Anil Ambani

[80]

Shepherd would have took us down, only we'd have stayed down unable to get rid of the debts he enforced on to the club. Basically we wouldn't be here right now, and were only here due to Ashley's money.

 

I could imagine Shepherd offering Owen £200kpw to stay and play in the Championship, he'd have seen it as a real coup to keep him on. That's the kind of mentality the tit end had, even though Ashley has done a bad job, especially on his relationship with the fans, i'd take him over previous any day of the week.

 

I haven't got much incentive to defend him, but I honestly believe he'd changed (in his own thick way) just before he left. He made statements to the effect that we needed to get on top of our finances and he saw appointing Allardyce as a part of the new approach - long term, developmental and low-budget. No comment as to what the future held, but I think Owen-type stuff was finished with him for the forseeable future.

[David28]

Shepherd would have took us down, only we'd have stayed down unable to get rid of the debts he enforced on to the club. Basically we wouldn't be here right now, and were only here due to Ashley's money.

I could imagine Shepherd offering Owen £200kpw to stay and play in the Championship, he'd have seen it as a real coup to keep him on. That's the kind of mentality the tit end had, even though Ashley has done a bad job, especially on his relationship with the fans, i'd take him over previous any day of the week.

 

This! Some tend to forget to ask themselves: What would have happened if MA did not buy the club? As Toon's T. mentions, its' likely that we without MA  still would have suffered relegation. That would have destroyed us since we wouldn't have had access to MA's money to keep us afloat.

 

As much as I hated Big Sam here - we had not been relegated as long as he would have been in charge.

[Punk77]

Shepherd would have took us down, only we'd have stayed down unable to get rid of the debts he enforced on to the club. Basically we wouldn't be here right now, and were only here due to Ashley's money.

 

I could imagine Shepherd offering Owen £200kpw to stay and play in the Championship, he'd have seen it as a real coup to keep him on. That's the kind of mentality the tit end had, even though Ashley has done a bad job, especially on his relationship with the fans, i'd take him over previous any day of the week.

 

I haven't got much incentive to defend him, but I honestly believe he'd changed (in his own thick way) just before he left. He made statements to the effect that we needed to get on top of our finances and he saw appointing Allardyce as a part of the new approach - long term, developmental and low-budget. No comment as to what the future held, but I think Owen-type stuff was finished with him for the forseeable future.

 

One might say that the only reason why FS said the buys ala owen were over, was because he had drained the club completely, The club had used sponsor money in advance and had the third highest wage budget in PL. We were economical FUBAR'ed. So his only option left was to say that he had changed strategy, hoping that this would save some of his reputation and entice some potential buyers. He said he would follow the brick by brick strategy, but the truth was that neither he or the club had no money to pursue it. So in reality, he was forced to just talk about a sustainable growth. Behind the scenes he however tried to offload the club as fast as possible, before the s*** hit the fan. Because if s*** had hit the fan before any purchase had been completed, every potential buyer would have vanished in thin air, leaving FS with a club nobody was willing to touch with an iron rod. Then the result would have been administration and FS losing all his money.

[Dave]

Shepherd would have took us down, only we'd have stayed down unable to get rid of the debts he enforced on to the club. Basically we wouldn't be here right now, and were only here due to Ashley's money.

I could imagine Shepherd offering Owen £200kpw to stay and play in the Championship, he'd have seen it as a real coup to keep him on. That's the kind of mentality the tit end had, even though Ashley has done a bad job, especially on his relationship with the fans, i'd take him over previous any day of the week.

 

This! Some tend to forget to ask themselves: What would have happened if MA did not buy the club? As Toon's T. mentions, its' likely that we without MA  still would have suffered relegation. That would have destroyed us since we wouldn't have had access to MA's money to keep us afloat.

 

As much as I hated Big Sam here - we had not been relegated as long as he would have been in charge.

 

Agree.

[RupertCommunicator]

TBH, Ashley is keeping us steady at the minute despite his unlikeable traits.  I wouldn't want us to become the plaything of an Indian owner with no emotional buy in.  At least Ashley's interest is kept by him trying to break even.

 

We are in a relationship of mutual convenience at the moment with Ashley.  If he manages to learn that he should be leaving the football side of things to the manager whilst managing the financial side himself, we could become a steady top 6 club whilst staying in the black.  This is my ultimate aim.

 

Indian owners has got 'massive risk' written all over it.

[David28]

TBH, Ashley is keeping us steady at the minute despite his unlikeable traits.  I wouldn't want us to become the plaything of an Indian owner with no emotional buy in.  At least Ashley's interest is kept by him trying to break even.

 

We are in a relationship of mutual convenience at the moment with Ashley.  If he manages to learn that he should be leaving the football side of things to the manager whilst managing the financial side himself, we could become a steady top 6 club whilst staying in the black.  This is my ultimate aim.

 

Indian owners has got 'massive risk' written all over it.

 

Is selling your very best striker on deadline day without a replacement not a risk?

[RupertCommunicator]

TBH, Ashley is keeping us steady at the minute despite his unlikeable traits.  I wouldn't want us to become the plaything of an Indian owner with no emotional buy in.  At least Ashley's interest is kept by him trying to break even.

 

We are in a relationship of mutual convenience at the moment with Ashley.  If he manages to learn that he should be leaving the football side of things to the manager whilst managing the financial side himself, we could become a steady top 6 club whilst staying in the black.  This is my ultimate aim.

 

Indian owners has got 'massive risk' written all over it.

 

Is selling your very best striker on deadline day without a replacement not a risk?

 

Not really when you're comfortable, 9 places above the relegation zone.  I'd have driven Carroll to Merseyside myself for £35 Million!  That's a blinding piece of business!  We can supplement our squad no end with that money!

[Dave]

Yeah, we can.

[David28]

TBH, Ashley is keeping us steady at the minute despite his unlikeable traits.  I wouldn't want us to become the plaything of an Indian owner with no emotional buy in.  At least Ashley's interest is kept by him trying to break even.

 

We are in a relationship of mutual convenience at the moment with Ashley.  If he manages to learn that he should be leaving the football side of things to the manager whilst managing the financial side himself, we could become a steady top 6 club whilst staying in the black.  This is my ultimate aim.

 

Indian owners has got 'massive risk' written all over it.

 

Is selling your very best striker on deadline day without a replacement not a risk?

 

Not really when you're comfortable, 9 places above the relegation zone.  I'd have driven Carroll to Merseyside myself for £35 Million!  That's a blinding piece of business!  We can supplement our squad no end with that money!

 

9 points is nothing with half the season still to go. I know that 35 million is very very good business - the thing was just that we did not sign a replacement.

 

Our squad was too small before the selling - we would have needed a few players in January instead we've sold one of our best.

 

That is taking a risk.

[RupertCommunicator]

TBH, Ashley is keeping us steady at the minute despite his unlikeable traits.  I wouldn't want us to become the plaything of an Indian owner with no emotional buy in.  At least Ashley's interest is kept by him trying to break even.

 

We are in a relationship of mutual convenience at the moment with Ashley.  If he manages to learn that he should be leaving the football side of things to the manager whilst managing the financial side himself, we could become a steady top 6 club whilst staying in the black.  This is my ultimate aim.

 

Indian owners has got 'massive risk' written all over it.

 

Is selling your very best striker on deadline day without a replacement not a risk?

 

Not really when you're comfortable, 9 places above the relegation zone.  I'd have driven Carroll to Merseyside myself for £35 Million!  That's a blinding piece of business!  We can supplement our squad no end with that money!

 

9 points is nothing with half the season still to go. I know that 35 million is very very good business - the thing was just that we did not sign a replacement.

 

Our squad was too small before the selling - we would have needed a few players in January instead we've sold one of our best.

 

That is taking a risk.

 

Bearing in mind Carroll is only just getting back to fitness now and there are only 8 games left, we wouldn't have had him anyway and there is absolutely no way we'd have got anything like 35 million for him in the summer.

[wormy]

TBH, Ashley is keeping us steady at the minute despite his unlikeable traits.  I wouldn't want us to become the plaything of an Indian owner with no emotional buy in.  At least Ashley's interest is kept by him trying to break even.

 

We are in a relationship of mutual convenience at the moment with Ashley.  If he manages to learn that he should be leaving the football side of things to the manager whilst managing the financial side himself, we could become a steady top 6 club whilst staying in the black.  This is my ultimate aim.

 

Indian owners has got 'massive risk' written all over it.

 

Is selling your very best striker on deadline day without a replacement not a risk?

 

Not really when you're comfortable, 9 places above the relegation zone.  I'd have driven Carroll to Merseyside myself for £35 Million!  That's a blinding piece of business!  We can supplement our squad no end with that money!

 

9 points is nothing with half the season still to go. I know that 35 million is very very good business - the thing was just that we did not sign a replacement.

 

Our squad was too small before the selling - we would have needed a few players in January instead we've sold one of our best.

 

That is taking a risk.

 

Bearing in mind Carroll is only just getting back to fitness now and there are only 8 games left, we wouldn't have had him anyway and there is absolutely no way we'd have got anything like 35 million for him in the summer.

 

And let's remember he said 9 places. Not 9 points. We're only 6 points above relegation.

[Matt]

I'd like whichever owner minimises the risk of me undertaking a 600-mile round trip to watch Leon Best and Peter Løvenkrands pissing about up front.

[BlueStar]

Ashley's cutbacks were by necessity of his self inflicted meltdown, not design. The fact one of his first signings was alan smith on hollywood wages should clear that up. There's no saying freddie wouldnt have tightened the belt as well if needs must, while not squandering premier league money, addidas money etc through utter (rather than moderate) stupidity.

[Tooj]

I'd like whichever owner minimises the risk of me undertaking a 600-mile round trip to watch Leon Best and Peter Løvenkrands pissing about up front.

 

You love seeing me though.

[Revolution Number 9]

Have to say, I can see how the long contracts for players, 10 year season ticket deals, clubs finances looking much better etc could possibly be construed as Mike getting ready to sell up. I'm not really expecting it to happen though. Not sure whether it would be a good thing or not.

[Skirge]

Shepherd would have took us down, only we'd have stayed down unable to get rid of the debts he enforced on to the club. Basically we wouldn't be here right now, and were only here due to Ashley's money.

I could imagine Shepherd offering Owen £200kpw to stay and play in the Championship, he'd have seen it as a real coup to keep him on. That's the kind of mentality the tit end had, even though Ashley has done a bad job, especially on his relationship with the fans, i'd take him over previous any day of the week.

 

This! Some tend to forget to ask themselves: What would have happened if MA did not buy the club? As Toon's T. mentions, its' likely that we without MA  still would have suffered relegation. That would have destroyed us since we wouldn't have had access to MA's money to keep us afloat.

 

As much as I hated Big Sam here - we had not been relegated as long as he would have been in charge.

 

Agree.

Agree too BUT I was chuffed to bits he was sacked and Keegan given the job, who also would have seen us nowhere near relegation.

[Guest Chubby Jason]

There will be a one sentence denial of this tomorrow no doubt.

[SEMTEX]

Even the most soulless of big money owner would be a massive improvement on the del boy wannabe we've got right now.

 

If I win the lottery six times, I'll buy the club and immediately bid for Ronaldinho and Ronaldo (Luis Nazario). Thats really what we need. Maybe I'd put a twelve million bid in for insomnia too. 

[Guest Chubby Jason]

Ashley has sucked the life out the club for me...I'd be tempted to say that anyone would be an improvement on him.

[David28]

Even the most soulless of big money owner would be a massive improvement on the del boy wannabe we've got right now.

 

If I win the lottery six times, I'll buy the club and immediately bid for Ronaldinho and Ronaldo (Luis Nazario). Thats really what we need. Maybe I'd put a twelve million bid in for insomnia too.  

 

I hope you won't win.

[quayside]

I think the club has always been for sale, it's simply a case of someone offering the right price. The biggest issue is what happens to the much discussed Ashley debt.

 

Anil clearly has some wealth behind him and he's a fan, which is fine. He also survived an assassination attempt which is decent experience for any Toon owner  . But, whether its him or someone else who comes in, nothing guarantees that a new owner won't start out trying to "do it his way" and we end up watching catastrophic decisions being made all over again. Judging from some of the owners who have pitched up in the Premier League in recent years Ashley isn't the only tit out there. But at least he's got some years of experience now and hard though it may be to believe, we could easily end up with someone worse.

[Tooj]

I think the club has always been for sale, it's simply a case of someone offering the right price. The biggest issue is what happens to the much discussed Ashley debt.

 

Anil clearly has some wealth behind him and he's a fan, which is fine. He also survived an assassination attempt which is decent experience for any Toon owner  . But, whether its him or someone else who comes in, nothing guarantees that a new owner won't start out trying to "do it his way" and we end up watching catastrophic decisions being made all over again. Judging from some of the owners who have pitched up in the Premier League in recent years Ashley isn't the only tit out there. But at least he's got some years of experience now and hard though it may be to believe, we could easily end up with someone worse.

 

 

[Teasy]

Probably nonsense but I'd be all for this.  This bloke seems to be in a different league to Ashley as a business man, and certainly is financially.

[Geordie Ahmed]

since when was ambani a fan?

[Matt]

I think the club has always been for sale, it's simply a case of someone offering the right price. The biggest issue is what happens to the much discussed Ashley debt.

 

That's really a very small issue. It ceases to exist.