Mike Ashley Uncovered: An Inside Out Special

[Thespence]

Benwell Lad doesn't like sweatshops in the Far East as it is taking work away from the West End.

[Mick]

Benwell Lad doesn't like sweatshops in the Far East as it is taking work away from the West End.

 

[Parky]

Quite a few of the big brands got caught out a few years back with this lark. Somewhere in the supply chain with most things in the high street is cheap labour sadly.

[Guest Geordiekev]

Quite a few of the big brands got caught out a few years back with this lark. Somewhere in the supply chain with most things in the high street is cheap labour sadly.

 

Not to mention some of the shit we consume, watched a documentary on Prawn farms and if you eat prawns I would advise you to check country of origin; seeing raw sewage run into the pens when the river was in flood was sick.

 

On the other hand working on a sewing machine 12hrs a day for a quid has to be less stressfull than sleeping with 2 pervs an hour for 16hrs for a similar salary...

[Mick]

 

 

Not to mention some of the s*** we consume, watched a documentary on Prawn farms and if you eat prawns I would advise you to check country of origin; seeing raw sewage run into the pens when the river was in flood was sick.

 

On the other hand working on a sewing machine 12hrs a day for a quid has to be less stressfull than sleeping with 2 pervs an hour for 16hrs for a similar salary...

 

Yes it could be worse, Gary Glitter is living proof of that.

[Guest jonlane86]

1. Why is a financial expert giving his opinion on sacking/appointing football managers?

 

Sacking Big Sam was a good idea because by that point we were safe, we'd just drawn Arsenal Away in the FA Cup so effectively our season was over.  Yeah, we'd still be in the Premier League if he stayed, but lets be honest, could we still be putting up with tactics like Reading away when he played 4 central midfielders and our goal was an OG deflection, our only shot on target that day!

 

Hiring 'Arry would have been great for us, but he didn't want to move up north, that was the main reason he didn't come regardless of the shite they were coming out with on the programme tonight.

 

Hiring Kevin Keegan could have worked had he not underestimated his popularity with the fans, and put Dennis Wise in that position.

 

2. At what point does this documentary prove that other companies don't do what Mike does with Sporting goods?  The fact is they are all at it.

 

 

3. I don't for a minute think that Mike Ashley has run the club perfectly, he has made some fairly big errors namely:

 

Trying to sell the club twice, the second time in possibly the most important transfer window the club has seen.  The problem was he was indecisive about what he wants to do.  If he came out and said "if its not sold by July 2nd I'll stay" i wouldn't have been bothered!  If someone wants to buy the club he will sell it, as far as I'm concerned the club is always on the market.

 

The "Three Wise Men" structure, at the time i wasn't overly opposed to it, because I was naive enough to think they were working with the manager.

 

Letting Chris Mort go back to his day job, he seemed to know what he was doing compared to the streaker.

 

Not hiring Shearer when Kinnear first fell ill.  I've no doubt in my mind we would have stayed up had he more time.

 

Not deciding at the start of the summer he was going to stay and get us promoted, because he would have been able to sell up once we were promoted.  Just look at Carson Yeung at Birmingham, lost interest when they were relegated but as soon as they went up he went back.

 

HOWEVER, we can't lose sight of the dire state of the club when he inherited it, and how much the debt has been reduced since he arrived.  The philosophy of buying young promising players is the right one, but if he wanted us to "do an Arsenal" he should have just gone to their head scout and asked him how much he wanted to be paid.

 

We also can't lose sight of the fact that if/when we go up we will be one of the most financially stable clubs in the League and like it or not that is thanks to the Mike Ashley regime.

 

Finally, he can't afford to bankroll stupid amounts of money and promise huge wages whilst not affording them.  Just look at Portsmouth/West Ham and the states they are in because of exactly that.  Shepherd did that to us and we're still recovering.

 

This relegation is a chance for us to rebuild, and although we still have a pretty huge wage bill it has been vastly reduced.  My hope is Chris gets us promoted, and at that point we appoint someone like Curbs or Coppell and we end up with the NUST in charge or Mike stays.  By this point the club will hopefully be able to afford to bankroll a decent transfer window to the tune of £25-£30m and we can truly rebuild and stabilise ourselves in the division.  The estimated revenues of being in the PL (quoted as £60M every year during the playoff game) could be used to service transfers and the wage bill.  I honestly believe that once the club is in a position where it COULD return a profit, we could start doing something special again.

 

Anyone who thinks that Ashley is making money out of the Toon currently is deluded, anyone who thinks he is being greedy by not putting stupid amounts into the club out of his own pocket need to realise that the money has to come from somewhere.  His fortune is about £600m, considering Man City have spent about £200 in 2 years easily shows anyone we can't compete with that.  The other thing these people need to realise is he has probably spent about £300m on the club in total already, and has offered to walk away after a 67% loss on his investment, not overly greedy if you ask me.

[midds]

Not reading all that Mike. 

[Parky]

Not reading all that Mike.  

 

 

 

[Guest jonlane86]

Not reading all that Mike.  

 

 

 

 

believe it or not i'm not Big Mike undercover!

[Guest Geordiekev]

You say in one sentance that you hope NUST end up in charge then in another you claim anyone that thinks MA is making a proffit is deluded?

 

So in a nutshell you hope a deluded group take over the running of our club as I'm almost sure I got a few emails from them claiming a 7mil proffit was being made by MA.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Good read Off t bed now  "should have went earlier when told" 

[Guest jonlane86]

You say in one sentance that you hope NUST end up in charge then in another you claim anyone that thinks MA is making a proffit is deluded?

 

So in a nutshell you hope a deluded group take over the running of our club as I'm almost sure I got a few emails from them claiming a 7mil proffit was being made by MA.

 

Good point.....................

 

maybe i'm wrong that NUST should be there then, because I can't see where that £7m would come from, i believe in the same sentence i said i thought Mike staying was an option.  Either him or some far east oil baron with a ridiculous amount of money so we can actually compete.  I honestly hate the way football is now in the top flight.

[Bad Mongo]

He does get a fair bit of cheap advertising. That's got to account for some of his "losses".

[Guest Geordiekev]

maybe i'm wrong that NUST should be there then, because I can't see where that £7m would come from, i believe in the same sentence i said i thought Mike staying was an option.  Either him or some far east oil baron with a ridiculous amount of money so we can actually compete.  I honestly hate the way football is now in the top flight.

 

Wont disagree with you there, I'm soley interested in seeing decent football from our team and know very little if anything of the ins and outs of running a club hence why I weld for a living

[garth]

1. Why is a financial expert giving his opinion on sacking/appointing football managers?

 

Sacking Big Sam was a good idea because by that point we were safe, we'd just drawn Arsenal Away in the FA Cup so effectively our season was over.  Yeah, we'd still be in the Premier League if he stayed, but lets be honest, could we still be putting up with tactics like Reading away when he played 4 central midfielders and our goal was an OG deflection, our only shot on target that day!

 

Hiring 'Arry would have been great for us, but he didn't want to move up north, that was the main reason he didn't come regardless of the s**** they were coming out with on the programme tonight.

 

Hiring Kevin Keegan could have worked had he not underestimated his popularity with the fans, and put Dennis Wise in that position.

 

2. At what point does this documentary prove that other companies don't do what Mike does with Sporting goods?  The fact is they are all at it.

 

 

3. I don't for a minute think that Mike Ashley has run the club perfectly, he has made some fairly big errors namely:

 

Trying to sell the club twice, the second time in possibly the most important transfer window the club has seen.  The problem was he was indecisive about what he wants to do.  If he came out and said "if its not sold by July 2nd I'll stay" i wouldn't have been bothered!  If someone wants to buy the club he will sell it, as far as I'm concerned the club is always on the market.

 

The "Three Wise Men" structure, at the time i wasn't overly opposed to it, because I was naive enough to think they were working with the manager.

 

Letting Chris Mort go back to his day job, he seemed to know what he was doing compared to the streaker.

 

Not hiring Shearer when Kinnear first fell ill.  I've no doubt in my mind we would have stayed up had he more time.

 

Not deciding at the start of the summer he was going to stay and get us promoted, because he would have been able to sell up once we were promoted.  Just look at Carson Yeung at Birmingham, lost interest when they were relegated but as soon as they went up he went back.

 

HOWEVER, we can't lose sight of the dire state of the club when he inherited it, and how much the debt has been reduced since he arrived.  The philosophy of buying young promising players is the right one, but if he wanted us to "do an Arsenal" he should have just gone to their head scout and asked him how much he wanted to be paid.

 

We also can't lose sight of the fact that if/when we go up we will be one of the most financially stable clubs in the League and like it or not that is thanks to the Mike Ashley regime.

 

Finally, he can't afford to bankroll stupid amounts of money and promise huge wages whilst not affording them.  Just look at Portsmouth/West Ham and the states they are in because of exactly that.  Shepherd did that to us and we're still recovering.

 

This relegation is a chance for us to rebuild, and although we still have a pretty huge wage bill it has been vastly reduced.  My hope is Chris gets us promoted, and at that point we appoint someone like Curbs or Coppell and we end up with the NUST in charge or Mike stays.  By this point the club will hopefully be able to afford to bankroll a decent transfer window to the tune of £25-£30m and we can truly rebuild and stabilise ourselves in the division.  The estimated revenues of being in the PL (quoted as £60M every year during the playoff game) could be used to service transfers and the wage bill.  I honestly believe that once the club is in a position where it COULD return a profit, we could start doing something special again.

 

Anyone who thinks that Ashley is making money out of the Toon currently is deluded, anyone who thinks he is being greedy by not putting stupid amounts into the club out of his own pocket need to realise that the money has to come from somewhere.  His fortune is about £600m, considering Man City have spent about £200 in 2 years easily shows anyone we can't compete with that.  The other thing these people need to realise is he has probably spent about £300m on the club in total already, and has offered to walk away after a 67% loss on his investment, not overly greedy if you ask me.

 

Good Post that.

[JJ7]

How did the host manage to flam a trip to Thailand out of that, to present to us the obvious.

[madras]

Sacking Big Sam was a good idea because by that point we were safe

 

 

you reckon ?

[Mick]

Sacking Big Sam was a good idea because by that point we were safe

 

 

you reckon ?

 

He got the first bit right.

[Dogmatix]

1. Why is a financial expert giving his opinion on sacking/appointing football managers?

 

Sacking Big Sam was a good idea because by that point we were safe, we'd just drawn Arsenal Away in the FA Cup so effectively our season was over. Yeah, we'd still be in the Premier League if he stayed, but lets be honest, could we still be putting up with tactics like Reading away when he played 4 central midfielders and our goal was an OG deflection, our only shot on target that day!

 

Hiring 'Arry would have been great for us, but he didn't want to move up north, that was the main reason he didn't come regardless of the s**** they were coming out with on the programme tonight.

 

Hiring Kevin Keegan could have worked had he not underestimated his popularity with the fans, and put Dennis Wise in that position.

 

2. At what point does this documentary prove that other companies don't do what Mike does with Sporting goods? The fact is they are all at it.

 

 

3. I don't for a minute think that Mike Ashley has run the club perfectly, he has made some fairly big errors namely:

 

Trying to sell the club twice, the second time in possibly the most important transfer window the club has seen. The problem was he was indecisive about what he wants to do. If he came out and said "if its not sold by July 2nd I'll stay" i wouldn't have been bothered! If someone wants to buy the club he will sell it, as far as I'm concerned the club is always on the market.

 

The "Three Wise Men" structure, at the time i wasn't overly opposed to it, because I was naive enough to think they were working with the manager.

 

Letting Chris Mort go back to his day job, he seemed to know what he was doing compared to the streaker.

 

Not hiring Shearer when Kinnear first fell ill. I've no doubt in my mind we would have stayed up had he more time.

 

Not deciding at the start of the summer he was going to stay and get us promoted, because he would have been able to sell up once we were promoted. Just look at Carson Yeung at Birmingham, lost interest when they were relegated but as soon as they went up he went back.

 

HOWEVER, we can't lose sight of the dire state of the club when he inherited it, and how much the debt has been reduced since he arrived. The philosophy of buying young promising players is the right one, but if he wanted us to "do an Arsenal" he should have just gone to their head scout and asked him how much he wanted to be paid.

 

We also can't lose sight of the fact that if/when we go up we will be one of the most financially stable clubs in the League and like it or not that is thanks to the Mike Ashley regime.

 

Finally, he can't afford to bankroll stupid amounts of money and promise huge wages whilst not affording them. Just look at Portsmouth/West Ham and the states they are in because of exactly that. Shepherd did that to us and we're still recovering.

 

This relegation is a chance for us to rebuild, and although we still have a pretty huge wage bill it has been vastly reduced. My hope is Chris gets us promoted, and at that point we appoint someone like Curbs or Coppell and we end up with the NUST in charge or Mike stays. By this point the club will hopefully be able to afford to bankroll a decent transfer window to the tune of £25-£30m and we can truly rebuild and stabilise ourselves in the division. The estimated revenues of being in the PL (quoted as £60M every year during the playoff game) could be used to service transfers and the wage bill. I honestly believe that once the club is in a position where it COULD return a profit, we could start doing something special again.

 

Anyone who thinks that Ashley is making money out of the Toon currently is deluded, anyone who thinks he is being greedy by not putting stupid amounts into the club out of his own pocket need to realise that the money has to come from somewhere. His fortune is about £600m, considering Man City have spent about £200 in 2 years easily shows anyone we can't compete with that. The other thing these people need to realise is he has probably spent about £300m on the club in total already, and has offered to walk away after a 67% loss on his investment, not overly greedy if you ask me.

 

Good Post that.

 

He is not a financial expert, dont let the name of the publication he works for fool you.

 

He works for the company who now publish the MAG, and other football publications.

 

He is also a Wolves supporter. Was in raptures when we were relegated, infact he though it was hilarious because he hates Newcastle United. Even though he works in Newcastle

 

So why is he asked to comment on Newcastles team affairs --- Well he is laughling regarded as a jouno and conveniently the MAGS office is in the same office block as SKY TV office in gateshead.

 

He is also a failed footballer

[cubaricho]

1. Why is a financial expert giving his opinion on sacking/appointing football managers?

 

Sacking Big Sam was a good idea because by that point we were safe, we'd just drawn Arsenal Away in the FA Cup so effectively our season was over.  Yeah, we'd still be in the Premier League if he stayed, but lets be honest, could we still be putting up with tactics like Reading away when he played 4 central midfielders and our goal was an OG deflection, our only shot on target that day!

 

Hiring 'Arry would have been great for us, but he didn't want to move up north, that was the main reason he didn't come regardless of the s**** they were coming out with on the programme tonight.

 

Hiring Kevin Keegan could have worked had he not underestimated his popularity with the fans, and put Dennis Wise in that position.

 

2. At what point does this documentary prove that other companies don't do what Mike does with Sporting goods?  The fact is they are all at it.

 

 

3. I don't for a minute think that Mike Ashley has run the club perfectly, he has made some fairly big errors namely:

 

Trying to sell the club twice, the second time in possibly the most important transfer window the club has seen.  The problem was he was indecisive about what he wants to do.  If he came out and said "if its not sold by July 2nd I'll stay" i wouldn't have been bothered!  If someone wants to buy the club he will sell it, as far as I'm concerned the club is always on the market.

 

The "Three Wise Men" structure, at the time i wasn't overly opposed to it, because I was naive enough to think they were working with the manager.

 

Letting Chris Mort go back to his day job, he seemed to know what he was doing compared to the streaker.

 

Not hiring Shearer when Kinnear first fell ill.  I've no doubt in my mind we would have stayed up had he more time.

 

Not deciding at the start of the summer he was going to stay and get us promoted, because he would have been able to sell up once we were promoted.  Just look at Carson Yeung at Birmingham, lost interest when they were relegated but as soon as they went up he went back.

 

HOWEVER, we can't lose sight of the dire state of the club when he inherited it, and how much the debt has been reduced since he arrived.  The philosophy of buying young promising players is the right one, but if he wanted us to "do an Arsenal" he should have just gone to their head scout and asked him how much he wanted to be paid.

 

We also can't lose sight of the fact that if/when we go up we will be one of the most financially stable clubs in the League and like it or not that is thanks to the Mike Ashley regime.

 

Finally, he can't afford to bankroll stupid amounts of money and promise huge wages whilst not affording them.  Just look at Portsmouth/West Ham and the states they are in because of exactly that.  Shepherd did that to us and we're still recovering.

 

This relegation is a chance for us to rebuild, and although we still have a pretty huge wage bill it has been vastly reduced.  My hope is Chris gets us promoted, and at that point we appoint someone like Curbs or Coppell and we end up with the NUST in charge or Mike stays.  By this point the club will hopefully be able to afford to bankroll a decent transfer window to the tune of £25-£30m and we can truly rebuild and stabilise ourselves in the division.  The estimated revenues of being in the PL (quoted as £60M every year during the playoff game) could be used to service transfers and the wage bill.  I honestly believe that once the club is in a position where it COULD return a profit, we could start doing something special again.

 

Anyone who thinks that Ashley is making money out of the Toon currently is deluded, anyone who thinks he is being greedy by not putting stupid amounts into the club out of his own pocket need to realise that the money has to come from somewhere.  His fortune is about £600m, considering Man City have spent about £200 in 2 years easily shows anyone we can't compete with that.  The other thing these people need to realise is he has probably spent about £300m on the club in total already, and has offered to walk away after a 67% loss on his investment, not overly greedy if you ask me.

 

Good Post that.

 

Agreed, very sensible.

[Benwell Lad]

1. Why is a financial expert giving his opinion on sacking/appointing football managers?

 

Sacking Big Sam was a good idea because by that point we were safe, we'd just drawn Arsenal Away in the FA Cup so effectively our season was over.  Yeah, we'd still be in the Premier League if he stayed, but lets be honest, could we still be putting up with tactics like Reading away when he played 4 central midfielders and our goal was an OG deflection, our only shot on target that day!

 

Hiring 'Arry would have been great for us, but he didn't want to move up north, that was the main reason he didn't come regardless of the s**** they were coming out with on the programme tonight.

 

Hiring Kevin Keegan could have worked had he not underestimated his popularity with the fans, and put Dennis Wise in that position.

 

2. At what point does this documentary prove that other companies don't do what Mike does with Sporting goods?  The fact is they are all at it.

 

 

3. I don't for a minute think that Mike Ashley has run the club perfectly, he has made some fairly big errors namely:

 

Trying to sell the club twice, the second time in possibly the most important transfer window the club has seen.  The problem was he was indecisive about what he wants to do.  If he came out and said "if its not sold by July 2nd I'll stay" i wouldn't have been bothered!  If someone wants to buy the club he will sell it, as far as I'm concerned the club is always on the market.

 

The "Three Wise Men" structure, at the time i wasn't overly opposed to it, because I was naive enough to think they were working with the manager.

 

Letting Chris Mort go back to his day job, he seemed to know what he was doing compared to the streaker.

 

Not hiring Shearer when Kinnear first fell ill.  I've no doubt in my mind we would have stayed up had he more time.

 

Not deciding at the start of the summer he was going to stay and get us promoted, because he would have been able to sell up once we were promoted.  Just look at Carson Yeung at Birmingham, lost interest when they were relegated but as soon as they went up he went back.

 

HOWEVER, we can't lose sight of the dire state of the club when he inherited it, and how much the debt has been reduced since he arrived.  The philosophy of buying young promising players is the right one, but if he wanted us to "do an Arsenal" he should have just gone to their head scout and asked him how much he wanted to be paid.

 

We also can't lose sight of the fact that if/when we go up we will be one of the most financially stable clubs in the League and like it or not that is thanks to the Mike Ashley regime.

 

Finally, he can't afford to bankroll stupid amounts of money and promise huge wages whilst not affording them.  Just look at Portsmouth/West Ham and the states they are in because of exactly that.  Shepherd did that to us and we're still recovering.

 

This relegation is a chance for us to rebuild, and although we still have a pretty huge wage bill it has been vastly reduced.  My hope is Chris gets us promoted, and at that point we appoint someone like Curbs or Coppell and we end up with the NUST in charge or Mike stays.  By this point the club will hopefully be able to afford to bankroll a decent transfer window to the tune of £25-£30m and we can truly rebuild and stabilise ourselves in the division.  The estimated revenues of being in the PL (quoted as £60M every year during the playoff game) could be used to service transfers and the wage bill.  I honestly believe that once the club is in a position where it COULD return a profit, we could start doing something special again.

 

Anyone who thinks that Ashley is making money out of the Toon currently is deluded, anyone who thinks he is being greedy by not putting stupid amounts into the club out of his own pocket need to realise that the money has to come from somewhere.  His fortune is about £600m, considering Man City have spent about £200 in 2 years easily shows anyone we can't compete with that.  The other thing these people need to realise is he has probably spent about £300m on the club in total already, and has offered to walk away after a 67% loss on his investment, not overly greedy if you ask me.

 

Good Post that.

 

He is not a financial expert, dont let the name of the publication he works for fool you.

 

He works for the company who now publish the MAG, and other football publications.

 

He is also a Wolves supporter. Was in raptures when we were relegated, infact he though it was hilarious because he hates Newcastle United. Even though he works in Newcastle

 

So why is he asked to comment on Newcastles team affairs --- Well he is laughling regarded as a jouno and conveniently the MAGS office is in the same office block as SKY TV office in gateshead.

 

He is also a failed footballer

 

So he was used to provide comment along with a disgruntled former employee, a "pundit" who also hates Newcastle, a Polish warehouse worker and an idiot with a waistline bigger than his IQ.

Looks like the BBC's current affairs producers excelled themselves this time.

[Happy Face]

Haven't watched it yet, but thought from the synopsis it would be a big bag of shite.

 

There isn't a chairman in the football league that doesn't contribute to sweatshop conditions by contracting the likes of Nike and Adidas to produce their kits.

 

 

[NG32]

There was fuck all in that prog, nothing at all.

 

Jazzed itself up as exposer of mike ashley when in reallity there was nothing in it that we didn't already know or could have guessed anway.

 

Waste of time.

[Guest johnson293]

Have to laugh that after last nights show, have received an email from Sports Direct, and their offer of the day is YSL T-Shirts for £1!!! (max 4 per customer).

 

Was funny how the reduced price tags were apparently put on at the manufacturing stage, rather than marked down instore.

 

To be honest, it wasn't that revealing, and as mentioned, there are many more clothing/sportswear companies (incl Nike) who have items made over there - just because they list them on their websites, doesn't mean conditions are really far better than in the ones that make Sports Directs' products.

[NG32]

Anyone who was shocked by this will need their heads looking at.

[merlin]

Workers on 6 pound a week with a weeks money deducted if they take a day off at one end of the scale. Footballers on 60,000 a week at the other end of the operation whether they turn up or not.

A great advert for the fairness of free market values.

 

If you go to matches or buy merchandise, you are just as responsible - if you don't like the system, boycott it...but how many will ?

As for the 'Free Market', what about the Zils that the hierarchy in the Soviet Union used to ride around in whilst the plebs were making do with the oh-so-reliable Moskvitch ??

Fans of Socialism are like St Augustine  - 'Oh Lord, give me chastity - but don't give it YET..!' They want it to happen, but not for themselves.

Yeah your right, social reform is a bad idea. Lets ban the minimum wage in this country while we are at it that way we might even be able to afford to give the corporations CEO,s and the bankers a bit more on their bonuses, poor souls.

 

Who mentioned Bankers ? However, it has obviously escaped your notice that the politicians(including those pretending to be 'On the Left')have wrecked the UK by making its economy dependent on Financial Services - what the hell else do you think has allowed the current shower to keep spending money on non-jobs to keep them in power, other than the huge tax revenues the Chancellor has been picking up from the spivs in the City of London ?

The Germans(and the French)have kept - and subsidised - their basic industries while UK companies were being merrily sold off to the highest bidder...WITH the approval of BOTH major UK political parties.

 

Wake up and smell the coffee mate - the Asian nations like China & India are making stuff at a FRACTION of the costs in the West because of low wages, and unless outsourcing is stopped that will continue to wreak havoc on Western jobs. EVERYONE in Europe or USA that wants cheap goods is to blame because they BUY them...

 

If you feel that strongly about exploitation of the workers, DON'T buy cheap goods from China etc...trouble is, you'll have a bit of a job finding similar products made in the West that are anywhere near the price for the same quality...

 

Over to you......go on, tell me I'm wrong....