The Journal today published an article with quotes attributed to none other than our favorite cockney geezer, Derek Llambias.

With most sane Newcastle fans venting fury at the clubs efforts to sell naming rights to St. James’s Park next season, the club appear to be trying to alleviate some of the damage.

Llambias, when speaking to Sky Sports, explains the decision:

`We are just looking to explore and maximise all our revenues.“We’ve got a great opportunity at the moment because our sponsorships are coming to an end. So we have a kit sponsor, we have shirt sponsors and then we have stadium right sponsors.

“So our intention is to put a package together that would include for instance stadium rights with a jumbo screen included in that sponsorship which is great for the fans as well.

“Our intention is to have – for instance sportsdirect.com@ St James’ Park.

“We were never going to lose St James’ Park, it was always going to be @ St James’ Park.

I shouldn’t need to point out the obvious here, but why are we supposed to believe this load of guff when all they’ve said in the past has been total bollocks? Even if what Llambias has said is true, let’s say they only want to put the sponsorship name in front of St. James’s Park, it’s still making money off the the history and heritage of this fine football club.

We can’t let Mike Ashley continue to ruin Newcastle United. Support the lads on the field, give the fat blokes upstairs a protest like they’ve never seen before.

We’ll say this once if we have to say it a thousand times – it’s St. James’s Park or nothing.

Just when we thought things couldn’t get any worse, news tonight emanating from St. James Park is that Mike Ashley has removed Newcastle United from the market and the club is no longer for sale.

Here is the press release in full from the club’s official website:

It seems as if the past eight weeks have meant nothing to Mike Ashley and Derek Llambias. Newcastle United means something to us, with the consistent “we’re confident something will happen next week” bollocks it appears that this fine football club means less than dirt to those in charge at St. James Park.

Llambias, Newcastle’s Managing Director appeared on the radio show Total Sport today and said that the Barry Moat bid was ‘there or thereabouts’, but that there were others further down the line than the proposed Moat takeover deal. So if the Moat bid is ‘there or thereabouts’, surely the other consortiums are almost ready to put pen to paper? What a ridiculous state of affairs this is.

What’s even worse is when numpties like Graham Roberts play to the media with quotes like ‘They want to run their own football club’ (‘they’ being the fans) and heads up a consortium. Can’t he see that any further delay in the takeover process means more misery for the fans? I couldn’t give a toss who was running the club as long as they have decent business sense, but don’t patronise us with utter tosh – we’ll just loathe you even more than we already do.

On Total Sport, Derek’s final comment to the fans was to be patient. Patient?? This has been dragging on for eight weeks! We have no manager, a threadbare squad and owners who have made one bad decision after another. If this doesn’t end soon, the atmosphere surrounding our decent start to the season could become a thing of the past, and that could cause even more heartache.

The Police had it right, only for Newcastle United, nobody seems to be listening. If our humiliating 6-1 defeat against Leyton Orient this afternoon wasn’t signal enough for Mike Ashley that he needs to get out of Toon and quick, then I shudder to think what will.

Ashley, who is holding out for 100 million pound bids, surely must be sweating now. Potential buyers of the club are going to point to this defeat as justification for not paying out the full amount for the Toon. If the club can’t beat Leyton Orient in a friendly with their first choice eleven, how on earth are they going to compete in the Championship?

It was at the beginning of last month that we heard from Seymour Pierce’s Keith Harris that the club would be sold before the end of June. We’ve also heard from Derek Llambias who said that NUFC had received more than two bids of 100 million. So what on earth has happened since then? We shudder to even think – it’s unbearable and unacceptable.

The only thing we can cling to now is hope. Hope that a deal is just around the corner and hope that Alan Shearer is still around when the new owners come calling, because if nothing else, he can get this club back on its feet again and headed in the right direction.

Finally, a bit of news that doesn’t involve more he said she said bollocks.

In what could turn out to be the best bit of news received on Tyneside since Michael Owen slung his hook, word came today from Managing Director Derek Llambias that “more than two” bids of 100 million had been received. Here’s the full quote:

“There have been more than two bids at £100m. At the moment, we are in the hands of lawyers, and it is all ongoing. We are giving interested parties all the help that they need.”

Hopefully, if everything goes smoothly (and we have no right to think that it will), we should be hearing further news this week. Don’t bank on it though. Mike Ashley’s recent history suggests that nothing more than utter confusion and chaos will descend on St James’s Park.

As we blogged about yesterday, the fact that there was nothing published in the national newspapers was a sign that there could be positive things in the works for Newcastle United.

Only hours later, several media outlets published news that Wednesday and Thursday could be pivotal for the future of the Toon, and even more so, Alan Shearer. Quotes from current Managing Director Llambias mitigate that Shearer could be appointed as boss no later than early next week – possibly as soon as Thursday, the 18th.

The books are due to be opened on Wednesday for consortiums who have proven beyond doubt that they have sufficient funds to be able to complete their respective takeovers. We are led to believe that the consortiums are all in favour as appointing Shearer as manager so as far as this blog is concerned, the sooner the better. Let’s get the preparations for next season underway please, we’re already way behind.

Howay the Toon