Newcastle to dump Adidas for Puma

St James' Park officials are remaining tight-lipped but Telegraph Sport understands from reliable sources on Tyneside that a new deal will be confirmed by the Championship club early in the new year. Newcastle owner and sports retail tycoon Mike Ashley has agreed to make the switch to Puma after negotiations to extend Adidas's 14-year association with the North-East club broke down. G?nter Herz may pip Martin Sorrell to the postFans will not know whether to laugh or cry because, while this means it will be all-change as far as replica shirts are concerned, it also means the yellow away strip that attracted widespread ridicule following its unveiling last summer will be consigned to history after a solitary season. On the other hand, Adidas have designed many eye-catching home shirts in the traditional black and white stripes since they linked up with Newcastle during Kevin Keegan's first spell in charge as manager when Newcastle challenged for the Premier League title. Telegraph Sport has also learnt that Newcastle officials are locked in talks with Tyneside-based Northern Rock to extend their long-running role as the club's principal shirt sponsors. The current deal with the troubled financial institution was signed during Freddy Shepherd's spell as chairman and it seems as though they could remain partners on a long-term basis, with the club leading the race to win promotion back to the Premier League following relegation last season. The Puma deal and the Northern Rock negotiations represent the latest in a series of commercial developments at the Tyneside club with Newcastle still on the look-out for sponsors for their home ground which is currently known as the sportsdirect.com@st james park. For now, though, Derek Llambias, the Newcastle managing director who runs the club for Ashley, will be focusing on making sure the club's promotion push does not falter after their lead over the chasing pack was cut to six points following the 0-0 draw against derby at St James' Park on Monday. "Our position gives us a real edge ahead of what will be a crucial few months as the club attempts to win promotion and return to the Premier League at the first time of asking," Llambias said. "Both on and off the pitch there is no room for complacency and everyone at Newcastle United is fully aware that only half the job has been done so far. "But make no mistake about it, our primary goal in 2010 is promotion back to the Premier League and we will be doing everything we can in the coming months to make that ambition a reality." Manager Chris Hughton, whose club are poised to mount a £1.5 million move for Leeds striker Jermaine Beckford, echoed Llambias' sentiments, adding: "We now head into 2010 in a great position but the one thing we have to guard against is complacency. "We are there to be shot at and caught up but we have to make sure we win enough games and get enough points to maintain our position. "We trust our players and while 2009 was a year that people will remember for all the wrong reasons it's up to us to make sure 2010 goes down in history as the year we regained our place in the top flight."

Source: Telegraph