Things just haven’t been going Newcastle’s way lately. A good finish to the season and permanent appointment of Glenn Roeder may not have seemed like a upswing in fortunes to most clubs, but after the Souness era it was a big relief.
Then, they pipped Tottenham and who knows else to Damien Duff. Life was downright delightful. But then, as always, things began to unravel. Damien Duff led to Antoine Sibierski, Freddy Shepard returned to form by claiming no one was to blame for the club’s poor transfers but the transfer window itself.
Now, Newcastle are embroiled in bit of a transfer scandal involving some of Britain’s most high profile agents.
The VAT and Duties tribunal, often called the modern day Gestapo, found that the club and agents mislead the Football Association about how certain transfers were conducted. Apparently Newcastle lied about the level of involvement of the agents in order to avoid paying VAT on their fees.
Though dodging VAT is not not the most scandalous or spectacular offense, it just adds to the pile of misery that the club has been heaping on its supporters for a while now.