DJ_NUFC Posted April 30, 2015 Share Posted April 30, 2015 Fantastic write up and summary of what's gone on under this regime, but that last sentence just made me cringeweep. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrmojorisin75 Posted April 30, 2015 Share Posted April 30, 2015 They've lied from the begining...From the moment they arrived they/he had a set plan. unless the man himself comes out and admits that this was his plan from the off i'll not believe that personally, the first few years point to it being f***up central with loads of erratic decision making, it was relegation that sealed our fate as an advertising vehicle imo I honestly think it was the plan from the start, he only has one business model and thats run everything at the bare minimum...Come in, strip the club back and set it up as a self sufficient entity advertising his tatty sports company. I think Sam Allerdayce was binned due to his expensive salary and his management team, they must have looked at it and though it was cheaper to bin the lot when they did, rather than keep him and his cronies on. I also remember a Sam Allaradyce interview and him making plans for new signings...the next minute his is binned. I bet the signings Sam Allardyce was lining were mega expensive and Ashley had enough of him. Once Allardyce was gone they initially flirted with Redknapp, I think Keegan contacted them out of the blue and they thought "great, fans favorite, that'll keep em happy, quids in" . keegan wasn't going to be a mouth piece for Ashley or sports direct, im sure there is a quote or interview where KK says something along the lines of "they just want someone to stand in front of the cameras"... Keegan knew in that preseason things were seriously off, Milner not getting a new contract depiste KK wanting to really keep him. Milner eventually being flogged late in the window and KK not being given the money, only for Xisco and that Gonzales (?) fella to turn up. So again, money in the bank and cheap replacements brought in. I cant remember our net spend but it wasn't that much. Keegan walks, Ashley fumbles about and hires a cheap option of Kinnear. Shay Given is flogged for a fee around 6 million and N'Zogbia moved on. Insufficient replacements come in, Nolan and R Taylor, Kinnear then has serious heart troubles and is replaced on a temp basis by Hughton. By this stage the club is sliding down the league and he hires Shearer for the last 8 games as its panic time. Club gets relegated, Shearer comes up with a plan to get straight back up. Shearer never gets a call back from Ashley, we all presume that the plan was way to expensive for what Ashley wanted. A number of players are sold over the summer to the tune of around 35 mil. Silence form the club all summer, everyone is expecting NUFC to melt to the third division. Hughton gets the job by default/cheap option. Club gets promoted cos Hughton and the players actually care. Since we were promoted, except the season where we finished 5th the paralells with above ring out for me. Players brought in on the cheap, best players sold mid season and club nose dives, manager quits, coach or one of Ashley's lackys gets the gig. All the while rubbish statemes come from the club about this and that, making promises that never appear. Its no coincidence that these things have happened. They come out with "we've learned from our mistake" but do it all again. They are full of it, its no mistake. They run it bare at the bare minimum which is a calculated risk. And in my opinion, I think Carver could still be getting that job. Doesn't explain the correlation between relegation and systematically turning us into an advert for a shop. Everything up to and including relegation were proper fuck ups imo, since then it's been cold, hard business backed up by awful appointments at boardroom and managerial level. Once he twigged he could run the club on a shoestring and coin in the cash from the PL that was that. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
HawK Posted April 30, 2015 Share Posted April 30, 2015 I think it's a fair cop that until the Keegan debacle he wanted us to succeed, had it in for us ever since. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skeletor Posted April 30, 2015 Share Posted April 30, 2015 I think it's a fair cop that until the Keegan debacle he wanted us to succeed, had it in for us ever since. Which he caused by deliberately lying and misleading. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
relámpago blanco Posted April 30, 2015 Share Posted April 30, 2015 I think he bought us planning to put in quite a bit but because we had unstructured debt and he didn't do due diligence he loaned the club a fair amount and then when we turned on him ge probably thought 'fuck it'. Ill just use it to make some more money and as he is quite stubborn as much ad we protest and tell him hes a cunt it is probably more likely he will stay longer as he does not give a shit. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yorkie Posted April 30, 2015 Share Posted April 30, 2015 If Mike Ashley knows nothing about football now, he knew a lot less 8 years ago. The chief aim was probably always Sports Direct but I dare say there was a time where he had some half-arsed vision of bringing glory to the club, simply because he was used to winning. But only by doing it his way. Rather comfortingly (from a neutral, sport-loving perspective), his way is entirely incompatible with footballing success and it resulted in the Keegan fiasco, relegation, and irreparable damage to his popularity. Football, in the traditional sense, completely spat him out and he's given up on the idea ever since - his continued presence in the game only existing to exploit the marketing opportunities it provides. Which was always top of the agenda, in spite of his brief flirtation with the idea of sporting ambition. Since we were relegated, the only decision he's made that came vaguely close to being a football one was the Cisse signing, as the CL money became a tangible possibility. We'll never see anything genuinely progressive like that again; money will be spent only to prevent falling further. We might chance upon success, say if Carver's replacement flukes a 5th - as Hughton's replacement did - but it'll be accidental. Of course, the more likely scenario is we'll continue to asset-strip, become less identified with the club-that-was and - from a physical perspective - tread water until we inevitably get relegated. That is the future under Ashley. But hey, if it gets you away from the old ball n chain for a few hours, who cares? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
angrypirate71 Posted May 1, 2015 Share Posted May 1, 2015 They've lied from the beginning...From the moment they arrived they/he had a set plan. Totally agree with that and your next post down from it, that whole due diligence "mistake" has been bugging more and more based on his behavior of the last 2-3 years. Look at how it has played out - Had to cover a debt he "didn't know" about, so we are now into him for 129m, interest free though, so that's nice. Since then he has shat his company banners out onto every available inch of the ground. Turns out that was a condition for loaning himself/NUFC the money to cover the debt (when did that become public knowledge?) So, several years on, the loan doesn't look like it will disappear, nor does the tacky advertising, in fact it seems to have worked out perfectly for him and his main concern - again. Aye, some mistake that. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth Crooks Posted May 1, 2015 Share Posted May 1, 2015 Aye. It's just another lie in my opinion, to back up the Leeds/Portsmouth argument. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest chopey Posted May 1, 2015 Share Posted May 1, 2015 He hasn't spent 7 years cutting spending and building up a war chest to blow it all this summer, we will only spend what we bring in through sales Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrmojorisin75 Posted May 1, 2015 Share Posted May 1, 2015 If Mike Ashley knows nothing about football now, he knew a lot less 8 years ago. The chief aim was probably always Sports Direct but I dare say there was a time where he had some half-arsed vision of bringing glory to the club, simply because he was used to winning. But only by doing it his way. I think this is probably it, some half-arsed vision of sporting success and advertising for SD which has become twisted into a billboard masquerading as a football club. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
NG32 Posted May 1, 2015 Share Posted May 1, 2015 They've lied from the beginning...From the moment they arrived they/he had a set plan. Totally agree with that and your next post down from it, that whole due diligence "mistake" has been bugging more and more based on his behavior of the last 2-3 years. Look at how it has played out - Had to cover a debt he "didn't know" about, so we are now into him for 129m, interest free though, so that's nice. Since then he has shat his company banners out onto every available inch of the ground. Turns out that was a condition for loaning himself/NUFC the money to cover the debt (when did that become public knowledge?) So, several years on, the loan doesn't look like it will disappear, nor does the tacky advertising, in fact it seems to have worked out perfectly for him and his main concern - again. Aye, some mistake that. Exaclty, they lied from the beginging. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robster Posted May 2, 2015 Share Posted May 2, 2015 I think this man should die a slow, horrible, painful death. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
geordiesteve710 Posted May 2, 2015 Share Posted May 2, 2015 I think this man should die a slow, horrible, painful death. Or worse, make him go to SJP and force him to watch the match. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sempuki Posted May 2, 2015 Share Posted May 2, 2015 He must be pissed off with the thought of losing Premier League exposure and the wad of TV cash. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdckelly Posted May 2, 2015 Share Posted May 2, 2015 He must be pissed off with the thought of losing Premier League exposure and the wad of TV cash. the tv cash sure but we were on tv shit loads in the championship so maybe not such a drop in exposure at least in the uk market. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Minhosa Posted May 2, 2015 Share Posted May 2, 2015 Looking forward to the club rushing out a statement about the sheer fucking state of our performances and mismanagement of late. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deuce Posted May 2, 2015 Share Posted May 2, 2015 Mike, you fucking fat odious shitnickel. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth Crooks Posted May 3, 2015 Share Posted May 3, 2015 Really don't fully understand why he's here. If it's just for the advertising it still doesn't make sense. He turns up regularly. Just don't get it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AyeDubbleYoo Posted May 3, 2015 Share Posted May 3, 2015 I know, it's genuinely mad. Especially since it would cost him a relatively small amount to employ a chairman and manager and make us quite successful. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest reefatoon Posted May 3, 2015 Share Posted May 3, 2015 He turns up because he wants a few hours away from the wife. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ExiledGeordie Posted May 3, 2015 Share Posted May 3, 2015 Really don't fully understand why he's here. If it's just for the advertising it still doesn't make sense. He turns up regularly. Just don't get it. This has been the thing that gets me too. He turns up to watch matches including some obscure away games........we're absolute dog shit. As Ian says below for a fraction of what comes in, we could be entertaining, crowd would be relatively happy and he'd still make buckets of cash, you could argue more than he makes now. And yet we stagger from one disaster to the next as if he's getting some kind of perverse pleasure out of it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest TCD23 Posted May 3, 2015 Share Posted May 3, 2015 Really don't fully understand why he's here. If it's just for the advertising it still doesn't make sense. He turns up regularly. Just don't get it. That's the enigma for me too. Why turn up to watch the match? He must care on a level because that's the only thing that would make even a bit of sense. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueStar Posted May 3, 2015 Share Posted May 3, 2015 Does he not just see it as networking, keeping his finger on his business and doing his job rather than watching the match for entertainment? Like I'm sure he goes to business functions, visits SD stores and the like that he considers business, not pleasure. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest antz1uk Posted May 3, 2015 Share Posted May 3, 2015 Did no-one notice on that Dispatches programme where they showed you a clip of the promotional video for staff training, how many ex-sports personalities were on it. no wonder no-one comes out and slates him. Darren Gough (Albeit a complete dick on radio now) was on there, plus a lot of others Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest chopey Posted May 3, 2015 Share Posted May 3, 2015 I wonder if Ashley is having is Sunday piss up today if so we might get some sort of announcement tonight before his naked twister competition Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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