Sir John Hall on why Ashley bought the club

On TOONTalk ...........interview with SJH.


They ( Sports Direct) wanted to market their sports goods in the Far East and would use the Club to help do this. To me it made sense to market the Club globally. It was a win win situation for Mike and the Club. We hadn’t done that. Over the 3 days I gave them a lot of advice. When they took over they put Chris Mort in to run things and went private. It was a good move. He’s not a fool and like Mike he came in with the best of intentions. His subsequent departure caused a few problems and Mike made a mistake listening to the likes of Paul Kelmsley at Spurs. I think he made another mistake bringing back Kevin Keegan. He was yesterdays man, like Dalglish at Liverpool now. It wasn’t a rational decision and he’s had to pay for it. The appointment of Dennis Wise upset Kevin and the inevitable fallout happened. I thought the local media handled the situation badly and the vilification with headlines such as ‘Get Out Of Toon’ were unjustified. I believe the damage has been done and I believe he will get out of the club when he can, but it will have to suit both the club and him. Mike has the wealth to challenge, but he’s been hurt. He needs to liaise with the fans.


Says it all really.

 

Disappointed with SJH more now. He is basically admitting he sold it a guy who's main interest was helping his other company. Its all very well saying it was win win, but if you buy a football club you have a responsibility to the fans of that club to have the club as your primary focus. "its a business" is the cry but football is not a business like any other because of the aforementioned commitment. It appears from these comments it was more about his other company, and we would benefit as a by product. Just shows me even more how unlucky we've been with owners. SJH saw the money and nothing else. They all did very well out of that sale, but we the fans and our club certainly did not. He seems to be forgetting they screwed Mike over with the hidden debts. Yes he only has himself to blame for the lack of due diligence, but the selling party also needs to act more responsibly, and when they making so much money should at least give a **** about the well being of the club after they go. They're all crooked and they're all to blame, and in no way can call themselves Newcastle supporters.

 

SJH had nothing to do with the sale, he had sold his shares along time before MA came in. Fat Freddy was the main share holder and SJH son Douglas had a large %.

 

The Halls were pivotal in the sale of the club as Ashley knew if he bought their percentages he'd have enough to legally force the sale of the additional shares from everyone else.

If the Halls had said no; Ashley would have only owned about 10% of the clubs shares in total.

 

He played a large part in the sale actually, and when discussing SJH, you're best of just classing it as "The Hall" family. Sure he wasn't as much a bellend as his son but don't for a second think he wasn't the controlling party in the Hall family stake.

 

Not a huge fan of Freddie Shepherd but he didnt want to sell to Ashley but SJH was pivotal in him selling Ashley his shares.

 

hate ashley hate shepherd more for one thing ...sacking bobby

 

Couple of points of contention.

Its very convenient for a lot of people now to blame Shepherd for sacking Robson. They obviously don't know much about the fans involvement, many of whom wanted rid of him, there was a groundswell against Robson right across the terraces at the time. A la Joey #fansneedtotakeresponsibilitytoo.

Similarly it couldn't be more wrong to suggest SJH had nowt to do with the sale, HE was actively touting the club for sale. He wanted out and needed the money to shore up his rapidly failing development company who had suffered significant losses at the time. In fact without the sale of NUFC I think the Halls would probably have been flat broke by now. The club was effectively sold behind Shepherds back, the fat lad was presented with a fait accompli.

I like the point made by Warm Pouch:-
"but the selling party also needs to act more responsibly, and when they making so much money should at least give a **** about the well being of the club after they go"

The fact is that Hall was so desperate for the money he was happy that Ashley didn't do his homework properly and didn't consider the future consequences for the club.

 

maybe you might have wanted him out but the majority of the fans around me and those i knew didn't want Robson out and the majority were pissed off with over paid twats like dyer,jenas etc. under performing hence the booing,fat freddy was the reason bobby went not the fans,hate it when people put stuff like "They obviously don't know much about the fans involvement" as if they speak for every fan of course there was some unhappy with robson but the majority weren't

 

I'm not sure about the fans being responsible for Bobby. It would be wrong to claim every fan wanted him to stay but I reckon a vast majority hadn't even considered he might be sacked. Even some of those who booed when we started the season slowly (again), didn't expect it. They may have contributed in a small way but it still comes down to the chairman. Virtually the whole of Old Trafford wanted Ferguson out early doors but Martin Edwards was sure he had the right fellow and rode out the storm. We all know the rest. As fans our opinions should count, but only to a point. The guy running it needs to be the guy who can make the right decisions for the club. Who was the main culprit? Shepherd for me, closely followed by the brat pack of Bellers, Dyer, Jenas, Cort and Bramble who decided to behave like a bunch of spoilt brats, showing the great man no where near enough respect. Shepherd seemed to react to this, and use the minority of supporters who wanted a new man as evidence change was required. I was against it massively at the time, but like most accepted it and hoped we got the right man in. Unfortunately Freddy droppped another clanger. He may have pinpointed that lack of discipline was a problem (something he knew plenty about himself!), but he removed the wrong element and brought in the wrong guy to top it off. No problem with discplinarian being brought in but it should have been a good football manager too. Souness has proved himself clueless in this regard through the years. Those little ****s should have disciplined and shipped out if they couldn't behave.

 

put far better than i could due to

 

Absolute nonsense, I'm afraid to say. Sir John had not sold his shares before Ashley came along. It was the selling of the majority shareholding, held by him and his son, Douglas, which allowed Ashely to take over, and force Freddy and Bruce Shepherd sell their shares, as they were legally obliged to do, under Stock Exchanges rules.

I have met Sir John, on two occasions, and found him good affable company. However, the inescapable fact remains that he and his son sold out the club, for a vast profit, yet he retains the affection of the fans, while FS is often the object of ridicule and contempt.

 

I find it hilarious that the Toon fans get 'blamed' for a managerial sacking.

We have no more control or say over things now than we ever have - the men in charge make the decisions and how much influence the fans have is laughable. I'm not suggesting it's a bad thing that as fans we have next to no effect, it just makes me laugh when certain parts of the media claim it was our fault for things like the sacking of SBR...

 

Should have kept his big trap shut.