You suggest that Ashley is strapped for cash? Incredible! The guy is supposed to be a billionaire -at least on paper for Christ's sake! Ashley's empire extends further than NUFC,he is a wheeler dealing spiv who has little or no interest in your club.What has happened to the guy who once sat among the supporters in his Newcastle shirt? was that a genuine feeling for the club,or a choreographed public relations stunt? Your last sentence is spot on, unfortunately his interest lies with Sports Direct and it's subsidiaries,who incidentally, returned an operating profit of 110 mil last year. It is also interesting to note that WHU whose owners are in the 'retail' business have invested 92 mil -and counting -in upgrading their playing staff. Are they operating under a different set of rules than you? The poster is right. Ashley is stagnating his own investment.Pursuing a sell to buy policy can only work if there is a financial contingency plan in place to support the policy. Starving any club of inward investment is short sighted an can only have one result. When Fulham reached the Europa final in 2010 Al Fayed had the opportunity to press on financially - he did not. Instead he turned the money tap off,and within three years we were relegated
We all know where we stand. Ashley loaned money - gets free advertising. Club only spend what's in bank - PL money arrives in tranches, not up front. We'll never have ambition under Ashley. Conversely, we'll never go bust.
Only if we receive a massive offer from a top club. We'd be powerless to stop it because he'd ask to move.
I think we might receive that offer. Surely Chelsea need to replace Cahill and - belatedly - Terry with someone English and top drawer? Way of the world, though, and powerless is absolutely perfect way to describe Newcastle under Ashley. Was thinking what would make a "best case" when Spurs turn up, but the thought of "what's worst case" isn't worth thinking about!!
Its not Newcastle under Ashley though is it. Its every club outside of the top 6 that has an asset the big guns want. You can't fight it, the players and agents now control the market. I know people would love to use every item available to hit Ashley with, but reality is that we are not top drawer and can't be until someone of the ilk who owns those top clubs takes over. Even then as we found with Andy Cole and Woodgate, we will still be vulnerable. The only way to overcome it is a Man C type scenario where a country takes over you and spends £200m every season on transfers and pays players exuberant amounts of money. Then they'll choose you of course. That isn't going to happen to the 99% of clubs! If people are going to moan about not being in the top 1% of the money leagues then I'd prefer they were taken out the back and quietly put down for all the rest of the fans sake.
Get that and agree completely - what I meant was we have no power in any sense. No real pulling power, no financial power, no commercial power. Totally accept we're in with the rest of the world in terms of the power to resist, but overall and more than most top flight clubs across Europe we appear power-less.
Each to their own but I don't get that at all. We are making steady if unspectacular progress in the market. We pulled in a manager considered probably in the top 20 across Europe to manage us in the Championship and remain despite this big anti transfer conspiracy (modern managers do not entertain this!) Hard to know our financial power as we keep those cards close to our chest. However I think they'll have got us back on an even keel following relegation. Commercially we will find out in January next year how we are doing compared to the other PL clubs. I reckon we will be doing ok. We had a major drop off with relegation but we will bounce back this year and continue to grow if we can stay in the division. I think we are a fairly powerful force against the also rans. Its just the gaps between us all has got really tight.
Clubs spend (in order) so far according to https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/premier-league/transfers/wettbewerb/GB1 Liverpool: 112m West Ham: 83m Arsenal: 70m City: 63m Manure: 53m Chelsea: 51m Southampton: 45m Huddersfield: 33m Fulham: 30m Cardiff: 28m Wolves: 27m Watford: 13m Brighton: 10m Spurs: 0 Burnley: 0 Palace: 0 NUFC: +6m Everton: +8m Bournemouth: +8m Leicester: +15m
Wow! When you consider how many players have left Newcastle United for nothing this summer, it really brings home how non-competitive the club is. In all aspects.
Quite interesting once you take the promoted sides (who have to bridge the gap), Southampton (who are spending profits from previous 5 seasons), you're only really left with Huddersfield and West Ham outside of the top sides spending any money. Perhaps we can all calm down now.
Gamez, Haidara, Merino all gone which must equate to somewhere in the region of at-least 50k p/w savings. Plus half the youth team...
We are having to replace the youngsters though, at a higher cost. I think they've signed a couple already with more to follow.
He needs to sell the club. He won't though as he has the advertising deal of the century. The Hall family are to blame for this - sold us down the river for a quick buck. Mike Ashley will be here until either Sports Direct goes bust or he dies.
Correct. Under Ashley we will never strive to achieve, but by never over reaching we should in theory stay afloat once we eventually, inevitably get relegated. Didn’t Villa under Ellis “function” in a very similar manner?
But we are guaranteed £100m this season. 100%. And we are being outspent by Brighton and Huddersfield. Comfortably.
Why spend any money when the free advertising does the trick. The signing of Ki was clever too. Expand to the far east.
