The Mail’s Craig Hope is now reporting that Amanda Staveley and her husband Mehrdad Ghodoussi were effectively forced out of Newcastle United by current CEO Darren Eales.
Staveley and Ghodoussi were the pioneers of getting the PIF bid pushed through successfully and ending the reign of Mike Ashley before Eales was then brought in to the club months later.
While all appeared from the outside to be working well following Champions League qualification, Hope reports that Eales had actually complained to a member of PIF that Staveley and her husband had too much power at the club.
Despite this, it was suggested at the time that the pair had been asked to stay on at the club so the truth is not entirely clear here, but what Hope writes about Eales certainly won’t help his popularity amongst fans.
Eales is already facing an uphill battle to win the support of the Geordies after what was a very poor end to the transfer window with many suggesting he should be taking a lot of the blame.
🚨 INSIDE STORY: It’s all starting to feel a bit Mike Ashley…
💣 Staveley & Ghodoussi FORCED out
🧑💻 Eales wanted control but window a disaster
🗣️ “Forget PSR – it’s just bad negotiating”
😡 Mitchell fury as Parish “enjoys” Guehi saga🟢 Big NUFC read 👇https://t.co/mnhY7Ytfk3
— Craig Hope (@CraigHope_DM) August 31, 2024
And so it begins with the rubbish to destabilise us as a team
headline like It’s all starting to feel a bit Mike Ashley…
Utter rubbish
Absolutely glorious(Quote)
David Dutch(Quote)
If the transfer window has taught us nothing else it’s that there’s not a journalist, pundit or ‘person in the know’ who have a clue what goes on at NUFC.
Sharpy17(Quote)
This all day long ^ and to compare what our club is now to what it was just shows the standard of the journalist
Absolutely glorious(Quote)
Hope is a shameless, publicity-seeking charlatan. You have to take one look at his Adam Pearson-style “FORCED out” capital letters clickbait headlines. The guy is always on the hunt for a story to reel in gullible readers.
I don’t trust a word he says. I’m sure he said we would definitely sign Guehi a week or so back.
Don’t get me started on that idiot Pete Graves either. He renders Sky sports news totally unwatchable.
Panther(Quote)
It’s all Mike Ashley, not quite, because PIF WANT to spend money on quality players. The so-called Big Six terrified the weak and overpaid FA by threatening to form a European League. I was one of the voices that said let them go. We will still have a Premier League the world is envious of. Also, when they see very quickly a falloff in spectators who will not travel to European stadiums to watch matches, that will not be the cut and thrust of the Premiership. It would be the difference between driving or hopping on a train from London to Manchester against the same spectators driving from London to Madrid. To pacify them, the FA allowed them to set up a system that heavily favoured them. It is tedious to see the same teams in the Champions League or any other European championship, whereas if the playing field had been levelled by all clubs starting with the same package and different teams with renewed spending power achieving better thanks, leading to better games. Only Aston Villa have been able to make a dent in their little pack lately with Newcastle. Their hands are tied behind their back trying to break through, but because of 14 years of mismanagement (again, an error by the FA in not having stricter rules about teams only being bought for the wrong reasons, IE to advertise their owners outside football enterprises.). Unfortunately the Premiership is totally corrupt look at the way Man Utd was delt with re avoiding points deductions, look at how long it has taken to call Mancity to account for all their breaches of the rules against the time it took for Notts Forrest and Everton to feel a heavy hand on their shoulders. Now, you have clubs who are terrified of overspending regardless of how wealthy they are. Can anyone see Newcastle Utd going bust, irrespective of your feelings of where the money comes from?
Man Utd, City, and others feed from the same trough, but nothing is said about them. WHY? Because the so-called big six see their buying power as a real threat to destabilising their protected places in the Premiership and, because of that, their European places. What is the answer? Well, it could start by indexing the PSR & FFP rule base and starting the season 2025/26 with a clean slate for all teams and apply the rules after 3 years and annually with a 3-year rolling accountability. Will they do it I doubt it. Too many slap your back and keep it all together. If their teams had their way, they would have byes up to quarter-level FA places and protection from falling out of the top six but massaging the league tables.
David Dutch(Quote)
The thing is anyone whose opening line is
It’s all starting to feel a bit Mike Ashley… is talking nonsense from the off so why bother reading the rest of his guff
Absolutely glorious(Quote)
David Dutch(Quote)
I hope you’re not classing yourself in the more educated bit
Why would i read the content when the headline is utter rubbish clickbait if you fall for that then good luck.
Absolutely glorious(Quote)
It’s mad because as much as I’m annoyed & disappointed we haven’t signed anyone – I’m weirdly at peace with the fact we haven’t spent £70m plus on Guéhi … then I remember that’s only because Palace decided against selling him!!.
We would have been stupid enough to pay that if they had accepted it 🤦🏼♂️.
Even if he has bad games, we don’t get to say ‘we were right not to take him’ .
Sharpy17(Quote)
Said it was a good read and to create a good debate if they were forced out certainly not a good look on Eales if he was wanting more control
Darren Bebb(Quote)
I have nothing but respect for Mandy, but I think people are bigging her role up at NUFC.
She was essentially employed by PIF to be the face & voice of PIF during the takeover period. Her reward for that was a few token share to make a little extra money from the deal.
But to purchase those shares, she actually had to take a loan from Ashley – for which he ended up suing her for.
Once the takeover happened, it was then their role to oversee the recruitment of personal to grow the club – Darren Eales being one of those people.
But having to take a loan from Ashley is show enough that they weren’t the money behind the operation & once the club had gained momentum in terms of generating revenue & being in a position to grow (stadium & training ground wise) they couldn’t keep up.
They may have wanted to stay, but without the finances behind them to be part of the next phase, it was time to get off the pot.
It’s a shame because I think she offered more than just money. But ultimately unless she became an employee on a salary that probably would be less than she’d be used to, there was no other outcome really.
Sharpy17(Quote)
By all accounts the Chairman wanted Staveley to be the CEO when takeover first happened but she thought to get someone with the experience to do it which I found odd think Staveley would be more than capable of doing it getting to Craig Hope on one of his you tube videos before Mitchell was hired he was saying Ghoudoussi and Steve Nickson were more than capable of doing the role going off previous windows not that I’m going to call Mitchell he’s only been in the job not long be interesting to hear if fans on here agree or disagree with that but to be honest with you Sharpy something hasn’t felt right since they left and I’ve never felt comfortable about Eales hope I’m wrong and we go from strength to strength but if he has wanted more control hasn’t been a convincing start for him
Darren Bebb(Quote)
Darren – becoming CEO would be a salary post. A full time job working on NUFC 24/7. That hasn’t been what Mandy does – she does a deal then moves on to the next thing.
Maybe that’s her preference 🤷🏼♂️ some people aren’t meant for a Mon-Fri if you know what I mean.
I think Mandy made the right decision for the club – that’s the measure of the woman. She was true to her word in wanting to make NUFC a force to be reckoned with again. She picked someone better qualified.
If she trusted him with the job, maybe we should 🤷🏼♂️.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Fair point Sharpy see where your coming from just something hasn’t felt right about it since it happened like I said before hope I’m proved wrong and this summer just been a blip regarding incomings and we learn from it and hopefully go from strength to strength
Darren Bebb(Quote)
I agree that something doesn’t seem right behind the scenes since Amanda left,can’t put my finger on it but I don’t really like Eales ,as for Mitchell the jurys still out ,but it hasn’t been great start for either of them
Colin Reid(Quote)
As they were leaving it was announce that there was a delay because they were waiting for agreement on a financial settlement.
You don’t get a financial settlement if you quit, so of course they were forced out.
Does it matter why?
A husband and wife with ZERO experience running a football club, in charge of a billion pound plus asset.
They were never going to be there long term. Just a bit of window dressing.
BykerBill(Quote)
I worked in the Middle East as GM of a Steel Factory.
The owner, Johnie, was Lebanese, and was a superb guy for whom I had a lot of respect.
In the group we had half a dozen different companies.
The head salesman in the Steel factory was ex-GM and did nothing, but we couldn’t get rid of him because he was from Iraq and was in the country illegally, so couldn’t get a job anywhere else. Another salesman, when questioned about his sales record, immediately played the race card, saying I was racist.
The group’s IT Director was one of Johnie’s in-laws. Turn’s out he was implementing a million dollar plus business management software package, which, after a lot of digging I discovered was being supplied by a company that he was co-owner of.
Head of Marketing was another in-law, married to Johnie’s sister. The guy in charge of our Fire Door company was from Syria. And on and on it went with people who were not actually qualified to hold positions being employed for all the wrong reasons. Johnie’s company was ALWAYS ON THE BRINK on going under.
Is there a single Newcastle fan out there who actually thinks that Mehrdad and Mandy were in ANY WAY QUALIFIED to run Newcastle United? Had either one of them held any position of responsibility at a football club?
Their involvement was always going to be a temporary PR thing
freddd(Quote)
Craig dope and Andrew shame on you repeating lies when it was already reported that Amanda would leave when she left.. .. it’s cesspit hacks like hope and edwards trying to get an angle so they can write fake stories to sell content.. if you ask for evidence there is none .. just it was said or it has been reported etc
Mike(Quote)
Just point out to the clowns posting here .. hedge funds , Pif et all have no experience of running football clubs or oil and gas business ., they are investors like Amanda Rueben brothers and Pif who bought in for £300 million and valued at near£ billion based on Amanda selling her share to PuF and Reuben .. Amanda experience is in linking business east into investment opportunities and she was very successful for Pif and the club .. Eakeas has made a very good start and increased revenues by 25% .Mitchell has brought in excellent youth players and under 21 .. but Howe and these two got it wrong on guei ., learn and move on
Mike(Quote)
Can we move forward lads? Eales is a classic of giving power to ‘little’ people. Handle it!
William Cowx(Quote)
You don’t get a financial settlement if you quit
You do it you’re selling shares though that’s all they were waiting for. Way too many people getting 5 from 2+2
Absolutely glorious(Quote)