Parky

Because in the short term the rewards of investing just aren't there. The cost of competing nearer the top is a project that will take time and cost a couple of hundred million up front over 2/3 seasons but a chunk straight away (like all of the telly money for the year right now). He doesn't care about the long term 10-15 years because he won't be here then. Building up a brand and diversifying it around the world takes time...You need to spend to win some things and you need to spend to enlarge the global footprint of the club which essentially means even at a modest pace putting 50-70m into the club over and above what it makes for a few years. He won't do it because as he sees it there is no profit in it for him (not in the short term anyway). When a few years ago he talked about those 5 year plans he was talking about a club in profit by a few million a year, selling the odd player who had made good and him putting in a few million. That went out the window when bigger money came into the PL and wages and prices of players went up due to the huge TV money. Clubs all over Europe started doubling their transfer fees etc...Basically the stakes went up even for a modest improvement of the club and at that point Ashley checked out.

SD is a toxic brand it should appear nowhere in the stadium or anything associated with the club. This alone is probably costing us other revenue with reg to advertising and marketing. No brand wants to be partnered with a brand that has slave workers and a downmarket image. You're not going to have BMW on the technical area seats with SD as the main image.

What is this gamble? The TV money I.e. The 60M you mention. In most of the fans perspective it's earned. In the fat c*** point of view it isn't. It is spending before earning (which in fact hasn't put into our bank yet) and thus it is a gamble. And by locking up the amount up, Ashley cost of relegation is covered. Are you making this up? So MA's strategy is all about preparing for failure against 99% of other owners who are preparing for success. Do you see when you look it like that it's either insane or a clever PR narrative to keep people wondering about intentions. Why does it look strange to you? We are saying once Rafa gone we are done. The fat cunt definitely know he won't get another better manager so likely the result is done too. Then tell me if Rafa tell the fat cunt money or die, should the fat cunt prepare for the worst for his own interest? There is no gamble if you have a World Class manager who just needs 2/3 players to stabilize. The gamble is only in not investing hence us all scratching our heads in here.

Stabilising the club in the premier league would increase the value of his asset. The first season back is always going to be the most expensive however once he has a squad fit for the PL the spending can be scaled back. You can never scale it back that's the history of the PL. You have to keep pace with the clubs around you (not Man C). The net spend can be scaled back as the players you're able to shift will be of a higher value than the championship squad you started with. Gotcha. Spurs, Everton and S'hampton kept pace by selling one or more of their best players a year.

What is this gamble? The TV money I.e. The 60M you mention. In most of the fans perspective it's earned. In the fat cunt point of view it isn't. It is spending before earning (which in fact hasn't put into our bank yet) and thus it is a gamble. And by locking up the amount up, Ashley cost of relegation is covered. Are you making this up? So MA's strategy is all about preparing for failure against 99% of other owners who are preparing for success. Do you see when you look it like that it's either insane or a clever PR narrative to keep people wondering about intentions.

Stabilising the club in the premier league would increase the value of his asset. The first season back is always going to be the most expensive however once he has a squad fit for the PL the spending can be scaled back. You can never scale it back that's the history of the PL. You have to keep pace with the clubs around you (not Man C).

What is this gamble?

Please explain what is loan from club owner and why it has increased to 129m term loan + 33m further loan = 164m as per latest account A loan is money owed (to Ashley), which needs to be paid back at some stage and is interest bearing (we pay for it in free advertising). It is not the same as putting money in and expecting nothing in return. The debt was 70m when he bought us (mainly related to late 90's stadium extension as a 57m mortgage which had to be repaid in the event of a change in ownership). He then added 29m to pay off existing player transfer fees that were spread out in one go, another 29m as the cost of the first relegation (his mistake) and another 33m after the second relegation (again his mistake). He also profits from this loan fiscally as he offsets it in his holding company, hence paying less tax over his profits. So in short: no, a loan is entirely different to putting his own money in (as most other club owners have done by the way). Give me examples that a normal club in EPL would have an income item called "owners donation". He could have signed a sponsorship deal with sports direct and funded us that way. You know, pay for the advertising space. Yea, by market price, additional 4m per year? unless it is the difference between relegation or not, would this help to give us an additional Batshuayi? Have you got evidence to back up your £4m a year figure? Preferable using a similar sized club, and a similar amount of sponsorship granted (including the team going to do meet and greets at Sports Direct and also the huge roof advertising)? May not be directly comparable, but the quick source I use is Everton 31 May 2016 annual account which club size is larger than us (sadly). Total revenue consist of Broadcasting 82.5M Gate receipts 17.6M Advertising and Sponsorship 9.3M Other commercial revenue 12.1M Just very quick math, I assume the max sponsorship in market for our size to be 10M per year. Our wonga deal is 24M for 5 years so I assume it to be 5M. So assuming 1M for other advertising we get, the max loss in revenue is 4M. Very rough calculation though. We have to spend the telly money now or lose another 60m getting relegated. You don't need to pour over the books mate.

Just got a great idea for SKY's new marketing PL campaign. Don't bother with it be realistic.

'Okay, we'll start with something simple. Breathe in..' *Cutscene*

For a billionaire he's pretty dim. Another one in the long line of one idea and luck/timing mob. Doesn't understand the club or football and probably regretted getting involved way back when the KK crisis broke. What is clear though is that his ego took over...Just couldn't put up with Rafa and his excellent relationships with the press and most fans. This is an owner bites dog scenario.

Before I go full Parky on this it was all Chelsea a couple of weeks ago and how Conte was at war with Abramovich,

Only remember him for West Ham when he looked a box to box type. God only knows what the fuck we've signed. He had half a good season under Jabba.

This Rafa is moaning is a faux narrative delivered on a plate for the numpties to discuss. We shouldn't even give it any credence whatsoever. You get back into the most lucrative league on the planet and then don't make sure you don't lose your place in it again. Ashley is actually costing himself money with this stance.

Because, as much as I love Rafa to bits, he's allowed to be criticised sometimes. Did you read what I said at all? It's obviously Ashley's fault at the heart of it, but you can't tell me morale amongst fans (and probably players) would be this bad had we not been fed leaks all summer? <b>A</b>he's never outwardly said the players aren't good enough though. <b>B</b>He isn't responsible for fan morale, and that makes no difference to performances a anyway. <b>C</b>His job is to get the best for NUFC and he's trying to do that A) Yes he has...he has repeatedly said that the players coming in aren't necessarily the players he wanted. B) Errr, I would say that's a pretty big part of his job. C) No doubt he's trying to do what is right...I just happen to disagree with his overly negative stance/leaks. I'll repeat, I love Rafa and think for the most part he's doing to best job he can...just not in this instance. So would you prefer if he pretends everythings great and that he's not been lied to? Yes, absolutely. I'd prefer he dealt with issues in house and didn't make them public knowledge, which only results in ammunition for the press and a drop in fan morale. Come on man. It's not rocket science. Not sure why you keep thinking that people don't understand what you're saying. It's that you're saying it that people can't understand. You'd basically rather not know that s*** is going on behind the scenes and be blissfully unaware that there are still serious problems. Naturally some people think that that's a bit odd. People clearly don't understand what I'm saying because I'm having to repeat myself. I personally think it's odd to want to know / expect to know the ins and outs of disagreements that would normally be kept behind closed doors in any other football club or business, especially when your desire to know that information is achieving absolutely f*** all of note, other than driving everyone insane. They're not disagreements though, this is Ashley lying again. Lying to us, lying to Rafa, just as he has done time and time again in the past. If you'd rather be blissfully unaware then godspeed, but IF there are problems that affect the fans and the fans are being mislead and lied to, then they should absolutely know, yes. Why you'd prefer to buy into or emotionally invest in lies makes no sense. I completely get that viewpoint, but don't necessarily share it. What exactly has been achieved by all of this coming out in the press? I guess not knowing Ashley like we do he was trying to loosen the purse strings. Afaik they've only met once and talked on the phone once...I mean doesn't that seem rather strange? I suppose in his defence he has been spending a lot of time convincing people that SD warehouse wasn't being run under Victorian conditions.

How many people read that stuff on there? Was thinking of signing up and laying down some full spectrum dominance.

The beatings aren't so bad just that he makes you drink 15 pints first.

I've been trying to ease up on the doom a bit.

I can't see us spending the 25m plus for a front line striker at this stage.

No.10 is the one position where you have to pay decent money. He's probably tried a few but he hasn't had the financial backing.

That PR bloke would have set that up and then convinced Mike it was the way to go. Pressure was building due to Rafa's excellent relationship with fans and press.

They are just going through the motions to mislead Rafa. Playbook. Ashley.

3rd relegation beckons. Just not enough quality in this squad. Can't see where the 8 home wins are coming from.

Ritchie looks very average in the PL.

Murphy to score.