Sam Allardyce fight over £370k loan

Jul 10 2011 by Rob Pattinson, Sunday Sun

FORMER Toon boss and Sunderland star Sam Allardyce is locked in a massive cash battle over an abandoned farmhouse, we can reveal.

The ex-Newcastle United manager is owed a balance of up to £370,000 under a High Court judgement by North agent Peter Harrison, who used to represent Andy Carroll.

Harrison could now be facing bankruptcy unless he can repay a reported £1.9m in debts - including the six-figure sum he owes to Allardyce.

The agent is understood to currently be trying to persuade his creditors to give him more time and has told the Sunday Sun he will not be made bankrupt and “Allardyce will get his money”.

Harrison, who lives in a plush, North millionaires’ playground, is now facing his debts without a windfall from Andy Carroll’s lucrative £35m transfer to Liverpool.

The agent has been locked in a separate battle with a rival agent he claims ‘tapped-up’ England’s most expensive player before the lucrative move he claims should have earned him a fortune in commission.

An FA arbitration hearing between Harrison and Carroll reportedly ended last month with Harrison receiving no money, although the agent claims the matter is “not finished”.

Former Blyth Spartans boss Harrison's debt to Allardyce is understood to date back to a deal between the pair from 2005.

The ex-Bolton boss loaned the agent and former Blackburn Rovers defender Lucas Neill, who was one of Harrison’s clients at the time, money to fund a property deal, on the edge of Gateshead.

Neill was in partnership with Harrison at the time, and they used the cash from the Allardyce loan as part of a plan to develop run-down Laverick Hall Farm, on the A184, Newcastle Road.

According to sources either of the pair is now responsible for repaying all of the money.

Planning documents show Harrison and Neill were later granted planning permission to convert the site into a development of 14 homes, but it has remained derelict.

A source has told how Allardyce, who became Newcastle boss in 2007, made the six figure loan in “good faith”, believing it would be paid back with interest, as agreed.

While Lucas Neill is understood to have made some repayments on the loan, Allardyce has lost patience with Harrison and believes making him bankrupt is the only way he will get any money back.