Who's in control?

As Mike Ashley takes control of Newcastle United, it is looking increasingly likely that Freddie Shephard will remain at St James'. I applaud the efforts of Mr Ashley to take control of the team, and see this as a new dawn in the history of NUFC. My major worry is that this will all be on hold for the first 12 months, as FFS sits in the hotseat.

The comparison to the Abramovic situation has been made, but this is a significantly different one. When Roman took his position at Chelsea it was very much out with the old, and in with the new - the transition period wasn't one where Ken Bates hung round in a position of power. Although it wasn't a clean break, there was no hostility, and Ken took his money and ran.

Freddie is a very proud man, who truly believes that he can add something to the Newcastle cause, but this is clearly not the case. Since Freddie took control in 1996 we have seen the club fall from grace both on and off the pitch. A period of success with Sir Bobby saw the fans get behind the Geordie chairman, but realistically he was never able to replace Sir John Hall.

While making a comfortable profit on his shares from Mr Ashley, Freddie has also invested much of the clubs funds in poor signings (Boumsong, Luque, Marcelino and more importantly Souness and Gullit). He has also happily taken £500k pa, and will continue to take my money while sat in the 'Fat Controllers Chair'.

He may be passionate, but he should leave with dignity, and not force the situation to keep NUFC in limbo for a further 12 months or so, by forcing the matter of being Chairman. If the agreement is made it would be very difficult for the owners to get rid of him prematurely and this scares the hell out of me.

I think this is proof alone that Fred is in this for himself. And if you consult their profiles on wikipedia (as highlighted) these show clear differences between the personalities involved at the helm over the past 15 years.

Please Freddie - just leave us to take this great club forward!

The original story came from the Evening Chronicle.