By Jebediah
July 26 2005

Jebediah’s roundup of Tuesday's tabloid newspapers, and a look at the stories and rumours involving Newcastle United.

Main news today relates to a possible shock takeover bid from an unknown source for the club.

From The Mirror, Sir John Hall has received an offer for his stake in the club. Yesterday, share prices soared by about 20%, and the president made a statement to the stock exchange confirming that interest had been shown in his shares.

However for a takeover to occur, current chairman Freddy Shepherd would have to sell his shares and it is unclear whether he would do so, although previous quotes from him say "he would welcome a Geordie Roman Abramovich." Shepherd currently owns 27% of the club, and the ball will be in his court if an offer comes in. He could either sell up, reject, or there is a chance he could buy more shares (which he recently did) and reach 30% where he would have to make a mandatory offer for the whole club.

Also from The Mirror, Tottenham are set to rival us for the signature of Luis Boa Morte. Tottenham have failed to add much quality to their side over the summer so far, so apparently they are now turning their attentions to the winger after losing out on Julio Baptista. Jol is all set to make a £4m bid.

From The Sun, Michael Chopra has declared himself able to play in Wednesdays InterToto Cup clash with Deportivo La Coruna. He suffered concussion on saturday against Dubnica and had to be replaced, however he says he is fine and will play if he is picked.

Finally, the same paper is also reporting that Tim Cahill has rejected a contract offer from Everton. Interestingly, the article describes Cahill as a "Newcastle target," although whether there is any substance behind this remains to be seen. Cahill is a central midfielder, and with the likes of Parker, Emre, Jenas, Bowyer and Faye on our books a move at the moment would seem very unlikely. Cahill enjoyed a successful first season in the Premiership last year following his switch from London club Millwall.