Mike Ashley

[Guest Roger Kint]

From a cut-your-nose-off-to-spite your face standpoint, relegation would be quite funny

 

Ashley finally invests some money in the squad - £50m - to stave off the looming threat of relegation (a miserly amount in the context of the years of squad neglect and the current market place), ships off the utterly ridiculous coaching team of Carver and Stone, then... still ends up relegated and losing his precious Premiership TV money. Double sucker punch. Delicious.

 

It's not really even my nose tbh - it's the fans who still go/watch/care.

 

Did he? Or just yet another case of investing in potential profit on sales? If he wanted to spend £50m staving off relegation hes far more sensible ways to invest that sort of money

 

No reason why it couldn't have been both but I would have thought his primary aim was to keep NUFC in the PL (for TV revenue/a more prestigious marketing platform for SD). Carrolls/Cabayes etc are nice bonuses.

 

Its naive from him to assume minimal(in numbers) spending would keep us up and happy while making money in the future. For years we have argued chronic lack of investment in key areas, its no coincidence they are still neglected despite his dubious claims

[Beren]

Agree. I'm still a little upset last year wasn't the year of relegation - got really good odds early on. Would have won a grand. This year I'll have to put up £500 as stake to get such a return. They'd spawn 17th place if I did, so I'm not betting this time.

[Paully]

One hour 20 in - Mick Lowes' rant

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p031tjxg

[Guest antz1uk]

I truly and genuinely hope we get relegated, it would serve the fat bastard right and all of those idiot fans that lapped up his pre west ham bullshit speech. This club will be here long after he has gone. even if it doesn't see him gone immediately i'd happily sit around the championship or league one until he shoved off.

 

It may have taken Leicester and Southampton a few years to get back but i bet you their fans have enjoyed their journey more than we have this last 6/7 years.

[Darth Crooks]

Absolutely. They have proven it doesn't necessarily mean oblivion like Portsmouth.

[BlueStar]

He's cheapened everything about the club, cutting corners and putting the quickest, dirtiest buck for the least initial outlay above everything else at every opportunity - seeing things like pride, respectability, romance, fan appeal, entertainment as intangible childish folly that's not worth wasting a penny of real currency to maintain.  But in doing things like allowing us to turn into a laughing stock, refusing to challenge in cups because they don't give you as much cash as finishing 12th in the league, letting us be sponsored by cunts, trying to sell the name of the ground, he's turned us into a club nobody cares about and nobody dreams about playing for or managing.  And that apathy permeates right across the pitch, the training ground, the stands the boardroom and across the airwaves.  He's destroyed the brand of the club, he's ruined the name of the club and turned it into a football business for whom football is not the number on priority.  And because of this he's left with a desperate manager, uninterested players and disillusioned fans. In spite of what he thought when he bought us, the biggest asset the club had wasn't the stadium, the land, the advertising space or the players he could cash in on, it was the good name of Newcastle United, and he's filed that away to nowt to the point he now can't keep the team in the Premier League even by throwing a fistful of cash at it simply because it no longer has the spirit of a Premier League club.

[Beren]

Lovely post... well, horrible post, but you know what I mean. The club wants to fall asleep and never wake up.

[hakka]

Lovely post... well, horrible post, but you know what I mean. The club wants to fall asleep and never wake up.

 

Yep, seconded. Great post.

[SEMTEX]

I feel like it's been a while since the world has had a high profile assassination. #justsayin

[Guest antz1uk]

This is so amaturer, why the fuck can't a Premier League football club, the richest football league in the land, give their players official club suits

 

.....'Where are the club suits? The players turn up for games looking like Reservoir Dogs – at least, that is, dogs dragged through a hedge backwards. Before one game recently a player stopped and asked a steward to knot his tie. Just like everything else at St James’ Park right now, it was painful to watch.'

 

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-3247571/Newcastle-t-defend-t-attack-Magpies-absolute-free-fall.html#ixzz3mfLTHD90

Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

[Shays Given Tim Flowers]

I think official suits are on the way IIRC.

[BlueStar]

This is so amaturer, why the fuck can't a Premier League football club, the richest football league in the land, give their players official club suits

 

 

I don't understand... We spend the money on the suits - where do we make the money?  Are we allowed to put a sponsor on a suit?  Can we make the players buy them for more than it costs to sew the badge on? If so, which Chinese company makes the cheapest badges?  Can we do a deal with Sky so they're the only company allowed to film the players in the suits? What do I get out of it?

[GM]

Are the players so impoverished they can't afford to get their own fucking suits?

[BlueStar]

Make them buy their own strips from the club shop as well, 5% employee discount.

[GM]

They should be made to buy drinks for the fans at half-time, anarl like...

[Beren]

Make them buy their own strips from the club shop as well, 5% employee discount.

 

Penalty for not wearing mandatory strip: withdrawal of 5% discount from club shop.

 

That'll teach 'em what for.

[Guest antz1uk]

Are the players so impoverished they can't afford to get their own f***ing suits?

 

They should all be turning up together in official club suits with a crest. It's highly unprofessional and looks a mess them all in different suits and tuxedos. f***ing tuxedos man, should only ever be seen in one at a formal function.

[Sho Time]

Aye, I can understand Mbemba as he's new to the country, doesn't speak the language, thought he was being kidnapped as he got in the wrong taxi before the game and was desperate just for something smart because of how late he was.

 

Thauvin comes in laughing about it, "oh Chancel got a tuxedo and people liked it, I'll do it myself and people will think I'm funny too le haha" nar. Come up with your own jokes and let me have a shot of your lass, cuntbubble.

[mrmojorisin75]

Le haha

[Wullie]

He's cheapened everything about the club, cutting corners and putting the quickest, dirtiest buck for the least initial outlay above everything else at every opportunity - seeing things like pride, respectability, romance, fan appeal, entertainment as intangible childish folly that's not worth wasting a penny of real currency to maintain.  But in doing things like allowing us to turn into a laughing stock, refusing to challenge in cups because they don't give you as much cash as finishing 12th in the league, letting us be sponsored by cunts, trying to sell the name of the ground, he's turned us into a club nobody cares about and nobody dreams about playing for or managing.  And that apathy permeates right across the pitch, the training ground, the stands the boardroom and across the airwaves.  He's destroyed the brand of the club, he's ruined the name of the club and turned it into a football business for whom football is not the number on priority.  And because of this he's left with a desperate manager, uninterested players and disillusioned fans. In spite of what he thought when he bought us, the biggest asset the club had wasn't the stadium, the land, the advertising space or the players he could cash in on, it was the good name of Newcastle United, and he's filed that away to nowt to the point he now can't keep the team in the Premier League even by throwing a fistful of cash at it simply because it no longer has the spirit of a Premier League club.

 

Not enough for this post.

[Big Geordie]

Got my call booked in for Total Sport, tonight - should be sometime after 615pm. Gonna go in all guns blazing on the owner and the players. Will also be mentioning Ashleyout.com

[Disco]

He's cheapened everything about the club, cutting corners and putting the quickest, dirtiest buck for the least initial outlay above everything else at every opportunity - seeing things like pride, respectability, romance, fan appeal, entertainment as intangible childish folly that's not worth wasting a penny of real currency to maintain.  But in doing things like allowing us to turn into a laughing stock, refusing to challenge in cups because they don't give you as much cash as finishing 12th in the league, letting us be sponsored by cunts, trying to sell the name of the ground, he's turned us into a club nobody cares about and nobody dreams about playing for or managing.  And that apathy permeates right across the pitch, the training ground, the stands the boardroom and across the airwaves.  He's destroyed the brand of the club, he's ruined the name of the club and turned it into a football business for whom football is not the number on priority.  And because of this he's left with a desperate manager, uninterested players and disillusioned fans. In spite of what he thought when he bought us, the biggest asset the club had wasn't the stadium, the land, the advertising space or the players he could cash in on, it was the good name of Newcastle United, and he's filed that away to nowt to the point he now can't keep the team in the Premier League even by throwing a fistful of cash at it simply because it no longer has the spirit of a Premier League club.

 

[Guest Howaythetoon]

Bluestar nailed it, unfortunately.

[Wallace]

http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/sport/columnists/scottwilson/scottwilson/13781521.Scott_Wilson_Column__Charnley_and_Carr_head_list_of_culprits_for_Newcastle_United_s_troubles/?ref=mac

 

Scott Wilson Column: Charnley and Carr head list of culprits for Newcastle United's troubles

 

AS he trudged off the field at the end of Wednesday’s calamitous Capital One Cup defeat to Wolves, Steve McClaren looked up into the Milburn Stand to see a group of furious supporters hurling abuse in his direction. Such is the way of things at Newcastle United, where the head coach is the only public face of a compromised and rotten regime.

 

McClaren should not be spared criticism. His team selection on Wednesday night was flawed from the outset, and more than three months into his role, he does not appear to have any idea about his preferred formation or best players. Perhaps he has simply concluded that he doesn’t have any.

 

Yet to portray McClaren as the cause of the current crisis is to completely ignore the deep-rooted systemic failures that have turned Newcastle into the Premier League’s laughing stock. This isn’t a malaise that started when McClaren was appointed. Newcastle won three games in the whole of the second half of last season, and were similarly dreadful in the second half of the previous campaign under Alan Pardew.

 

Their problems go back years, so while McClaren, Pardew and John Carver all merit a mention when blame is being apportioned, along with the players who are currently picking up their astronomical pay packets under false pretences, the real villains of the piece are the boardroom triumvirate of Mike Ashley, Lee Charnley and Graham Carr.

 

They dreamed up the flawed transfer policy that is crippling Newcastle, and it is they who continue to cling to it despite all available evidence highlighting that it does not work.

 

Of all the comments made last week, the most alarming was McClaren’s admission that the board are already targeting the January transfer window in order to put things right.

 

Like an alcoholic eyeing their next drink while the dregs from their current pint are still swilling around the bottom of the glass, Newcastle’s boardroom leaders are convinced everything will be okay if they plough headlong into January and throw more money at their beloved continental markets. Never mind that they spent more than £50m this summer and somehow managed to make one of the poorest teams in the Premier League even worse.

 

Newcastle’s dreadful transfer business is the single biggest cause of the current crisis. Ever since Carr recruited Yohan Cabaye and Mathieu Debuchy, and in the eyes of his employer, turned water into wine, the club have adopted an inflexible and myopic approach to signing players.

 

They have to fit into a certain age bracket. They have to come from a specific market and fall within a pre-defined price range. And above all else, they have to have a “sell-on value” once their contract expires.

 

It doesn’t matter if they fit into the squad or not, just as it is inconsequential whether there are gaping holes they do not fill. Newcastle desperately needed experienced defenders and strikers this summer, yet they ended up with a 21-year-old centre-half who cannot speak a word of English (Chancel Mbemba), a 21-year-old striker whose character flaws were well known before he arrived (Aleksandar Mitrovic), a ‘number ten’ who doesn’t have a role in the team because the squad was already well stocked in that position (Georginio Wijnaldum) and yet another over-hyped French winger who clearly sees Newcastle as nothing more than a stepping stone to bigger and better things (Florian Thauvin).

 

No matter that McClaren wanted Charlie Austin, a player with proven Premier League pedigree. His injury record meant he didn’t guarantee “added value”. Hence, he remained at QPR and McClaren felt compelled to play Siem de Jong as a lone striker on Wednesday night.

 

Newcastle is a club without an identity because Carr and Charnley sign players who see it as little more than a transit zone. Nobody makes an emotional investment into the team, nobody is prepared to go the extra yard when things become difficult. And even when their commitment appears to have expired, as in the case of Fabricio Coloccini, Cheick Tiote and Papiss Cisse, they remain because they are assets that cannot be knowingly undersold.

 

Charnley must see that, yet his failure to stand up to Ashley and challenge the failing methodology is preventing any opportunity of change. Only answerable to the person who parachuted him into his lofty position, perhaps the managing director feels he would be demoted if he was to confront his boss? If that is the case, you would imagine he will be going anyway if Newcastle are relegated.

 

Unwilling to listen to the concerns of his head coach, but unwavering in his loyalty to Ashley, Charnley appears to be blinkered to what is going on around him. And the same is clearly true of Carr, a figure whose reputation far exceeds what he has actually achieved during his time on Tyneside.

 

If Carr really is the scouting guru he is purported to be, he must surely watch the current Newcastle team in action and see the folly of his ways. Is he really so blinded by his perceived ability to unearth continental gems that he is unable to see that he has assembled a team of footballing mercenaries who do not knit together in anything even approximating a functioning whole?

 

Admittedly, even as a de facto director of football, you can only work within the parameters that are available, and there is plenty of anecdotal evidence to suggest Carr has on occasion delivered a list of targets that have not arrived.

 

Yet by making the same mistakes time after time, Carr is making an already perilous situation worse. Having been left red-faced by the antics of Hatem Ben Arfa and Remy Cabella, did he really think a £12m investment in Thauvin was wise? And having watched Mitrovic in action repeatedly, could he not foresee the character flaws that have made the striker such a liability so far?

 

McClaren will sit down with both Carr and Charnley to discuss this summer’s transfer window in the next couple of weeks, and for once, the pair would be advised to listen to the view from inside the dressing room.

 

Newcastle’s current modus operandi might make money, but it is incompatible with the task of moulding a successful team.

 

 

[sempuki]

http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/sport/columnists/scottwilson/scottwilson/13781521.Scott_Wilson_Column__Charnley_and_Carr_head_list_of_culprits_for_Newcastle_United_s_troubles/?ref=mac

 

Scott Wilson Column: Charnley and Carr head list of culprits for Newcastle United's troubles

 

AS he trudged off the field at the end of Wednesday’s calamitous Capital One Cup defeat to Wolves, Steve McClaren looked up into the Milburn Stand to see a group of furious supporters hurling abuse in his direction. Such is the way of things at Newcastle United, where the head coach is the only public face of a compromised and rotten regime.

 

McClaren should not be spared criticism. His team selection on Wednesday night was flawed from the outset, and more than three months into his role, he does not appear to have any idea about his preferred formation or best players. Perhaps he has simply concluded that he doesn’t have any.

 

Yet to portray McClaren as the cause of the current crisis is to completely ignore the deep-rooted systemic failures that have turned Newcastle into the Premier League’s laughing stock. This isn’t a malaise that started when McClaren was appointed. Newcastle won three games in the whole of the second half of last season, and were similarly dreadful in the second half of the previous campaign under Alan Pardew.

 

Their problems go back years, so while McClaren, Pardew and John Carver all merit a mention when blame is being apportioned, along with the players who are currently picking up their astronomical pay packets under false pretences, the real villains of the piece are the boardroom triumvirate of Mike Ashley, Lee Charnley and Graham Carr.

 

They dreamed up the flawed transfer policy that is crippling Newcastle, and it is they who continue to cling to it despite all available evidence highlighting that it does not work.

 

Of all the comments made last week, the most alarming was McClaren’s admission that the board are already targeting the January transfer window in order to put things right.

 

Like an alcoholic eyeing their next drink while the dregs from their current pint are still swilling around the bottom of the glass, Newcastle’s boardroom leaders are convinced everything will be okay if they plough headlong into January and throw more money at their beloved continental markets. Never mind that they spent more than £50m this summer and somehow managed to make one of the poorest teams in the Premier League even worse.

 

Newcastle’s dreadful transfer business is the single biggest cause of the current crisis. Ever since Carr recruited Yohan Cabaye and Mathieu Debuchy, and in the eyes of his employer, turned water into wine, the club have adopted an inflexible and myopic approach to signing players.

 

They have to fit into a certain age bracket. They have to come from a specific market and fall within a pre-defined price range. And above all else, they have to have a “sell-on value” once their contract expires.

 

It doesn’t matter if they fit into the squad or not, just as it is inconsequential whether there are gaping holes they do not fill. Newcastle desperately needed experienced defenders and strikers this summer, yet they ended up with a 21-year-old centre-half who cannot speak a word of English (Chancel Mbemba), a 21-year-old striker whose character flaws were well known before he arrived (Aleksandar Mitrovic), a ‘number ten’ who doesn’t have a role in the team because the squad was already well stocked in that position (Georginio Wijnaldum) and yet another over-hyped French winger who clearly sees Newcastle as nothing more than a stepping stone to bigger and better things (Florian Thauvin).

 

No matter that McClaren wanted Charlie Austin, a player with proven Premier League pedigree. His injury record meant he didn’t guarantee “added value”. Hence, he remained at QPR and McClaren felt compelled to play Siem de Jong as a lone striker on Wednesday night.

 

Newcastle is a club without an identity because Carr and Charnley sign players who see it as little more than a transit zone. Nobody makes an emotional investment into the team, nobody is prepared to go the extra yard when things become difficult. And even when their commitment appears to have expired, as in the case of Fabricio Coloccini, Cheick Tiote and Papiss Cisse, they remain because they are assets that cannot be knowingly undersold.

 

Charnley must see that, yet his failure to stand up to Ashley and challenge the failing methodology is preventing any opportunity of change. Only answerable to the person who parachuted him into his lofty position, perhaps the managing director feels he would be demoted if he was to confront his boss? If that is the case, you would imagine he will be going anyway if Newcastle are relegated.

 

Unwilling to listen to the concerns of his head coach, but unwavering in his loyalty to Ashley, Charnley appears to be blinkered to what is going on around him. And the same is clearly true of Carr, a figure whose reputation far exceeds what he has actually achieved during his time on Tyneside.

 

If Carr really is the scouting guru he is purported to be, he must surely watch the current Newcastle team in action and see the folly of his ways. Is he really so blinded by his perceived ability to unearth continental gems that he is unable to see that he has assembled a team of footballing mercenaries who do not knit together in anything even approximating a functioning whole?

 

Admittedly, even as a de facto director of football, you can only work within the parameters that are available, and there is plenty of anecdotal evidence to suggest Carr has on occasion delivered a list of targets that have not arrived.

 

Yet by making the same mistakes time after time, Carr is making an already perilous situation worse. Having been left red-faced by the antics of Hatem Ben Arfa and Remy Cabella, did he really think a £12m investment in Thauvin was wise? And having watched Mitrovic in action repeatedly, could he not foresee the character flaws that have made the striker such a liability so far?

 

McClaren will sit down with both Carr and Charnley to discuss this summer’s transfer window in the next couple of weeks, and for once, the pair would be advised to listen to the view from inside the dressing room.

 

Newcastle’s current modus operandi might make money, but it is incompatible with the task of moulding a successful team.

 

 

Good article.