Unbelievable

We've baulked at Spurs' >10m valuation for Townsend but expect that we can get Shelvey from relegation rivals for a fee that will suit us? Aye rightio.

We obviously knew better so went for Riviere and Ferreyra that summer

GWWA

The irony is that we're only "financially stable" because of the huge increases in TV revenue which have been outside of his control. If it wasn't for that, this way of running a club would have been a surefire way of "doing a Leeds/Pompey".

Coincidentally, quite a few high street retailers have gone bust recently over here in NL. Some big names too. These massive companies apparently can't deal with percentage wise quite small drops in revenue. The online market isn't so restricted by national boundaries. It's not inconceivable that someone like Amazon moves into his market and pushes SD over altogether at some stage.

Come on! Give the guy at least some credit! He's worth 5.5 BILLION DOLLARS!!!! That's some luck he's got there! I agree with this actually: he is an amazing business man. I will say this though: he is also a bit of a one trick pony and a parasite in business. He sucks the life out of his competitors and every company he takes over to make his own company stronger. I respect him for the enormous wealth he has managed to amass, but by doing so has probably cost society and thousands of others dearly. He's successful, but I wouldn't exactly call him inspirational.

I only got into this thread to reply to one comment about him not "giving a f***". That's what all of my rambles over the last page have been in reference to. If rather than "not giving a f***" it would have said "results on the pitch don't matter much to him as long as we are in the PL" would you have reacted? Because that's what it effectively comes down to. Edit: what Santy said. I also think his attitude towards the fans and by extension the club is neutral at best, probably even negative. I can't even see him genuinely wanting to bring joy to the fans anymore for the insults he received early on in his tenure. He appears to be a very proud and petty manchild who has decided that he will hang onto us for his own gain only, going out of his way to frustrate the fans who dared to challenge him. Maybe that wasn't his original intention when he first bought us, but it's certainly how the relationship has been for a long time. It's all fucked up.

If he's serious about those five year aims, why doesn't he come out and make them public? Also, I fail to see how what he's doing at our club is in any way contrary to your last paragraph in his mind. He's made huge amounts of money on the back of us, doesn't have to put a penny in to keep us going and will probably make a killing once he finally does decide to sell up. This NUFC is its current miserable state constitutes a massive success for him.

So far he hasn't put a penny of his own money into the club for years, and then only because he was forced to to keep us afloat in the Championship. I would be very suspicious about any claim that he will be spending some of his own money on us, let alone anywhere near enough for us to be competitive.

To be honest our last five year plan has worked wonders as we are doing better than Aston Villa currently: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/newcastle-united/4580758/Newcastle-United-have-five-year-plan-to-emulate-Aston-Villa.html Rather than listening in admiration to the people you talk to, perhaps you should consider what has actually happened at this club in the last 8 years and try to see if you can find a pattern? You say he's not ploughing enough money into it, but the fact is that his decision to give SD free advertising has cost the club probably close to 100m over the years. I'm not interested in what he has to say to his minions to make them feel good, I'll judge him on his actions and so far they've been disastrous for the club whilst being hugely beneficial to himself.

Genuinely dumbfounded by those posts man. Scary that there are still people who think that way.

Exactly. Besides, is it actually of any importance whether his complete failure to make NUFC progress under his tenure because of gross incompetence or because it benefits him? In the end, the result is exactly the same and after 8 years of it how anybody can think with any confidence that things are about to change for the better defies belief.

I'm still of the opinion that his biggest failing is his employing the wrong people. I don't believe for a second that Mike Ashley doesn't want us to be competitive. It makes NO business sense to not be successful. I just think he puts his trust in completely the wrong people to achieve it (which of course is a huge failing). However, to say "it couldn't get any worse than Ashley" is complete nonsense. I still think, IF Ashley is willing to invest £30m-£50m in each of the next couple of transfer windows, we SHOULD have a very competitive team. Not hugely confident in Charnley and Carr to get the right players, or McClaren to get the best out of them though. He is successful in making money out of us. He doesn't give two f***s how the club does on the pitch as long as it stays in the division and reaps the rewards. It's very successful for him, it isn't at all successful for us. Exactly. Not sure why that is so hard to grasp for so many of our fans.

Aye who cares about winning things, being the 17th best team in the league, that's all that matters If we get relegated we won't be challenging for any major trophy for the forseeable future and the whole direction of the football club looks ominous regardless of whether Ashley sells it or not. It's easy to pass out a cynical reply but the reality is if we go down the chances of actually getting back to a club of even a remotely respectable stature at the top level seems massively unlikely.Like I said, for the first time ever, I'd rather we focussed on the league and then if we managed to stay up you have to hope further investment will happen to build on what we have. But still, A win for momentum would probably be more beneficial than a loss. Except that isn't the reality at all. In fact the exact same opinion was probably put forward in 08-09. I personally don't think we'd repeat what we achieved last time we got relegated. The Championship is are much more difficult league with stronger spending powers than it was back then. That's without even considering what we'd be left with after everyone on big contracts was sold.

Or as any other club would say "For every Mansoor, there's a Ken Bates or Mike Ashley"

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2013/may/15/sports-direct-sorry-newcastle-wayne-rooney

He did manage Cabella though, who was arguably the more talented player. If he had managed Thauvin the lad would probably be stacking shelves in Tesco by now. Going from what we know they both appear totally unsuited to the Premier League at this stage of their careers. A job well done once again by Graham Carr. Who'd have thought signing players who don't have a position wouldn't work well in a side that hasn't had a philosophy in terms of style or formation in about 12 years. What we know is that neither player has been given a fair chance to settle into this new league/club. Physically less imposing players have done well in this league, so to suggest these players could never cut it in this league is not something I would take as a given. We are absolutely diabolical when it comes to developing and getting the best out of creative players and wingers.

Totally forgot about that

Pardew didn't manage Thauvin. Anyway, if true he's absolutely right. Which talented footballer would want to come and waste their career at Mike Ashley's cheap shell of a once great club?

Jan Kirchhoff no? Good deal at 1m if they can keep him fit. Was highly rated not so long ago.

Only one of them rates them enough to think he's worth a punt.

Oh my dear God