He claims Newcastle United HAVE had interest in buying the naming rights to St James’ Park, although many suggest any company putting their name to the stadium would get a backlash from Toon fans.
Not one Newcastle fan I know agrees with Mike Ashley's move, so why could a company risk its north-east reputation on being 'responsible' for the change?
The Geordies would boycott the brand ... and I'm sure the Mackems would too ... simply because it has links with NUFC.
Derek Llambias: “It has been nibbles here and there. We are trying.
“There are a lot of people out there who will say ‘We can do it, we can do it’. There are a lot of tyre kickers out there though.
"It is just like people claiming they are going to buy the club – there were a lot of tyre kickers there then.
“There are big companies out there and the Premier League is a global brand.
“Can you imagine the publicity they will get? It has never been done before.
“We are not trying to antagonise anyone – we are just trying to put a player on the pitch.
“We put it out there and there was no interest.
“We took some branding advice. It was not just something where we thought ‘Let’s just do it’.
"We took advice on it, we took advice on the arena signs as well.
“Some might say ‘Why do it in November?’ But we had a two-week break, the players were away and Mike and I can take the beating.
“By the time the players and manager are back everyone is aware of it, it may affect the game or it may not.”