Freddy set to sell upJun 6 2007 By Nick Whitten, The Evening Chronicle Freddy Shepherd is selling his Newcastle United shares to Mike Ashley. The Toon chairman is expected to make an announcement to the Stock Exchange in the next 24 hours, handing control of the club to billionaire Mr Ashley. Mr Shepherd will accept Mr Ashley's £37,279,000 offer for his 28.06% stake in the St James' Park club. And the Chronicle understands the board will be kept on, with Mr Shepherd staying in his current role as a paid chairman. Story continues ADVERTISEMENT Mr Ashley was on Tyneside again yesterday to visit the training ground and meet Freddy's son Kenneth and brother Bruce, as well as meeting new manager Sam Allardyce for the first time. And while the £5.5m signing of Joey Barton was completed, Mr Ashley is believed to have thrashed out a deal with the board to buy Mr Shepherd's shares. Mike Ashley will take on a behind-the-scenes role similar to Roman Abramovich at Chelsea. A city source close to the deal said: "Freddy Shepherd is staying on as chairman. "Both sides are working through the final stages of the deal. "They are ironing out the finer points and an announcement could be expected as early as tomorrow." The sale means sports mogul Mr Ashley will now own nearly 70% of United, just 5% away from having complete control of the club. Two weeks ago he snapped up the Hall family's 41.6% stake for £55.3m and immediately launched a £133.1m takeover bid for the club. He is preparing a document to be sent to all shareholders offering 100p per share. The document is believed to be nearly ready and will be sent out this week. If he were to get as many as 90% of the shares, he could de-list the company from the Stock Exchange making the company no longer a plc. Mr Ashley, who founded the Sports Direct retail group, is Britain's 25th richest man with a personal fortune of £1.9bn. It was a busy day for the sports mogul yesterday as he also sold his 3% stake in the German sports brand Adidas. And he proved he has a sharp eye for a good deal, making a £29m profit on the Adidas shares he had only owned for eight weeks.
Once they delist, Shepard will be gone. Apparently David Dein is coming up as he is a mate of that Ashley fella. I hope this is true, he done a marvelous job at Arsenal and with the backing of Ashley, imagine what he could do for us?
