After the Ashley statement how do you feel?

[AfroP]

 

They also confirmed that they did not warn Ashley not to attend matches with his children, as had been reported.

 

 

 

No the police did'nt warn Ashley to attend games, the fans did via the statement to the chron from true-faith and the mag.

 

 

[Guest johnson293]

Apologies if its already been psted elsewhere, but theres a pretty decent article from the Northern Echo (link nicked from NUFC.com)...

 

http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/sport/3676092.Ashley___s_words_too_late_to_appease_fans/

 

HAVING digested Mike Ashley’s emotive Sunday night statement, the over-riding opinion of most Newcastle supporters appears to be: “Too little, too late”.

 

Why has it taken the biggest set of supporter demonstrations for more than three decades to force the Magpies owner to end his selfimposed media blackout and attempt to outline his vision for taking the club forward?

 

And why, in more than 1,600 carefully-constructed words, has he still failed to address the one burning issue that continues to make his position untenable in the eyes of the Geordie masses?

 

Why has he backed former Swindon manager Dennis Wise ahead of two-time European Footballer of the Year Kevin Keegan, and why does he feel his London-based cabal of friends are the best people to run Newcastle?

 

Unless he addresses those two issues, his attempts to portray himself as the saviour of a club that might otherwise have gone to the wall will count for nothing.

 

Even as they stuff their “Cockney Mafia” T-shirts into the bottom of their clothes drawer, most fans would be willing to concede that Ashley has done some good in his 16 months at the helm.

 

He has addressed a debt that was rapidly getting out of hand, signed two or three young players who appear to have potential and, lest we forget, generated immense goodwill with his appointment of Kevin Keegan in January.

 

But in the space of eight months, he has lost that goodwill forever. He has lost it because he has displayed a blind faith in a group of associates who are simply not qualified to carry out the job they are being asked to perform.

 

There is nothing inherently wrong with a scouting and recruitment system that divides labour between a series of highly-trained specialists, although for the process to have worked, Keegan needed to be aware of it from the moment he was appointed.

 

But there is something wrong when that system stands or falls on the judgement of Wise, someone whose previous scouting experience stretched to the recruitment of a couple of League One midfielders for Leeds United, and Jimenez, a former Chelsea doorman whose only business experience appears to lie in the field of property development.

 

While other Premier League clubs were staking their futures on the expertise of specialists, Newcastle were displaying blind faith in a group of Ashley’s friends.

 

When those friends alienated Keegan, the one figure Magpies supporters trusted implicitly, the ensuing fall-out was always going to make it all but impossible for the current regime to remain.

 

Ashley had to choose which way he was going to jump and, as Friday night’s failed negotiations proved, he chose Wise and Jimenez over Keegan.

 

The club’s supporters, as they were always bound to, chose differently.

 

And for all the club’s attempts to portray Keegan as a misguided romanticist who hadn’t watched a game of football in three years, and the at least partially valid argument that Newcastle’s fans have displayed unjustified loyalty to a serial quitter, there are rational reasons to suggest they were right to side with their idol.

 

For all his faults, Keegan was not naïve enough to assume that Newcastle would be in the market for a Thierry Henry or a Ronaldinho.

 

And while Ashley might have claimed in his statement that the fans wanted “huge amounts spent in the transfer market so they can compete at the top table of European football now”, those words merely perpetuate a well-worn myth that supporters at St James’ Park are completely detached from reality.

 

Keegan didn’t want Henry or Ronaldinho, he wanted Carlos Cuellar, Stephen Warnock and Sami Hyypia.

 

The club’s supporters didn’t demand miracles, they merely expected that their manager’s demands would be met to the best degree possible.

 

Instead, Wise and Jimenez ploughed their own furrow and signed a striker and an attacking midfielder on transfer deadline day, ignoring the obvious gaps at centre-half and full-back that will now plague Newcastle for the whole of the first half of the season.

 

Crucially, they also displayed a staggering indifference to the supporters’ sensibilities by failing to explain their decisions.

 

Ashley and his cohorts have erected a wall of silence that has placed an implacable barrier between themselves and the fans.

 

That bred suspicion then contempt, as supporters bridled against a regime based more than 300 miles away that appeared utterly indifferent to their fears and concerns.

 

When those fears began to be realised, further silence meant supporters lost any semblance of faith in the people running their club.

 

In the business world, Ashley’s shunning of publicity has been interpreted as a sign of strength. But in the mediafuelled world of football, it has undoubtedly created a position of weakness.

 

His relationship with Newcastle supporters has already passed the point of no return.

 

[sparta]

Apologies if its already been psted elsewhere, but theres a pretty decent article from the Northern Echo (link nicked from NUFC.com)...

 

http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/sport/3676092.Ashley___s_words_too_late_to_appease_fans/

 

HAVING digested Mike Ashley’s emotive Sunday night statement, the over-riding opinion of most Newcastle supporters appears to be: “Too little, too late”.

 

Why has it taken the biggest set of supporter demonstrations for more than three decades to force the Magpies owner to end his selfimposed media blackout and attempt to outline his vision for taking the club forward?

 

And why, in more than 1,600 carefully-constructed words, has he still failed to address the one burning issue that continues to make his position untenable in the eyes of the Geordie masses?

 

Why has he backed former Swindon manager Dennis Wise ahead of two-time European Footballer of the Year Kevin Keegan, and why does he feel his London-based cabal of friends are the best people to run Newcastle?

 

Unless he addresses those two issues, his attempts to portray himself as the saviour of a club that might otherwise have gone to the wall will count for nothing.

 

Even as they stuff their “Cockney Mafia” T-shirts into the bottom of their clothes drawer, most fans would be willing to concede that Ashley has done some good in his 16 months at the helm.

 

He has addressed a debt that was rapidly getting out of hand, signed two or three young players who appear to have potential and, lest we forget, generated immense goodwill with his appointment of Kevin Keegan in January.

 

But in the space of eight months, he has lost that goodwill forever. He has lost it because he has displayed a blind faith in a group of associates who are simply not qualified to carry out the job they are being asked to perform.

 

There is nothing inherently wrong with a scouting and recruitment system that divides labour between a series of highly-trained specialists, although for the process to have worked, Keegan needed to be aware of it from the moment he was appointed.

 

But there is something wrong when that system stands or falls on the judgement of Wise, someone whose previous scouting experience stretched to the recruitment of a couple of League One midfielders for Leeds United, and Jimenez, a former Chelsea doorman whose only business experience appears to lie in the field of property development.

 

While other Premier League clubs were staking their futures on the expertise of specialists, Newcastle were displaying blind faith in a group of Ashley’s friends.

 

When those friends alienated Keegan, the one figure Magpies supporters trusted implicitly, the ensuing fall-out was always going to make it all but impossible for the current regime to remain.

 

Ashley had to choose which way he was going to jump and, as Friday night’s failed negotiations proved, he chose Wise and Jimenez over Keegan.

 

The club’s supporters, as they were always bound to, chose differently.

 

And for all the club’s attempts to portray Keegan as a misguided romanticist who hadn’t watched a game of football in three years, and the at least partially valid argument that Newcastle’s fans have displayed unjustified loyalty to a serial quitter, there are rational reasons to suggest they were right to side with their idol.

 

For all his faults, Keegan was not naïve enough to assume that Newcastle would be in the market for a Thierry Henry or a Ronaldinho.

 

And while Ashley might have claimed in his statement that the fans wanted “huge amounts spent in the transfer market so they can compete at the top table of European football now”, those words merely perpetuate a well-worn myth that supporters at St James’ Park are completely detached from reality.

 

Keegan didn’t want Henry or Ronaldinho, he wanted Carlos Cuellar, Stephen Warnock and Sami Hyypia.

 

The club’s supporters didn’t demand miracles, they merely expected that their manager’s demands would be met to the best degree possible.

 

Instead, Wise and Jimenez ploughed their own furrow and signed a striker and an attacking midfielder on transfer deadline day, ignoring the obvious gaps at centre-half and full-back that will now plague Newcastle for the whole of the first half of the season.

 

Crucially, they also displayed a staggering indifference to the supporters’ sensibilities by failing to explain their decisions.

 

Ashley and his cohorts have erected a wall of silence that has placed an implacable barrier between themselves and the fans.

 

That bred suspicion then contempt, as supporters bridled against a regime based more than 300 miles away that appeared utterly indifferent to their fears and concerns.

 

When those fears began to be realised, further silence meant supporters lost any semblance of faith in the people running their club.

 

In the business world, Ashley’s shunning of publicity has been interpreted as a sign of strength. But in the mediafuelled world of football, it has undoubtedly created a position of weakness.

 

His relationship with Newcastle supporters has already passed the point of no return.

 

 

i wouldnt clap for that article. unless they have a shitload of insider information!

 

only fact is, that nobody knows anything about what that have happened.

until some kind of clarification comes from both of keegan and ashley, ill take every article that i come over, with a pinch of salt

[abcdefg]

It's a very calculated statement, though I've no doubt the ferocity of feeling hurts (frankly it would hurt anyone to have so many thousands chanting at you). It could well be that whatever his plans to sell he'll be in charge for a good while, so I think, our points have been made (I know there's hundreds of opinions), and it's probably time to get back to some sort of normality, otherwise every game is going to be bloody miserable for one thing and that won't do anyone any good.

 

The reference to his kids was clever, an emotive issue that makes you feel sympathy (I didn't know he did attend with them tbh), but whatever mistakes have been made, it's hard to know what he could say now.

 

I'm sure I had a point when I started typing...

[Cronky]

Silly article. The idea that Ashley's relationship with the fans would improve if he was to outline why he favoured Wise and his team over Keegan is just daft. It would only inflame the situation to no good end. The fans - or rather those with the loudest voices - have already sided with Keegan and Ashley is right in recognising that nothing will change that.

 

 

[TRon]

The fact that the Arabs have made an offer suggests that there are buyers for the club at the right price. Throw in the fact that Ambani had talks with a view to buying backs that up as well. If Ashley gets offered anywhere between £250-300m he'll sell if he genuinely wants out. If not then you have to question how badly he really wants to sell, in which case he should be looking to appoint a manager asap.