Breaking news according to BBC: https://www.bbc.com/news/business-45714224 Ok it relates to House of Fraser but the analagy to how he runs Newcastle is clear and the good news is that maybe he will wish to give Charnley the promotion he so clearly deserves and let him run the coffee shop in the London Branch. Mike Ashley's firm has sacked the senior management at House of Fraser just weeks after it bought the department store chain. In a one-sentence announcement to the stock market, Sports Direct said it had "dismissed the former directors and senior management of House of Fraser". The move followed "calls for an investigation" into the retailer's collapse, the statement added. Sports Direct paid £90m for House of Fraser's 58 UK stores in August. Those departing the chain will include chief executive Alex Williamson. It is not clear who will replace the management team at House of Fraser, or how many people are affected by the decision. Richard Lim of Retail Economics, a consultancy, said the new owner had taken "drastic action following a series of woeful management decisions, clumsy execution and an outdated perception of the UK market". Sounds very like our management in the Summer transfer window He added: "The retailer operates in the part of the industry under the most significant amount of pressure and the race is on to rapidly restructure the business to ensure the takeover is a success." Bit like the lower rungs of the Premier League Mr Ashley has vowed to turn the department store chain into the "Harrods of the high street" and to keep most of its stores open. Or Man City "We think the biggest and most important thing House of Fraser is missing is luxury brands. Or even a quality striker "We think it will make a big difference," he told the Sun. So do we Later in August, Sports Direct warned "greedy landlords" resisting its attempts to reduce rents on some stores that "time is running out" to keep the doors open. Last month, Sports Direct was forced to rule out making a takeover bid for Debenhams after Simon Bentley, an outgoing director of Sports Direct, said the board had discussed combining the two department store chains. Mr Ashley's firm owns a 29.7% stake in Debenhams. Mr Bentley later said he had "made no mention of any merger".
It's surely not that unusual to get rid of senior management if you feel they've handled strategy badly. Ashley is terrible at owning a football club but owning retailers is the reason he's a billionaire.
They ran the business into administration so fair enough. Not to mention that part of the takeover strategy is probably that they will use existing SD staff to run HOF and save money. I'm pretty sure they knew it was coming.
An inevitable outcome and a non story really ................................ but anything that makes Ashley look like a heartless twat in the media is just fine and dandy with me.
In my book HOF is now a dead store. The future is grim for the high street anyway. Amazon and the internet has seen to that. I've no idea just what Sports Direct can do to get people to flock into HOF and hand over money like they used to 20 years ago. He's backed a loser but will still run it into the ground. On the other hand, if he moves on well away from our club, good luck to him.
