Is Mike Ashley steering Newcastle United in the right direction?

[AyeDubbleYoo]

Surely there's no way Mike Ashley is going to make a profit on NUFC? He would have to sell at a totally unrealistic price to get his money back.

 

Unless we win a cup or finish pretty high in the league for a few seasons, I doubt the value of the club has increased much since he bought it.

[Guest gggg]

I haven't seen any hands on the wheel

[Nobody]

Ashley continues to act with the sole aim of getting as much of his money back as possible. Alignment of those aim with the hopes of the fans is coincidental.

 

The club is up for sale, it always has been- now Ashley senses that our good run could tempt a 'more money than sense' buyer to make good all the money that he lost becuase of his own foolishness. Why spoil that by locking in a manager to an expensive contract. If a new owner has to pay out £2m to bring in another manager, then that's £2m off the sale price and £2m less in Ashley's pocket.

 

I wouldn't be surprised at all if interested parties are going through the books before Christmas.

 

Care to explain how you come to these conclusions? Why would a new owner want to piss off the fans by getting rid of Hughton?

[NG32]

Ashley continues to act with the sole aim of getting as much of his money back as possible. Alignment of those aim with the hopes of the fans is coincidental.

 

The club is up for sale, it always has been- now Ashley senses that our good run could tempt a 'more money than sense' buyer to make good all the money that he lost becuase of his own foolishness. Why spoil that by locking in a manager to an expensive contract. If a new owner has to pay out £2m to bring in another manager, then that's £2m off the sale price and £2m less in Ashley's pocket.

 

I wouldn't be surprised at all if interested parties are going through the books before Christmas.

 

 

Maybe, just maybe he is actually enjoying "turning" the club around.

 

Maybe?

 

 

[SEMTEX]

Ashley is the cockney devil, everything he does is designed to make NUFC fail and upset the Geordie Nation.

[Benwell Lad]

In what must have been Ashley's darkest NUFC hour, just after relegation, himself almost universally unpopular and unwanted, a big squad on top Premier league salaries, a legendary hero manager he'd publically backed but probably realised wasn't up to the job and the club sale going nowhere, I wonder how close he did come to just walking and letting the whole thing crumble.

I'm sure even his dogmatic self must have sought advice from people close to him - did they talk him in to continuing ?

If I'd been him I'd have walked - after all he probably has no real emotional connection to the club or region - and the finances involved - although large - are not unheard of as written off amounts after risky business moves go wrong. He certainly wasn't wanted around here.

 

As it happens he stayed - possibly by default as there were no buyers - he appointed Hughton - a lucky break, although who's to say Ipswich appointing Bobby Robson and Liverpool Shankly weren't just lucky breaks as well (not that I'd compare Hughton to those two of course, well not yet anyway) and when the time came he backed his manager in the market and ensured the squad was right to finish the job of being promoted successfully. Back in the Premier league more modest but sensible investment and so far so good.

 

Only a fool would try to second guess Ashley and football is a very fickle business nowadays, however if he sticks to his original plan of nurturing our own talent, financial self sustainability, modest extra investment (£20M pa) from himself and sets up a management team who continue to engender the pride and commitment we're seeing right now, then it's probably fair to say he's steering us in the right direction.

 

With a little bit more luck who knows ? We'll see.

 

 

good points., but.

 

nah hes a c***.

 

I have no doubt he is.  Professional football is full of them - especially owners.

The real point is whether he's the right cunt for our club at this particular time ?

I'd say he probably is.

[BottledDog]

I still think that 90% or more of the credit must go to Houghton and the players

 

Not going to argue with that.

 

/though I was thinking more around 75 - 85% tbf. 

[AyeDubbleYoo]

I still think that 90% or more of the credit must go to Houghton and the players

 

Not going to argue with that.

 

Me either, but at the moment Ashley is doing what an owner should do... just create the environment for the playing staff to operate and leave them to it.

 

Whether or not he stumbled on the right setup out of luck and/or despite himself is another matter, obviously.

[BottledDog]

I still think that 90% or more of the credit must go to Houghton and the players

 

Not going to argue with that.

 

Me either, but at the moment Ashley is doing what an owner should do... just create the environment for the playing staff to operate and leave them to it.

 

Whether or not he stumbled on the right setup out of luck and/or despite himself is another matter, obviously.

 

Not going to argue with that either.

[Flip]

The thing is, at the end of the day I think this was his plan all along, have a functioning team with low earners (even though some are high earners) and investing in young players such as Ranger, Vukcic, Moyo etc.

 

I doubt though that his plan was to get relegated but since it did I think it has only helped him. My biggest worry is if he is going to invest at all or if hes seeking to sell the club which would make it unstable again.

 

He should just keep on investing £10-15 million every year on new players and help us progress slowly.

 

This club has been for too long looking for instant success, and we have gone nowhere. Now we have a stable team with a young and upcoming manager who will only learn every day and isn't stubborn. The players seem to like each other.

 

Let's just hope he's not looking to screw us over again.

[wormy]

Ashley continues to act with the sole aim of getting as much of his money back as possible. Alignment of those aim with the hopes of the fans is coincidental.

 

The club is up for sale, it always has been- now Ashley senses that our good run could tempt a 'more money than sense' buyer to make good all the money that he lost becuase of his own foolishness. Why spoil that by locking in a manager to an expensive contract. If a new owner has to pay out £2m to bring in another manager, then that's £2m off the sale price and £2m less in Ashley's pocket.

 

I wouldn't be surprised at all if interested parties are going through the books before Christmas.

 

 

Just have to highlight this post again. Really? 

[Skirge]

He got luck with Hughton.... but he will be happy that the last few games has heard less and less chants about our hatred of him.

Lets just hope we can keep our players and manager, do well this season so he can sell us and fk off.

[polpolpol]

The thing is, at the end of the day I think this was his plan all along, have a functioning team with low earners (even though some are high earners) and investing in young players such as Ranger, Vukcic, Moyo etc.

 

I doubt though that his plan was to get relegated but since it did I think it has only helped him. My biggest worry is if he is going to invest at all or if hes seeking to sell the club which would make it unstable again.

 

He should just keep on investing £10-15 million every year on new players and help us progress slowly.

 

This club has been for too long looking for instant success, and we have gone nowhere. Now we have a stable team with a young and upcoming manager who will only learn every day and isn't stubborn. The players seem to like each other.

 

Let's just hope he's not looking to screw us over again.

 

I totally agree but I think this only covers 1/3 of his assumptions when he bought the club. The full version would go a bit like:

 

1- (Short term) As you state – applying the Sports Direct approach to running the club. Buying undervalued assets and ensuring the fundamental premise is buy cheap, sell higher.

2- (Long term) The value of football clubs is constantly increasing due (due to fundamentals and demand) so as long as nothing goes spectacularly wrong, there is little risk buying one (bad assumption: in fact things went wrong not just with NUFC, but with the market for all football clubs).

3- (Personal reasons) To 'enjoy' the acclaim of running a football club. (Two huge signs of this: 1] that when he bought us he was so  unknown barely a picture of him existed in the public domain, yet he deliberately stepped into the spotlight after the purchase. 2] his choice of buying NUFC of all available clubs)

 

(1) Is coming to fruition. (2) Is related to market conditions and is impossible to affect. The one he can work towards is (3).

[wormy]

He's made major fuck ups. Let's just wait and see if they were inexperience or if it's going to happen again. He's not done too bad for a while now.

[BottledDog]

He's made major fuck ups. Let's just wait and see if they were inexperience or if it's going to happen again. He's not done too bad for a while now.

 

He has done well for a while now, long may it continue.

[Stu]

He got luck with Hughton.... but he will be happy that the last few games has heard less and less chants about our hatred of him.

Lets just hope we can keep our players and manager, do well this season so he can sell us and fk off.

 

Oh aye that's just what we need, a period of instability...we've been due one of those for a few months now.

[Ryan_Taylor]

He got luck with Hughton.... but he will be happy that the last few games has heard less and less chants about our hatred of him.

Lets just hope we can keep our players and manager, do well this season so he can sell us and fk off.

 

I'd rather he didn't

[Ginola]

For me, it's more a case of Hughton and the unity of the 'group of great lads' that's steering the club in the right direction, although Ashley hasn't really done anything to hinder that as of late *touch wood.* Having said that, as long as the club is going in the right direction, I don't really care who it is that's behind them getting there.

[Matt]

Ashley is the cockney devil, everything he does is designed to make NUFC fail and upset the Geordie Nation.

 

That's not what I said, though is it?

[Lazy]

I hated the guy (Ashley) after Keegan left and we got relegated, but our season in the championship and the start of this season so far have been fantastic. What is most suprising to me are the gems we are scouting (Collo, Tiote, Arfa, Gutierrez) and the faith we are showing in our youngsters. I really hope we don't let any success we have go to our heads, I'm prepared to stick with Hughton through thick and thin because I think we have a great team spirit going at the moment and he is responsible for that!

 

I haven't been this excited for our next match every week since SBR was here and I love it!