Mike Ashley

[loki679]

 

Yet another 'sovereign state' we can't compete with because they have an owner who is a billioniaire... Leicester City.

 

www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/27387616

 

Leicester City: Billionaire owner 'will spend £180m' to make top five

 

Newly-promoted Leicester City's owner wants a top-five finish in the Premier League within three years - and will spend the money needed to get there.

 

The Championship title winners have returned to the top flight after a decade-long absence.

 

Billionaire Thai chairman Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha outlined the club's next steps to reporters in Bangkok.

 

He said: "It will take a huge amount of money, possibly 10bn Thai Baht (£180m), to get there. That doesn't put us off."

 

Srivaddhanaprabha added: "I am asking for three years, and we'll be there.

 

"We won't take the huge leap to challenge the league's top five clubs immediately.

 

"Do we have a chance to beat them? Yes, we have, but I think we need to establish our foothold in the league first and then we think about our next step.

 

Nigel Pearson's side collected 102 points on their way to landing the Championship title. And the manager shares his chairman's optimism

.

"The important thing is we're going with a belief that we can achieve," he said after showing off the Championship trophy to fans in the Thai capital.

 

"It's important we continue to improve everything about ourselves. So, we can challenge for the top five. But, of course, one step at the time."

 

Leicester have qualified for Europe three times, most recently as the 2000 League Cup winners. They went out of the 2000-01 Uefa Cup in the first round, losing 4-2 on aggregate to Red Star Belgrade of Serbia.

 

Srivaddhanaprabha's consortium took over at Leicester in 2010.

 

This is part of the problem in football these days. One owner decides to write off 180M as part of a pet project without any business justification to the project and the market is dramatically and artificially corrupted. What will Etihad's response be to this....spend 250M to defend their position and then a clubs reasonable budget of 50M is suddenly reduced to an insignificant amount.

 

Based on our current profit level we could spend £150m over the next 3 years and still be in the black.  Can't compete with the likes of Leicester though.

 

We could spend £255m over the next 3 seasons or £290m in the next 2 seasons and still pass the FFP tests.

 

Compared to other teams we're in a ridiculously good position and should be blowing them out of the water in the transfer market.  If the club had any semblance of ambition we would be.

[Wullie]

And obviously we could afford a fucking top manager, somebody who wants a Premier League challenge like De Boer. Not a fucking third tier reject getting his bus fare.

[Optimistic Nut]

You say it's a problem, but without that money, Leicester would never be more than a lower Premier League club.

[brummie]

How fucking depressing is this for all concerned?

 

Interesting, good points about FFP, too.

 

The ladders have been pulled up.

 

http://www.thejournal.co.uk/sport/sport-opinion/agenda-aston-villa-experience-alter-7116825?

 

The Agenda: Will Aston Villa experience alter the NUFC ownership agenda?

 

Sources reckon Newcastle United might be for sale - but so are half the Premier League clubs reports chief sports writer Mark Douglas

 

Before a ball is kicked, here is a key Premier League date to mark on your diary next season: December 12.

 

It looks nondescript: a festive Friday half-way through next year’s top flight campaign. Nothing will have been settled and Christmas, as we found out at St James’ Park and the Stadium of Light last season, can lead us to jump to false conclusions. But all of the key power brokers in the Premier League will be awaiting it with anticipation.

 

December 12 is the midwinter point of the season when the top flight authorities expect to announce which clubs have breached their own version of Financial Fair Play. With points deductions and massive fines in the offing for transgressors, it could be a defining moment in the history of the league.

 

It is also the most relevant answer to the oft-repeated question that reverberates around Tyneside: why won’t someone spot the latent potential of Newcastle United and buy out Mike Ashley?

 

A question that has been on the lips of United fans since Ashley’s reign first ran into turbulence in 2008, is currently being voiced in England’s second city, where Randy Lerner has heeded calls from Aston Villa supporters and placed the club on the market.

 

The weariness was etched all over Lerner’s statement confirming the sale. “The last several seasons have been week-in, week-out battles,” he said. Those are sentiments that many in the North East, bruised and battered by a season that has curdled into discontent, would surely recognise.

 

And the interest in events in Birmingham should not end there for Newcastle supporters, for this is the first major club to go on the market (officially at least) in the era of Financial Fair Play. With so little incentive for a big backer to come in, it will be intriguing to see what kind of interest Lerner gets in Villa.

 

It is six years now since Ashley first put Newcastle on the market and in hindsight, that might have been the last time for a decade or so when a rich benefactor with eyes on creating a Manchester City-style project might have seen the potential of the Magpies.

 

Back then, a tycoon with an unlimited budget could have supplied a transfer warchest of hundreds of millions, if he was so minded, in a push for the top four without any threat of sanctions from the authorities.

 

Sound deluded? It shouldn’t because that is exactly what Lerner did, supplying Villa’s then-boss Martin O’Neill with the funds to launch a £200million assault on the top four. They came up just shy, Lerner’s largesse was dwarfed by new riches at Manchester City, and Villa’s dream turned into a grinding reality. If he has his way, it will end this summer.

 

But why would anyone try to do it when FFP makes it so difficult to quickly catch up? From this year, clubs will only be allowed to post losses of £15million over three seasons – or face a points deduction. A generous owner can combat that in the short-term by turning his own investment into equity but from 2016, even that won’t be a defence – the ceiling for losses will be £105million over three seasons. That is why United are justifiably proud of turning around their financial situation. Their accounts mean that December 12 will pass without incident for them, and they will be free to compete in Europe – if they so wish.

 

But it is also why Ashley does not anticipate any interest in Newcastle United this or in future summers.

 

Even if there are prospective owners out there, the new regulations are a fly in the ointment when it comes to selling clubs of substance.

 

Former Aston Villa boss Graham Taylor was on Tyneside last week at a Nike-sponsored sportsman’s lunch, and knows all about the potential of a sleeping giant. His take is that in the boardrooms of Premier League clubs outside the top four, they are fully aware that the regulations make a difference. “Financial Fair Play does change the landscape, there is no doubt,” he said.

 

“Supporters have to understand you can no longer do what Randy did when he first arrived at Villa and invest such huge sums in the team.

 

“We now have a limit as to how much these people can put a club into debt without incurring serious sanctions.

 

“When you start to take on some of these owners in a financial sense, it doesn’t necessarily mean you are going to win. It’s going to be very difficult to catch up.”

 

It is this sort of logic that has informed some of Ashley’s decisions in the last few months. It is also why the club continue to insist they are building for a long-term, sustainable future rather than aping Lerner and looking for any kind of public escape route.

 

That does not mean things are not happening in the background. The Journal understands that someone with knowledge of Newcastle United and Premier League affairs claimed on Monday, in a rather off-hand sort of way, that the club is up for sale.

 

This might sound like a front-page splash given the interest that buzzes around Newcastle on a daily basis, but it comes with a caveat: the same character reckons the club are one of between “10 or 12” Premier League sides in a virtually identical position.

 

They are all up for sale in that the owners are quite prepared to part with the club if the asking price is met, but they are continuing to operate as if that eventuality might never come. There is none of the fuss or urgency that came out of Villa Park yesterday, but they could all be prised quite easily from the grasp of their current custodians by someone with a big bank balance and a burning desire to lay their hands on a Premier League club.

 

Ashley does not appear to be encouraging interest in Newcastle, but pressure is starting to be applied. Anecdotal evidence – always difficult to pin down until the numbers become readily available via the club’s official accounts – suggests that many have refused to renew their season tickets after the campaign that just played out.

 

More intriguing will be the effect that the poor season and negative publicity might have had on corporate sales, so often a driver of commercial revenue. Given that Ashley has shown an interest in the corporate market in the past, he may need to act to correct this. Early indications are that all boxes have been sold, which would be a surprising show of faith.

 

Similarly, United’s attempt at staging a major concert in the summer – Kings of Leon are coming to St James’ Park – will be intriguing. Money made from this can be poured into the club as additional commercial revenue, which will be critical under FFP rules.

 

In the meantime, we should observe events in Birmingham with interest piqued. If Villa limp on into next season with Lerner still at the helm, it will confirm that the landscape has changed – and that Ashley’s Magpie marriage of convenience might drag on.

[NG32]

Intersting 

[TRon]

FFP means nothing to us, we are flush with cash. We are one of the few clubs that can afford to spend on players and a real football manager. We could easily pay for a proper DoF as well rather than promoting pissheads and secretaries. I doubt Ashley takes much notice about what's going on up here though. He might take his nose out of the Financial Times to check SD share prices if we look like getting relegated next season though. He'll be well pissed at having to address the football side of things again.

[Guest Bert Shaft]

FFP means nothing to us, we are flush with cash.

 

We aren't like. Fatty is stashing all the profits away into his back pocket because its his club and he can.

 

If Newcastle spend £15m this summer we will be lucky.

 

[NG32]

Taking over the world  :lol:

[NG32]

FFP means nothing to us, we are flush with cash. We are one of the few clubs that can afford to spend on players and a real football manager. We could easily pay for a proper DoF as well rather than promoting pissheads and secretaries. I doubt Ashley takes much notice about what's going on up here though. He might take his nose out of the Financial Times to check SD share prices if we look like getting relegated next season though. He'll be well p*ssed at having to address the football side of things again.

 

May be he is waiting for to spend the cash in jan after the FFp kicks in and we are loaded!!!

 

[Wallace]

Surely the success of Sports Direct on the back of NUFC would appeal to potential buyers wanting to promote their brand.

 

 

[Matt]

Surely the success of Sports Direct on the back of NUFC would appeal to potential buyers wanting to promote their brand.

 

The success of Sports Direct has little to do with NUFC and much more to do with the collapse of all its main competitors coupled with the relentless thirst of the British people to buy low-grade clobber for knock-down prices.

[nufc4eva]

FFP means nothing to us, we are flush with cash. We are one of the few clubs that can afford to spend on players and a real football manager. We could easily pay for a proper DoF as well rather than promoting pissheads and secretaries. I doubt Ashley takes much notice about what's going on up here though. He might take his nose out of the Financial Times to check SD share prices if we look like getting relegated next season though. He'll be well p*ssed at having to address the football side of things again.

 

May be he is waiting for to spend the cash in jan after the FFp kicks in and we are loaded!!!

 

 

Maybe he is a genius and had the vision to see this and will blow the others out of the water, can't see it though

[Guest antz1uk]

Surely the success of Sports Direct on the back of NUFC would appeal to potential buyers wanting to promote their brand.

 

The success of Sports Direct has little to do with NUFC and much more to do with the collapse of all its main competitors coupled with the relentless thirst of the British people to buy low-grade clobber for knock-down prices.

[TBG]

Has the Sports Direct shit tip in Eldon Square closed for good?

[Guest reefatoon]

Has the Sports Direct s*** tip in Eldon Square closed for good?

 

Aye, he has moved his monstrosity onto Northumberland Street now, looks disgraceful.

[Dave]

Surely the success of Sports Direct on the back of NUFC would appeal to potential buyers wanting to promote their brand.

 

The success of Sports Direct has little to do with NUFC and much more to do with the collapse of all its main competitors coupled with the relentless thirst of the British people to buy low-grade clobber for knock-down prices.

 

It can't harm though, or else other companies wouldn't be willing to pay tens of millions of pounds for Premier League sponsorship.

[Elliottman]

Surely the success of Sports Direct on the back of NUFC would appeal to potential buyers wanting to promote their brand.

 

The success of Sports Direct has little to do with NUFC and much more to do with the collapse of all its main competitors coupled with the relentless thirst of the British people to buy low-grade clobber for knock-down prices.

 

Hasnt it just reported records overseas profits?

[Zero]

i think the key point is there are a number of clubs that may face serious point reduction next season if they failed to meet the FFP. But they could do nth other than a fire sale to prevent it.

 

is that a chance to pick up bargains from other clubs then?

[Guest firetotheworks]

I'll be astounded if the FFP rules don't just end up punishing the smaller teams and ignoring the likes of Man City and Chelsea. There's no way that that will be allowed to happen, even if it would be fair and fucking brilliant.

[Matt]

It can't harm though, or else other companies wouldn't be willing to pay tens of millions of pounds for Premier League sponsorship.

 

NUFC giving advertising away free won't harm SD at all, but there's it's probably 1% of the wider story.

[Superior Acuña]

Shouldnt FFP benefit us and make us more attractive to buy than most clubs because we generate a higher.income than most outside top 4 due to our stadium and relative fame

 

(E.g. i was in tokyo recently and its still our top you can buy along with the top 4+manu) (moreso stadium though)

 

 

Im not well informed on this though.

[Sifu]

Sports Direct on Watchdog tonight.

[nufc4eva]

FFP may also increase cost of players in this country as clubs bound to it look to maximise revenue to allow them to buy. Teams like Chelsea and Man City will get around it somehow.

 

Teams like us need to be better at bringing players through and look to bring in players to develop rather than finished article. To be fair to the fat one, he has us in a fantastic position financially and looking on our way to being self sufficient, however he now needs to release some funds and get the right setup in terms of manager, first team, squad and youth setup to take advantage of it and set us up long term.

[Guest JS]

I see this cunt is looking at getting 30 gyms off LA fitness now

 

http://www.cityam.com/blog/1400064532/mike-ashley-rumoured-be-close-la-fitness-deal

 

Sports Direct founder Mike Ashley has moved to take on around 30 LA fitness sites, Sky News' City editor, Mark Kleinman, reports.

 

The exuberant billionaire has agreed to offer a parent company guarantee to LA Fitness landlords regarding leases on the gyms, according to sources. One did say, however, that, despite a deal being imminent, things could still come to nothing.

 

33 of the group’s 80 country-wide sites were put up for sale in March. The drastic move part of an overhaul of its struggling group’s finances; it’s trying to reduce its debt burden by around £250m.

 

The transaction would give Ashley, who also owns Newcastle United FC, his break into the fitness market. The sources said that if the deal was successful, it’d likely see him go after an aggressive expansion via other acquisitions.

 

A deal could be announced within days, although Sports Direct may decide not to make a public statement.

[Unbelievable]

FFP