Freddy The Fool blasts Man UTD Newcastle United chairman Freddy Shepherd claims Premiership rivals Manchester United have lost their sparkle. The Magpies supremo has criticised The Red Devils for losing key personnel on and off the pitch, following the departures of Martin Edwards and David Beckham. Former Old Trafford chairman Edwards left a position on the club's board in the summer of 2003, the same time that England captain Beckham was sold to Real Madrid. Since those exits, Newcastle chief Shepherd believes his Premiership rivals no longer have the same lustre attached to them. Shepherd also claimed The Red Devils' main investors - John Magnier, JP McManus and Malcolm Glazer - are only interested in the financial aspect of football, unlike himself, who retains Newcastle's best interests at heart. "First they lost the captain of the ship in Martin Edwards, then they suffered from losing David Beckham," said Shepherd at the annual Soccerex conference in Dubai. "They lost two characters there. "Over the last two years they have lost a bit of stardust. They miss Martin Edwards hugely because it's like a ship without a sail. "I met Magnier in February playing golf and he said he was there purely as an investor. He made it clear he was only there as that, nothing else. "Both of us (himself and major shareholder Douglas Hall) are fans through and through and we've never sold a share. "We've spent £300 million in the last ten years and we run the club as a business. "We are not ashamed to say we take a dividend out of it but at the end of the day we are fans too." Shepherd has never been averse to ploughing millions into his attempts to turn Newcastle into genuine title contenders but concedes there are players at St James' Park earning far too much money. He added: "We have a wage bill of over £15 million. They are well paid, some of them are overpaid."
The Good Shepherd should think before he speaks, but Gill is not right the man to be running the show at ManUtd. Gill failed to nail to Robben & Ronaldinho & bought Rooney on the back of a rather dodgy bid from NUFC thus wiping out Man Utd transfer budget for 2005. Martin Edwards was irreplaceable due to his families long & distgingused time @ Man Utd & as Man Utd fan Pike I am sure are aware of this.
Fat Freddie's comments were not a rant at Man Utd in some tacky red top rag, he was answering peoples questions at the Soccerex conference in Dubai & the topic was ""Football Is Not A Plaything For The Very Wealthy" Another snippet On not receiving payment for letting club players feature for their country: "In what other business would you be expected to loan out your employees and not get a penny back? It doesn't make sense." And in response to the comment of a Nike representative that footballers were underpaid compared to US sports stars: I've never heard so much bollocks in all my life ... football players are vastly overpaid today."
Compared to US sports stars footballers are 'underpaid' but they still earn silly money just not as daft as those across the pond.
Like a massive void with Beckham missing... i used to get so chuffed hearing things about MAN U... but the team seems odd with out him, well did, he was Man U ... although not exactly needed with Rooney n Van Nistle Roy... mebies just naturally missed and missing.
