I think there's 2 plausible links with Freddie Shepard. The first being him and Ranson being friends which they talked about in the first year under his reign, and the second is that Northern Rock, which Gary Hoffman was involved with was the sponsorship for Newcastle at the time Shepard was there.
Why would he? Great if he does, but he's Geordie through and through when it comes to football and I can't see anything in this. There is no money to be made unless we can get to the Premiership and he's shrewd enough to realise that's hardly likely, especially with our track record.