just looking at the bottom line... he bought a debt ridden club on the brink of being the next Leeds, rode it out , avoided selling to people that couldn't take the club fwd and finally sold us to a group that will make us the next PSG . I hate to admit it ,but that's a cracking job . Rio Ferdinand is right MA thank you
If he’d done that in three years, or even five years, I might agree. He wasted 13 years of our lives. 13 years of dross and disappointment. Good riddance and bad cess to him.
Except that the next Leeds is a myth. Our biggest debt pre Ashley was the ground mortgage. He tried to bully Barclays and they called his bluff. He was then forced to pay off the mortgage via a loan to the club. As long as we remained a PL club we were in no danger of facing administration/ liquidation. Only after he came did we ever face relegation.
you all seem a bit ungrateful tbh. I guess it's because we've been in an argument for 13 years and it's too hard to fess up that ultimately the outcome of his reign is fantastic.
True. Two relegations, no main trophy and desperately clinging to surviving in the PL for most of the time. Some might describe that as glorious, heady times but then again we aren’t Hartlepool so I definitely wouldn’t.
The being bought by the Saudis, yes. But that’s got little to do with Cashley. Or has he rebuffed all previous attempts to sell the Club because he knew the Saudi’s were coming. I have a dream where little black and white children will play with Man City children and Liverpool children, as equals... Don’t think so. Financial management below average. Football management seriously below incompetent. So remind me, which bit did he do well with again??
I try to come up with positives of life under Ashley, and for some strange reason I struggle. I mean I just don't get it. High points, few as they are, 2 memorable promotions, albeit, the indignity of relegation had to come first. The other seasons have been distinctly forgettable. The biggest indictment I can level at him is the worst run of results in the club's history to Wearside Jacks' mob. I don't want to go to games anymore, his tenure has bled the enthusiasm from me, to the point of cancelling the Season Ticket. I used to think 2nd Baron Westwood was worse, I've since changed my mind on that one. For me, Ashley, will go down as a side note, as the worst owner of this club in its history. Considering the **** times we've had, that is saying something.
