NUFC prepared to pay out millions over next few weeks

Feb 26 2009 by Mark Douglas, The Journal

NEWCASTLE United are braced for an expensive double hit on their revenue streams over the next seven days as they close in on settling the Kevin Keegan and Jonás Gutiérrez disputes.

United’s managing director Derek Llambias has revealed that the club expect to shell out “millions of pounds” to settle the Keegan case and pay Real Mallorca for Gutiérrez – two matters that have been hanging over the club since the autumn.

With United effectively operating without commercial revenue at the moment because of the way the Michael Owen deal was structured, that means owner Mike Ashley has had to dip into his own pocket to fund United’s on-going operations, Llambias has revealed.

Speaking at a supporters’ panel meeting at St James’s Park this week, United’s managing director revealed that Ashley made a payment of £10m towards the club’s running costs last week – a lump sum that included the fee for January signing Kevin Nolan.

It is a revealing insight of just how tight the financial parameters remain at St James’s Park – but Llambias insists that club can become competitive in the Premier League again despite the requirement to be more prudent in money matters.

That need will be even more pressing with the club braced for substantial payments to both Real Mallorca for Argentinian winger Gutiérrez and Keegan who, according to reports, is suing the club for breach of contract.

“We are hoping to reach two important settlements in the next week or so which potentially could cost the club a lot of money,” Llambias said.

“One of those is the settlement with Kevin Keegan and the other is the fee for Jonas Gutiérrez. We are talking about millions of pounds here and, if we have to pay out a vast sum of money, that will hit our revenue elsewhere.

“Mike has had to put £10m of his own money into the club this week to facilitate the running of the club – that includes £4.5m for Kevin Nolan as fees for Shay Given and Charles N’Zogbia will not be received until the summer. And he will continue to put his own money in.

“He is willing to put £10-15m of his own money in every year, but the rest of the money, for transfers and so on, has to be generated by the club’s own business activity.

“We don’t have any commercial income at the moment because that was spent to pay for Michael Owen. It was all spent in advance, that’s the money from Northern Rock and adidas. That is

crazy for any football club because we need that income.”

Llambias spoke to fans’ groups on Tuesday, addressing concerns at the direction the Ashley regime is taking the club.

He sought to clarify his statement that United are intent on emulating Aston Villa’s achievement – saying that what he had actually meant was that he wanted to copy the way the Midlanders are attempting to break into the Champions League qualification places.

And Llambias insisted he was unrepentant about predicting the club could be challenging for honours within five years. “When I said we wanted to be like Aston Villa, what I meant was we want to be in a position where we want to challenge for honours and the ‘Big Four’,” he said. “I didn’t mean their business plan, that got twisted.

“We want to build a solid platform which will enable us to replicate what they have done, but it has to be done gradually which is why I said five years.

“We have our own idea how we are going to be where we want to be and it isn’t the same as Villa’s.

“But, in five years time, why shouldn’t we believe Newcastle can be back up challenging at the top of the league?

“This is a massive club and the potential is huge.”

l BLACKBURN boss Sam Allardyce has defended his decision to field a drastically-altered side in the FA Cup ahead of a crucial batch of games in the battle for Barclays Premier League survival.

Allardyce made 11 changes from the side narrowly beaten by Manchester United at the weekend for Tuesday night’s fifth-round replay at Coventry. And he paid the penalty as a Leon Best goal condemned them to a 1-0 defeat and earned the home side a quarter-final meeting with Chelsea.

But the former Newcastle manager said: “If we had beaten Coventry, we would have had a run of Sunday-Wednesday-Saturday-Wednesday-Saturday games over the next fortnight with the cup game in the middle.

“One group of 11 players cannot start and finish all those games in such a short space of time. Hence you’ve got to play your squad players when the opportunity comes around.”