Various: Mike Ashley in talks with Sheikh Khaled bin Zayed Al Nehayan

[Guest Howaythetoon]

Can see Bishop cutting loose tbh. Bloke's too much of loose unit to try and peddle bullshit for. Dangerous for the PR man to become the story when you're in PR and it's not working anyway.

 

No chance, MA has basically bankrolled his ‘business’ and MA is a big ticket client even if he’s the opposite of what he and his ‘business’ try to achieve with a client. KB has probably kept MA out of a a few scandals over the years that would ruin him for good that we will maybe never know of. A few topless party photos in the sun, salacious divorce details and a few court cases with former employees etc. is probably considered as a sigh of relief if that’s all that has come out...

 

You can’t flog a dead horse though and MA seems more than capable of self destruction with or without the aid of a PR agent.

 

If he was any friend and true adviser he would be advising MA to cut his losses on NUFC because as long as he owns the club even in good times, the spotlight on him will be constant and often intense.

 

Business wise, all the trials and tribulations we hear about today would be confined to the FT or courts and MA would be pretty much anonymous as a public figure. Maybe he loves the attention and thinks because he is wealthy and has a PR he can win people over, brush stuff under the rug or buy people off.

 

He will be on celebrity BB in the next decade, if he doesn’t die of a heart attack or is offed that is.

 

The man is an absolute joke in the same vein Trump is. You can fool some some of the time, but not all and not all of the time. The more you try and fool everyone all of the time the bigger the fool you become and the bigger the hit you take. You see it with so many celebs and so many rich and famous people.

 

Bishop himself  is no Svengali, he’s just as much of a joke

[cp40]

How can he complain of a media circus around sports direct. When he buys a premier league football team, to use as an advert for sports direct on the media circus that is Sky.

[Guest Howaythetoon]

This is starting to look like a possible beginning of the end. All areas that man is involved in is under fire. I'm hoping he's brought to his knees and has to sell us in order to solve his SD/HOF/Debenhams mess.

 

Thing is who does he think he's going to poach customers from? The same people who go to these stores aren't the same as sports direct. Treat them the same and like NUFC, you'll just wreck them. People shop online or stick with market leaders like John Lewis or where they don't get taken for mugs. I appreciate the high st in general is on it's arse - JLP included.

The highstreet isn’t on it’s arse, the high street in it’s current incarnation is.

John Lewis would work so well if they just updated their stores a bit and made it easier to navigate. The same for Fenwicks. Retailers just haven’t moved on and made it so the internet compliments their stores and have just let Amazon overtake them.

 

The high street in terms of retail is at odds with the consumer today and how they now shop and the etailers and how they cater for consumers and although the high street will never die, high street retailers will if they don’t change and massively so.

 

The days of a company selling millions of products under one roof on a high street replicated 30 or a hundred or so times over all across the country is over and while there are lots of options still open to them to remain a high street retailer, it’s looking bleak for a good number of them like HOF.

 

The costs of a store, converting it, branding it, maintaining it, rent, rates, staff and so on is huge and unless you have a niche product or don’t have a lot of competition you have to rely on brand loyalty, name and advertising budget just to keep competitive. Tesco, M&S et al just about get away with it.

 

SD are what I’d call recession proof and won’t die on the high street, but they will lose money and suffer as well.

 

Cutting your cloth accordingly I think they call it.

 

In business you can enter the market and either become trapped in it and be shaped or defined by it or try and change it. It’s harder to change it and easier to adapt, but the way things are it’s not looking good t all out there.

 

SD have done very well in many respects in that sense and I can see them navigating choppy waters much better than others even those that are in that same market segment they are in. Again they won’t be immune though.

 

MA’s purchase of HOF doesn’t make sense financially for me without having fully looked into it all, he cannot make it a success by filling it with SD tat because it just becomes another SD store and it is already acknowledged that opening retail stores in the high street right now and for the foreseeable is financial suicide even for the biggest and best.

 

He will make his money back on stock and in assets or not lose out, but he will be the man that took over a high street retailer and was in charge when it died or just didn’t recover, becoming a shell of its former self.

 

My only conclusion is that he thinks he can actually save it and become some kind of hero, his motives are not altruistic though. His ego and delusion and deep yearning to be liked and loved are the true motives IMO.

 

Don’t be fooled that he doesn’t care, he is a man child, the playground kid that owns the ball and uses it as a threat so we all keep knocking on his door to come out to play because he wants everyone else to like him.

 

He will fail though. Not financially to himself, but it’s a business that won’t trade as HOF as we know it anymore and more likely, again, at all, ever. This time though he will fuck over a hell of a lot of people and all his wealth in the world won’t help him, nor Bishop’s PR.

 

Tick tock...

[Guest Howaythetoon]

How can he complain of a media circus around sports direct. When he buys a premier league football team, to use as an advert for sports direct on the media circus that is Sky.

 

He has created this circus himself, and that’s mostly down to becoming a public figure following his takeover of NUFC and how he has subsequently ran it. Again, all of the trials and tribulations of his and his business or businesses would be confined to a few paragraphs in the FT or courts that would never see the light of day in anyone’s eyes in the public domain other than shareholders or union reps.

 

He is arguably the most famous owner of a football club in England today and one of the most famous or newsworthy businessmen in England and that’s not because of any success, but because of him and his decisions becoming an increasingly negative and toxic influence on both which is now intertwined seemingly as one whole big MA picture.

[Darth Crooks]

Well Bishop is fucked then just he must be thinking fuckin’ hell whilst picking Mikes checks.

[Darth Crooks]

This is starting to look like a possible beginning of the end. All areas that man is involved in is under fire. I'm hoping he's brought to his knees and has to sell us in order to solve his SD/HOF/Debenhams mess.

 

Thing is who does he think he's going to poach customers from? The same people who go to these stores aren't the same as sports direct. Treat them the same and like NUFC, you'll just wreck them. People shop online or stick with market leaders like John Lewis or Robert Dyas where they don't get taken for mugs. I appreciate the high st in general is on it's arse - JLP included.

The highstreet isn’t on it’s arse, the high street in it’s current incarnation is.

John Lewis would work so well if they just updated their stores a bit and made it easier to navigate. The same for Fenwicks. Retailers just haven’t moved on and made it so the internet compliments their stores and have just let Amazon overtake them.

 

It’s massively on its arse - John Lewis are the market leaders and just announced 99% drops in pre tax profit and they are quite strong in terms of both online and store experience imo. They also have a very loyal customer base and they’ve lost out because they have a generous price match scheme. They’ll recover and they won’t lose out to some bastardised vest is in of Debenhams/hoF however. The white city JL is prototyping a store experience a bit like going into a cocktail bar for diffferent products to enhance store experience with hopes of rolling out further. Fuck will mike be up for that.

[Guest Howaythetoon]

I mean I don’t think he will shed him just he must be thinking fuckin’ hell whilst picking Mikes checks.

 

Depends on what kind of man he is, he would never cut him loose because he can’t financially. If he was a true friend though he must surely be telling him, Mike, ge rid of NUFC. Doing that would relegate him and his business dealings back to the pages of the FT and rooms of courts and make him in red top parlance, yesterday’s fish and chips wrapping paper. Yesterday’s news!

[Darth Crooks]

I mean I don’t think he will shed him just he must be thinking fuckin’ hell whilst picking Mikes checks.

 

Depends on what kind of man he is, he would never cut him loose because he can’t financially. If he was a true friend though he must surely be telling him, Mike, ge rid of NUFC. Doing that would relegate him and his business dealings back to the pages of the FT and rooms of courts and make him in red top parlance, yesterday’s fish and chips wrapping paper. Yesterday’s news!

 

If his PR is anything to go by he’s a fossil in waiting anyway.

[Chris_R]

Awww, Poor Mike Ashley feels he's not been supported and has been stabbed in the back.

 

Well now you know how Rafa feels, you absolute fucknugget.

[Guest Howaythetoon]

This is starting to look like a possible beginning of the end. All areas that man is involved in is under fire. I'm hoping he's brought to his knees and has to sell us in order to solve his SD/HOF/Debenhams mess.

 

Thing is who does he think he's going to poach customers from? The same people who go to these stores aren't the same as sports direct. Treat them the same and like NUFC, you'll just wreck them. People shop online or stick with market leaders like John Lewis or Robert Dyas where they don't get taken for mugs. I appreciate the high st in general is on it's arse - JLP included.

The highstreet isn’t on it’s arse, the high street in it’s current incarnation is.

John Lewis would work so well if they just updated their stores a bit and made it easier to navigate. The same for Fenwicks. Retailers just haven’t moved on and made it so the internet compliments their stores and have just let Amazon overtake them.

 

It’s massively on its arse - John Lewis are the market leaders and just announced 99% drops in pre tax profit and they are quite strong in terms of both online and store experience imo. They also have a very loyal customer base and they’ve lost out because they have a generous price match scheme. They’ll recover and they won’t lose out to some bastardised vest is in of Debenhams/hoF however. The white city JL is prototyping a store experience a bit like going into a cocktail bar for diffferent products to enhance store experience with hopes of rolling out further. Fuck will mike be up for that.

 

And that is basically them throwing the dice. I think in a decades time the likes of JL will exist mainly online with with one or two flagship stores. The trouble with big businesses is that they try and scale and scale upwards all the time and when that doesn’t happen or cannot it’s a case of oh well, game over. JL can remain a business, a brand and make money, but they will more than likely have to scale back to a few stores, a website being their predominant face of the business and shareholders happy with a stake in something that turns over tens of millions or hundreds of millions and not lots of hundreds and hundreds or billions.

 

I’m not for job losses and empty shops or dead high streets as such, but I’m all for our high streets and city centres becoming places of leisure and not predominantly shopping. More open spaces and green space, less traffic, more independent stores and local businesses who don’t need to have x amount of people through the door every day to survive or have been outpriced on rent and rates or made redundant by big name chains. More local produce on offer, more pop up independent pubs and food stalls. Market traders and just people coming to the city to walk around, take in the architecture. Museums, library, sit and read a book, let kids run around.

 

I avoid the Town and Metro Centre at all times and often at a financial cost because I cannot stand it, herded like sheep into this shop or the next. The noise, the traffic, the congestion, the pollution, the chaos.

 

Fuck it, bring on the death of the high street, they’ve had it good for too long and often at the expense of city/town planning, architecture and our own free space to just wander and take in things.

[Guest Howaythetoon]

I mean I don’t think he will shed him just he must be thinking fuckin’ hell whilst picking Mikes checks.

 

Depends on what kind of man he is, he would never cut him loose because he can’t financially. If he was a true friend though he must surely be telling him, Mike, ge rid of NUFC. Doing that would relegate him and his business dealings back to the pages of the FT and rooms of courts and make him in red top parlance, yesterday’s fish and chips wrapping paper. Yesterday’s news!

 

If his PR is anything to go by he’s a fossil in waiting anyway.

 

KP ot MA?

[Darth Crooks]

I mean I don’t think he will shed him just he must be thinking fuckin’ hell whilst picking Mikes checks.

 

Bishop

 

Depends on what kind of man he is, he would never cut him loose because he can’t financially. If he was a true friend though he must surely be telling him, Mike, ge rid of NUFC. Doing that would relegate him and his business dealings back to the pages of the FT and rooms of courts and make him in red top parlance, yesterday’s fish and chips wrapping paper. Yesterday’s news!

 

If his PR is anything to go by he’s a fossil in waiting anyway.

 

KP ot MA?

[Guest Howaythetoon]

?

[huss9]

?

[Guest firetotheworks]

?

[Darth Crooks]

[Guest chopey]

Feel so sorry for Mike, what has he done to deserve this shit !!!!!!!!!

[ToonArmy1892]

He really is a man child.

 

Big fucking baby.

[Skeletor]

 

U ok hun?

[Tooj]

This is starting to look like a possible beginning of the end. All areas that man is involved in is under fire. I'm hoping he's brought to his knees and has to sell us in order to solve his SD/HOF/Debenhams mess.

 

Thing is who does he think he's going to poach customers from? The same people who go to these stores aren't the same as sports direct. Treat them the same and like NUFC, you'll just wreck them. People shop online or stick with market leaders like John Lewis or Robert Dyas where they don't get taken for mugs. I appreciate the high st in general is on it's arse - JLP included.

The highstreet isn’t on it’s arse, the high street in it’s current incarnation is.

John Lewis would work so well if they just updated their stores a bit and made it easier to navigate. The same for Fenwicks. Retailers just haven’t moved on and made it so the internet compliments their stores and have just let Amazon overtake them.

 

It’s massively on its arse - John Lewis are the market leaders and just announced 99% drops in pre tax profit and they are quite strong in terms of both online and store experience imo. They also have a very loyal customer base and they’ve lost out because they have a generous price match scheme. They’ll recover and they won’t lose out to some bastardised vest is in of Debenhams/hoF however. The white city JL is prototyping a store experience a bit like going into a cocktail bar for diffferent products to enhance store experience with hopes of rolling out further. Fuck will mike be up for that.

 

And that is basically them throwing the dice. I think in a decades time the likes of JL will exist mainly online with with one or two flagship stores. The trouble with big businesses is that they try and scale and scale upwards all the time and when that doesn’t happen or cannot it’s a case of oh well, game over. JL can remain a business, a brand and make money, but they will more than likely have to scale back to a few stores, a website being their predominant face of the business and shareholders happy with a stake in something that turns over tens of millions or hundreds of millions and not lots of hundreds and hundreds or billions.

 

I’m not for job losses and empty shops or dead high streets as such, but I’m all for our high streets and city centres becoming places of leisure and not predominantly shopping. More open spaces and green space, less traffic, more independent stores and local businesses who don’t need to have x amount of people through the door every day to survive or have been outpriced on rent and rates or made redundant by big name chains. More local produce on offer, more pop up independent pubs and food stalls. Market traders and just people coming to the city to walk around, take in the architecture. Museums, library, sit and read a book, let kids run around.

 

I avoid the Town and Metro Centre at all times and often at a financial cost because I cannot stand it, herded like sheep into this shop or the next. The noise, the traffic, the congestion, the pollution, the chaos.

 

Fuck it, bring on the death of the high street, they’ve had it good for too long and often at the expense of city/town planning, architecture and our own free space to just wander and take in things.

Really like these sentiments.

[duo]

This is starting to look like a possible beginning of the end. All areas that man is involved in is under fire. I'm hoping he's brought to his knees and has to sell us in order to solve his SD/HOF/Debenhams mess.

Or to make SD private again 

 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/markets/article-6169673/Ive-stabbed-Mike-Ashleys-astonishing-tirade-against-firms-shareholders.html

[NG32]

Thinks he can run a business like a market stall in East Enders.

[Darth Crooks]

Thinks he can run a business like a market stall in East Enders.

 

Harsh on Martin Fowler that like

[Dokko]

Everyone needs to keep the pressure on, he’s cracking. He’ll know from previous that good offers don’t come along often so the next one he may just take to get rid of the noise we’re generating.

 

If he wants to take them private I’m guessing he needs us sold to raise funds. This could be key.

 

 

[Guest chopey]

Or he could transfer all our profits we've made over the past couple of years to Mash holdings and then borrow money against his Newcastle United cash cow to raise the capital to take Sports Direct private