Mike Ashley confirms he wants to sell NUFC - see OP for full statement

[tmonkey]

It was supposed to be Jimenez that was in Dubai yesterday, so Ashley also now being there could mean something is developing.

 

Smells like they've had this all rigged up from the off to me or at least courted interest before all this blew up. I shall book a flight there tomorrow and try and sell them something, must be a piece of piss.

 

To be honest though, if they do sell to a rich investor who pumps money into the club, we're still far better off than heading into administration under Shepherd with Big Sam at the helm.

 

It just seems strange how yesterday Ashley had no intentions of selling, then 24 hours later he's having talks with some Arabs or whoever. We should forget about signing Spanish based players which seem to take months to conclude, shop in Arab land where deals take 24 hours or less.

 

The club has been for sale all along, now he's cashing in his chips.

 

But where's the downside? The resignation of a former great manager who may have had no long term future in the game anyway is nothing if the price for that is the club's existence, or at the very least, financial stability.

 

Had Ashley not taken over, we might have finished the season with Big Sam still in charge. We could have been relegated under that pathetic excuse for a manager. And ignoring the manager, the awful team, the awful performances, there would probably have been nothing to spend at all. We'd have had to sell our good players and replace them with cheap ones - a net spend of zero is alot better than a net spend of minus 15 million.

 

Surely you must be able to put two and two together, and realise that Sir John Hall was absolutely desperate to sell his shares for a reason? The summer we appointed Big Sam must have been the summer that all the chickens came home to roost. The previous owners did a runner because the cash had dried up, all spent on a team of s***, highly overpaid players and the club having a reputation to match that mediocrity, meaning no established good manager or players wanting to come here any time soon. We have no idea if anyone else would have bought the club that year - from the looks of it, only someone impulsive and foolish enough to buy a club out of blind love for the game, someone who had recently made a fortune and therefore able to take a risk without really thinking it through, only someone like that might have even considered buying the club in the state that it was in.

 

We should be thankful to Ashley for what he's done overall. Well, at this point in time anyway - theres still both the time and opportunity for him to leave us in the lurch. I hope he doesn't, and if he doesn't, then the blot of stabbing Keegan in the back is a minor one compared to securing the future of the club.

[Guest optimistic nit]

It was supposed to be Jimenez that was in Dubai yesterday, so Ashley also now being there could mean something is developing.

 

Smells like they've had this all rigged up from the off to me or at least courted interest before all this blew up. I shall book a flight there tomorrow and try and sell them something, must be a piece of piss.

 

To be honest though, if they do sell to a rich investor who pumps money into the club, we're still far better off than heading into administration under Shepherd with Big Sam at the helm.

 

It just seems strange how yesterday Ashley had no intentions of selling, then 24 hours later he's having talks with some Arabs or whoever. We should forget about signing Spanish based players which seem to take months to conclude, shop in Arab land where deals take 24 hours or less.

 

The club has been for sale all along, now he's cashing in his chips.

 

Seeing as though we have all eaten a little bit of humble pie with the fact the papers appear to have been correct about whats been going on behind the scenes, it is therefore hard to ignore the constant stories over the past few months about us being for sale.

 

I said it before but that statement wasnt written Saturday night after the furore at the match. Thats been written and prepared for days

 

 

 

just because the papers we're right about that its no indication that they were right about the club being up for sale. Louise Taylor has been telling us the club is for sale ALL summer, as soon as this thing happened, she started saying ashley wont sell. if this doesn't show you what the papers are like nothing will. just because they have struck lucky here, it doesn't mean they can be trusted in general, some of the time the papers will strike lucky, but you cant use these rare occasions to justify the majority of times they are wrong.

[tmonkey]

It was supposed to be Jimenez that was in Dubai yesterday, so Ashley also now being there could mean something is developing.

 

Smells like they've had this all rigged up from the off to me or at least courted interest before all this blew up. I shall book a flight there tomorrow and try and sell them something, must be a piece of piss.

 

To be honest though, if they do sell to a rich investor who pumps money into the club, we're still far better off than heading into administration under Shepherd with Big Sam at the helm.

 

It just seems strange how yesterday Ashley had no intentions of selling, then 24 hours later he's having talks with some Arabs or whoever. We should forget about signing Spanish based players which seem to take months to conclude, shop in Arab land where deals take 24 hours or less.

 

The club has been for sale all along, now he's cashing in his chips.

 

Seeing as though we have all eaten a little bit of humble pie with the fact the papers appear to have been correct about whats been going on behind the scenes, it is therefore hard to ignore the constant stories over the past few months about us being for sale.

 

I said it before but that statement wasnt written Saturday night after the furore at the match. Thats been written and prepared for days

 

 

 

just because the papers we're right about that its no indication that they were right about the club being up for sale. Louise Taylor has been telling us the club is for sale ALL summer, as soon as this thing happened, she started saying ashley wont sell. if this doesn't show you what the papers are like nothing will. just because they have struck lucky here, it doesn't mean they can be trusted in general, some of the time the papers will strike lucky, but you cant use these rare occasions to justify the majority of times they are wrong.

 

In defence of HTT:

 

1) The papers were running that story without any apparent reason. It seemed very strange that they would even run with such a story - they've done nothing like that with Villa for example (AFAIK), and I dont buy the notion that they're merely out to "get us" - they're out to sell papers, and they'll print these rumours whenever they can. Alot of these journalists have links and sources that might know something, and likewise if we flip your arguement on it's head, just because they get things wrong alot of the time doesn't mean they don't have that inside information. Given how easy it is for players to turn a club down, or a club to turn another club's bid down, we have no idea what stories or rumours have any truth in them. Given that it was so odd that they were constantly running with this rumour at a specific point in time, odd from the point of view that there was no logical reason for them running the story that such a rich man buying the club for enjoyment would contemplate selling so soon, I think there may have been good inside knowledge behind those stories. On the face of it, Ashley had realised he wouldnt be able to fund the club's rise to the top four at some point prior to Keegan's resignation, and had been looking for either a buyer and/or an investor.

 

2) Ashley comes across as completely naive. He's a billionaire, but that doesn't mean he's a Bill Gates type rich man. He's made his money by implementing a retail concept that has been done elsewhere, but not in this country with sports clothes. That doesn't make him a genius or someone in complete control of every single aspect of his business. Hence, when the Dubai group were looking to purchase NUFC, he might just have been doing what he was reported to have done - been partying, been too busy to receive the phonecalls, unaware that the Dubai group would switch targets thinking he could negotiate at a later date, etc etc.

 

Hence, I dont think that failure of the group that bought City is concrete proof that Ashley had no intention of selling prior to Keegan's resignation.

[Robster]

 

just because the papers we're right about that its no indication that they were right about the club being up for sale. Louise Taylor has been telling us the club is for sale ALL summer, as soon as this thing happened, she started saying ashley wont sell. if this doesn't show you what the papers are like nothing will. just because they have struck lucky here, it doesn't mean they can be trusted in general, some of the time the papers will strike lucky, but you cant use these rare occasions to justify the majority of times they are wrong.

 

Ordinarily, if stories are not linked, I would probably agree. In this case though, this is just 1 huge fucked up mess and my guess would be that if they have part of the story apparently correct, they have the whole lot.

 

For me, the length of that statement convinced me the sale of the club has been an intention for some time - at best since Keegan walked out.

 

Otherwise, Ashley has made a very quick and very rash decision - which is equally as annoying as I would have hoped for better from him.

[Guest optimistic nit]

 

just because the papers we're right about that its no indication that they were right about the club being up for sale. Louise Taylor has been telling us the club is for sale ALL summer, as soon as this thing happened, she started saying ashley wont sell. if this doesn't show you what the papers are like nothing will. just because they have struck lucky here, it doesn't mean they can be trusted in general, some of the time the papers will strike lucky, but you cant use these rare occasions to justify the majority of times they are wrong.

 

Ordinarily, if stories are not linked, I would probably agree. In this case though, this is just 1 huge fucked up mess and my guess would be that if they have part of the story apparently correct, they have the whole lot.

 

For me, the length of that statement convinced me the sale of the club has been an intention for some time - at best since Keegan walked out.

 

Otherwise, Ashley has made a very quick and very rash decision - which is equally as annoying as I would have hoped for better from him.

 

but why would he reject the arab consortium if he was trying to sell the club?

[The Prophet]

 

just because the papers we're right about that its no indication that they were right about the club being up for sale. Louise Taylor has been telling us the club is for sale ALL summer, as soon as this thing happened, she started saying ashley wont sell. if this doesn't show you what the papers are like nothing will. just because they have struck lucky here, it doesn't mean they can be trusted in general, some of the time the papers will strike lucky, but you cant use these rare occasions to justify the majority of times they are wrong.

 

Ordinarily, if stories are not linked, I would probably agree. In this case though, this is just 1 huge f***ed up mess and my guess would be that if they have part of the story apparently correct, they have the whole lot.

 

For me, the length of that statement convinced me the sale of the club has been an intention for some time - at best since Keegan walked out.

 

Otherwise, Ashley has made a very quick and very rash decision - which is equally as annoying as I would have hoped for better from him.

 

but why would he reject the arab consortium if he was trying to sell the club?

 

He didn't reject the arab consortium. The consortium claimed Man City were simply "more receptive" when approached.

[Guest optimistic nit]

It was supposed to be Jimenez that was in Dubai yesterday, so Ashley also now being there could mean something is developing.

 

Smells like they've had this all rigged up from the off to me or at least courted interest before all this blew up. I shall book a flight there tomorrow and try and sell them something, must be a piece of piss.

 

To be honest though, if they do sell to a rich investor who pumps money into the club, we're still far better off than heading into administration under Shepherd with Big Sam at the helm.

 

It just seems strange how yesterday Ashley had no intentions of selling, then 24 hours later he's having talks with some Arabs or whoever. We should forget about signing Spanish based players which seem to take months to conclude, shop in Arab land where deals take 24 hours or less.

 

The club has been for sale all along, now he's cashing in his chips.

 

Seeing as though we have all eaten a little bit of humble pie with the fact the papers appear to have been correct about whats been going on behind the scenes, it is therefore hard to ignore the constant stories over the past few months about us being for sale.

 

I said it before but that statement wasnt written Saturday night after the furore at the match. Thats been written and prepared for days

 

 

 

just because the papers we're right about that its no indication that they were right about the club being up for sale. Louise Taylor has been telling us the club is for sale ALL summer, as soon as this thing happened, she started saying ashley wont sell. if this doesn't show you what the papers are like nothing will. just because they have struck lucky here, it doesn't mean they can be trusted in general, some of the time the papers will strike lucky, but you cant use these rare occasions to justify the majority of times they are wrong.

 

In defence of HTT:

 

1) The papers were running that story without any apparent reason. It seemed very strange that they would even run with such a story - they've done nothing like that with Villa for example (AFAIK), and I dont buy the notion that they're merely out to "get us" - they're out to sell papers, and they'll print these rumours whenever they can. Alot of these journalists have links and sources that might know something, and likewise if we flip your arguement on it's head, just because they get things wrong alot of the time doesn't mean they don't have that inside information. Given how easy it is for players to turn a club down, or a club to turn another club's bid down, we have no idea what stories or rumours have any truth in them. Given that it was so odd that they were constantly running with this rumour at a specific point in time, odd from the point of view that there was no logical reason for them running the story that such a rich man buying the club for enjoyment would contemplate selling so soon, I think there may have been good inside knowledge behind those stories. On the face of it, Ashley had realised he wouldnt be able to fund the club's rise to the top four at some point prior to Keegan's resignation, and had been looking for either a buyer and/or an investor.

 

2) Ashley comes across as completely naive. He's a billionaire, but that doesn't mean he's a Bill Gates type rich man. He's made his money by implementing a retail concept that has been done elsewhere, but not in this country with sports clothes. That doesn't make him a genius or someone in complete control of every single aspect of his business. Hence, when the Dubai group were looking to purchase NUFC, he might just have been doing what he was reported to have done - been partying, been too busy to receive the phonecalls, unaware that the Dubai group would switch targets thinking he could negotiate at a later date, etc etc.

 

Hence, I dont think that failure of the group that bought City is concrete proof that Ashley had no intention of selling prior to Keegan's resignation.

 

 

A) aye but ashley trying to sell conflicts with every other piece of evidence that we have about his intentions. thats why i dont believe it, not because it was printed in the papers. why would he focus his rebuilding on the youth team, buying young talent and improving the academy if he was looking to sell? surely he would have tried to get more proven players to imrpove the team if that was the case.

 

B) i suppose that is possible, but very unlikely in my opinion, and the city group could have bought both us and citeh, or so they said today. they were trying to buy both of us.

[Guest optimistic nit]

 

just because the papers we're right about that its no indication that they were right about the club being up for sale. Louise Taylor has been telling us the club is for sale ALL summer, as soon as this thing happened, she started saying ashley wont sell. if this doesn't show you what the papers are like nothing will. just because they have struck lucky here, it doesn't mean they can be trusted in general, some of the time the papers will strike lucky, but you cant use these rare occasions to justify the majority of times they are wrong.

 

Ordinarily, if stories are not linked, I would probably agree. In this case though, this is just 1 huge f***ed up mess and my guess would be that if they have part of the story apparently correct, they have the whole lot.

 

For me, the length of that statement convinced me the sale of the club has been an intention for some time - at best since Keegan walked out.

 

Otherwise, Ashley has made a very quick and very rash decision - which is equally as annoying as I would have hoped for better from him.

 

but why would he reject the arab consortium if he was trying to sell the club?

 

He didn't reject the arab consortium. The consortium claimed Man City were simply "more receptive" when approached.

 

true, but surely ashley trying to sell the club would be very receptive. I just think that ashley trying to sell to make a quick buck is against everything we've seen so far, and the pronouncement that nobody makes money from football, there are easier ways to make money.

[Bad Mongo]

A) aye but ashley trying to sell conflicts with every other piece of evidence that we have about his intentions. thats why i dont believe it, not because it was printed in the papers. why would he focus his rebuilding on the youth team, buying young talent and improving the academy if he was looking to sell? surely he would have tried to get more proven players to imrpove the team if that was the case.

 

Just what exactly is the massive work he had put into the academy?

[Guest optimistic nit]

A) aye but ashley trying to sell conflicts with every other piece of evidence that we have about his intentions. thats why i dont believe it, not because it was printed in the papers. why would he focus his rebuilding on the youth team, buying young talent and improving the academy if he was looking to sell? surely he would have tried to get more proven players to imrpove the team if that was the case.

 

Just what exactly is the massive work he had put into the academy?

 

he's hired a lot more people to scout around for youth talent such as (apparently) dennis wise.

 

we've signed ben tozer, fabio zamblera, ole soljeberg, and one more in january.

 

then there's aaron spear and those 3 leeds lads this window. why would he do all this if he was after a qucik buck? we wont be seeing these guys for 3-4 years.

[The Prophet]

 

just because the papers we're right about that its no indication that they were right about the club being up for sale. Louise Taylor has been telling us the club is for sale ALL summer, as soon as this thing happened, she started saying ashley wont sell. if this doesn't show you what the papers are like nothing will. just because they have struck lucky here, it doesn't mean they can be trusted in general, some of the time the papers will strike lucky, but you cant use these rare occasions to justify the majority of times they are wrong.

 

Ordinarily, if stories are not linked, I would probably agree. In this case though, this is just 1 huge f***ed up mess and my guess would be that if they have part of the story apparently correct, they have the whole lot.

 

For me, the length of that statement convinced me the sale of the club has been an intention for some time - at best since Keegan walked out.

 

Otherwise, Ashley has made a very quick and very rash decision - which is equally as annoying as I would have hoped for better from him.

 

but why would he reject the arab consortium if he was trying to sell the club?

 

He didn't reject the arab consortium. The consortium claimed Man City were simply "more receptive" when approached.

 

true, but surely ashley trying to sell the club would be very receptive. I just think that ashley trying to sell to make a quick buck is against everything we've seen so far, and the pronouncement that nobody makes money from football, there are easier ways to make money.

 

If we are to believe what these buisness analysists claim on SSN Ashley wants £300-£400 million for the club.

 

I wouldn't exactly call that "receptive" especially when you consider Man City was snapped up for around the £200 million mark. It also suggests Ashley isn't looking for a quick buck and is willing to wait it out for the right price.

 

I don't think Ashley bought the club with the intention to instantly sell it either. I think he's bought the club with the intention to enjoy himself and due to his inexperience in football executed his plans in a fashion where he ended up with two opposing parties trying to take the it in the right direction. As a result one party lost out, the fans over-rected and this made Ashley's position untenable.

[johnnypd]

A) aye but ashley trying to sell conflicts with every other piece of evidence that we have about his intentions. thats why i dont believe it, not because it was printed in the papers. why would he focus his rebuilding on the youth team, buying young talent and improving the academy if he was looking to sell? surely he would have tried to get more proven players to imrpove the team if that was the case.

 

Just what exactly is the massive work he had put into the academy?

 

he's hired a lot more people to scout around for youth talent such as (apparently) dennis wise.

 

we've signed ben tozer, fabio zamblera, ole soljeberg, and one more in january.

 

then there's aaron spear and those 3 leeds lads this window. why would he do all this if he was after a qucik buck? we wont be seeing these guys for 3-4 years.

 

we wont be seeing the leeds lads at all, since they never signed for us. in fact two of them are already in leeds first team so missed the boat there.

 

and tozer, kadar ngo baheng came in before wise was appointed and it was allardyce who found them, he'd wanted kadar when he was at Bolton.

 

other than that i'd broadly agree with you. i think ashley was in for the medium term and developing the club's own talent was a means to maintain a good team on the cheap and a means to generate profit when you sell them on.

[Bad Mongo]

I agree that the scouting network seems a lot better now, but then again it was a shambles after Souness and Roeder. I'm just not sure the actual investment in player development, and even players, is all that. We did bring in talented players from around the world under Shepherd as well, like Tim Krul. I'm not sure the improvement is all that radical.

[Guest optimistic nit]

A) aye but ashley trying to sell conflicts with every other piece of evidence that we have about his intentions. thats why i dont believe it, not because it was printed in the papers. why would he focus his rebuilding on the youth team, buying young talent and improving the academy if he was looking to sell? surely he would have tried to get more proven players to imrpove the team if that was the case.

 

Just what exactly is the massive work he had put into the academy?

 

he's hired a lot more people to scout around for youth talent such as (apparently) dennis wise.

 

we've signed ben tozer, fabio zamblera, ole soljeberg, and one more in january.

 

then there's aaron spear and those 3 leeds lads this window. why would he do all this if he was after a qucik buck? we wont be seeing these guys for 3-4 years.

 

we wont be seeing the leeds lads at all, since they never signed for us. in fact two of them are already in leeds first team so missed the boat there.

 

and tozer, kadar ngo baheng came in before wise was appointed and it was allardyce who found them, he'd wanted kadar when he was at Bolton.

 

i never mentioned baheng, as he was a shepheard signing iirc. do you think we have not been focusing on the academy then, and if so why? what strategy have we been adopting, because otherwise you're just being pedantic, and if it allardyce wanted both tozer and kadar before, why did he wait until january? i'm asking a question here, this isn't retorical.

[Robster]

Team Manager and No 1 hero to Newcastle Utd fans walks out - hear nothing for days

A large number of fans chant for him to go and some banners are displayed around the ground - Letter of intention to sell is published 24 hours later

 

Something about his reaction time during those 2 incidents dont sit right with me.

 

 

[Guest optimistic nit]

I agree that the scouting network seems a lot better now, but then again it was a shambles after Souness and Roeder. I'm just not sure the actual investment in player development, and even players, is all that. We did bring in talented players from around the world under Shepherd as well, like Tim Krul. I'm not sure the improvement is all that radical.

 

 

its not whether they've improved our scouting network, but the motivations behind it. it seemed to be the case that we were looking to try and find good young players, to do an arsenal so to speak, and surely if we were taking that long term approach ashley wasn't looking to sell the club.

[Bad Mongo]

Yes, but I believe the statement of intention to be a bluff. Hence the Spurs-like way of doing transfers.

[Carlito]

Team Manager and No 1 hero to Newcastle Utd fans walks out - hear nothing for days

A large number of fans chant for him to go and some banners are displayed around the ground - Letter of intention to sell is published 24 hours later

 

Something about his reaction time during those 2 incidents dont sit right with me.

 

 

 

Probably because he was told he'd be attacked which to be fair is embarrassing as fuck on us lot.

[TRon]

Yes, but I believe the statement of intention to be a bluff. Hence the Spurs-like way of doing transfers.

 

What...shifting over-valued strikers like Keane and complete cunts like Berbatov for £50m? What was wrong with either of those deals, could you explain?

 

 

[Robster]

Team Manager and No 1 hero to Newcastle Utd fans walks out - hear nothing for days

A large number of fans chant for him to go and some banners are displayed around the ground - Letter of intention to sell is published 24 hours later

 

Something about his reaction time during those 2 incidents dont sit right with me.

 

 

 

Probably because he was told he'd be attacked which to be fair is embarrassing as fuck on us lot.

 

I agree 100%.

 

But he would have been warned of that before Saturday morning. Without another home game for a couple of weeks, he could have taken a few days to consider his options. Its just too neat and tidy for me.

Miles off I know but I wonder if Llambias' little smiles were because he knew the fans reaction was just what they were expecting. I know thats completely speculative bollocks but like I said, relatively, both incidents were equally as dramatic yet his reaction times were markedly different

[Bad Mongo]

What...shifting over-valued strikers like Keane and complete cunts like Berbatov for £50m? What was wrong with either of those deals, could you explain?

 

 

It makes a lot of sense if you own the club and want to make money, but they are at the bottom of the table with one point after losing to Middlesbrough, Sunderland and Villa for a reason. They always buy one or two glamour signings while selling their most highly valued players to better teams, and they never end up better for it.

[Guest]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bx7X4cgh3qI

 

What the f*ck.

[Ronaldo]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bx7X4cgh3qI

 

What the f*ck.

 

hahahahahahaha

 

that video has been taken waaaaaaaay to far

[Guest SpinTheBlackCircle]

Yes, but I believe the statement of intention to be a bluff. Hence the Spurs-like way of doing transfers.

 

What...shifting over-valued strikers like Keane and complete c***s like Berbatov for £50m? What was wrong with either of those deals, could you explain?

 

 

 

Roman Pavljutsjenko

[Mowen]

It was supposed to be Jimenez that was in Dubai yesterday, so Ashley also now being there could mean something is developing.

 

Smells like they've had this all rigged up from the off to me or at least courted interest before all this blew up. I shall book a flight there tomorrow and try and sell them something, must be a piece of piss.

 

To be honest though, if they do sell to a rich investor who pumps money into the club, we're still far better off than heading into administration under Shepherd with Big Sam at the helm.

 

It just seems strange how yesterday Ashley had no intentions of selling, then 24 hours later he's having talks with some Arabs or whoever. We should forget about signing Spanish based players which seem to take months to conclude, shop in Arab land where deals take 24 hours or less.

 

The club has been for sale all along, now he's cashing in his chips.

 

Hang on a second, weren't you saying a day or two ago that this was a huge victory for the fans, having Ashley out? Doesn't that somewhat contradict your new theory that it's been for sale all along?