Mike Ashley

[Dogmatix]

I GENUINLEY can't understand Ashley's mentality on Pardew and Kinnear.

Yes, they're cheap. But any worthless material thats cheap won't work properly and will make things worse

As Pardew and Kinnear have proved.

Pardew gets good players and makes them FAR worse. Kinnear is....well, Kinnear

 

Love the pic of - Rob Lee is it ? With the MAOC shirt !

 

I think it's a trust problem.  When Ashley has left people to their own devices it's come back to bite him in the arse in some way.

 

- Allows Allardyce to sign players he wants, ends up stuck with utter rubbish on high wages

- Lets Chris Mort set up a "system", ends up with the manager quitting (rightly) with the others in the system completely despised by the fans and s*** at their jobs

- Gets Llambias to run the club, despised by the fans, extremely hesitant in the transfer market to the point that Ashley apparently has to step in to push through purchases in January, fails completely to increase non-football revenues & signs a sponsorship contract that pisses off everyone

 

I don't know if Pardew was Ashley's mate before getting the job or Llambias' mate.  If it was the latter then it's another reason that Ashley might not trust people to do their jobs, if it's the former then it's probably why he's still here despite being demonstrably out of his depth.

 

For some bizarre reason it looks like he trusts JFK hence why he keeps turning to him despite him being a lunatic.

 

Ultimately Ashley's either going to have to bite the bullet and find someone to run the club that he doesn't know and initially trust but who can actually do the job and who knows how football works or he's going to have to be a lot more hands-on in running the club.

 

I think you're very close to the mark.

 

Generally in his business dealings he works with people who he has known from the very start, or has known over time and promoted. It's clearly a fkn nightmare getting people in he feels comfortable with, and then when he does they turn out to have gained his trust by basically bullshitting just how good they are in a field he knows practically sod all about.

 

I saw Sir John Hall on TV the other day for the unveiling of the gates & thought he's exactly what the club needs at this point, Ashley should beg him to come in and run things, then I realised that Ashley hates him and Shepherd for not disclosing some of the debts that needed to be repaid when the club was sold, etc.

 

Sir John is 80 now and has Prostate cancer - there is NO way he could run the club now and after he stepped down as Chairman for health reasons in 1997, there were plenty of people who were prepared to rubbish his contribution by saying he only did it for the money.....

 

Would YOU want all that again at 80....?? He was, and remains, the best Chairman/owner that NUFC have ever had and we will be lucky to get anyone similar in the foreseeable future.

 

  Remind me, who was it that sold the club to Ashley, and told us he was the best man for the job

 

[Kanj]

I GENUINLEY can't understand Ashley's mentality on Pardew and Kinnear.

Yes, they're cheap. But any worthless material thats cheap won't work properly and will make things worse

As Pardew and Kinnear have proved.

Pardew gets good players and makes them FAR worse. Kinnear is....well, Kinnear

 

Love the pic of - Rob Lee is it ? With the MAOC shirt !

 

I think it's a trust problem.  When Ashley has left people to their own devices it's come back to bite him in the arse in some way.

 

- Allows Allardyce to sign players he wants, ends up stuck with utter rubbish on high wages

- Lets Chris Mort set up a "system", ends up with the manager quitting (rightly) with the others in the system completely despised by the fans and s*** at their jobs

- Gets Llambias to run the club, despised by the fans, extremely hesitant in the transfer market to the point that Ashley apparently has to step in to push through purchases in January, fails completely to increase non-football revenues & signs a sponsorship contract that pisses off everyone

 

I don't know if Pardew was Ashley's mate before getting the job or Llambias' mate.  If it was the latter then it's another reason that Ashley might not trust people to do their jobs, if it's the former then it's probably why he's still here despite being demonstrably out of his depth.

 

For some bizarre reason it looks like he trusts JFK hence why he keeps turning to him despite him being a lunatic.

 

Ultimately Ashley's either going to have to bite the bullet and find someone to run the club that he doesn't know and initially trust but who can actually do the job and who knows how football works or he's going to have to be a lot more hands-on in running the club.

 

I think you're very close to the mark.

 

Generally in his business dealings he works with people who he has known from the very start, or has known over time and promoted. It's clearly a fkn nightmare getting people in he feels comfortable with, and then when he does they turn out to have gained his trust by basically bullshitting just how good they are in a field he knows practically sod all about.

 

I saw Sir John Hall on TV the other day for the unveiling of the gates & thought he's exactly what the club needs at this point, Ashley should beg him to come in and run things, then I realised that Ashley hates him and Shepherd for not disclosing some of the debts that needed to be repaid when the club was sold, etc.

 

Sir John is 80 now and has Prostate cancer - there is NO way he could run the club now and after he stepped down as Chairman for health reasons in 1997, there were plenty of people who were prepared to rubbish his contribution by saying he only did it for the money.....

 

Would YOU want all that again at 80....?? He was, and remains, the best Chairman/owner that NUFC have ever had and we will be lucky to get anyone similar in the foreseeable future.

 

  Remind me, who was it that sold the club to Ashley, and told us he was the best man for the job

 

 

He like many (all) of us saw a great business opportunity coupled with what he thought was an ambitious owner man.

 

Give the fuck over if you think Sir John would ever have OK' selling the club to Mike Ashley if he was able to forsee how its gone on since then.

[loki679]

I love SJH Kanji but that's rubbish.  He knew exactly what FMA was buying the club for.

[quayside]

I too really appreciate what SJH did for our club. Sure he saw an opportunity and he made a great deal of money from it but the club needed someone with the drive and imagination to put it back on the map again. And he did it.

 

He sold out to Ashley because he was the only buyer around who would jump in. It was well publicised that SJH was looking to sell. Potential buyers (Belgravia and Polygon were named) had looked at buying NUFC, but none of them wanted to proceed. Bearing in mind that at the time of Ashley buying the club, we were in the process of racking up total losses of £45 million for 2006 and 2007 it is not surprising that no one was prepared to take it on. The club was in a desparate financial state and needed something to happen. Not only were we making huge losses but we had bank borrowings secured against every available asset at punitive interest rates. Ashley did the deal seemingly without being too bothered about detailed investigation. And as we all know he has funded it himself ever since for better or worse.

[Benwell Lad]

I too really appreciate what SJH did for our club. Sure he saw an opportunity and he made a great deal of money from it but the club needed someone with the drive and imagination to put it back on the map again. And he did it.

 

He sold out to Ashley because he was the only buyer around who would jump in. It was well publicised that SJH was looking to sell. Potential buyers (Belgravia and Polygon were named) had looked at buying NUFC, but none of them wanted to proceed. Bearing in mind that at the time of Ashley buying the club, we were in the process of racking up total losses of £45 million for 2006 and 2007 it is not surprising that no one was prepared to take it on. The club was in a desparate financial state and needed something to happen. Not only were we making huge losses but we had bank borrowings secured against every available asset at punitive interest rates. Ashley did the deal seemingly without being too bothered about detailed investigation. And as we all know he has funded it himself ever since for better or worse.

 

Be careful mate, sanity could soon be a banning offence on here.

[merlin]

I GENUINLEY can't understand Ashley's mentality on Pardew and Kinnear.

Yes, they're cheap. But any worthless material thats cheap won't work properly and will make things worse

As Pardew and Kinnear have proved.

Pardew gets good players and makes them FAR worse. Kinnear is....well, Kinnear

 

Love the pic of - Rob Lee is it ? With the MAOC shirt !

 

I think it's a trust problem.  When Ashley has left people to their own devices it's come back to bite him in the arse in some way.

 

- Allows Allardyce to sign players he wants, ends up stuck with utter rubbish on high wages

- Lets Chris Mort set up a "system", ends up with the manager quitting (rightly) with the others in the system completely despised by the fans and s*** at their jobs

- Gets Llambias to run the club, despised by the fans, extremely hesitant in the transfer market to the point that Ashley apparently has to step in to push through purchases in January, fails completely to increase non-football revenues & signs a sponsorship contract that pisses off everyone

 

I don't know if Pardew was Ashley's mate before getting the job or Llambias' mate.  If it was the latter then it's another reason that Ashley might not trust people to do their jobs, if it's the former then it's probably why he's still here despite being demonstrably out of his depth.

 

For some bizarre reason it looks like he trusts JFK hence why he keeps turning to him despite him being a lunatic.

 

Ultimately Ashley's either going to have to bite the bullet and find someone to run the club that he doesn't know and initially trust but who can actually do the job and who knows how football works or he's going to have to be a lot more hands-on in running the club.

 

I think you're very close to the mark.

 

Generally in his business dealings he works with people who he has known from the very start, or has known over time and promoted. It's clearly a fkn nightmare getting people in he feels comfortable with, and then when he does they turn out to have gained his trust by basically bullshitting just how good they are in a field he knows practically sod all about.

 

I saw Sir John Hall on TV the other day for the unveiling of the gates & thought he's exactly what the club needs at this point, Ashley should beg him to come in and run things, then I realised that Ashley hates him and Shepherd for not disclosing some of the debts that needed to be repaid when the club was sold, etc.

 

Sir John is 80 now and has Prostate cancer - there is NO way he could run the club now and after he stepped down as Chairman for health reasons in 1997, there were plenty of people who were prepared to rubbish his contribution by saying he only did it for the money.....

 

Would YOU want all that again at 80....?? He was, and remains, the best Chairman/owner that NUFC have ever had and we will be lucky to get anyone similar in the foreseeable future.

 

  Remind me, who was it that sold the club to Ashley, and told us he was the best man for the job

 

 

Sir John is many things, but being clairvoyant is not one of them - Ashley told him he wanted to make the club more appealing and with a wider world appeal...he's done that hasn't he....NOT.

Ashley got the shares because SJH wouldn't sell to Shepherd - do you wish he had done that instead..?

[merlin]

I love SJH Kanji but that's rubbish.  He knew exactly what FMA was buying the club for.

 

Total rubbish - has he told you that..??

[beardsleymagic]

Bottom line is Mike Ashley is a

                                            Conniving

                                            Untrustworthy

                                            Nasty

                                            Tosser of a man. That is all.

[AlanSkÃrare]

I love SJH Kanji but that's rubbish.  He knew exactly what FMA was buying the club for.

 

Total rubbish - has he told you that..??

 

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

 

Why Mike Ashley?

 

 

I decided to sell my shares because of Abramovich. It took me just over two years. I was in negotiations with some Malaysians when I got a call from another group. They wanted to meet me in London prior to my meeting with the Malaysians. I agreed. I was met at Kings Cross and taken by Rolls Royce to Freshfields and into a packed meeting room where this unnamed parties financial representatives began to make me an offer. I told them that I would honour my meeting with the Malaysians so could not give them an answer. They tried their best to persuade me otherwise but I’m a man of my word. 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. I 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.  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. His subsequent departure caused a few problems and Mike made a mistake listening to the likes of Paul Kelmsley at Spurs. I think he made another mistake bringing back Kevin Keegan. He was yesterdays man, like Dalglish at Liverpool now. It wasn’t a rational decision and he’s had to pay for it.  The appointment of Dennis Wise upset Kevin and the inevitable fallout happened. I thought the local media handled the situation badly and the vilification with headlines such as ‘Get Out Of Toon’ were unjustified. I believe the damage has been done and I believe he will get out of the club when he can, but it will have to suit both the club and him. Mike has the wealth to challenge, but he’s been hurt. He needs to liaise with the fans. I think he made a huge mistake drinking with them in the early days, I think he took some bad advice.

[Dave]

As if it's SJH's fault that Ashley is a wanker.

[AlanSkÃrare]

As if it's SJH's fault that Ashley is a w*****.

 

Not at all. He seemingley knew that MA was aiming to use the club as an advertising vehicle though?

[TRon]

John Hall wanted to sell, I doubt he cared that much whether Ashley was a wanker or not.

[Hughesy]

John Hall wanted to sell, I doubt he cared that much whether Ashley was a w***** or not.

 

This - he just wanted his money.  Having decided the money he had taken out previously wasn't quite enough.

[quayside]

I GENUINLEY can't understand Ashley's mentality on Pardew and Kinnear.

Yes, they're cheap. But any worthless material thats cheap won't work properly and will make things worse

As Pardew and Kinnear have proved.

Pardew gets good players and makes them FAR worse. Kinnear is....well, Kinnear

 

Love the pic of - Rob Lee is it ? With the MAOC shirt !

 

I think it's a trust problem.  When Ashley has left people to their own devices it's come back to bite him in the arse in some way.

 

- Allows Allardyce to sign players he wants, ends up stuck with utter rubbish on high wages

- Lets Chris Mort set up a "system", ends up with the manager quitting (rightly) with the others in the system completely despised by the fans and s*** at their jobs

- Gets Llambias to run the club, despised by the fans, extremely hesitant in the transfer market to the point that Ashley apparently has to step in to push through purchases in January, fails completely to increase non-football revenues & signs a sponsorship contract that pisses off everyone

 

I don't know if Pardew was Ashley's mate before getting the job or Llambias' mate.  If it was the latter then it's another reason that Ashley might not trust people to do their jobs, if it's the former then it's probably why he's still here despite being demonstrably out of his depth.

 

For some bizarre reason it looks like he trusts JFK hence why he keeps turning to him despite him being a lunatic.

 

Ultimately Ashley's either going to have to bite the bullet and find someone to run the club that he doesn't know and initially trust but who can actually do the job and who knows how football works or he's going to have to be a lot more hands-on in running the club.

 

I think you're very close to the mark.

 

Generally in his business dealings he works with people who he has known from the very start, or has known over time and promoted. It's clearly a fkn nightmare getting people in he feels comfortable with, and then when he does they turn out to have gained his trust by basically bullshitting just how good they are in a field he knows practically sod all about.

 

I saw Sir John Hall on TV the other day for the unveiling of the gates & thought he's exactly what the club needs at this point, Ashley should beg him to come in and run things, then I realised that Ashley hates him and Shepherd for not disclosing some of the debts that needed to be repaid when the club was sold, etc.

 

Sir John is 80 now and has Prostate cancer - there is NO way he could run the club now and after he stepped down as Chairman for health reasons in 1997, there were plenty of people who were prepared to rubbish his contribution by saying he only did it for the money.....

 

Would YOU want all that again at 80....?? He was, and remains, the best Chairman/owner that NUFC have ever had and we will be lucky to get anyone similar in the foreseeable future.

 

  Remind me, who was it that sold the club to Ashley, and told us he was the best man for the job

 

 

Sir John is many things, but being clairvoyant is not one of them - Ashley told him he wanted to make the club more appealing and with a wider world appeal...he's done that hasn't he....NOT.

Ashley got the shares because SJH wouldn't sell to Shepherd - do you wish he had done that instead..?

 

An interesting theory, SJH and his family sold their stake to Ashley for more than £50 million. How was Shepherd going to raise anything like the money to compete with that? Bearing in mind that even if anyone would have loaned that sort of money (in 2006/7) they would spend a lot of time going over the finances of what was being bought first. Given the state of the clubs finances no one would have got involved imo. Potential buyers had already had a look and run away. From that quote from SJH above it sounds as though the Malaysians he was talking to were preparing to do due diligence, and wanted 6 weeks to do it. Would that deal have gone through? No such problem with Mike of course....

[Dave]

Newspaper "regrets" racism slur on Mags

 

From the Independent letters page on Monday, under the sub-heading of No racism at St James’ Park:

 

Your recent profile of Mike Ashley (“The best boss in the world?”, 20 July) included a claim that Mr Ashley had heard anti-Semitic chants directed at him from the terraces at St James’ Park. As a fan of Newcastle United, I find this claim deeply offensive and I know other fans agree. The allegation was made without reference to any specific incidents, and I am unaware of any incident having been recorded by the police or other authority.

 

As a regular attendee of games at Newcastle (I and my 10-year-old son are season-ticket holders), I know I speak for many when I say I have not once heard an anti-Semitic chant in our ground, whether directed at Mike Ashley or not. I don’t believe our fans are racist – indeed, we are known to have just about the most inclusive and welcoming fanbase in the country.

 

Chris Lane, Liverpool

 

Editor’s Note: The Independent regrets any offence caused by the inclusion of a quote given to us – and published – in good faith.

 

The offending passage was edited out of the online article following complaints from fans - although some related comments from disgruntled fans were also then deleted.

 

This may not be the end of the matter, with Newcastle United commenting via their official twitter site within hours of the article's publication that:

 

"The club is aware of the article in today's Independent and has referred the matter to its lawyers. Thanks to fans who have raised concerns"

 

As yet there's been no response from author Jim Armitage to email questions about his article - and why he saw fit to dream up a wholly fictional and damaging quote.

[AyeDubbleYoo]

The main problem with Mike Ashley is that he won't spend enough of his money to run a football club properly. Whether that was always his intent, or whether he changed his plans after the fan backlash, is hard to say.

[Dave]

Spending the club's money would be a start.

[AyeDubbleYoo]

Spending the club's money would be a start.

 

I'm not going to get into that discussion again!

[Dave]

Well you make it sound like he'd be doing us a fucking favour.

[Parky]

All that TV money!!! But where will it go?

[Guest neesy111]

All that TV money!!! But where will it go?

 

In a wallet.

[Dr Venkman]

 

All that TV money!!! But where will it go?

 

In a wallet.

 

Too ambiguous, which item if clothing is the wallet in?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TROUSERS

[midds]

Wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if Ashley's taken out another sizeable chunk of money this summer to reduce the club's debt to him. We won't find out until the accounts are published in April (?) obviously.

 

The lack of investment is embarrassing. Not only is he not putting any more cash into the club but he's reluctant to invest the money the club generates itself. Think small, be small.

[TRon]

The only way we will invest money on new players is if we generate big profits on the ones we've got. So in that sense we might be better off selling the likes of Cabaye and hoping it's invested wisely.

[Wullie]

Last year's accounts said that this summer he was due to take £18m out. Whether he has or not remains to be seen.