Mike Ashley

[Lotus]

Mashley is a chancer and a bullshitter. He's done very, very well with those 'qualities' in the world of budget sports retail. Being a chancer he values it in other people. Its a characteristic he recognises and, for him, has worked very well. So the people he's drawn to are other chancers and bullshitters. Llambias, Pardew and Kinnear. People like Hughton or Keegan are an anathema to him, doesn't understand them.

 

Newchancer United

[B-more Mag]

That's probably pretty close to the mark. I don't buy the "he's a good businessman, therefore he must act rationally" theory. He's demonstrated that he doesn't work that way. To him, it's his club and he's going to do whatever the fuck he wants with it. I think ask he really cares about its that it spins off some benefit to his greater commercial enterprise. He doesn't seem to care for the club's stand-alonr success.

[Guest Bert Shaft]

Q/... Mike Ashley would not employ an unhinged individual as manager at one of his shops so why is he employing the Nurse Ratched dodger Kinnear at our club.

 

A/... To piss us all off and for no other reason.

 

I console myself with the thought, what comes around  goes around (and it will).

 

 

 

[Stuy_O]

Think both arguments are valid. He may want complete control but a director of football? and then Joe Kinnear for the job? His decision making looks like pure piss taking half the time.

 

When we finished 5th that was the time for me, he had the chance to prove if he wanted us to progress to the next level, and he proved his point and then some.

[Dave]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2343894/Dennis-Wise-Tony-Jimenez-court-case.html

Former England football star Dennis Wise handed over £500,000 to his former friend to invest in a French golf course because 'I trusted him,' he told the High Court on Tuesday.

 

He claimed the former pal property developer Tony Jimenez promised him a three to five per cent shareholding in the luxury Les Bordes golf and resort in the Le Voire valley outside Paris.

 

But he agreed that his investment was just a 'speck' in the 66 million Euros the resort cost to buy and develop.

 

But the 46-year-old former Chelsea and Wimbledon midfielder giving evidence on the second day of his claim for the return of the money said he had no documents to prove that he had been offered the shares on the development.

 

He claims 50-year-old Mr Jimenez told him he would get the shares in the project and he accepted his word because he trusted him.

 

His former close pal and godfather to his son claims the money only gave him an equitable share in the development and was a long term investment. He says he was never a shareholder.

 

But Mr Wise told Deputy Judge Miss Penelope Reed QC: 'I am telling the truth.'

 

He claimed other witnesses who claim the loan was not a personal one but was put through an investment company CD Investments – the initials standing for his wife Claire and Dennis – for tax reasons were telling lies.

 

Wise claims he has got nothing for his July 2007 investment and now wants his money back.

 

But CD Investments has now gone bust and the court must decide if the money ever belonged to the company or whether as Wise claims it was his alone and the company just acted as a conduit to transfer the money to Jimenez, known as 'Mr Fixit' in the football and property world.

 

He said at the time in July 2007: 'we were very close and I believed him.' He added : 'I trusted him.'

 

Their friendship dates back to when Mr Jimenez helped Dennis - who won 21 caps for England - get jobs as manager at Swindon and as an executive on the management team at Newcastle where Jimenez was vice president and the pair were known as the 'cockney mafia.'

 

The court was told that when Mr Jimenez sought to buy the run down Le Bordes golf course for 26 million Euros he offered his pal a 'piece of the action.'

 

But his £500,000 was just a small part of the tens of millions of pounds worth of investment with another 40 million euros needed to make it into the 'prestige valuable beautiful real estate' it now was. Now described as Europe’s No 1 course.

 

Lawrence Power, counsel for Mr Jimenez, claimed Wise knew it was a long term investment. There was no mischief. The money had not disappeared.

 

Mr Power said his arguments were just a 'sham' which 'defies logic,' and that evidence from Mr Wise was not credible.

 

Mr Jimenez is asking the judge to dismiss the claim in its entirety and also order Mr Wise to pay the legal costs, already approaching £1million.

 

The hearing, set to last all week, continues.

 

Some real good characters have been involved with NUFC in the Ashley era like.

[jimmymag]

I just think his main problem is that his techniques of running businesses like Sports Direct, and his personality as a manager/owner, do not translate very well to football. 

 

Eh?

 

He employs the best available to run Sports Direct. Their financial results over a long period prove that.

 

The opposite seems to apply with the "team" he's assembled to run NUFC. We can only speculate on the reasons for this, but logic and his usual business acumen don't seem to apply.

 

 

 

 

[samag]

When Kinnear was at Wimbledon they brought in players very cheap lots of free transfers then sold them on for a profit. This is what Ashley wants, just on a bigger scale than Wimbledon did it. So appoint Kinnear to make sure this policy is carried out.

[WarrenBartonCentrePartin]

When Kinnear was at Wimbledon they brought in players very cheap lots of free transfers then sold them on for a profit. This is what Ashley wants, just on a bigger scale than Wimbledon did it. So appoint Kinnear to make sure this policy is carried out.

 

Interesting.  From whose mouth did you hear that?  Joe Kinnears?

[JH]

"But I am now a dad who can't take his kids to a football game on a Saturday because I am advised that we would be assaulted."

 

Get ready for round two Mike...

[WarrenBartonCentrePartin]

That's it though - he's done it before and he'll do it again - he simply goes into hiding, staying away from SJP until the discontent simmers down.

 

He's a coward.

[Dave]

"But I am now a dad who can't take his kids to a football game on a Saturday because I am advised that we would be assaulted."

 

Get ready for round two Mike...

 

People are resigned to defeat these days IMO.

[Stuy_O]

He released that cheese ball statement when we went down, admitting his mistakes and claiming he'd learned from them, aye right. 

 

I'v said his only concern with us is league status, it's pretty clear. Wouldn't surprise me if he finds all this perversely amusing tbh.

[Darth Crooks]

After the naming rights/Keegan/Kinnearmk1and2 debacles I don't know how anyone can think he holds us with anything other than contempt; even if those decsions are made on the grounds of supposed 'sound business practice'.

[David28]

"But I am now a dad who can't take his kids to a football game on a Saturday because I am advised that we would be assaulted."

 

Get ready for round two Mike...

 

People are resigned to defeat these days IMO.

 

Agree. It's not like 2008 when KK resigned anymore.

 

Don't get me wrong, I'll support and love NUFC - always - I'll be there at SJP for our first home match of the next season hopefully and will be cheering them on but, the spark, that kind of passion that once was - it's not there just this moment of time.

 

I think once Ashley fucks off it'll be back 100%. Till then, it's turn off the on field actions, support the 11 players on the pitch...

[Belfast Mags]

After the naming rights/Keegan/Kinnearmk1and2 debacles I don't know how anyone can think he holds us with anything other than contempt; even if those decsions are made on the grounds of supposed 'sound business practice'.

 

Even if you had a niggling doubt, it's been completely and utterly removed in the last 48 hours.

He fucking hates us with a passion. He's a piss artist, openly mocking us with our own club.

It's disgusting.

[Ishmael]

Would be better if the thread was titled just "Michael."

[samag]

When Kinnear was at Wimbledon they brought in players very cheap lots of free transfers then sold them on for a profit. This is what Ashley wants, just on a bigger scale than Wimbledon did it. So appoint Kinnear to make sure this policy is carried out.

 

Interesting.  From whose mouth did you hear that?  Joe Kinnears?

no just old enough to remember Wimbledon , our own Warren Barton was typical  example of how Wimbledon use to work in those days.

[Belfast Mags]

Why are we talking about Wimbledon 

 

Christ on a bike.

[Guest chopey]

Just a quick side point here, Kinnear is not a healthy man, he looks like he has just been dragged out of the Tyne with his greasy hair and ill fitting suits, he needs protecting from himself, but Ashley is quite willing to put him in the firing line to meet his own selfish needs what ever they might be, this job will kill this old fella and although the Newcastle fans will get the blame the ball will be firmly in Ashleys court for putting this old fool in the position in the first place.

[Dave]

Has Kinnear actually been seen in public since all this? He claims he's never been fitter.

 

Which admittedly means he's probably in a wheelchair and isn't allowed on Ryanair flights.

[Interpolic]

Just a quick side point here, Kinnear is not a healthy man, he looks like he has just been dragged out of the Tyne with his greasy hair and ill fitting suits, he needs protecting from himself, but Ashley is quite willing to put him in the firing line to meet his own selfish needs what ever they might be, this job will kill this old fella and although the Newcastle fans will get the blame the ball will be firmly in Ashleys court for putting this old fool in the position in the first place.

 

This has crossed my mind like.  Despicable that Ashley's willing to wheel his mate out to take this much flak when he's clearly got a screw loose.

[Deuce]

Mike Ashley’s voice has only ever been heard once in public.

 

It is the 2008 instalment of the BBC TV Comic Relief telethon. The nation is watching the Celebrity Apprentice, and Louise Redknapp is seeking charitable donations from pals.

 

She puts a call in from the back of a London taxi. "So, Mike, could I tempt you into buying some tickets and giving us some money, please? There are some people who have given us £200 for a ticket and other people have given us over £30,000 for some tickets," she says over the speaker phone.

 

"Really? Right, three tickets, I'll give you £100,000," squeaks out a southern accent of the type that meets with disapproval in Tyneside streets. The voice might be unfamiliar, but the impetuousness of the snap decision is not.

 

"What an amazing man,” Redknapp says as she hangs up. Others might voice amazement in describing Ashley, though perhaps not in the sense the fragrant former Eternal songstress meant.

 

Joe Kinnear's return to Newcastle United is the latest piece of Ashley astonishment. Even if it is a reprise of a previous routine, it has been no less effective in its achievement of shock and awe. Actions will always drown out words in Ashley’s world.

 

The simplest formula to successfully owning Newcastle is to keep the Toon Army happy. In the early days, hundreds of Newcastle fans were treated to largesse when the Ashley credit card was placed behind city-centre bars. They all laughed with him, too, when he was caught illegally necking a pint in the stands at Arsenal.

 

It seemed he just wanted to be one of the lads, a status cemented when he returned Geordie Messiah Kevin Keegan to the manager’s job. However, the unwinding of that regime was a prelude to a tenure in which the owner’s decisions have almost always been inimical to popularity and sanity.

 

When you are a self-made billionaire, the angry complaints of 52,000 football fans would not seem to matter. “Hughton is a Geordie” was the ultimate accolade the Toon Army could bestow on Chris Hughton, but he was removed within weeks of a 5-1 thrashing of Sunderland, despite his newly-promoted team punching well above its weight.

 

United went into their penultimate match of the 2012-13 season with relegation a real prospect. Who better to turn the ship around than a 66-year-old whose management took them to the brink of their relegation of 2008-9?

 

The overriding suspicion is that Kinnear is a Trojan horse to smoke Alan Pardew out from his eight-year contract. Only at Ashley’s Newcastle could a long-term deal be the source of such doubt.

 

Gustavo Poyet, looking for work after suspension and fall-outs at Brighton, is now being linked with Newcastle. Poyet is a friend and former team-mate of Dennis Wise, the member of the “Cockney Mafia” whose presence was the first indication of the Keegan revival going awry.

 

On the face of it, one of the keys to reviving Newcastle is to build a bridge to their sizeable Francophone clique. However, in the unlikely event of Kinnear ever saying “pardon my French”, he will not be referring to his incorrect use of a participe passe.

 

We live in an era where the director of football is finally becoming acceptable in the English game. Andre Villas-Boas has requested one at Tottenham Hotspur, and is expected to work with Franco Baldini. Even Tony Pulis combined well with John Rudge at Stoke City. Sir Bobby Robson used to manage in tandem with Gordon Milne at St James’ Park, but the three names mentioned are discreet operators who sought to take a back seat rather than making their voices loudly heard.

 

Kinnear is not that type of man. He quit such a role at Oxford United in 2001 because of frustration at a lack of day-to-day involvement, and exited calling fans “muppets” in a fashion similar to the now notorious talkSPORT interview on Monday night that almost crashed Twitter with its hilarity.

 

“Some are talking out of their backsides, a load of tosh,” he said when asked to deliver his message to doubtful fans. “I'm not accepting it, as simple as that. I have certainly got more intelligence than them, that’s a fact.”

 

X-rated press conferences, mangling of names, tall tales and angry settling of scores are hardly compelling indicators of suitability for a job that is presumably one of considerable responsibility. Neither is there evidence of any semblance of an embracing of football modernity, yet Kinnear returns as Ashley’s man, and one whose football judgment the owner supposedly values above all others.

 

“What I'm saying is that I've got my finger in the pie halfway around the world,” Kinnear said on Sunday, a sentence that makes as little sense as his return to Newcastle.

 

Then again, we are not Mike Ashley. Billionaires do not make their impossible fortunes by being nice or following the rules that others do. Popular does not necessarily mean profitable. Neither, seemingly, does sensible.

 

The fans at St James' may hate him for his seeming desire to make theirs the most mocked club in football but, as they walk to and from the stadium, they must head past a branch of SportsDirect, the flagship company that belches out pile-em-high-sell-it-cheap sportswear to the masses. Those who wear a replica shirt must do so with the legend 'Wonga' emblazoned across their chests. A city riven by unemployment and economic problems has its most famous asset serving as an advertising board for a loan company that offers an APR of 4214%.

 

Why must Ashley do things like employing Joe Kinnear? How does he get away with it? Because he can. He bought the club without due diligence and paid the price of front-loaded sponsorships. He messed around managers and bore the shame of relegation. The opportunity cost of Kinnear’s return is likely to be Pardew’s departure and yet more instability. And Newcastle fans must suffer yet another spate of theirs being a comedic crisis club.

 

Before he became involved in football, Ashley was personified in the business world as a recluse, Britain’s answer to Howard Hughes. Perhaps the hasty purchase of Newcastle in 2007 was his way of showing that he does cut his fingernails and hair, and does not sleep on a bed of Kleenex tissues.

 

It is as plausible an explanation as any for his utterly bizarre stewardship of a football club. Louise Redknapp was right. She still is. Mike Ashley never ceases to amaze.

 

http://espnfc.com/blog/_/name/espnfcunited/id/6976?cc=5901

[Stuy_O]

good times.

[Deuce]

Would anyone stomach relegation if it meant Ashley sold the club?

[WarrenBartonCentrePartin]

"But I am now a dad who can't take his kids to a football game on a Saturday because I am advised that we would be assaulted."

 

Get ready for round two Mike...

 

People are resigned to defeat these days IMO.

 

Agree. It's not like 2008 when KK resigned anymore.

 

Don't get me wrong, I'll support and love NUFC - always - I'll be there at SJP for our first home match of the next season hopefully and will be cheering them on but, the spark, that kind of passion that once was - it's not there just this moment of time.

 

I think once Ashley f***s off it'll be back 100%. Till then, it's turn off the on field actions, support the 11 players on the pitch...

 

That's what he wants.  Money in the coffers from fans in the belief it'll all simmer down.

 

He's not fucking off anywhere anytime soon.