Id say the last time we went down was due to poor structure as well though. Remember Schteve having to google players we'd bought? That set up works if you invested money correctly like Southton, Everton and Watford, but not if it is purely to make bigger profit later at the expense of the team being successful (no left backs, colo in defence for years because defenders arent very profitable, purple player system, managers opinion on signing being irrelevant, making yourself a stepping stone club and then picking the most flouncy players looking for paycheques) Since Sunderland left I am envious of every other clubs owner bar Swansea, and they'll be gone next year.
I don't remember him having to google anyone? I must have missed that. He always seemed at pains to point out it was a joint venture between him and Carr. Was there not some committee in place? I just think we spent 70m and the manager picked his players (badly). He got us in a downward spiral and despite a decent effort by Rafa, we got relegated. I can't place any blame on Ashley for that one. It was a mixture of Charnley appointing McClaren, Carr scouting but largely McClaren for buying the players in tandem with Carr, and managing the resource terribly. Benitez points return suggested the team wasn't as bad as McClaren made it look.
The players who are bought are never finished articles, but are those with the Ashley blueprint of being young and are likely to have sell-on value. If those players don't develop according to plan, the team loses and Ashley loses. The early promise to that plan, of the likes of Cabaye etc ran out of steam years ago. The goal of Ashley is Premiership survival only. No cups, no cup runs, just survival. To praise him for panic buying - like he needs to do now - is like praising an arsonist for trying to put out a fire he's started. Though admittedly Ashley makes mistakes by not listening to the people who know more about the game than him.
250 million now cash.... November 350 million with relagation clauses...December Take it leave it or **** aboot for a few month then kick off like a big ****ing sweaty fat **** hoooose.
It was Thauvin according to Martin Hardy in Rafa's Way. There was committee but it involved charnley, mclaren and yes man. Was there anyone else? Either way it was always set up to favour Ashley and was more about the image than action. I also thought (may be wrong) Mclaren was Ashley's choice and we had pursued him before Charns was about? I agree it doesn't account for Carr and Mclaren's share of the blame, but the man who set the whole thing up at the top deserves some too, in the same way I blame him for listening to the advice of Wise, Kinnear etc. Atleast another owner might have a deeper understanding of how to find in the know football people as opposed to anyone from London or with a predeliction for young french players
The impression I get from this whole debacle is that Staveley identified a club that she could get 'on the cheap' and offerered great value. Some commentators have described the club as 'a sleeping giant', which is a fair description those I would often suggest 'comatose' as an alternative. Anyway, she has identified a good investment and then tried to gather some connections to make a solid bid. But something went wrong with the Dubai angle and she was left with somone else as the main partner because I have a feeling that she was looking to head a consortium of investors. The trouble is that one of the parties may have got cold feet after the process started. Ashley would have thought that it was all over and then the curry took place in Hampstead where, I am certain, she tried to persuade him that everything was alright at her end and, though there had been a few niggles, everything was in place. I am quite convinced that she was trying to convince herself more than anything else and then when nothing happened afterwards then Ashley pulled the plug. This is how I saw things and, perhaps, we may have dodged a bullet as this looks like it was nothing but an investment plan and it didn't work because the investors didn't want to be in a football club. At least Ashley has a plan for NUFC: it being the advertising arm for Sports Direct that also, unusually for advertising, turns a profit. Anyway, this is my opinion on what happened. It could be a million miles from the truth but at the moment I am not unhappy that it fell apart.
You're probably right, but then Ashley doesn't want to be in football either, or at least not at this club. For the investment to go up there would have to have been an improvement on our current position unless Staveley has her own 'Staveley and Co. Knickers Alliance' to advertise with the investors. Maybe it would have gone tits up in the end but don't see how we could be worse off, it's hardly like they can asset strip us, they can only pump money in or choose not to from that point on. I don't worry about the clubs going from the PL to administration these days either, perhaps wrongly, but between the fit and proper persons test, the ridiculous tv money and the parachute payments you'd have to waste some pretty ****ing insane money to put yourself to the brink at the moment. So dropping a league like we do with Ashley wouldn't make a dramatic difference. Im not down but I don't see where we get better under the current regime bar the odd lucky season. I just think the next time Mike stumps up serious dough Benitez will be gone, we'll have Nigel Pearson and be occupying the championship
Was going to mention ClearlyDeludedGloryHunter loves a **** plan n all, but didn't want to seem like I was "banging on" about it
I think you have to blame Ashley for not spending basically anything the 5? previous transfer windows though. That's a big chunk of what went wrong there. Then there's employing a cheap, inexperienced (& incompetent?) Managing Director who employed a totally inept manager. Then if we are wanting what Southampton and Everton have then blame Ashley because, aside from not investing in the first team, there has been little done in his 10+ years to develop the youth system despite promises to the contrary.
Last 5 windows probably not (if we are including this window) but 5 seasons I'd agree with (think we have a net spend of £50m over the last 5 years) - he backed McClown to the tune of nearly £80m to try and drag us out the mire and then gave Rafa £50m odd over the Championship season but that was all generated by the club and player sales - which in fairness to him is the blueprint for the club. The rest though fully agreed! Little to no thought on appointments at a senior/junior level and the training facilities etc weren't touched until Rafa said they needed improving.
There were several windows before he released the £80m where we made a total of 1 permanent signing IIRC is what I'm saying. By the time he gave McLaren the £80m the team was in such a **** state of disrepair that the damage had already been done. If the money had been spent over the previous seasons we could have replaced players in a structured way rather than going out to spend it all in 1 or 2 windows in a panic and buying what was available at the time.
By putting money in I meant loaning the club money. He's never just given the club money and never will.
The current situation is a result of spending less than nothing for the last 2 seasons. To expect a club to survive a season with no investment in the playing staff is a very large gamble. To expect it to survive two is virtually insane. We have been required to survive two seasons with negative £12 million invested in playing staff. Surprised we're still in with a shout at survival.
I don't get this negative spend stuff. There are 8 clubs with a lower net spend this summer than us alone. We have invested 104m in our playing squad over the last two summers. Aside from having to rebuild, we've spent money. Very decent money too. Plenty clubs operate in negative net spend. Spurs have a negative net spend of 18m since 2012. The managers have simply done better with the money they've had and manipulated the squad better than we have. Its very easy to make excuses for people.
Ive just checked which teams and, aside from Burnley, it's either the big guns or teams in and around us. Also as youve said previously stats are misleading, none of those clubs were in the championship last season.
Absolute cadswallop, you and your Rafa bashing! You’re letting Charnley and “the model” off very fking lightly. Not broken our transfer record since 2005? That alone is utterly ridiculous. Nobody can tell me Rafa doesn’t want players that cost £17m+, he’s just not “allowed” to get them. When you have a max spend of £12m for any given player you’re completely hamstrung from the start. It follows that this is how we end up with players like Gayle, Ritchie, Joselu, Manquillo and the rest of the no marks instead of real footballers who would strengthen the side. Christ alive, Wolves (Neves) and Boro (Assombalonga) have a bigger record transfer than we do right now!! We generate a stack of cash, more than enough to smash our transfer record and hugely extend our wage budget but I’m pretty certain it’s not Rafa's decision to keep it so insanely tight. Where's the Fun88 sponsorship cash? Where's the TV money? Where's the advertisement bonuses? We've barely added to the wage budget, but we're operating like it's still 2007. Just like his sports shops, we're cheap, woefully out of touch and living in the past.
If the fat man spends £20m or more this window I’ll shave some pubes off, pop them on a tuc cracker with no butter and gobble them down. I’ll post pictorial proof too.
