Speaking at the annual Soccerex conference in Dubai last night, Shepherd claimed that the Reds had lost their way both on and off the pitch.
He said: "First they lost the captain of the ship in Martin Edwards, then they suffered from losing David Beckham. They lost two characters there.
"Over the last two years they have lost a bit of stardust. They miss Edwards hugely, because it's like a ship without a sail."
Shepherd also claimed that United's main investors, Irish duo John Magnier and JP McManus and American billionaire Malcolm Glazer, were interested in the club only for financial reasons.
"I met Magnier in February playing golf and he said he was there purely as an investor," Shepherd added.
"He made it clear he was only there as that, nothing else."
Shepherd insisted he and fellow major shareholder Douglas Hall would never do the same at St James' Park.
He said: "Both of us are fans through and through and we've never sold a share.
"We've spent '300m in the last 10 years and we run the club as a business but at the end of the day we are fans."
Shepherd also raised the prospect of substantially increased transfer fees as a result of Roman Abramovich's takeover of Chelsea.
He added: "Abramovich has blown the transfer market wide open. There is one market for him and one for the rest of us.
"We were getting fees down to a sensible level before he came along. But don't get me wrong, I wish we had a Geordie Abramovich." Tweet
Comments
Login or Register to comment
shut it mr shepherd worry about your own club! you obviousley are only doing this to make your self and your club look better what have newcastle ever done of signficance? play in the EUAFA cup!! childs play mate!
Have to agree with Shepherd on this one, sometimes Fergie should learn to bite the bullet.
I look at this way if Beckham had stayed would we be worse or better off, when you look at his replacements I would say better off.
Hahaha! It's just a publicity stunt! Let me see Mr Shepherd... 1) We're 4th, you're 10th currently. 2) You get 51,000 people watching your home games. Not bad, but 67,000 of US go to OT for every game. 3) We got Rooney! 4) When was the last time you won a trophy? I haven't enough digits on my calculator to count the number we've won since then. 5) Can you even spell Champions League?
Talk about stating the obvious? I'm trying to find something meaningful and new in what he said. Fancy going all that way just to say that. He's probably still sore from the 3-1 spanking they got the other week. Shut it Freddy of the great polyester clad silent unwashed.
Who exactly cares about what Freddy Shepherd thinks? is opinions on us are totally irrelevant. I would have thought he would be more interested in his own perrennial underachievers.
"We got Rooney" ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha, can't believe a rag is proud of spending 27 mil on a duck egg!
Better to risk loosing it than never finding it!
the only place in newcastle where there is a bigger space than the one between shepherds ears is in newcastles trophy(less) cabinet...in fact the only thing he's had more of than united is managers...do yourself a favor and make shearer your manager...trust me he will take your club into a completely different division...i'll give you a clue starts with a C and ends with a P!
The board of Newcastle United should be concerned with what Newcastle United do, not the ONLY United.
If Gill spouted that rubbish, I would expect him to be sacked.
I reckon he thought these comments would never make it back from Dubai. A bit similar to his eventful trip to Marbella with D. Hall where they met those ever so friendly ladies. Funny how time has given this man credibility as an owner of a football club. Whereas when u think about it he is still the overweight fool who got caught with his pants down in spain.
Haha, what rubbish. He says our investors don't care about the club. Alright maybe he is right... but atleast we got 11 players out there who care for the club. Apart from Shearer and Given, i dont think any one of them care one bit about the club... Its just the money they want. We might be a ship without a sail, but Newcastle is one sinking ship without a crew, now let me think, which is better???
I wholeheartedly agree with Freddie Shepherd, Man Utd are on the slippery slope down. We shouldn't have sold Beckham, and Ferguson should have been made to retire long before now.
We'll win some more matches, have a good run, but there's no more trophies heading our way..
Mary from Sale, my answer to the Beckham thing is that we got B#25m for a fading star who has done nothing since leaving united. I reckon read the player fitness readouts and saw that he was waining fast and also out of control. We have Rooney a fast rising star for the same money. So, Mary go support tiddleywinks.
So Martin edwards was the 'captain of our ship?' The man who inherited the club through the good fortune of the family he was born into and twice tried to sell the club, firstly to a man who has failed to demonstrate his ability to run a third division football club and then to a corporation that would have utilised United as a mechanism for negitiating TV deals with the Premier League. Your right Freddie, I'm sure most reds are desperate to have him back.
It's idiots like Declan (below) who allow Man Utd to be taken away from the fans. Instead of concentrating on why we don't have a fan of the club in charge, he makes childish comments about another team's chairman - who probably cares more about Newcastle than the whole of the Manchester PLC board together!!
We need to stop the rot before we end up like Liverpool, just another "good team from the past".
John from Salford. your point is......What????Declan speaks a lot of sense whilst you ramble. Behave yourself or move to Toon.
Sheephead - you seem to be another of the blinkered fans who are letting our team be taken over and destroyed by the PLC
Take the time to actually read Shepherd's comments IN FULL and you'll realise he makes a lot of sense. Especially when it comes to transfer fees, etc.
I somehow doubt Shepherd didn't forsee that his comments would be picked up by the British media; afterall, it is a worldwide conference! He may be a Geordie, but he's not dim!
Why don't we have a fan in charge of our club, a fan who runs the club properly, but also has the best interests of the club at heart? None of this money, money, money, screw the fans situation!
They are both the major shareholders just as Magnier and McManus are at Man U. Now all 4 receive dividends just the same so the facts that Hall and Shepherd are fans doesnt make any difference. They're all just business men.
(note Declan - that's all you're getting! stand-in Ed.)
Declan, I'm with you on this one. How anybody can champion Shepherd as the kind of person you'd want in charge of your football club is quite beyond me! I mean, what has he achieved? What have Newcastle achieved under his stewardship?
Everton are a much better team without Rooney it says a lot.
whilst the comments re- newcastles directors misbehaviour in spain are true
freddie shepperd wasnt one of them , that was douglas hall & freddie fletcher.
but back to the point what has anything going on at old trafford anything to do with freddie shepped ?
i think hes got enough on his plate without worrying about us. edwards, whether you like him or hate him (i suspect mainly its the latter !) did do a fine job hiring fergie, sticking by fergie and improving the clubs finances & improving the staduim. we now compete with the worlds elite & that was just a pipe dream 18 years ago.
sure he made money but at the end of the day he`s a businesman, he made mistakes ? yeah a few ,but show me someone who hasn`t , lucky ? yes but show me a wealthy businesman who isn`t.
as for mary of sale & beckham
without doubt we are better off without the circus that is now madrids problem , his main priorities lie with his wifes mixed up world & beckham f.c ( sorry england )
Freddy Shepherd, remind me what your club has won in its history? Oh, right. And remind me again how much United have won. Ok. Now remind me of what United have won in the period since Martin Edwards left. That's right - since we "lost it". Or even in the last two years. OH - A LEAGUE TITLE? AND A CUP? And what have Newcastle won? Sorry? Nothing you say? Right then.
So what are you saying John from Salford? That we should let Malcolm Glazer (or similar) take over and take any glimmer of control we have over the club away from us? Then let him fleece the club to pay for the initial investment just so that we can say we have a captain (whatever that means) of a club? Your comments make no sense - Freddy Shepherd's do, insofar as he is probably aiming to try and further destabilise Manchester United (while we are waiting for the next takeover bid from Glazer) and maybe deflect some of the criticism for his role in their shakey start to the season - are you honestly saying that Freddy Shepherd, with his track record at Newcastle, has anything useful to contribute to Manchester United's situation? More fool you, John, for being taken in by a rival's comments.
Check out this link - Arsenal fans don't think that the press give them enough credit!! http://www.arsenal-world.co.uk/news/loadnews.asp?cid=TMNW&id=190613
I agree with Freddie. We should have sacked our experienced succesfull manager and replaced him with Souness after 3 games before the geordies got in there. I believe the Blackburn fans were devastated.
I bet Shephard and Edwards get on famously.