Mr Ashley and Ambition

[Howaythelads]

18 months or so down the line, with the club going rapidly downhill since the day Mr Ashley took over from “Fat Fred,” how are those people feeling now who were adamant the club could not have a worse person running it than “Fat Fred?”

 

Mr Ashley has been successful in business with his “poor man's JJB Sports” yet he is making a pigs-ear of running this football club. So, you have to ponder the following:

1.He doesn't have the ability to run a football club despite being a successful businessman.

2.Perhaps he's running the club the way he always intended?

3.Perhaps it's both #1 and #2.

 

In relation to point #1:

It's fairly obvious that running a football club isn't the same as running “any other business” despite what I've been told in the past. Normal business rules can't be applied. It is monumentally stupid to believe a football club can be run in all respects just like “any other business.”

 

In relation to point #2:

What was Mr Ashley's motivation for buying the club? Well, I suspected from the start his only motivation was to make money and I've seen nothing to change that opinion.

 

Sadly for Mr Ashley, the economic situation across the globe has caught him out somewhat. Under normal circumstances owning the club for 2 or 3 years then selling it would have made money for him providing the club remained in the Premier League. And that's the answer right there. The limit of Mr Ashley's ambition for this football club has from the start been simply to remain in the top flight.  This level of ambition is obviously massively less than the ambition of the previous administration, I think it is roughly the same as those before John Hall, though Mr Ashley's reasons for this lack of ambition are probably different.

 

When the majority were complaining that Fat Fred kept putting his foot in it with the press, I said it didn't matter. When they said Fred should go because the club couldn't do worse than him, I said people were wrong.  Time and time again I said all you can ask from those people running the club is they back the manager to build a team, that a Director Of Football is a nonsense and would not improve anything, but I was shouted down, even by some that claim to have been around pre John Hall.  Significantly, I said that it's soul destroying supporting a club that you know is going nowhere because they aren't even trying to, so you should be careful what you wish for. Well, you got what you wished for. An administration has gone that backed successive managers to the hilt, one that did make mistakes but consistently tried to compete with the top clubs. Unfortunately it hasn't automatically been replaced by a better one as I was assured would be the case. No, it's been replaced by either ineptitude or by someone in it only for what he can get out of it.

 

In relation to point #3:

It's clear the club now has probably the least talented and least ambitious people at the helm since WWII. Survival in the top flight is enough for Mr Ashley, just as it was for those who came before John Hall and “Fat Fred,” though I think their reasons were probably different. 

 

It truly is soul-destroying watching what they are doing to this football club.

 

The present administration rightly qualifies as the worst the club has seen in it's history.

 

[Tooj]

Good to see you back at last HTL. Top post as well btw.

[Novocastrian]

 

Fat Fred = No ability to run a football club but prepared to put up the cash. 

 

Fat Mike = No ability to run a football club and not prepared to put up the cash. 

 

 

I'd rather have Fat Fred, it was more fun. 

[Tooj]

You can't say Shepherd had no ability to run a football club.

[Novocastrian]

You can't say Shepherd had no ability to run a football club.

 

I can, and I just did.

[Pilko]

You can't say Shepherd had no ability to run a football club.

 

I can, and I just did.

 

In that case you must have a brain the size of a tic tac.

[Tooj]

You can't say Shepherd had no ability to run a football club.

 

I can, and I just did.

 

How can a man who is Chairman during some of the best league positions the club has ever had, then have no ability to run a football club?

[Taylor Swift]

 

I agree. It is almost torture to see the look on Shay's face after we've lost another silly goal when you consider the heights that we've reached with him, the despondency in the team and most in the team, especially our captain, seemingly so apathetic as to whether we actually win the game or not.

 

But what can we do, especially now during this financial crisis? Ashley's not going to sell because he won't even recoup back his money, no new, better manager will come because of the instability and I think it'd be pretty dumb to let Kinnear spend money without some sort of supervision.

 

I don't quite understand your #2 point. How could Ashley have made money if he had just kept the team in the Premiership? The tv money has increased but player's wages and transfer fees have likewise increased. If he had merely kept us in the Premiership, the fans would have stopped going sooner or later and he'd lose a significant source of revenue - match tickets - thus not making any money. Look at other clubs around us when they release their financial reports, none are making any significant money. Ashley invested £200 something million in the club, if we make £5m per year, which we haven't in about 6 or 7 years, that's a 2.5% return. You'd get nearly as much, if not more, if you put your millions in a bank and a lot more if you put it in a fund. So I'm not sure he was in it to make money but the situation is disappointing nonetheless. Welcome back, by the way.

[Guest LucaAltieri]

I like the buy young and cheap policy. I don't want to be spunking away millions in the name of "ambition".

 

We're not going to be hitting Europe again any time soon so we have less money coming into the club. We need to make do and build a strong squad bit by bit until we can claw our way back into Europe. Once we have the extra cash coming in again then we can think about signing established players.

 

While Ashley probably doesn't know the first thing about football, he's put in place a setup that is supposed to copy a successful setup at Arsenal. The only problem I see is that we don't have a David Dein figure. I really don't understand why Llambias is employed by the club, what he does, and specifically what he would do better than someone who knows about the game.

 

Whether its for the good of the club or for the good of his own pocket Ashley wants the club to do well. He sees a different way to get there than some people on here. He's looking at it from a different angle so I suppose that's only to be expected. On the whole I'd have to say we're more or less there.

 

There was always going to be some teething problems when making such a wholesale change. Let's just hope we will be able to put this season behind us and move forward next year.

[Colos Short and Curlies]

I was never one who particularly wanted rid of Freddy, and I'm also one of those who don't believe that everything we currently see is down to Ashley.

 

Fred was on a downward slope, that much should be pretty much indisputable, but had he been able to generate a new partner to replace the Halls and inject some cash then he may have recovered - this we will never know.

 

I don't like the Chelsea and Man City approach to team building, and have always supported Ashleys apparent aim of buying talented young players and building from within. I had however envisaged that all of these youth players would be mixed with some experience.

 

If the bids for Modric and/or Aimar were genuine then it would support this view - and the signing of Colo suggests that money would be spent on the RIGHT individuals.

 

Where it has gone wrong was Ashley listening to the fans and bringing back Keegan, there was no way on Earth that Keegan could coexist with Wise et al (who I believe have done nothing wrong) once Mort left as Lambarse is one of Ashleys new boys leaving Keegan out on a limb. If we had been a bit creative we could have appointed a better long term manager than Keegan last Jan and we wouldn't be in this mess (note whilst I can't understand the timing of KK walking out I also dont put all of the blame on him).

 

Should we survive this season then the situation could be repaired, Lambarse has to go and ideally JFK will be thanked for having a go and he can get another role in Div 1 or something. We then need either a young manager such as Martinez to work within the structure or someone like Bruce to be given free reign.

 

One thing I cant forgive the current management team for is the lack of communication, this is making the situation worse imo as it leaves us fans with only specualtion that the staus quo is the best we can hope for.

 

I'm not going to get into a net-spend discussion here as its overplayed and some people don't seem to grasp the positives from being able to generate good fees for mediorcre players. I'm sure that should we shift Smith for £6m and signed Mbia for £!0m then people would complain that we've only spent £4m and would have been happier spending £15m and recuperating £1m.

[Dave]

Agree with what you say about Ashley HTL, but I also remember you saying that if Roeder was a failure then Shepherd's time was up.

[Guest TheKingOfNewcastle]

 

We're not going to be hitting Europe again any time soon so we have less money coming into the club. We need to make do and build a strong squad bit by bit until we can claw our way back into Europe. Once we have the extra cash coming in again then we can think about signing established players.

 

We need to avoid relegation first and foremost.

[NE5]

Good to see you back at last HTL. Top post as well btw.

 

indeed, but it will be interesting to see how many will now agree especially those who blindly wanted "anybody but Fred"

 

Or admit it.

 

 

 

 

[Pilko]

I was never one who particularly wanted rid of Freddy, and I'm also one of those who don't believe that everything we currently see is down to Ashley.

 

Fred was on a downward slope, that much should be pretty much indisputable, but had he been able to generate a new partner to replace the Halls and inject some cash then he may have recovered - this we will never know.

 

I don't like the Chelsea and Man City approach to team building, and have always supported Ashleys apparent aim of buying talented young players and building from within. I had however envisaged that all of these youth players would be mixed with some experience.

 

If the bids for Modric and/or Aimar were genuine then it would support this view - and the signing of Colo suggests that money would be spent on the RIGHT individuals.

 

Where it has gone wrong was Ashley listening to the fans and bringing back Keegan, there was no way on Earth that Keegan could coexist with Wise et al (who I believe have done nothing wrong) once Mort left as Lambarse is one of Ashleys new boys leaving Keegan out on a limb. If we had been a bit creative we could have appointed a better long term manager than Keegan last Jan and we wouldn't be in this mess (note whilst I can't understand the timing of KK walking out I also dont put all of the blame on him).

 

Should we survive this season then the situation could be repaired, Lambarse has to go and ideally JFK will be thanked for having a go and he can get another role in Div 1 or something. We then need either a young manager such as Martinez to work within the structure or someone like Bruce to be given free reign.

 

One thing I cant forgive the current management team for is the lack of communication, this is making the situation worse imo as it leaves us fans with only specualtion that the staus quo is the best we can hope for.

 

I'm not going to get into a net-spend discussion here as its overplayed and some people don't seem to grasp the positives from being able to generate good fees for mediorcre players. I'm sure that should we shift Smith for £6m and signed Mbia for £!0m then people would complain that we've only spent £4m and would have been happier spending £15m and recuperating £1m.

 

That is a truly excellent post. Well done.

[Thespence]

I like the buy young and cheap policy. I don't want to be spunking away millions in the name of "ambition".

 

I prefer spending good £££'s on high quality young 1st team players like Bellamy, Jenas, Parker, Dyer etc than youth team'ers.

[NE5]

You can't say Shepherd had no ability to run a football club.

 

I can, and I just did.

 

How can a man who is Chairman during some of the best league positions the club has ever had, then have no ability to run a football club?

 

far too logical a point there tooj

 

 

[Colos Short and Curlies]

I like the buy young and cheap policy. I don't want to be spunking away millions in the name of "ambition".

 

I prefer spending good £££'s on high quality young 1st team players like Bellamy, Jenas, Parker, Dyer etc than youth team'ers.

 

What about Colo, Jonas? We have spent money on good players as well as youth players.

 

Not everything Ashley's team has done has been negative.

[WhatTheFunk]

 

Good to see you back posting HTL. Agree with a lot of your points, but I do not agree that the current administration is the worst in the club's history. Sure it's a big mess, but I do believe that Ashley is one decent adviser away from turning it around in a way that would make us relatively successful again, and make him more money than the current situation is.

[Novocastrian]

I like the buy young and cheap policy. I don't want to be spunking away millions in the name of "ambition".

 

I prefer spending good £££'s on high quality young 1st team players like Bellamy, Jenas, Parker, Dyer etc than youth team'ers.

 

The difference is that Bellamy, Jenas et al were young players of great potential bought for the long term good of the club. The present regime seem to be buying young players with a view to selling them on and generating a profit.

[Dave]

I was very hopeful about Ashley and gave him the benefit of the doubt for a long time. I don't mind admitting I was wrong about that.

 

It's definitely a case of 'better the devil you know', but Ashley being wank doesn't excuse Shepherd's errors of judgement.

[matta]

You can't say Shepherd had no ability to run a football club.

 

I can, and I just did.

 

How can a man who is Chairman during some of the best league positions the club has ever had, then have no ability to run a football club?

 

far too logical a point there tooj

 

 

 

If shepard was here still we would be under administration. So i guess it could be worse than this afterall ..

[Thespence]

I like the buy young and cheap policy. I don't want to be spunking away millions in the name of "ambition".

 

I prefer spending good £££'s on high quality young 1st team players like Bellamy, Jenas, Parker, Dyer etc than youth team'ers.

 

The difference is that Bellamy, Jenas et al were young players of great potential bought for the long term good of the club. The present regime seem to be buying young players with a view to selling them on and generating a profit.

 

Not just potential they could play as soon as we signed them.  

 

We have needed to supplement the youth system, you only have to look at Blue Star & Gateshead teams to see players are leaving NUFC & going straight to that level. I just find it strange when it is made out that signing young players is new idea.

[Colos Short and Curlies]

You can't say Shepherd had no ability to run a football club.

 

I can, and I just did.

 

How can a man who is Chairman during some of the best league positions the club has ever had, then have no ability to run a football club?

 

far too logical a point there tooj

 

 

 

If shepard was here still we would be under administration. So i guess it could be worse than this afterall ..

 

Now you can't say this, its just an assumption.

 

There's a thread buried somewhere where this is discussed in a  bit of depth - we were not going into administration when Fred sold to Mike

[NE5]

 

Good to see you back posting HTL. Agree with a lot of your points, but I do not agree that the current administration is the worst in the club's history. Sure it's a big mess, but I do believe that Ashley is one decent adviser away from turning it around in a way that would make us relatively successful again, and make him more money than the current situation is.

 

Wasn't Keegan his "advisor" ?

 

 

[NE5]

You can't say Shepherd had no ability to run a football club.

 

I can, and I just did.

 

How can a man who is Chairman during some of the best league positions the club has ever had, then have no ability to run a football club?

 

far too logical a point there tooj

 

 

 

If shepard was here still we would be under administration. So i guess it could be worse than this afterall ..

 

rubbish