under mike ashley

On a random note I used to live 2 mins away from their ground, moved away from there 5 years ago, Leyton was a absolute hellhole, I refuse to believe a turd like that can get "gentrified".

 

so it is ok just to survive ,,win nothing ..also some of these clubs mentioned do not generate or have a support of nufc so you just simply can not compare at all..


so i guess yous are happy then with the situation of just plugging along ... sitting in the championship ..with a nice relegated twice ..idiots of managers and system ... ..blokes doing a fine job eh

 

I don't particularly think Mike Ashley has done a sterling job here. However I can't fault him in recent times in some areas. McClaren was a bad appointment and he must ultimately carry the can for that. However many of our own fans and supposed "ITK's" thought it was a good idea. He also backed him with a significant warchest. That was squandered.

He then went and got Benitez to try and get him out of an impossible hole. He didn't quite manage it. He then got him to stay on as Championship manager - which most thought unlikely. He then backed him with a ridiculous warchest for the division. Yes he recouped more but lets not pretend relegation didn't come at a cost also. We lost out on significant influx of cash. Benitez won't have come cheap either. The transfer outgoing spend was massive regardless of what was recouped.

So in recent times I think he could quite justifiably say he has done all he can bar make some good appointments. He perhaps has the wrong people in the right structure. The guys picking the managers, the guys scouting the players, the guys doing the deals. Yes he can carry the can for that and it is the ultimate reason for failure. However I don't think you can say its because he hasn't put his heart into it. He has spunked a load of money, literally thrown massive amounts around, just to try to make it work. The bloke is simply not a football man and is badly advised. Rafa will correct a lot of things off the pitch. However it may be that Ashley has to take advice on how to replace Carr and Charnley if he wants to get it sorted.

I agree Ashley's reign has been a source of anger and more recently frustration. It could be so much worse though. I'd only want him gone if we were going to get someone with the best interests of the club at heart with a passion for football. I suspect that is very rare these days. In which case I think the best we can hope for is Mike to take some proper advice on board and sort out what are fairly obvious failings given the amount of investment. Previously we could point to a lack of spend justifiably. I don't think you can now. I understand why Ashley might retreat into his shell again to be honest and put the blockers on investment. Everytime he has opened the piggy bank its failed. Early doors it did. Then with McClaren it did. Now with Benitez, performance relative to the supposed top level coach we have and the investment has been average. Its gotta be pretty chastening for him.

 

What about Everton they manage to keep theirs ? Sorry but Ashley sells everytime we have anyone that attracts interest .

He's a shop owner remember

 

They've sold as many as they've kept (Rooney, Fellaini, Stones to name 3 off the top of my head). Ba, Cabaye, Sissoko, Wijnaldum and whoever else all wanted to go before they even got here. Carroll £35m? Did the right thing selling him. The transfer policy has been ****e, but it is at most clubs at least in the eyes of cynical fans like ours. I doubt a new owner would suddenly start magicking world beaters out of thin air or be able to turn down £55m for Sissoko and Wijnaldum or stop players with buy out clauses from leaving.

 

Everybody sells except Real, Barca and Bayern. And we're nowhere near the size of Spurs, Borussia Dortmund or Atletico Madrid, who albeit in lesser ways still have to keep selling when the time comes (Modric/Bale, Reus/Lewandowski, Torres/Martinez/Turan respectively). That's life.

It's the buying that's been poor. We need to be less business, more football. In Gayle, Mitrovic, Ritchie, Diame the tide has turned a bit. But let's see what happens in the Summer. There's worse than Ashley, who as Ern rightly says just makes catastrophic decisions due to personal insecurity and poor close advisors. Kinnear, Pardew, Charnley, Carr, Llambias, Wise, Jimenez, and so on. If we keep Rafa and he has a say, that's rectifying something. If we then keep buying players who want to play for the club first and foremost, then that's everything. There's not a lot more an owner can realistically do. As it stands, everyone's doing as well as needed. Ashley's kept the club in the black at minimal costs, plus he's making - allegedly - the right moves in commercial stability with Wonga disappearing in the Summer. Charnley bought and sold extremely well last Summer. Rafa has made some good recommendations and is top of the league.

As for the OP; we need to be a steady enough mid-table club and bide our time. If we keep Rafa a while, don't get on his back, and make shrewd appointments/signings, then we may enjoy the odd good season, the odd cup run and have an outside chance of winning something. I was going to finish with "let's have some patience, wait and see" but then what the hell else can we do?!

 

Yeah but look at the ones the keep too they don't sell them all like we do mate

It's all about opinions mate let's just hope one day we actually have some players good enough to attract interest and see if anything changes

 

Come on guys mike Ashley is a total scumbag

I'd rather be run by Hitler at least he'd try to win

 

The issue in the summer will be that Rafa WILL want 'his say' ................Ashley doesn't want that. He wants yes men, not guys who's opinions are based in any sort of reality!!

 

I believe that his 'midfield General' let him down badly!!

 

The only thing he wants is money and he brought Rafa in to protect his investment and to smooth over relegation

If we get promoted he'll see Rafa off one way or the other

 

Definitely too many hospital balls

 

Undoubtedly. He is already laid the groundwork for that in the last window. I'm just surprised that more people cant see it.

It is absolutely no coincidence that he kept his beak out until, in his head, we are a good bet for promotion........... then he sticks his beak in again and undermines Rafa. Lets presume that we get promoted. Ashley will make Rafa's position untenable and he'll walk. Like I said before, only Ashley could secure the services of somebody like Rafa and then go out of his way go make a **** of him

 

It's a definite possibility but it hasn't happened yet and may not happen so I will remain positive that the good things that have happened over the last year will be built on. If Rafa is forced out then I'll tear into Ashley and deservedly so but it's stupid to start all the negativity again on something that might happen in the future, especially after all the bad times that we've had to put up with over the last few years.

 

Hitler being dead might be a bit problematic for that to happen !

 

No such thing as a sure thing in football. Even the gambles often fail. Odds are stacked against success - Ashley's a gambler and can't win this one.

You have to have infinite money and global reach, accepting you may simply lose 100's of millions; there are VERY few people like that. Even those who can afford it don't accept massive losses for nothing, there's always repercussion.

It's a different world. The one we're in has PSG eating from the top table with Inter and AC Milan languishing in the middle of Serie A. I mean, what is success anyway? The Gooners beel endlessly because they "only" finish 3rd or 4th and have to "suffer" watching the likes of Sanchez, Giroud, Ramsay, Mustafa, Xhaka, and so on. They cannot wait to see the back of Wenger (fanks for the memories, guv). The press questioned giving Klopp a six year deal on the back of one season finishing runners up twice. How long before the knives are out for Ranieri!!!! Another season fighting relegation and Leicester "fans" will be chatting with that fckwit Durham about how "he done great, but time to move on. We should go for Allegri, he'd take us back to Europe"..

Football's a fcking deranged pile of crud. I'm closer and closer to the exit, personally, but just can't quite let go purely because of the Toon. If I didn't have that, I'd have moved on years ago. I've stopped watching most of it - I cannot bear "pundits". Has anyone suffered Jim White on Talksh!te? Holy ****. Well, I say that - sad fact is he appeals to his audience, doesn't he? TH

Stones?

So are you saying that Ashley would rather lose? Makes no sense.

 

I thought he only had one?
He might be a good manager - he did do very well in Europe for a while.

 

Exactly he'd still be more committed

 

Roland I'm saying we are run like a shop and he's only interested in making money but winning mate

 

I disagree. I think Ashley felt he knew best. He thought this football lark was easy. He genuinely thought he could find every next big thing and turn a profit every year easily with a handful of people. The issue is pretty clear; if it was as simple as he thought, everybody would do it. He didn't seem to consider that point and so has been found out.

A shop has to be profitable and what he has inexplicably missed is that a club can only be as successful as its results on the pitch. That is of course driven by investment, experience, knowledge and mitigating the guesswork. He's tried to do it the only way he knows but there's nowhere near enough money to be made on players alone (or shop merchandise!)

The thing that does grate on me is punditry. Players haven't the first fcking clue about the hidden business side of football. They barely know about management. So what I always wanted to see was considered assessments of what goes wrong whether that's us, or Coventry, or whoever, but all we get is the same thick fckers spouting mindless garbage about there not being enough passion!! I'd have given anything to see a journalist actually do journalism and reveal what happens, why Ashley felt he could run Newcastle listening to Kinnear and the casino manager. Why did he have - still has - a small circle of trust, why would he not seek outside experience? It's all guesswork because we're just lads and lasses on a forum; between us we're close to truth, with shop analogies or personality assessments! But wouldn't it be nice to hear intelligent people talking about football as an industry?? Especially as it's more business than sport these days.