Is Mike in for the long run?

Some of you will disagree with this because I know you think he would jump ship if a considerable offer came in. But, all of the signs indicate that Mike Ashley has a long term strategy for our club and that he is here for the long run.

I wasn't sure myself, but all of the signs are stacking up and it seems that this is the case. I'll explain why.

So, the first sign is simply the amount of money he has ploughed into our club. The fat man knows he isn't going to make a profit from this football club, so why would he float us with cash like he did last season and why did he wipe out our debt? To protect his investment? Personally, I'm not sure. He could have sold us at an earlier stage (once he knew the financial mess we were in) but I think he wanted to stick around and make our club somewhat of a project of his.

Secondly. Why did he buy us in the first place, without doing due diligence? Surely a businessman of his stature (at that point a multi billionaire) would have had the common sense to look at the books before buying 100% of shares. Talk about diving straight into the deep end. Perhaps these statements that we keep hearing "Mike's a fan" are actually true and have been for a while?

Okay... let me take a break. Yes, he had made some monumental cock ups, but maybe that was simply down to his lack of knowledge when it came to owning and running a football club. We're all human and we all make mistakes, so maybe big Mike is learning from them?

Right, back to the reasons. 5 years, 6 years, 5 years, 5 years... how many long term contracts have been signed recently? Yes, Carroll left for a large sum because of the length left on his contract. But I actually believe that Ashley was prepared to keep him at the club and refuse all offers.

Alongside all of these 5 and 6 year contracts, Derek Llambias yesterday, said: "Mike knows where we should be in four or five years. We want to be challenging for Europe every season". So do you think this is his plan, or just something being said to keep us sweet?

The signs are there, it seems he is committed and he has said in the past that he's just trying to do his best for the club. Maybe that was his thinking behind installing people like Keegan and Shearer as manager? Maybe we've misinterpreted his intentions for all this time, maybe he truly is a Toon 'Supporter' like all of us?

Either way, despite us going down, Mike Ashley has to a large degree saved our club. We saw the other day that our finances are now in a much better state and maybe we could argue that relegation cleared a lot of dead wood from our squad.

It may seem like I'm defending him, well I am, sort of. But I'm not a fool and I know we won't be 100% sure of his intentions until the summer, when we either do or don't get any of that £35m to spend. However, the media seems to be linking us to a lot of players and we have been quite active in terms of scouting.

What are your thoughts? Answer the poll above.

 

Mikes problems all started when Chris Mort left IMO
he seems to be largely ill advised from that son of a bitch LLambiarse.
the signs all point to him wanting to do well and stay but as long as he has that knob as his right hand man I will never trust him fully

 

I beleive he is here for the long haul, unless an offer he cant refuse comes along of course. And i am not disappointed about that.

I have stated that in the last 2 seasons he has done very little wrong, and i stand by that. Things are actually looking up for our club, on the pitch (long term contracts for Tiote and Ranger especially (Ranger could be awesome)) and financially. But also as you have mentioned the scouting system seems to be very active, which is a good thing.

I'm optimistic, i dont beleive we will get dragged into a proper relegation battle, i know we aren't far off, but i think we have the quality to at least stay on the fringes of it, if not push clear of it altogether.

 

I think he's prepared to be here for the long haul, however as Wein says, if an offer comes in I think he'll be gone.
That said, we never can tell what the man is thinking, he might be here for 10 more years or 10 more days.

 

I think he's more than prepared, i think he wants to so it will have to be an incredible offer to get him to accept.

 

I've always thought that Mike had a reaction to Dave Whelan stating "There's a club in the North and you're not in it".

Mike had recently floated Sports Direct and had a personal fortune of £1.7 billion. This sleight wound him up and he bought the club to show Whelan that he's got the best club in the North.

A city analyst described Ashley's business demeanour with a very salient comment; "He likes to park his tanks on their front lawns".

It's the only way I can try to contemplate why he skipped due diligence.

I've never thought he was 'a fan' of Newcastle. He's a fan 'of football' as he's mentioned in the past that he'd attend England games and he's got a personal relationship with several of the Spurs board.

He saw a club that could put Whelan in his place and also if handled right had the potential to do well.

He's made serious screw up that we don't need to document and we know the outcome of these mistakes.

I do think he's planning a long term strategy for two reasons:

1) The financial improvements of the club make it a far more viable option to sell to another investor. A long term manager, key players on long term contracts, long term buy in from a significant percentage of the support (10 year season tickets).

2) He may actually want to see this through to fruition as he's not failed at anything in the past. Call it his ego but having this as a blight on what has been to date a very successful business career may just make him want to eradicate the past and get this club to being successful again under his tenure so it will be looked upon as a success.

 

I actually have time for Mike his intentions are good, like I said he has just been very badly advised and I assume he will continue to do so.
Lets hope if he is going to stay the prats around do not get excuses to sing anti Ashley songs

 

I was very pleased with what I heard yesterday, about any prospective buyers having to commit to buying a corporate box for 5 years (at a cost of £250,000) if they really do want to purchase the club.

 

Voted to wait til the summer before hazarding a guess. I don't think he is the abominable ogre with a passionate vendetta against all things black and white that some people do but I do think he is the sort of businessman who doesnt mind aesthetically running things on the cheap just so long as they chug along creating money.
Getting rid of Hughton was a total disgrace but if Pardew finishes the season well and gets the money for his much ballyhooed 'warchest' I think it will be a big indication that he has a long term plan which I wouldn't have any problem with at least.

 

This is what I meant.

 

It would be interesting to see the result of this poll should we be relegated once again under Ashleys' ownership.