Shepherd DOES Decide The Players!
Last updated : 04 December 2006 By Footy Mad - Editor
... at the end of the day ... like all club chairman, he DOES say who comes to the club and who doesn't.
Graeme Souness tried to sign Anelka three times but Shepherd knocked it back, and it was rumoured the chairman saw the ex-Liverpool striker as "nothing but trouble". And it was "the rabbled" he wanted rid of.
Every chairman decides where the money goes, and Shepherd is the man who holds the purse strings at Newcasle. It is ridiculous to suggest any other.
Roeder said last June he wanted to make signings but it was the chairman's idea to go for players on the last day of the transfer market. Why? God only knows!
But it back-fired, and we had Shepherd blaming the system, rather than himself. "There should not be a transfer wndow", which is all well and good. By why try and use it for your own advantage, try for cut-price deals, then moan when it goes tits-up?
Shepherd: "I don't interfere with transfers and it is ludicrous to suggest that I bring in the players or make signings without the manager being involved," Shepherd said in the News of the World.
"There is no way I have ever said to a manager 'There is Mr X - you have got him whether you like him or not'.
"It would be madness for anyone to do that. I know that they do that on the continent, but it wouldn't work in English football.
"I don't get involved in team selection and I don't hang around the training ground. That's not what I am paid for.
"We have spent £250 million on players since I have been on the board, so no one can ever accuse us of not backing managers."
