Oba Martins and Charles N’Zogbia missing the final weekend's game at Watford, the former with an untraceable injury and the latter seemingly through ill discipline and poor behaviour. Sam Allardyce resigned his post at Bolton Wanderers, is now United’s manager and is slowly reshaping the playing and backroom staff.

Billionaire businessman Mike Ashley has bought the club and de-listed it from the stock exchange. And in the latest development, Freddy Shepherd has resigned as club chairman, to be replaced by his deputy, Chris Mort.

So, let’s begin at the beginning…

Freddy Shepherd, then Newcastle chairman, summoned Glenn Roeder, then manager to an emergency board meeting the day after Blackburn’s 2-0 victory. The strong feeling around the ground after the game was that Roeder had signed his own managerial ‘death warrant’ with the poor on-pitch performance that day and several below par performances leading up to it and that Shepherd would waste no time in relieving Roeder of his duties. However, transpired that Roeder jumped before he was pushed. An honourable man is Glenn. He left the club in the right way, but will be a disappointed man.
He guided Newcastle to

seventh the previous season, earning an Intertoto Cup spot after being promoted from academy director and placed in temporary charge of first-team affairs following the dismissal of Graeme Souness in February 2006. Shepherd persuaded the Premier League to allow him special dispensation to appoint Roeder on a permanent basis last May even though he did not possess the requisite Uefa Pro-Licence. Roeder could not repeat the trick and the club slipped to 13th position in the table after collecting just six points from the last 30 as well as well as suffering humiliating cup defeats to Birmingham, who triumphed 5-1 in an FA Cup tie at St James' Park, and Dutch side AZ Alkmaar in the Uefa Cup, both ties that United were in a strong position to win.

Roeder, who had a year left on his contract, has had to overcome Alan Shearer’s retirement, Michael Owen’s injury and other personnel issues. Newcastle fans turned on Shepherd by chanting "Sack the Board'' towards the end of this joyless game for locals, who finally seemed to have lost patience with the manager as well judging by a rendition of "Taxi for Roeder'' outside the ground. The Blackburn match was Owen’s first back after a serious knee injury, but when they failed to score in a fifth successive home league game for the first time since 1951, it prompted embarrassing scenes following the final whistle with a lap of honour taking place in front of virtually deserted stands.

At 52, Sam Allardyce is a year older than Roeder. He dramatically resigned from his position at the Reebok Stadium, Bolton at the end of April. The man from Dudley, West Midlands was unsuccessful in his application to be England’s head coach last summer after guiding Bolton from the Football League into the top seven of the Premiership and has signed a 3 year contract as manager.
Allardyce, who turned down the Newcastle job once before, said: "It is fantastic from my point of view. A couple of years ago there was an opportunity, which I declined, but now I feel like I'm ready to implement what I did at Bolton for seven years.

"I'm ambitious and I know this club is," he said. "It hasn't had the best success but I feel I can turn it round. I've left a football club that is very, very healthy so when my time to leave Newcastle does come I hope I have done the same here. I hope I can bring the success that the fans are so desperate for. I'm not saying I can get it right at the flick of a switch. If there are some sticky times I hope we can get over them for the best of the supporters and me."

Allardyce is known to embrace modern ideas about sports science and is determined to restructure the playing staff, his support staff and to turn Newcastle into a club fit to challenge for trophies. Watch this space for developments on the playing side.

On the day that Liverpool were preparing to take on AC Milan in the Champions League final, Newcastle fans were saying “Mike who?” The news was breaking that Billionaire businessman Mike Ashley had bought a significant stake in Newcastle United. Since that afternoon in late May, we haven’t found out much more about him and haven’t seen him or heard from him. He likes to keep out of the limelight, but has been hugely successful in developing a number of sports related companies over the years.

His buy-out of the company is now all-but complete and he de-listed the club from the stock market in July. His right-hand man is top lawyer Chris Mort, appointed deputy chairman when the existing board were offered the opportunity to resign. Freddy Shepherd, thankfully now over a bout of pneumonia, stayed on as chairman in an advisory capacity. However, on 24th July ………

Freddy Shepherd has resigned as chairman of Newcastle United and is replaced by Chris Mort. For 10 years, Shepherd has been at the helm, since replacing Sir John Hall. In that time, he has overseen the continued development of St. James Park, the building of Newcastle’s Academy at Longbenton and has oft written a sizeable cheque to buy player after player.

He has also wielded the axe on a number of managers and been the subject of a ‘News of the World - Exclusive’, but to give him his due. His heart is in the right place and he gave it his best shot. Let’s hope that the mew regime has deep pockets and is able to secure 5 or 6 new signings of proven quality ….. and quickly please.

Paul Laverick – Sports Editor.