Newcastle hoping for a Hollywood ending to cash problems

Newcastle boss Steve Diamond has revealed “two or three” parties are interested in pumping much needed cash into the club and believes that could allow English rugby’s northern outpost to deliver the kind of headlines generated by Wrexham, who have hurtled up the football leagues thanks to the financial backing of Hollywood stars Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds.

Diamond knows that the clock is ticking for a deal to be done with current Falcons owner Semore Kudri, with a potential loan from the other nine Premier Rugby clubs the only way bottom of the table Newcastle can survive if investment is not nailed down.

Diamond, who has now lost captain Callum Chick, who will join Northampton next season, insists the situation is not hopeless and told the media today: “People are looking for a story – a Wrexham. With the franchise system (put forward for the Premiership), could Newcastle be that story? We need to build a story and a legacy, and in the professional era, the club got it right and then bumbled on, and the kind of investment we are looking at would put a stamp on the North of England permanently. We are weeks away from the end of the season and we are in a holding pattern and still positive– I must be mad.

“There have been two or three interested parties and these things take longer than you would expect, and there are also conversations about a loan, but I know nothing of that. I am pretty sure that the owners of Newcastle will not let it go like London Irish, Worcester or Wasps. There is a huge difference here because there is just the DCMS debt, like all the owners and the debt to the owner (Kurdi). HMRC and VAT is all up to date, and it needs investment from an individual who wants to get into rugby and professional companies are out there sourcing investment.

“Rugby is in a very sticky position at the minute and we have 45 players here and we are all in a holding pattern with contracts and lives, with the coaches and the backroom staff the same. We are not sitting it out, thinking that at the end of June we will take our lunch box home and get a job digging holes in the road.

“The (Premiership) model doesn’t work at the moment and why would you invest in something that has a one in 10 chance of relegation. So, I do think franchising will work.

“It is a worry, but all I can do is represent the ownership and keep our noses to the ground and keep enthusiasm high, and you will see that at Saracens on Saturday.”

Newcastle are nine points adrift at the foot of the Gallagher Premiership table, having won just two of their 15 league matches to date. One of those was, however, against Saracens at Kingston Park earoier this season.