Wallace

Remy is going to be their excuse for lack of transfer activity in the Summer. It will be a case of they were waiting for his decision before deciding to move on to other targets by which time it will be too late to get them over the line.

http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/sport/11039090._Why_doesn_t_Mike_Ashley_sell_Newcastle_United___Here_s_one_compelling_reason____/?ref=var_0 "Why doesn't Mike Ashley sell Newcastle United?" Here's one compelling reason.... 7:00am Thursday 27th February 2014 in Sport The Northern Echo The key issue of advertising at St James' Park was discussed at a fans' forum involving senior Newcastle United officials this week. And as Chief Sports Writer Scott Wilson explains, the subject gets to the very heart of Mike Ashley's continued ownership of the club “WHY doesn’t Mike Ashley sell Newcastle United?” It’s a commonly-asked question, and one that until now has been difficult to answer definitively. In many respects, it’s easy to see why the Magpies might provide a massive headache for the hugely-successful sportswear magnate, whose attempts to guard his privacy and maintain a low individual profile have been undermined by his controversial ownership of the club. Does he really need to have his name dragged through the gutter whenever Newcastle’s perceived lack of ambition is discussed? Can he derive any enjoyment at all from having to sit at matches with his minders close by? And might he not have better uses for the £300m or so that he has tied up in the club? All of those are powerful negatives to set against his continued ownership of the Magpies, yet there is one key positive that appears to conclusively override them, and for the first time, the minutes of a fans’ forum held in St James’ Park’s Sir Bobby Robson Suite on Monday provided an insight into Ashley's major motivation for retaining sole ownership of Newcastle United. Advertising. Free, or at least cash-neutral, advertising that enables Ashley to spread the Sports Direct branding message on a truly worldwide scale. Glance around St James’ Park on a match day, and you do not have to be a marketing genius to deduce that Newcastle are effectively a glorified billboard for Sports Direct. The electronic advertising hoardings are beamed in front of a global television audience of around 4.7bn. That’s a lot of potential customers looking to buy sportswear. Of course advertising in football is nothing new, but what makes it such a controversial topic at Newcastle is that, as the owner of the club, Ashley is perfectly entitled to award himself the advertising space for nothing. Or at least for a sum that has never been publicly disclosed. Instead of selling it off to the highest bidder in order to increase revenue for Newcastle United, Sports Direct exert a near monopoly over the advertising space. As a result, Ashley’s main business enjoys a prominence and exposure, in a market perfectly tailored to its needs, which would be hard to replicate in any sphere other than Premier League football. The issue was discussed at this week’s forum, with the club effectively conceding for the first time that it views the arrangement as good value for money given the investment Ashley has made in the form of an interest-free loan, and the previous funds he has committed in order to wipe out historic debt that was necessitating significant interest payments each year. The exchange went as follows: Steve Cole (Supporters’ branch representative): “What is the saving that Sports Direct makes on advertising around the stadium?” Club response: The club suggested that while it is always proactively looking to attract new commercial partners and to sell that advertising space, in the current climate, it could not command a sum for that space anywhere close to the £129m invested into the club interest free by the owner.” Andrew McClay (Members’ representative): “Can the commercial value of that advertising not come off the debt that the club owes the owner?” Club response: The board explained that the owner’s position is clear, and that the club is not attempting to hide it. To add context, it was explained that the club’s debt cost £8m in interest alone every year before Mike Ashley purchased the club.” So there you have it. In a nutshell, Newcastle regard the ongoing advertising agreement with Sports Direct as a justified trade-off for Ashley's continued financial support in the form of an interest-free loan, which in theory could be called in at any minute. It's a mutually beneficial relationship. Newcastle get financial stability, as reflected in the latest set of accounts released on Monday which displayed a £9.9m profit after tax; Ashley gets the chance to promote his business interests at way below the market rate. Given that he owns the club lock, stock and barrel, he's perfectly entitled to do as he likes, and while some might bemoan the lack of investment in the playing squad in recent years, particularly in light of the recent £20m sale of Yohan Cabaye, stability is not to be sniffed at given the extent of the financial mess that was bequeathed by the previous regime. Yet Newcastle's argument that the current arrangement is a win-win situation is undermined by their own comments. In a statement released alongside this week's accounts, the Newcastle board said: “Ultimately, the income the club generates - particularly, given the restrictions of the Premier League Financial Fair Play rules, from matchday, commercial i.e. non-TV income - will directly impact on the strength and quality on the pitch.” Financial Fair Play (FFP) regulations mean a club's commercial revenues effectively dictate their ability to spend money on transfer fees and wages, yet in Newcastle's case, one of the biggest commercial revenue streams available – match-day advertising – is effectively off limits. By failing to sell at the market price, Ashley is handicapping his own club's ability to compete with its Premier League rivals. And as the full effect of the FFP regulations begin to take force, that can only achieve the self-defeating result of making it more and more difficult for Newcastle to achieve the board's minimum ambition of finishing in the top ten. In the short term, it is easy to see why Ashley believes his current arrangement makes financial sense. And once that is concluded, it is equally easy to see why he regards Newcastle United as an asset worth retaining. But the sums only work if a minimum level of success is achieved on the pitch. And whichever way you look at it, that would surely be easier if advertising revenue was increased.

Apparently NUFC accounts are due to be released early this week.

As much as I want Pardew gone, I am not too concerned about him still being manager at this stage. However that is based (entirely unrealistically I know) on Ashley adopting the "correct" approach to appointing a new manager. If Ashley is planning to sell up any time soon, it would make sense for him to leave the decision to the next owner and to let them incur the pay-off. If he is planning to stay then it makes sense to appoint a DoF first and then to jointly decide the criteria for a new manager before looking to see who is available and of course there might be better choices available at the end of the season. If the "right" man is available now, then it would make more sense to get him in ASAP so the players get to know him and hopefully it will encourage a few that there are better days ahead. Needless to say I have no faith that the right approach will be adopted and it will be more a case of Ashley throwing the names of his mates into a hat and picking out the winner.

Because we will need so many players in the Summer, I thought they would have realised from last season that players need time to get used to the league and it would have been a good opportunity to integrate a couple in the remaining games so they are ready for next Summer. If there is as big an overhaul as they are implying, regardless of the quality of the player, we could struggle purely because there will be too many players trying to adjust to a new country and a new league (assuming of course that we recruit only foreigners as usual).

So Pardew does his rallying call for the crowd to be supportive and if they start to get agitated, there's Sunday excuse for him.

The other downside to all this is that those players they think they might sign may well have second thoughts now. They could probably have got Grenier and Cabella in January but now other clubs are interested in them and they will see our better players wanting out. Grenier has the same agent as Remy so they will know exactly what is going on. At this rate, it won't be 6 or 7 players we need, it will 10+ and how on earth will the club cope with that with the way they conduct their transfer business. They will have to get a move on because if they leave it late (and the World Cup will mean a lot of business will be done late in the window), we will barely be able to put out a team for the opening game of the season.

He's been injured for a while.

Daily Mail were banned for a while too.

Before the game Barcelona were supposed to be unhappy that the ref was from Sweden as he would be more sympathetic to the English game!

One of Pardew's biggest failings has been his inability to improve players. If the club's policy is to buy cheap and sell high, then they are struggling with that. I would have thought Ashley would have serious concerns about the lack of development in the talented players we have. Ben Arfa was supposed to be the "crown jewels" and now people are saying we would be lucky to get £5m for him when the club would have been expecting £20m+. Several other players have not kicked on as expected e.g. Santon, Sissoko, MYM and Cisse. OK the exception was Cabaye but last season, he didn't look like a £20m player. When Ashley has reduced the club's potential for increasing revenue to just the TV money and player sales, he has a major problem if one of those areas is not working. I could imagine that he is looking to sell at least one player for a big profit each year to fund transfers and there's only been Carroll so far and now Cabaye. If the players are genuinely disillusioned with Pardew and there were also rumours of that being the case last season as well, Ashley will need to act.

I think the journalist involved is a Newcastle fan and I am pretty certain he used to work on one of the local papers back in the day.

http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2014/feb/15/ravel-morrison-west-ham-united-waste Fat Sam in dodgy as f*** shocker Nolan got Carroll and Forster signed up to Curtis at Newcastle. It does sound rather dodgy.

If that Express story is true then it is only a matter of time as we are probably going to lose a fair proportion of the remaining games. One win against Villa would only be delaying the inevitable.

And if the club don't do anything quickly to show some ambition, I can imagine Krul and Debuchy going. There have also been rumours about clubs being interested in Tiote and the return to Italy stories for Santon never go away. I think they are going to have no choice but to buy some players but whether they are what we need and of a good enough standard is another matter.

Kind of feels like Pardew brings Ben Arfa on in games so that he can use him as a scapegoat.

I'd be happy with him as DoF although if he is holding out for the manager's job as that article suggests, it would mean that the manager would always be in an uncomfortable position (I am of the opinion that it is only a matter of time before Pardew is gone). I think his coaching philosophy and experience would be good for the academy but I would have strong reservations about him as manager. But why can't we look beyond anyone who has a connection with either Spurs or Chelsea.

Blimey even Wigan are supposed to have 2000 fans at Cardiff according to the radio.

I hope that if Ashley is not planning to sell up anytime soon that he is looking to employ a DoF ASAP and a proper one - not a mate. I recall that when he first came to the club that there was a lot of talk about him knowing David Dein. I hope that is true and that he talks to someone like that to get advice on suitable candidates (wishful thinking I know). I think once a DoF is in place they can then get a move on in replacing Pardew as that would be the DoF's role. That way, we may get a proper manager for a change rather than a friend of a friend which is what he has mostly done so far.

Rumours of gambling debts although he has denied them.

Apparently the increase in hits on SD's website on the day he changed the stadium name was huge.

The Journal was arguing the case for Pardew to go in this morning's paper. Saying that he has not been getting criticism because of Ashley etc but that it was time to look at the manager's shortcomings and the fact that talented players are regressing under his management. Don't think the article is online yet.

That night Keegan came back - the town was brilliant.

I've heard before that Ashley was not impressed that we failed to get into the Champions League that season after buying Cisse.

Thought "Rebel Rebel" would be a good song for Remy but I guess there's not much point now.