FREDDY ROCKED BY TOON RAIDER

The Shepherd family could not believe former chairman Sir John Hall had sold his family’s majority stake of around 41 per cent to entrepreneur Mike Ashley, while Shepherd, the club chairman for almost a decade, was recovering from suspected pneumonia in the city’s Freeman Hospital.

In an exclusive interview from his hospital bed, Shepherd said: “There is nothing Mike Ashley can do with this club unless he gets 75 per cent of the stake.

"He can’t take full control, he can’t change resolutions or the club’s articles of association. He has spent more than £50million, but he will have to spend a whole lot more as he must now make an offer not just for my shares, but the shares held by all the other shareholders.”

Earlier this year, Shepherd called on Hall to make his intentions clear following takeover rumours.

Then Shepherd said he would sell the club only to a “Geordie Abramovich”, who could take the club on to the next level.
Ashley is extremely wealthy, but his riches hardly compare with those of Abramovich.

It is only a matter of days since Shepherd orchestrated Sam Allardyce’s appointment as manager, but now the club have been plunged into fresh turmoil with an even greater change very much on the agenda.