I was going to do something like proper journalism this morning

and do some careful research into the GSE Group who have just bought Derby County. Sadly, however, google turned up nothing on them, not even a company website, and since the web is pretty much the only research tool I have, my impetus is now well and truly blunted. In the absence of evidence though I am now free to imagine just how shadowy the organisation is, I mean, why would any 21st century business not have an easily googable website, unless, and I say this in sinister italics, they have something to hide...? HMMM? Even the overlords of what I'll dub the Global Empire, the Carlyle Group, have a webiste http://www.carlyle.com/. On this site they carefully disguise just how much money they get for every bomb dropped on the middle east.

So what digs with the GSE? How come they need to communicate nothing to the football obsessed British public? Why no website. They must be either incompetent, or mysterious, or both. And how can this be when they buy Derby at such an opportune time. When relegation certainty has shaved off the price a bit, but before the competition to purchase hots up at the end of season. Smart move then.

The purchase ensures that over 25% of premiership clubs are now foreign owned. A fact which could, in the right hands, trigger a mini frenzy for nationalist economics. Time to dust off the Scargilite banners perhaps.

" Nationalise the National Game!!"
"Tell the yanks to fuck off home and stop calling it soccer"

The campaign chants could be fun too- "What do we want? Nationalisation. When do we want it? After Match Of the Day."

In Newcastle the revolution continues. With queen's infantryman Dennis Wise hanging up his Leed's coloured tracksuit and coming to the club, presumably to take the role turned down by Alan Shearer. As reported elsewhere last week Alan was overheard saying- "Kevin is his own man and can do we what he likes. But it is my club."

Football- where the narrative never stops...

Freddie Shepherd is poised

to take over another football club, so my sources tell me. Shepherd was the manager of the oft professed "big club" Newcastle Utd, and after selling his megasized portion of the team for 37,000,000 english sterlings he is now on the look out for another club to buy. As Shepherd himself freely admits he hates "soft southern twats that talk posh like and sound like a bunch of benders" and will therefore be zoning his sights in on another club to the north of Nottingham. Shepherd himself has never ventured south. It seems that not only do Southerners talk funny, "but don't put gravy on their chips" either. "I can't stand it down there." added Shepherd. "Its too hot." Leeds, Bolton, and Derby therefore, are all on Shepherd's hit list. As most the people that live around there pronounce bath 'baath' instead of 'barth'.
If I were a Leeds fan Shepherd's interest would bother me. Shepherd is something of a tabloid favourite, and not just because he fills the fat and northern stereotype role. Also because of his penchant for brothels and brashness. By brash I mean rude. Tact has never been his strong point. "I wanted to fire him while he could still remember my name" he famously may as well have said after sacking an ageing, though still iconic, Bobby Robson in 2004. "But I don't want to be remembered as the guy that shot Bambi." Being controversial does not exclude you from being an able chairman however. And in fairness Shepherd did make money for Newcastle, in excess of 8,000,000 english sterlings during his tenure, albeit that this is 4.5 times less profit than his predecessor Hall. What makes him unqualified to take over a club like Leeds however is that he has no experience running things on a tight budget. Splashing out an average of 10,000,000 english sterlings pounds a season on new players. And as chairman of the geordie cash cow he has always been able to spend his club further from trouble when needs be. Attracting big names like Shearer, Owen, and, well, um, Hugo Viana. With Leeds still shuddering at the Ridsdale effect Shepherd is the last thing they need. Without the gate receipts of one of the world's most ardently supported clubs to fall back on god knows what Shepherd would be capable of. Apart from isolating his fan base, something he has done with startling regularity at Newcastle. Either way, expect him to buy Bolton cheap if they go down this season.

ha-

http://football.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Column/0,,2210635,00.html

The curse of Ridsdale stikes again.

"A High Court hearing scheduled for next week that could determine the future of Cardiff City has been postponed until next month. The Swiss investment bank Langston is seeking £24m it claims it is owed by the club as part of a deal struck when Peter Ridsdale took over from Sam Hammam. Although Hammam has regularly acted as Langston's "intermediary", he refuses to confirm whether he has a formal connection. Langston has applied for a summary judgment which, if successful, would tip the club into administration, but Ridsdale is privately confident the club will succeed when the case is heard in early December."

The guy's record is a nightmare. Leeds Meltdown. Barnsley Meltdown. Cardiff Meltdown. His record for financial incompetence is as certain as Ken Bates' for financial impropierty. What I love is the statement "Ridsdale is privately confident" , I am sure he was privately supremely confident that Leeds' debt would not spiral to £103 million too.