Mike Ashley (former owner)

[Mahoneys Tache]

Two toxic brands joining forces. The foundations of the world will shake. 
 

mainly due to the mirth generated as a result. 

[Mahoneys Tache]

1 minute ago, wiseman said:

As much as I'd hate to see any other club endure him, if he ends up at the mackems it'd be a  cheap purchase for him, plus with relatively minimal investment he could get them back to the championship within a few years as well, and they would love him for it, they'd think he's the greatest thing ever,and to them and  large parts of the football community, they would say that we didn't know what we were talking about his time here and that we didn't appreciate what he was doing, it'd effectively gloss over his 14 years of destroying newcastle. And to hear people say that would be absolutely infuriating, until I then remember how great our future is now looking without him

The screeching of brakes as thousands go into reverse on opinions will have every puppy farmed French bulldog in pennywell howling. 

[Stifler]

It seems to common occurrence that he spits his dummy out and goes running to the press when negotiations aren’t going his way. He did it the 1st time with Staveley, then with that BZG group, didn’t he do it with some others as well when he very first wanted to sell the club?

Now the administrators are saying his offer Ian my good enough and he’s kicking off there. God know how he’ll kick off when Mell Morris wants another £60m for the stadium and the cheap club he thought he could pick up for £20m turns into a £120m outlay.

[Pixelphish]

This is the new Thatcher thread, just waiting for that golden update.

[Chris_R]

31 minutes ago, wiseman said:

As much as I'd hate to see any other club endure him, if he ends up at the mackems it'd be a  cheap purchase for him, plus with relatively minimal investment he could get them back to the championship within a few years as well, and they would love him for it, they'd think he's the greatest thing ever,and to them and  large parts of the football community, they would say that we didn't know what we were talking about his time here and that we didn't appreciate what he was doing, it'd effectively gloss over his 14 years of destroying newcastle. And to hear people say that would be absolutely infuriating, until I then remember how great our future is now looking without him

 

This. Ashley absolutely has the resources to easily have Sunderland in the Championship pushing for the PL each year, maybe in the PL regularly. The man's a billionaire after all. And Sunderland are big enough to take our place as his "Aim for 17th with minimal investment every year in the PL whilst advertising SD for free", and he'd rightly be lauded by them if that's what he did.

 

Ashley isn't bad for every club. Just his ambition of "17th and no higher" in the PL was bad for us based on our recent history. If he did the same elsewhere, it'd be great for loads of clubs, including Sunderland and Derby.

 

Really need him to take over a media darling like Spurs or West Ham or someone and drag them down to relegation fights every year. Not that he'd spend that amount buying them, that ship has sailed, but football has changed over the last decade and a half to the point where he could never afford to buy a club of our size again.

 

Don't get me wrong, he's a fucking parasitic worm and I hate him for what he did to Newcastle. But with us he broke his modus operandi and purchased a viable going concern and then turned it into a bargain bin part of his tat emporium. For many distressed and failing clubs, that's a step up they can only dream of taking and to an extent (and only a small extent) I understand outside reaction to him from those who support those smaller clubs.

 

Personally I'd rather have Sunderland owned by someone with absolutely no resources at all.

[gjohnson]

1 hour ago, Chris_R said:

 

This. Ashley absolutely has the resources to easily have Sunderland in the Championship pushing for the PL each year, maybe in the PL regularly. The man's a billionaire after all. And Sunderland are big enough to take our place as his "Aim for 17th with minimal investment every year in the PL whilst advertising SD for free", and he'd rightly be lauded by them if that's what he did.

 

Ashley isn't bad for every club. Just his ambition of "17th and no higher" in the PL was bad for us based on our recent history. If he did the same elsewhere, it'd be great for loads of clubs, including Sunderland and Derby.

 

Really need him to take over a media darling like Spurs or West Ham or someone and drag them down to relegation fights every year. Not that he'd spend that amount buying them, that ship has sailed, but football has changed over the last decade and a half to the point where he could never afford to buy a club of our size again.

 

Don't get me wrong, he's a fucking parasitic worm and I hate him for what he did to Newcastle. But with us he broke his modus operandi and purchased a viable going concern and then turned it into a bargain bin part of his tat emporium. For many distressed and failing clubs, that's a step up they can only dream of taking and to an extent (and only a small extent) I understand outside reaction to him from those who support those smaller clubs.

 

Personally I'd rather have Sunderland owned by someone with absolutely no resources at all.

As they technically currently are :-)

 

A guy who only has access to interest from a trust fund, and a couple of chancers who took their parachute payments to pay for the club itself, and some magical Uruguayan who is hailed as a saviour but has yet to actually put a penny in barring buying his stake.  

[Nobody]

1 hour ago, Chris_R said:

 

This. Ashley absolutely has the resources to easily have Sunderland in the Championship pushing for the PL each year, maybe in the PL regularly. The man's a billionaire after all. And Sunderland are big enough to take our place as his "Aim for 17th with minimal investment every year in the PL whilst advertising SD for free", and he'd rightly be lauded by them if that's what he did.

 

Ashley isn't bad for every club. Just his ambition of "17th and no higher" in the PL was bad for us based on our recent history. If he did the same elsewhere, it'd be great for loads of clubs, including Sunderland and Derby.

 

Really need him to take over a media darling like Spurs or West Ham or someone and drag them down to relegation fights every year. Not that he'd spend that amount buying them, that ship has sailed, but football has changed over the last decade and a half to the point where he could never afford to buy a club of our size again.

 

Don't get me wrong, he's a fucking parasitic worm and I hate him for what he did to Newcastle. But with us he broke his modus operandi and purchased a viable going concern and then turned it into a bargain bin part of his tat emporium. For many distressed and failing clubs, that's a step up they can only dream of taking and to an extent (and only a small extent) I understand outside reaction to him from those who support those smaller clubs.

 

Personally I'd rather have Sunderland owned by someone with absolutely no resources at all.

I entirely disagree that he could get a Sunderland or a Derby fairly easily into the PL. 

He only just managed to keep us there, and that was through luck (stumbled on Benitez, Bruce should have had us relegated both seasons, Hughton was an appointment out of pure luck as well) more than any sort of good planning. 

With a club like Derby or Sunderland, he wouldn't luck his way to a Rafa, the wage structure and stature of the club wouldn't allow for players like an ASM or a Wilson to bail him out of horribly mismanaging the club. 

Ashley is a fucking god awful owner and would be for any club. He would have both Derby and the mackems punching well below their weight, just like he did with us. 

[Chris_R]

4 hours ago, Nobody said:

I entirely disagree that he could get a Sunderland or a Derby fairly easily into the PL. 

He only just managed to keep us there, and that was through luck (stumbled on Benitez, Bruce should have had us relegated both seasons, Hughton was an appointment out of pure luck as well) more than any sort of good planning. 

With a club like Derby or Sunderland, he wouldn't luck his way to a Rafa, the wage structure and stature of the club wouldn't allow for players like an ASM or a Wilson to bail him out of horribly mismanaging the club. 

Ashley is a fucking god awful owner and would be for any club. He would have both Derby and the mackems punching well below their weight, just like he did with us. 

 

Derby, and especially Sunderland, are PL teams. For them, "Punching well below their weight" might still be a lot better than they're doing now, and most of their fan base would quite rightly be happy with that.

 

Again, I hate Ashley and he's a fucking parasite and an abhorrent, vindictive, thin-skinned man child who took away my enjoyment of football and made me want my own team to lose. But he's also a billionaire. Rich beyond our wildest imaginations and rich beyond the imaginations of almost all the owners outside the PL.

 

He'll speculate to accumulate, he did with us. He'll splurge money in the Championship to get to the PL, because he knows once he's there he can just trouser £100m/year and advertise his tat shops freely across the globe. To suggest he cannot do this is just incorrect. He wants, no NEEDS to make money, and the money is in the PL.

 

 

Edited February 8, 2022 by Chris_R

[Nine]

3 minutes ago, Chris_R said:

 

Derby, and especially Sunderland, are PL teams.

 

 

 

Based on what exactly? You could label 30+ clubs in the country as so just based off the fact they get decent gates and have been in the PL before.

 

Tbh there might not be a better club for Ashley to buy than the mackems, he will get alot of leeway there simply because we hate him and as we well know pretty much any narrative the mackems collectively follow revolves around us. They will be alright with being bankrolled by him into the championship and probably wouldnt get restless if they didnt go up for a few years.. he might even install some sports direct labelled bins around the ground to help them not throw thelr rubbish onto the pitch.

[Chris_R]

9 minutes ago, Nine said:

Based on what exactly? You could label 30+ clubs in the country as so just based off the fact they get decent gates and have been in the PL before.

 

2 league titles in the 70s and a ECL semi final for Derby. More than we've done in a lot longer than that...

 

Sunderland have a 49k stadium (9th biggest in England, ours is 8th) and a passionate fan base, and could easily be getting that pretty full most weeks if they were doing OK in the PL. They've also won both the league and the cup more recently than we have. Pride Park is 16th biggest stadium, fwiw.

 

It's just petty to argue they don't belong in the PL, or at least in the very upper echelons of the Championship vying for promotion every year because they clearly do in terms of history, achievements, and size of club. In short, both are presently well below where they "belong".

 

(+1 place to everyone's stadium size if you discount Wembley, which we probably should)

 

 

Edited February 8, 2022 by Chris_R

[Nine]

2 minutes ago, Chris_R said:

 

2 league titles in the 70s and a ECL semi final for Derby. More than we've done in a lot longer than that...

 

Sunderland have a 49k stadium (9th biggest in England, ours is 8th) and a passionate fan base, and could easily be getting that pretty full most weeks if they were doing OK in the PL. They've also won both the league and the cup more recently than we have. Pride Park is 16th biggest stadium, fwiw.

 

It's just petty to argue they don't belong in the PL, or at least in the very upper echelons of the Championship vying for promotion every year because they clearly do in terms of history, achievements, and size of club. In short, both are presently well below where they "belong".

 

(+1 place to everyone's stadium size if you discount Wembley, which we probably should)

 

 

 

So we are going off of trophy history and fan base? So Forest, Blackburn, Wednesday even Portsmouth and Wigan have won an FA cup in the last 20 years - so these teams are all PL teams by right also? 

 

I just dont really see any club being PL teams by right in this day and age, imo nothing else counts except being in the league and being able to remain in the league. History and fan base obviously means something but I dont think it means that any team by rights is a premier league team because a club did well in the 70s or 80s or gets 30/40k a week in the championship.

[Chris_R]

14 minutes ago, Nine said:

Forest, Blackburn, Wednesday even Portsmouth and Wigan

 

It's a sliding scale, of course, but all those teams should be doing better than they are, absolutely. I agree nobody has a "right" to be in the PL, not at all. That's the whole reason we have promotion and relegation. But the fans of those teams, and Sunderland and Derby, have an absolute right to expect to be doing better than they are. They are underachieving.

 

When we were relegated, we didn't think "Well that's it, we're now a Championship club, we deserve no better". Sure, we accepted it for what it was, we deserved to go down, but we knew we were historically a PL club that should be looking to get back there. History and club size DO matter. And by that metric, Sunderland, Derby, Forest and Wednesday should be in or around the PL. Portsmouth should probably be very close too. Wigan less so, one flukey FA cup win looks great for them but their history overall and club size don't put them in the same bracket as the others but they should still want and expect to be more than they are.

 

Success comes from finances. Sure, billionaires skew this, but historically club size (ie fan base size) has been a massive determinant in success because that's where your money comes from to buy good players. And success breeds success - Players want to play for clubs who have won things recently (not the clubs above, I'm talking generally here) because they think that will increase their chances of winning something again.

 

Nobody deserves or has a right to anything, but certain clubs are clearly bigger than others. Hate Sunderland all you want, but they do belong in or around the PL in terms of history and club size and to suggest otherwise is a bit silly.

[Stifler]

Derby administrators are about to appoint a preferred bidder in 7 days and hopes to be in discussions with the EFL over a change of ownership within 10 days.

[toon25]

The stuff coming out in the press today about him suing Staveley because she said she was looking forward to the SD signs being removed (and that amounting to criticism of his ownership) is fucking ridiculous.

 

What a petty fat cunt.

[nbthree3]

 

[Gaztoon]

A club that just wants financial stability like derby, Ashley is probably the owner for you right now. .. a club with an ounce of ambition and he's a disaster.

[Yorkie]

Lol at Charnley clinging to Mike Ashley's coat-tails like the fucking no-mark he is. 

[NE27]

1 minute ago, Yorkie said:

Lol at Charnley clinging to Mike Ashley's coat-tails like the fucking no-mark he is. 

 

Do you blame him really?

 

It's that or back to serving tea and biscuits or sniffing bike seats at the gym or whatever.

[nbthree3]

 

[gbandit]

Awful news for football 

[NE27]

[Miggys First Goal]

Saw this cunt’s name trending on Twitter. People talking about him buying Chelsea. 

[Dr Venkman]

Just now, Miggys First Goal said:

Saw this cunt’s name trending on Twitter. People talking about him buying Chelsea. 

Hahahahaha

[Unbelievable]

2 minutes ago, Miggys First Goal said:

Saw this cunt’s name trending on Twitter. People talking about him buying Chelsea. 

 

That would be absolutely brilliant. Hate them with a passion.

[The Merse]

Please let that happen - if only for the sake of Cundy and jacobs