Praise for Mike Ashley

A good article from the Daily Mail.....


Here's how Newcastle became the Talk of the Toon (again) thanks to Ashley's rethink
By NEIL ASHTON
PUBLISHED: 21:36, 5 April 2012 | UPDATED: 08:32, 6 April 2012
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High up in the stands at the Sports Direct Arena a group of Newcastle United executives are in an air-conditioned office, thumbing through some financials. Liverpool catch the eye.
Kenny Dalglish's team, beaten 2-0 by Newcastle last weekend, will be fitted out in Warrior sportswear next season in a deal worth £25million a year. Add the £17m paid annually by shirt sponsor Standard Chartered and Liverpool's kitty is swelled by £42m before a ball is even kicked.
Towards the bottom of the list are Newcastle United, paid a combined £5m a year by kit supplier Puma and Virgin Money, who are splashed across the front of the iconic black and white jersey.

Trusted: Newcastle are enjoying Premier League success under manager Alan Pardew
Over at Darsley Park, Newcastle's magnificent first-team training complex, Alan Pardew has a different set of figures in front of him. After 31 games in the Barclays Premier League, his Newcastle team are sixth in the table, 11 points clear of Liverpool.
This is the inside story on the complete restructuring of a famous football club, cutting it to the bone and finally settling on a sound business plan. It is the rebirth of Newcastle United.
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When Mike Ashley bought the club in 2007 for £130m and granted an interest-free loan of £100m in 2008 rising to £140m at present, he was immediately caught up in football's brainless bubble. There were 'PAs for PAs', an annual wage bill that reached 91 per cent of turnover and a flawed recruitment policy.
He has made plenty of mistakes, most of which he has publicly or privately accepted, since he bought out Sir John Hall and Freddy Shepherd. Those errors include a string of chaotic managerial and executive decisions - Kevin Keegan and Dennis Wise, Joe Kinnear and Alan Shearer among them - based on advice from 'football people'. After Newcastle were relegated from the Premier League in May 2009, the billionaire businessman resolved to do it his way.*
When Ashley arrived in the North East, annual interest* payments and bank charges were a staggering £6.5m. That figure has been reduced to £212,000. The club save £200,000 a year using an in-house cleaning team at the stadium and the training centre, but make more money* outsourcing the catering in the hospitality suites.

Recently they won an award for reducing carbon emissions, saving £400,000 a year in power supplies. If an employee does not turn off a light or leaves his computer on after work, an alarm sounds in the facility manager's office so that they know who is responsible.
This is Ashley's business model, unashamedly brought in from the nerve centre of retail giant Sports Direct. He hates waste. When Ashley is not satisfied, he isn't afraid to pick up the phone or fire off an email demanding improvements. Now Newcastle continually review, rehabilitate and then reset.
Ashley works on an 80:20 principle, placing his trust in managing director Derek Llambias to* oversee the administration and operation of the club (20 per cent), plus the football (80 per cent). Their popularity ebbs and flows, confusing outsiders because it rarely tallies with anything that is happening on the field.
When Andy Carroll was sold to Liverpool for £35m in January 2011, supporters outside Shearer's, the bar at the stadium named after their record goalscorer, blamed Ashley. A little over a year later the* Gallowgate taunted Carroll with chants of 'One greedy b*****d' when the Liverpool striker ripped off his shirt when he was substituted 10 minutes from time.

On February 5, 2011, when the team were 4-0 down at home to Arsenal inside 26 minutes, one supporter ran down the steps of the Milburn Stand, directed a thumb towards the south and told Pardew: 'Get back to London, you Cockney b*****d.' After Cheick Tiote scored* Newcastle's 87th-minute equaliser, grown men were in tears in the boardroom at St James' Park (yes, Ashley and Llambias still call it that).
The owner is attending matches again, dining out with Llambias and his family in Newcastle the night before last weekend's impressive 2-0 win over Liverpool. They still encounter pockets of hostility, but accept the Geordie Nation's passion for the team playing at the sporting cathedral on top of Town Moor.
The current beef is the stadium naming rights, a decision that prompted some supporters to stage a mock funeral by marching to St James' Park with a black and white coffin. Ashley answers them all, telling them that with a stadium already operating at 91 per cent of capacity, he is forced to look at alternative revenue streams. Turnover at Newcastle last season was £88.46m, a million miles behind Manchester United (£286.3m), Arsenal (£222.6m), Manchester City (£153.2m) and Tottenham (£163.4m).
Newcastle's recruitment policy is crucial, but Ashley accepts that it will never be truly scientific - there is always a margin for human error.
Ashley has restructured the* talent and development team, placing Newcastle's players on a grid that monitors current performance, valuation and future potential. It is a system that has produced spectacular results, with 'the 1s' a reference to first-team players and '2s' those pushing for a place in the team.
Many of them were* identified by chief scout Graham Carr, working to a narrow and specific brief that was provided from the very top. Yohan Cabaye, Papiss Demba Cisse and Tiote were not on the radar of Newcastle's supporters until they set foot inside St James' Park.
Positions are identified by Pardew up to a year in advance and then Carr, along with his tiny team of talented scouts, set off on predetermined missions. Only players of a certain age, value and salary expectation make it through the sieve for consideration. The rest are discarded, no matter how good their agent promises they will be.
At any one time Carr, Pardew and Llambias have access to a confidential file that itemises the first-choice replacement for any first-team player or a potential second choice. Ashley does not believe that it is a ground-breaking system, but it works based on the financial restrictions in place at Newcastle.

Until recently, Ashley bought into the myth that Newcastle had to pay a premium to convince players to move to the North East. It drove prices higher and forced him to authorise bigger wages. After nearly five years in charge he will no longer succumb to temptation, trimming the wage bill to 60-65 per cent of turnover and fantasising about the unlikely day when it will be as low as 50.
With the exception of the team bonuses agreed with the squad at the start of the season, Llambias rarely commits to incentives in individual players' contracts. The strikeforce do not have a bonus for scoring or assisting in goals; and Newcastle's defence would not have been specially rewarded for their clean sheet against Liverpool, beyond their regular weekly salary. Occasionally, 'a 2' will be incentivised as part of his package to try to push his established rival out of the team.
Player negotiation is straight-forward, with a transfer valuation and a salary tag attached to each player on Newcastle's grid. When Carroll was attracting attention, Llambias enhanced the valuation of every player in the squad during the countdown to the close of the transfer window. By the time Liverpool came calling, it was too late for Newcastle to sign a replacement and the Merseysiders appeared desperate. Llambias set a fee based on the timing and, incredibly, Liverpool agreed to pay it.
Every player at Newcastle remains for sale, provided the price is right for Llambias and Ashley. They trust Carr and know that his team of nine scouts, some full-time and some part-time, are one step ahead and have already identified the replacement's replacement.
When the time comes for that to happen, they fully expect Pardew still to be in charge of the team to oversee the transition. He was brought in on a five-year contract, the man for the job after Llambias noted his work at West Ham.

Love him or hate him? Newcastle owner Mike Ashley has been a controversial figure on Tyneside
Llambias's three children are Hammers fans and he frequently took them to Upton Park during Pardew's largely successful spell in charge. Pardew knitted West Ham together, sealing promotion in the play-off final against Preston in 2005 and taking them to within a whisker of winning the FA Cup against Liverpool the next year. Llambias made a mental note, recognising Pardew's qualities and working* furtively behind the scenes in order to convince Ashley he was the right appointment.
Ashley has been impressed with his tactical acumen and his attention to detail since he replaced Chris Hughton in December 2010. His media profile and his* conduct have met with Ashley's approval and the board are* satisfied he has the complete respect of the players.
Pardew, along with his coaching staff, have the added security of long-term contracts, empowered by the board to make the best decisions for the team. They are done with the hire-and- fire approach that has seen Ashley terminate the contracts of Sam Allardyce, Keegan, Kinnear, Shearer and Hughton since* January 16, 2008.
In that time, Chelsea, level on 53 points with Newcastle, have hired and fired four managers at a total cost of £46.3m. What a waste, as Ashley might say.
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A good anount of detail

 

It kind of backs up what i've been saying for quite a bit

 

Interesting info on the catering/power saving. I don't think the management can be unhappy with the fans, if they'd have communicated with us more, we'd have been more understanding, and that was their problem, we, as Geordies, would often think with our hearts and not our heads, the longer we stay under Ashley, the more this changes and I think that might be a good thing! Don't get me wrong, the cavalier football under Keegan and Sir Bobby and all the oh so nears were immense and I wouldn't change them, but this regime just seems to have the organisation to set our sights on a trophy and get it!

 

His master stroke was getting rid of shearer trust me you never want to have a geordie in charge

 

lol actually an amusing comment! I agree, Shearer would be a disaster at this stage of his managerial career (not writing him off entirely just yet) but they should've shown him more respect!

 

He just keeps messing up the PR side of things though

 

It's too early to praise just yet!!!! if we continue to build and compete as we are for a few seasons yes but if we sell our best players and it all goes tits up next time. WELL rest assured I'll be throwing in the towel.

 

Still hate Ashley look at the ground farsce, he now things he can sell top players every yr and replace them with cheaper ones and we will continue to do well.
He never gave the money to strenghten at cb

 

this is a very interesting article looking at the business of football.

 

The duo's tactic of not communicating with our fans, as well as the spiteful attempt to sell for nothing the name of St James' Park will ensure that I will never trust those two.

 

There is no doubt that Ashley has sorted the financial mess out - we should all be grateful for those efforts... it's simply the disgusting contempt he has for the fans and legends of the club that will always grate with me.

Kevin Keegan & Alan Shearer being the worst cases of 'abuse' - the renaming of SJP is simply unforgivable and shows how little he actually understands about the Geordie public.

As has been mentioned, the 'gamble' is paying out right now - we've sold our best players and have recruited really well to replace them... it could all go very much differently next season in terms of players.

As for Pardew, you can't fault him really - his astute tactical change at Swansea was brave and exactly right, taking off Ba and replacing him with Ferguson was spot-on.

Happy days right now, and I didn't even mention Cisse!

 

Keeping it short, he's still a massive twat IMO.

 

how is tottenhams turn over is twice what ours is? i can understand others with the size of the club and regular champions league ,plus they said we made a 3 mill loss when according to others that looked ito it we actually made a 30 mill proff

 

It may be a pre tax / post tax difference, as for the Spuds... Haven't a clue TBH

 

You know how good 'arry is at fiddling money...

 

He's a better cook than Heston

 

It's amazing how some people can't admit that they were wrong, were 6th and yes he had a horrible couple of years in charge but imo I don't see what he's done wrong since we got relegated? I imagine everyone will say the stadium name change but lets be honest, we know everyone will still call it St James' Park

we were a championship team 2 seasons ago and now were actually challenging for the Europa league and even a minuscule possibility of champions league, I actually will say I doubt we would be here without mike!

 

He's done alright by us. He's maybe made a mistake or two but who among us hasn't?

 

Started off badly, but you have to say he has done well and we seem to be progressing under his ownership now.