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If you could ask Ashley one thing...


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Define your expectations when you made the decision to buy the biggest football club in the north east of England. And please outline the ways in which your first 18 months of owning Newcastle United have not been in line with those expectations.

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At what point did you realise that you'd paid too much for the club?

 

a) When you found out about the trigger clause for the remaining £45 million of the stand loan?

b) When you realised how much of future income had already been spent?

c) Round about the moment you banned Freddie Shepherd from SJP?

d) When you began to have nightmares about how much more of your own cash it would take to keep supporters happy?

d) When nobody else in the world was prepared to pay as much for the thing as you had put in?

 

or in simplified form; why were you so fucking stupid as to buy the club without undertaking due diligence first?

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At what point did you realise that you'd paid too much for the club?

 

a) When you found out about the trigger clause for the remaining £45 million of the stand loan?

b) When you realised how much of future income had already been spent?

c) Round about the moment you banned Freddie Shepherd from SJP?

d) When you began to have nightmares about how much more of your own cash it would take to keep supporters happy?

d) When nobody else in the world was prepared to pay as much for the thing as you had put in?

 

or in simplified form; why were you so f***ing stupid as to buy the club without undertaking due diligence first?

 

The bloke's a gambler, and it's not as if he has a consistent track record in being ultra conservative or cautious when buying companies. His respective purchases of Lillywhites - the deal was allegedly sealed & paid for on the same day - and Dunlop Slazenger are indicative of this.

 

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/retailing/article703400.ece

 

Therefore by now he is aware of & as a risk-taker should duly respect the risk involved when buying companies on a whim, without undertaking the necessary due diligence. That's why it was laughable, and a pisstake on his business track record, when he was bleating & complaining about inheriting debt, much of which was stadium related & managed debt.

 

100m+ (170m) for a club with arguably the 3rd largest supporter base in the country - with the merchandise income stream that entails - and a 50000 seater stadium. That equation, minus debt, for 100m+ is a joke.

 

Ashley has lived and died by the sword, by making a habit of going on his gut instinct when spending big on his business acquirements. And up until recently his gut instinct has served him well. In this instance - ie his purchase of NUFC - his impulsiveness to quickly get a deal done has come apart at the seams. There comes a time when he has to simply die by the very same sword as well and accept it, a philosophy which has benefitted him.......... instead of bemoaning about inherited debt etc left by his predecessors.

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Guest Brazilianbob

"Do you truly want to take NUFC back to the top 6 of the Premiership or did you just see the club as a way of making money"

 

Hmm.  Lets see, he invests something in the region of £170m in order to make an operating profit of about £2m per annum after overheads.  No I don't see that as a quick way to get rich.  It will take him about 50 years just to get his money back, assuming the profits increase year on year.

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Why try and kid people that you're a football fan?

 

What gives you the right to deduce that he isn't?

 

He might not be a 'genuine' Newcastle fan, but there must be something seriously wrong with the man if he decided to get into the football business if he had no interest in it.

 

He won't say who he supported and according to his statement his first "memory" as a fan was the hand of god at the world cup when he was 23.

 

I don't trust people who don't support clubs.

 

 

 

Wonder who Keegan supported as a kid?

 

Wolves.

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http://www.penissizedebate.com/images/doc/penis_size_preference_chart2.gif

 

?

 

I don't want women to have penises. What would they need us for? Except comparing.

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