Has Ashley re-found his love for NUFC?

Speaking wayyyy too early, the transfer window isn't even open yet, but do you think its possible Mike Ashley has the bug back and wants to make us big successful club like he did when he first arrived?

Think about how we've improved as a side since relegation.

He kept all of our top earners even when we were in the championsip, which enabled us to storm the league and batter anyone that got in our way and finish with a record points tally, while even adding to the side whilst in the championship.

He's went to the effort to build a fantastic scouting team and network to bring us in quality at a good price, but isn't scared of putting his hand in his pocket when an exceptional player comes along, for example 6 million on Santon and 9 million on Cisse + reports of 7 million for Anita and 9.5 million for De Jong...

He's made good deals on the season tickets and froze the price for the next 10 years, while offering cut price deals for youngsters.

Not to mention the supposed money thats been invested into our training facilities and youth system.

I don't really know why I just get the impression he wants to kick on now and make us a force, he can have it both ways if he wants to, spend money on good players, make us a force and a success which would please the fans, but also make himself more money from TV, europe, merchandise etc... in the process. It seems like hes finally seen the light and I'm absolutely delighted, I'm not 100% trusting of him yet of course, but hes on the verge of making up for the mistakes hes made. If he continues to show great intent by keeping our departures at a minimum and bringing in some players this summer, I think it will go a long way to his almost complete redemption.

Long may it continue Mike! you skinny cockney git!

 

Maybe he's finally come up with a business model that turns us into a profitable club but who aren't fighting relegation. The fact it was essentially the decisions of the board that have gotten us back in Europe, without the colossal wage bill we had last time, just about shows that. Even sacking Hughton, though we all think he deserved his chance, has paid off. Realistically, he wasn't going to take us forward, but equally didn't deserve the sack, but would we be where we are now with him in charge? Who knows.

I'm honestly starting to think we'd struggle to find an owner in the league who's running their club as successfully, and as sustainably. The way he's taking us, I just hope he doesn't decide we're profitable enough for him to sell and cut his losses, and we end up with a Venkeys.

 

been saying it for a while, even his least popular decisions have been very strong business wise, and now i think we are starting to reap the rewards of that

 

One thing I'm still not sure about is showcasing the stadium as the Sports Direct Arena, which was obviously to attract interest for a sponsor to come in and pay us 20 million a year for the privilege of our stadium name being named after them, this hasn't materialised, so really it would be nice for him to change the name back.

Who knows, one day. Still doesn't make no difference to me anyway, I will always call it St James' Park.

 

Don't think it makes any difference to any of us, we'll all always call it SJP.

 

I agree that we kind of need to let go of some of the things that we hold dear, but I think renaming the ground The Sports Direct Arena was a complete joke. Surely he made enough from the thousands of adverts all around the ground,the massive eyesore painted on the top of the gallowgate end, and all the TV rights, plus the money from the extra points we're getting?

The main thing that boils my piss about Ashley is he seems to think he can sweeten the fans over by doing something nice, then he goes and does something **** after as if he's already justified it.

Throughout his time here he's treat the fans as if we're all ****** chavs from council estates that don't know **** and will fall for his bullshit.

He's the sort who thinks that if we got into the champions league, he'd not be criticised or wouldn't deserved to be criticised for changing the club name to Sports Direct FC.

He's a good businessman, and he aint evil, but he knows **** all about football or what it means to fans, or at least he didn't up until recently when he discovered he bought a club that meant a lot to a lot of people, and we weren't happy with it being used as a toy.

 

He's steadied the ship, got us moving in the right direction, but I cant help feel his next "train crash" decision is just round the corner. Hope I'm wrong like.....

 

the blokes a money driven greedy bastard,acording to him we made a loss of 3 mill no mike we made a prof of over 30 mill you creamed the rest

 

I've been thinking this for a while.

 

I disagree with all of that to be honest, hes made some huge mistakes but has repayed us big time in the last two seasons, sooner or later we have to let the past be the past and move on from what happened.

As the days go by I worry less and less about him ****ing us over again and I genuinely believe hes here for the long haul.

 

If someone said... Here's £15m to go and buy Debuchy and De Jong... But we want to call the stadium the zebra **** stadium... I'd grab a screwdriver and help them put the signs up tomorrow.

 

Not sure I agreed ACS, though its a personal thing. In 20 years it'll almost certainly make no difference to us that we signed one or two players this summer but it will matter that we've sold our name out. Its indicative of modern football and just puts another barrier between the community and the club when with most clubs its the community they should be looking to get closer to.

I think Ashley has made huge mistakes but are we in a better position now then when he came? Yes, massively so and you'd have to be very short-sighted not to see that. We've gone from being a mid-table side with overpaid players, sliding further into debt which could have bankrupted us into a good passing side with very good prospects, european football and a bright future. I think for the mistakes he's made he's already receieved too much abuse from the fans.

The strange thing is that if you move stadiums you accept that it'll get a branded crappy name, but if you stay put you (i think rightly) begrudge the name being sold as its part of the heritage which shouldn't be hawked out to the highest bidder.

 

Bloke made huge mistakes and took a very naive approach to the business of football. He was left looking like an absolute clown without a clue. He made some horrendous decisions for the club which basically resulted in us being relegated. Sure some of it lay at fat freds door, but you can't get away from the clownery that followed.

A guy like him has an ego, and that ego was battered by his initial failure. But he didn't get where he is today by packing up tools and going home. He has set about developing a plan which can be successful in football, and obviously taken some good advice from somewhere. He was the laughing stock of London and also amongst some of his arch rivals like Whelan etc. They revelled in his demise. That is a massive motivator for these type of guys, coupled with him being hit in the pocket. And as ruthless as he is, I can't imagine he didn't feel some degree of guilt at how he handled "our" club.

He's gone more hands on and we're reaping the rewards. Regardless of anyones thoughts on him, he has got the ship heading in the right direction. (Yewrope!!!!) Everyone has their own opinions on things. Whilst I accept that the name of the ground will never really change, it was a massive faux pas to go down the route he has. I don't think you should trample on club history like that, and that is exactly how I see it. We live in money driven world, and football has fast become a money driven industry. However there is a lot to be said for holding on to traditions/heritage because in 100 years time, that is the fabric of the club and the strength of the base on which its built.

We still get fed or spun a line at time which of course is frustrating. The supposed loss we made this year being one! But all in all you have to be happy, and not be too naive by being insulted by this kind of thing. Its part and parcel of business. Just like transfers are part and parcel of football. We need to all keep behind the club, and most importantly Pardew and the players. Part of that is not overreacting to a big name being sold off to keep us on a stable financial footing he is comfortable with.

 

Think the major issue is the renaming the stadium but like ACS said if it brings in good money theres not much you can argue with but he needs to find a sponsor and quick. Apart from that I'm pretty much all for Ashely, he seems to have learnt from his mistakes when he first turned up and is building towards a good future.

 

I think he has improved a lot, I even think he's grown fond of the atmosphere and games a bit, but I still think he's a bit of a ****, however, I think we need to be reasonable and say "well if it's going to help the club go forward, then we should just try and accept it".

To be fair the only decisions I've strongly apposed in the last two years is the renaming of the stadium and Hughton's sacking.

 

I think he needs a lot more credit for the fact that he took some of the disgusting chants and protests (even though I was part of them) on the chin and continued to work for the club's best interests. He could have just thought "ungrateful bastards" and driven us into the ground if he wanted, wouldn't have left him too much out of pocket, he's a billionaire.

 

Operating loss, that profit was only after player sales and surely you'd agree that we're better off breaking even without the requirement of massive player sales? Money driven yes, but not asset stripping for a quick buck, all his recent decisions have been to build the club as a going concern which is fine by me.

Personally I can't find many wrong decisions since we went down (the contentious ones being Hughton which has worked out very well, Carroll which after the initial annoyance was a no brainer, and SDA which I tend to ignore...) and an awful lot of fantastic ones, particularly in regards to ticket prices. With the team he has in place we've also proved you don't have to throw silly money at 'proven Premiership' players to take the league by storm.

Whether he's 'a football man' or not is irrelevant, as long as he has the team in place who are (Pardew, Carr, the coaching staff etc) thats not an issue, and as an outsider he can challenge preconceptions of how to run a football club (giving in to players demands, terrible payment structures, signing old players for no return). He's better than ****ing Shepherd at the very least.

 

I don't think that Ashley had a love of NUFC, he was a Spurs fan and taking us over was just a business venture.
One thing for sure is that he saved us from Shepherd dragging us any further into the mire.

I remember coming home from a Bolton game (a boring 0-0 when Fat Sam was in charge) and as I was walking past Central Station a couple of guys walking past asked if I'd been to the game. I just said yes as I was walking past and and one of them turned around and asked what it had been like. I hunched my shoulders and screwed my face up but didn't say anything, and he said, "Oh, as bad as that was it?" and I just said yes and walked on.

I was soon to find out it had been Ashley on a bit of fact finding mission.

Love him or loathe him, he saved us from the fat greedy hands of Fat Freddy and we should be eternally grateful for that.

 

Sorry to pick you up on that one, but Fat Sam didn't last as far as Bolton at home. That was one of the worst games I've ever watched as a football fan, and pitted a newly Keeganed Newcastle side still playing in Allardyces style against a fairly recently Gary Megsoned Bolton side still playing in Allardyces style. Absolutely ****ing horrendous day out that was.