 Anyone with time, money and hope invested in the emotional black hole that is Newcastle United has a right to scream blue murder right now. And in any business, the buck stops with the man at the top. So it's hardly startling that the blood being bayed for belongs to Freddy Shepherd. What wouldn't be too much more surprising is if the chairman now decided enough was enough. Never mind he's as Geordie as a bottle o' dog, has overseen the expansion of St James's Park and allowed his managers to spend a gross £200 million-plus on players . . . His hometown team are 10 places and several notches in class below where they were when he took over, the ground is a temple of gloom and much of that money has been wasted by his managers. Mostly the fans' money. His managers. And there's the rub. The less successful the manager, the more discredited the chairman who saw fit to appoint him. One cannot hang the other out to dry. Managers, in the case of Shepherd, who himself has been well paid by the club for his services. The chairman would have people judge him in purely business terms. Well, he has simply got business decisions of too much importance wrong in recent years - most obviously the timing of Sir Bobby Robson's sacking and the appointment of He Who Must Not Be Named - to be spared a backlash. But all that said, I make two points. First, it is strange that the Halls should be spared the wrath of the Magpie mob. Here is a family that has banked multi-millions from the club during Shepherd's tenure for what appears to be a lot, lot less work. A family that - Shepherd in or Shepherd out - holds the club's major shareholding, and all the power and culpability that comes with it. Second, next to the strangers of the Belgravia Group, Shepherd may be the better devil to know. I keep hearing that the intentions of United's would-be buyers are even less well known than the buyers themselves. But, as an investment group, I don't see how their intentions could be much clearer: they are to make money . . . and make it fast. The cash for Belgravia to buy the club would, apparently, come from a hedge fund. And the investors in said hedge fund will have as much emotional commitment to Newcastle United as the average Chelsea fan. That's none at all. In layman's language, a hedge fund lends money for investment in companies - at a very high rate of interest - in search of a big gain in a short time. Two or three years being the norm. They rarely involve themselves in companies like football clubs for the long term. Unlike Roman Abramovich, it's cash rather than glory they are after. Cash, say, by getting Newcastle back into the Champions League. Granted, that might seem a short-term aim to savour for supporters. But it seems to me just as likely that the prospect of opening a casino at St James's is the business boost that Belgravia are interested in. And what would become of the club once the profiteers had made their fast buck? Fans should be even more wary of the implications of Newcastle NOT delivering its new owners instant success. Hedge funds tend to impose very harsh conditions on companies in the event of the best case scenario not working out. The fund which helped finance Malcolm Glazer's takeover of Manchester United made such alarming demands that the American switched to alternative funding a year down the line - and had to hand the hedge fund a hefty pay off for providing the initial cash. And what of the man leading the Belgravia Group? The man who, perhaps, might replace Shepherd. I understand Duncan Hickman attended Millfield public school in Somerset and is a fund manager. That's a stockbroker made good (very good) to you and me. As far as I can tell, his football background extends no further than once being involved with the fad of issuing club credit cards. Otherwise, he used to be a director of a management company which represented Jenson Button. He lives in Jersey and, to be frank, doesn't seem to stick at any one thing for very long. In fact, I believe Mr Hickman has been a director of at least 17 companies - not including any arm of the Belgravia Group - in recent years. Does he strike you as the ideal man to run Newcastle United? If you support Sunderland (who know all about people overseeing failure from Jersey), perhaps he does. And if you bleed black and white? Rail against Shepherd all you will. But just be careful what you wish for. | 
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