Is Mike Ashley the worst person ever to have been associated with NUFC?

[mrmojorisin75]

why doesn't this have a poll?

[Rebellious]

One thing I don't really understand about Ashley. When he first arrived here he set down a marker with the Kieron Dyer deal by demanding an extra £2m from West Ham at the last minute because he was pissed at them sniggering they'd mugged us. While I understand he wants the club to be self-financing he's shown that he's perfectly capable of intervening with his money and clout.

 

Cajun suggested we should keep hold of Enrique till the last day of the window, probably to fuck Liverpool off for not offering Enrique's value. If Ashley actually did this and wrote off the piddling fee they are offering and kept Enrique here just to show we won't be messed around, it would do more for his reputation and the club's than any amount of PR or favourable press leaks.

 

It could put players off joining us who see us as a stepping stone to a Top six club.

[Guest Antec]

Anyone seen this?

 

http://www.fansonline.net/newcastleunited/article.php?id=940

 

was told that the man behind the deal was Mike Ashley and I sat with his representatives over 3 days thrashing out a deal. I was keen to know why they wanted the club and they were quite honest. They wanted to market their sports goods in the Far East and would use the Club to help do this.

[BottledDog]

Anyone seen this?

 

http://www.fansonline.net/newcastleunited/article.php?id=940

 

was told that the man behind the deal was Mike Ashley and I sat with his representatives over 3 days thrashing out a deal. I was keen to know why they wanted the club and they were quite honest. They wanted to market their sports goods in the Far East and would use the Club to help do this.

 

I've a vague feeling that this has come out before, or at least Sir John Hall saying they were honest and he thought they were a good fit.

 

The next couple of lines of that interview balance it out a bit -

 

To me it made sense to market the Club globally. It was a win win situation for Mike and the Club.We hadn’t done that. Over the 3 days I gave them a lot of advice. When they took over they put Chris Mort in to run things and went private. It was a good move. He’s not a fool and like Mike he came in with the best of intentions.

 

 

I think the most important bit regarding the sale though, is that a large part of the reason for selling to Ashley rather than the Malasians was that apart from offering more, Ashley was willing to risk pushing the deal through quickly rather than be thorough - Something that clearly appealed to Hall an Shepherd considering the state of the clubs finances.

 

The meeting with the Malaysians went well but they wanted 6 weeks to do due diligence. The offer from the other party at Freshfields waived that right and was a better deal.

[Colocho]

http://www.eiu.com/index.asp?layout=ib3PrintArticle&article_id=837907468&printer=printer&rf=0

 

"A UK upstart, Sports Direct, is going head-to-head with French heavyweight Decathlon, by opening stores in Paris this month. Meanwhile, UK rival JJB Sports is waiting for a rescuer.

 

Sports Direct does not like to do anything by halves. Despite being only a quarter the size of its French rival, it has thrown down the gauntlet to Decathlon by planning stores in the French capital. Perhaps owner Mike Ashley, once notoriously media-shy, has decided that publicity does have its place after generating headlines as owner of football club Newcastle United.

 

In the UK, Sports Direct has firmly established itself as the market leader. It now has just shy of 400 UK stores plus further stores in eight European countries. But its ambitious are high. Chief executive Dave Forsey has forecast that sports retail will be dominated by Sports Direct and Decathlon within a decade, projecting that the pair will become clear European market leaders.

 

Mr Forsey would certainly like to emulate Decathlon’s empire. Since its founding in 1976, the French retailer has expanded globally - including into the UK - and has become the European leader in selling, designing and producing sporting goods. Owned by French company Oxylane, Decathlon now has around 535 stores in 17 countries, as well as 46 smaller format Koodza stores. Altogether Oxylane generated global sales of €5.4bn (US$6bn) in 2009 (most recent figures), compared with Sports Direct’s comparatively modest £1.37bn (year to April 2009).

 

Following the opening of four stores in the Paris area this year Sports Direct plans to enter all of the eurozone countries over the next five years."

Newcastle United have signed eight French-speaking players in the last twelve months.

 

Seven of whom were born in France.

[Guest Antec]

Anyone seen this?

 

http://www.fansonline.net/newcastleunited/article.php?id=940

 

was told that the man behind the deal was Mike Ashley and I sat with his representatives over 3 days thrashing out a deal. I was keen to know why they wanted the club and they were quite honest. They wanted to market their sports goods in the Far East and would use the Club to help do this.

 

I've a vague feeling that this has come out before, or at least Sir John Hall saying they were honest and he thought they were a good fit.

 

The next couple of lines of that interview balance it out a bit -

 

To me it made sense to market the Club globally. It was a win win situation for Mike and the Club.We hadn’t done that. Over the 3 days I gave them a lot of advice. When they took over they put Chris Mort in to run things and went private. It was a good move. He’s not a fool and like Mike he came in with the best of intentions.

 

 

I think the most important bit regarding the sale though, is that a large part of the reason for selling to Ashley rather than the Malasians was that apart from offering more, Ashley was willing to risk pushing the deal through quickly rather than be thorough - Something that clearly appealed to Hall an Shepherd considering the state of the clubs finances.

 

The meeting with the Malaysians went well but they wanted 6 weeks to do due diligence. The offer from the other party at Freshfields waived that right and was a better deal.

 

Congratulations on completely missing the point to shoe-horn in your usual pile of bollocks, well done

[Guest ykmkmdd]

 

Newcastle United have signed eight French-speaking players in the last twelve months.

 

Seven of whom were born in France.

 

look forward to when he decides to expand into the Brazilian market!

[Colocho]

 

Newcastle United have signed eight French-speaking players in the last twelve months.

 

Seven of whom were born in France.

 

look forward to when he decides to expand into the Brazilian market!

 

 

He's got stores in Portugal and Holland, we could do with some talent from there as well!

 

Anyone seen this?

 

http://www.fansonline.net/newcastleunited/article.php?id=940

 

was told that the man behind the deal was Mike Ashley and I sat with his representatives over 3 days thrashing out a deal. I was keen to know why they wanted the club and they were quite honest. They wanted to market their sports goods in the Far East and would use the Club to help do this.

 

Is this quote from Sir John Hall, btw?

[Guest Antec]

 

Newcastle United have signed eight French-speaking players in the last twelve months.

 

Seven of whom were born in France.

 

look forward to when he decides to expand into the Brazilian market!

 

 

He's got stores in Portugal and Holland, we could do with some talent from there as well!

 

Anyone seen this?

 

http://www.fansonline.net/newcastleunited/article.php?id=940

 

was told that the man behind the deal was Mike Ashley and I sat with his representatives over 3 days thrashing out a deal. I was keen to know why they wanted the club and they were quite honest. They wanted to market their sports goods in the Far East and would use the Club to help do this.

 

Is this quote from Sir John Hall, btw?

 

Apparantly so, unless there's been a mistake

 

The reason I posted it was that I'd never heard that reason used before, certainly news to me

[AyeDubbleYoo]

Seems a bizarre reason, are we even that big in the Far East? Surely advertising campaigns and opening shops would be a better way to spend hundreds of millions of pounds.

[Guest Antec]

Seems a bizarre reason, are we even that big in the Far East? Surely advertising campaigns and opening shops would be a better way to spend hundreds of millions of pounds.

 

Go on then

[Colocho]

Seems a bizarre reason, are we even that big in the Far East? Surely advertising campaigns and opening shops would be a better way to spend hundreds of millions of pounds.

 

See oldtype + the thousands of Newcastle supporters in countries like Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia etc.

[AyeDubbleYoo]

Seems a bizarre reason, are we even that big in the Far East? Surely advertising campaigns and opening shops would be a better way to spend hundreds of millions of pounds.

 

Go on then

 

Sorry?

[AyeDubbleYoo]

Seems a bizarre reason, are we even that big in the Far East? Surely advertising campaigns and opening shops would be a better way to spend hundreds of millions of pounds.

 

See oldtype + the thousands of Newcastle supporters in countries like Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia etc.

 

Yeah, I just didn't know if we were that big out there.

[Hughesy]

Seems a bizarre reason, are we even that big in the Far East? Surely advertising campaigns and opening shops would be a better way to spend hundreds of millions of pounds.

 

See oldtype + the thousands of Newcastle supporters in countries like Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia etc.

 

I don't think there are that many fans out in Asia from my experiences there.  Enough, but not nearly in the same league as your Liverpools and Man Utds.

[Guest Antec]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/sports-direct-to-sell-in-china-through-itat-778759.html

 

 

[Hughesy]

ITAT is an appropriate name for Sports Direct to sell through..

[Guest Svenno]

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/sport/lukeedwards/100018321/what-does-mike-ashley-actually-want-to-achieve-with-newcastle-united/

 

Good read.

[colinmk]

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/sport/lukeedwards/100018321/what-does-mike-ashley-actually-want-to-achieve-with-newcastle-united/

 

Good read.

 

That seems spot on to me. 

[TRon]

Ashley brought Newcastle to have some fun and he did for the first year, sitting and drinking with fans at away games. He wanted to be one of the lads and he was accepted.

But as soon as that went following Keegan’s resignation so, it seems, did Ashley’s enthusiasm. The knight in shining armour had been knocked off his horse by King Kev.

He is abused and he is resented and he knows it. He is a very rich man, but why should he continue to spend his own money to bring success to a club and supporters who have made it perfectly clear they don’t like, thank or respect him?

 

That struck home. Unfortunately it's his club and as it says further up in the article, he now wants the club to be self-financing without putting in any more of his own money. Not a situation which will make fans happy but unless there's genuine interest from outside buyers then we'll just have to suck it and see.

[BottledDog]

Anyone seen this?

 

http://www.fansonline.net/newcastleunited/article.php?id=940

 

was told that the man behind the deal was Mike Ashley and I sat with his representatives over 3 days thrashing out a deal. I was keen to know why they wanted the club and they were quite honest. They wanted to market their sports goods in the Far East and would use the Club to help do this.

 

I've a vague feeling that this has come out before, or at least Sir John Hall saying they were honest and he thought they were a good fit.

 

The next couple of lines of that interview balance it out a bit -

 

To me it made sense to market the Club globally. It was a win win situation for Mike and the Club.We hadn’t done that. Over the 3 days I gave them a lot of advice. When they took over they put Chris Mort in to run things and went private. It was a good move. He’s not a fool and like Mike he came in with the best of intentions.

 

 

I think the most important bit regarding the sale though, is that a large part of the reason for selling to Ashley rather than the Malasians was that apart from offering more, Ashley was willing to risk pushing the deal through quickly rather than be thorough - Something that clearly appealed to Hall an Shepherd considering the state of the clubs finances.

 

The meeting with the Malaysians went well but they wanted 6 weeks to do due diligence. The offer from the other party at Freshfields waived that right and was a better deal.

 

Congratulations on completely missing the point to shoe-horn in your usual pile of bollocks, well done

 

I didn't miss what you were highlighting, as I said, I'm sure I heard similar in the past. Just found the bit about the alternative Malaysian offer and issue of due diligence more interesting.

 

Pretty dodgy from SJH to lean towards the quickest sale rather than give the Malays a chance to check the books, but simply fecking idiotic from Ashley to try and get the uperhand in the proccess by saying, no worries, we're happy to do minimal checks if you go with our bid.

[timnufc22]

Ashley brought Newcastle to have some fun and he did for the first year, sitting and drinking with fans at away games. He wanted to be one of the lads and he was accepted.

But as soon as that went following Keegan’s resignation so, it seems, did Ashley’s enthusiasm. The knight in shining armour had been knocked off his horse by King Kev.

He is abused and he is resented and he knows it. He is a very rich man, but why should he continue to spend his own money to bring success to a club and supporters who have made it perfectly clear they don’t like, thank or respect him?

 

That struck home. Unfortunately it's his club and as it says further up in the article, he now wants the club to be self-financing without putting in any more of his own money. Not a situation which will make fans happy but unless there's genuine interest from outside buyers then we'll just have to suck it and see.

 

That in bold just totally baffles me, it really does. So why do the fans resent him? What are the reasons? Oh aye, because he lied to them for starters when selling those 3year season tickets! If you wanna talk about when his bubble burst, he forced out the manager, a legend who had managed to restore confidence for fans & players, by lying to him and allowing him to be completely undermined by Dennis bloody Wise. Even when he was given the chance to sort it out he chose to keep Wise on. From then he's made one stupid decision to another, with a fair amount of piss taking along the way (sports direct on the gallowgate roof, allowing his mate to publically slag off people like Alan Shearer, and the fans regurlaly). The fiasco with Keegan showed the amount of class Ashley & his cronies have, because they still act completely devoid of it up till now. So guess what? He's not respected! Shock Horror!

[AyeDubbleYoo]

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/sport/lukeedwards/100018321/what-does-mike-ashley-actually-want-to-achieve-with-newcastle-united/

 

Good read.

 

Probably pretty much correct, and what TRon says about his motivation changing is also near the mark IMO. When he arrived he probably had great hopes, but it went wrong so drastically and quickly that he's now going for much more modest aims.

 

That said, I don't think you can conclude that he "only wants to keep us in the premier league". I think it's more likely that he wants us to be competitive and make progress, but now that has to be within certain financial limits. Which will obviously make it harder. He;s a competitor and a gambler, I don't think he will be specifically aiming for low mediocrity.

 

And the profit in the transfer market is pretty irrelevant unless reported alongside the wider profit and loss for the whole club over a number of years. Not sure why Edwards feels the need to include it, wilfully ignoring the bigger picture really.

 

 

[colinmk]

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/sport/lukeedwards/100018321/what-does-mike-ashley-actually-want-to-achieve-with-newcastle-united/

 

Good read.

 

Probably pretty much correct, and what TRon says about his motivation changing is also near the mark IMO. When he arrived he probably had great hopes, but it went wrong so drastically and quickly that he's now going for much more modest aims.

 

That said, I don't think you can conclude that he "only wants to keep us in the premier league". I think it's more likely that he wants us to be competitive and make progress, but now that has to be within certain financial limits. Which will obviously make it harder. He;s a competitor and a gambler, I don't think he will be specifically aiming for low mediocrity.

 

And the profit in the transfer market is pretty irrelevant unless reported alongside the wider profit and loss for the whole club over a number of years. Not sure why Edwards feels the need to include it, wilfully ignoring the bigger picture really.

 

 

 

A decent gambler will know when to cut his losses. He has been on a non-stop losing streak with us. Let's just hope the next person is someone who wants to lay decent foundations rather than constantly gamble with the clubs fortunes.

 

 

[AyeDubbleYoo]

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/sport/lukeedwards/100018321/what-does-mike-ashley-actually-want-to-achieve-with-newcastle-united/

 

Good read.

 

Probably pretty much correct, and what TRon says about his motivation changing is also near the mark IMO. When he arrived he probably had great hopes, but it went wrong so drastically and quickly that he's now going for much more modest aims.

 

That said, I don't think you can conclude that he "only wants to keep us in the premier league". I think it's more likely that he wants us to be competitive and make progress, but now that has to be within certain financial limits. Which will obviously make it harder. He;s a competitor and a gambler, I don't think he will be specifically aiming for low mediocrity.

 

And the profit in the transfer market is pretty irrelevant unless reported alongside the wider profit and loss for the whole club over a number of years. Not sure why Edwards feels the need to include it, wilfully ignoring the bigger picture really.

 

 

 

A decent gambler will know when to cut his losses. He has been on a non-stop losing streak with us. Let's just hope the next person is someone who wants to lay decent foundations rather than constantly gamble with the clubs fortunes.

 

 

You could argue that "laying decent foundations" is exactly what he's doing now.