though, who claims his consortium would allow Newcastle to compete among England's elite.
"I can't divulge the club's current debt, it's not massive, but there are other things that the football club are not letting out.
"The overdraft is what has been released into public domain, but we've got accountants working on it, doing due diligence on it, and they're coming up with other things.
Shearer for manager"I would say there's a 75 percent chance we could do this. I've got a big meeting on Monday, and it's a chance for the football club to be a wealthy football club.
"All we would do is set it up, the fans would then pick their president. They're talking about Barry Moat taking over but he can't get the money.
"If he wants to have a meeting with us maybe we could all get together and he can be the chairman.
"Alan Shearer would be manager because the fans want that.
"The money generated by this system would clear anything the club has got. It would give Alan Shearer £20-25 million to spend on players every year."
