GACP Takeover
- Thread starter Fox Mulder
- Start date
-
Please bear with us on the new site integration and fixing any known bugs over the coming days. If you can not log in please try resetting your password and check your spam box. If you have tried these steps and are still struggling email [email protected] with your username/registered email address
-
Agreed and then selling club land to himself cheap and selling it on for 3 times the amount on top of that...
AND THEN you have the HMRC issues (still not resolved) and the fact our turnover has stagnated over the past decade while other clubs have literally doubled theirs...
I find it astonishing how anyone could look at the club and NOT think where has the money gone...
I am at the stage now where it is more the guilt if I dont go that drives me.
I'm not suggesting that for a moment. The questions many are asking are about the transparency of the accounts.
Because we've been relegated twice, mate. It's really not hard to see how that would cost a fortune, and I would be absolutely astonished if Mike has trousered a penny from the club notwithstanding the loan repayments.
you need crazy money to even stay in the prem these days and leeds look to be the next coming up with it … soon we will go down it's just a question of when not if … the club is overpriced and by the time Ashley does **** off we will be ****ed anyway ..even sunderland could be spending crazy money and have a 63k stadium within the next 5 years.. we are ****ed basically.
story today mike spoke to 2 Mexicans about interested in buying the club, bur mike came across as rude and the conversations will go no further .. ahahah
I think the point is its not for me to explain. Those accusing Mr Ashley need to put up or shut up essentially. We have heard for years now that Mike Ashley has been trousering money out of the club. Those accusing him are absolutely convinced. To be that convinced it must be based on fairly cast iron evidence. Or at least some evidence. Strangely not a single shred has ever been produced.
When evidence is requested they start going on about free advertising etc. They start doing amateur accountancy and presenting false information. It seems really difficult to keep them on the subject matter for some reason. I just want one of those claiming he is taking money out the club to present some evidence of it or at least stop going on about it until they can. I think that's reasonable. The onus is on those questioning what is happening with regards to finance at the club. You'd think after ten years of making these accusations, they would have presented some evidence by now.
Just to be clear I'm not interested in Sports Direct advertising, I'm not interested in the club shop, I'm not interested in him transferring land into his name, etc etc. I only want evidence which shows Mike Ashley taking funds from club coffers and giving them to himself.
To be fair the clubs accounts seem to show that owning a PL football is not actually great from a money making perspective. This is further evidenced when looking at the accounts of other clubs in the PL. It would seem the value of the advertising and access provided by being associated with a PL football club, far outweighs what the standard value of those things would be. I don't know, perhaps he is into selling sports goods or something like that.
It is fair to level accusations of shackling NUFC, of reducing our corporate earning. However, it's worth remembering that revenue is irrelevant - it's about profit. It's also very fair to level accusations of mis-management, as he has been directly responsible for two unnecessary relegations which in turn have cost us dearly. But I cringe every time i hear or read someone saying he's pocketing money. He's just not. He's very, very wealthy - the legal implications of secretly sticking a few mill in his sky rocket would be so costly it's simply not worth it, it would make zero sense for him to do it.
Nobody can prove it, it's not happening. I think the whole sorry episode needs to be shut down, fans need to just stop making themselves look daft. The internet and Twitter in particular has ensured those without the intelligence to understand situations are given all the tools to think they're informed. When I used to write online criticising the ownership of Shepherd, it was relatively hard to find his dodgy dealings; the stuff with Willie McKay, the warehouse selling to his son, etc. Many look back fondly at the scrap-metal merchant-turned-NUFC saviour, when in reality he was every bit as greedy a bastard as Mike Ashley, and twice as shady, You could look everywhere and raise serious concerns - anyone think Abramovic's wealth came from hard graft? Did the Arab's "earn" the oil, or do they make sure they keep their money by abhorrent payment and treatment of immigrant workers from Pakistan? These are desperately horrible people who would end other peoples lives to make more money. We have some fat bloke who had one stroke of genius and amassed a fortune. Yeah, he's made some dumb decisions in his own stupid, ignorant bubble he seems to live in - but he's dealt with NUFC the same as he's dealt with Sports Direct; very small circle of trust, middle-finger up at convention. SD runs on a skeleton crew of executives, just like NUFC. The books are tight, just like NUFC. The decisions (Game, HoF, Debenhams) often appear haphazard and random, just like NUFC. But he's not satan incarnate. Without the internet, there wouldn't be half the ire. What needs to happen is we need to just move on. There's nothing fans are ever going to achieve - we'd do ourselves a HUGE favour if we switched off to the political, capitalist nonsense surrounding the owner and just went, for two hours, to watch lads play football. The results would improve and the chance of being bought would improve.
Literally the only thing the fans can do to influence the sale of the club, is support the team.
You should name him as "My client" instead of Mr Ashley.
He has benefited financially by owning NUFC. His other business has grown massively since he dipped in with us and the mutual arrangements have benefited SD (and admittedly the club). He has gained land obviously and generally him owning the club has been good for him financially. I just can't see any evidence whatsoever he has removed funds from the club and given it to himself. I'm not even sure how he'd legally do that while hiding it?
There is a reason Sir John Hall got out of it. The club couldn't generate the money to compete so he sold it to someone who could finance it himself - that isn't hearsay, its what SJH has said in interviews. So we already know when Ashley bought it, the club couldn't generate any money and was indeed losing money annually to remain in the upper echelons. I would suggest that is why Ashley promised to spend every penny the club generated. He knew full well the club didn't generate any significant profit. It was an empty glass he was handing us.
The thing is, Ashley hasn't funded it himself as SJH hoped. Well bar when he has absolutely had to in order to protect his asset. Obviously he will get that back but we wouldn't have had that money without him. So it was a benefit to get an interest free loan. Lets be clear though, that was for his benefit not the clubs. He has allowed the status quo to remain meaning we've sat going nowhere. He has run the club according to its means and as a result its in a relegation battle annually.
He is but so are all the other rich people who own football clubs. Lets remember he hasn't made his money by killing folk like some, just enslaving them.
He is but so are all the other rich people who own football clubs. Lets remember he hasn't made his money by killing folk like some, just enslaving them.