Mike Ashley...

Ok, so which regime/owner/board IS good at communicating with fans, then?

 

I disagree with you on that. Colo was on £70k a week, Krul was an unknown, Barton on over £50k a week etc .... They were players who didn't keep the club in the Premiership and were on huge salaries! See how many of this type of player QPR can ship out in the summer - and just like we were, they'll be stuck with them.

I'm anti-Ashley for a number of reasons, but in praise of him in a very important other, namely the finances.

But he's spiteful - Alan Shearer tells him it's embarrassing - and immediately gets his name taken down.

He can't stand us - as demonstrated by a 100% lack of dialogue.

He correctly sees Pardew needs help, so brings in someone he knows (but has no reputation in the game) and who would be best served with a pint in his hand in a pub. This is a £100m+ business, and even the least effective of his staff Llambias can't stick around when JFK is in!

He lastly he treated the following appallingly - Chris Hughton, Alan Shearer, Joey Barton (who was Carroll's biggest goal maker), Kevin Nolan, our fans, and worst of all St James' Park.

 

They all took the club back up, didn't they? Ashley bankrolled it because it was, financially, the only viable option.

At least you recognise that, financially, we're much better off. Quite how we were supposed to be better than 5th in the league - Ashley's other achievement, on the football side - is beyond me. As for Shearer, he offered the guy a job in football, his first and only management appointment to date. He didn't do a great job. He hasn't returned to management since. And you should really check out the timelines of the bar renovation rather than just looking at pictures in red top rags. Or do you really think a costly bar refurbishment is something that is just decided and started overnight?!

He's ALWAYS been reclusive, in his entire history. His rare outings have included drinking with the fans (mistake, granted, but showed willing early doors) and I ask instead which owners at other clubs are so wonderfully communicative with the fans? What, exactly, are you owed?

He brought in someone he both TRUSTS and who has a contract with the club. Should he bring in a stranger, just because you like the look of them? Also have you considered Joe may have a suspended contract with the club that tearing up could result in a costly lawsuit? Llambias was THE reason for last seasons fck up, for chrissakes - yet you want him still to be AT the club??

Hughton was a victim for sure - but was little more than a coach. I didn't rate him and we were standing still. You'll have to help me out with the "appalling" treatment of everyone else; Shearer, to whom he gave a sizeable wodge of cash and the chance to rescue the club; Barton, to whom he paid a large salary then shifted out for being a mouthy bastad; Nolan, who we sold to bring in Cabaye; the fans, who may well not have a club now if he hadn't bought if from the cancerous Freddy Shepherd. SJP was a fcking stupid decision, and he deserves a punch in the knackers for that. But the rest? Nah. Besides which, are you absconding dear Derek from all blame as well? Or Pardew? Convenient, that.....

 

So to summarise: Ashley has done some good things but has definite areas of weakness. You'd prefer that the owner had all of Ashley's strengths with none of his failings ?

Perfection is always preferable

 

Fine, I'll do it. Anyone want to lend me £300m (interest free)?

 

Don't agree with this.

If we had proper backing like Manchester City, then success would come our way.

Money doesn't guarantee success, it still has to be earned. I don't think Joe Kinnear or Alan Pardew could get us challenging for honours no matter how much money you gave them - they're simply not good enough.

With a world-class manager and players, Manchester City have shown that success can and has been achieved.

Once you 'get the ball rolling', then more interest in the club appears. More people & companies want to be associated with the club purely because of the success.

Sadly, we've seen that the only way to be a PL Title contender in 2013 and beyond is to bank-roll the club to that position.

The best players will go to where they will recieve the best money. A simple fact.

I'm not expecting Mike Ashley to to ever make major investment like that, but what he could do is protect what we did have.

Andy Carroll, Kevin Nolan & Jose Enrique are perfect examples of this.

He cashed-in on Carroll... would Manchester United ever have sold Scholes or Giggs? No.

I want Ashley to keep our best players, especially the British ones, but we all know that as soon as an acceptable bid comes in they're gone.

The massive financial backing would prevent our best players leaving and success would follow with decent management.

The whole concept of 'earning it' is done on the pitch - without the the financial input we're seeing at Manchester City, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester United and now Arsenal, it will never happen here.

The bottom line is that Ashley is not interested in progressing this club, simply keeping it where it is.

A 'nice little earner'.

Ashley out.

 

This is beyond ridiculous, it's complete nonsense! Is it a wind up? What came first, success at Man City or the billions from the Middle East? Did Roman decide to invest in Chelsea BECAUSE of success, or did his money pave the way for it? From the comparisons to Man U keeping players to the notion that it's the quality of staff and not the money that made the difference at Man City, it's absurd. City/Chelsea are backed by sugar daddies, Liverpool, Arsenal and Manchester Utd are - and have been for decade upon decade - three of the largest and greatest clubs in the World. Do you have any concept at all of the size of Newcastle United? We are in the ballpark with Aston Villa, Everton, and maybe Tottenham (at a push). We are REGIONAL with REGIONAL support. We enjoy a large captive audience because we are a one club City. We DO NOT HAVE GLOBAL APPEAL!!!

Carroll - £35m - you'd say no? Absurd. Enrique wanted to go, and would you have Nolan or Cabaye? Wtf is so special about fcking Nolan anyway? Doesn't he play for little West Ham?

You say Ashley's not interested in progressing the club, but are doing so after a shambolic campaign WHERE WE PLAYED IN EUROPE!! Where was all this whining and bitching last Summer, about not progressing?

Argh! I'd stay out of the media if I owned the club, because I have NO IDEA WHAT YOU LOT WANT!

 

Prior to last season, I believed we were moving forward, but for one reason or another it went wrong.
At the end of the season, changes needed to be made.

So surely Lambias out is a winner.
Pardew being answerable to someone is a winner.
Even Carr needs to answer to someone.

As to whether JK is the right person, only time will tell.
But if Ashley was going to appoint someone, it was always going to be someone he trusts - he doesn't do outsiders, we already knew that.

I can understand those wanting Ashley out, and it can be a thin line between being pro or anti, but to date, no one has come up with any rational proposal for how it could be done.
Its easy to say, he should sell the club and we want him out, but, he can't sell the club for starters. Even if he could find a buyer, who's to say they would be any better.
Perhaps we should vet any potential buyer first if it was to happen.

One thing for certain, there are no mega rich Geordies out there looking to take the club off him, so it will be 'pot luck' at best.

There are a lot worse than Ashley out there.
Look at Blackburn and the Venkys or Wolves or worst of all Portsmouth.
All have strong loyal support, but the one thing all have in common is the incompetence of the owners from a financial standpoint.

Back to the original question, all in all I am Pro Ashley for now.

 

Don't agree with any of this.

Manchester City don't have "proper funding": they have obscene amounts of money which distorts the game. They are not and should not be the norm.

Carroll, Nolan and Enrique: The first was fantastic business. We traded Carroll for half a dozen very good signings. Enrique wanted out and was reasonable business. I like the lad but don't think we are weaker for his absence. Nolan I would have kept.

Mike Ashley doesn't intend to give us "mammoth financial backing" and there's no reason why he should. In fact, it would break FFP rules for him to do so, with the supposed result that we couldn't play in Europe if we did get success.

And, as is well documented for anyone actually interested in looking at the books, Ashley has not taken any money out of the club and so to date it cannot be called a nice little earner for him.

 

What?

I've simply answered the OP's question.

Manchester City & Chelsea had hardly been setting the world alight with their success before the money arrived, but have we?

Of course success comes after the money. Sir John Hall did it on a smaller scale for us in the 1990's.
Revamping SJP and financing Kevin Keegan as much as possible.

Ok, it never quite happened for us but we went very close.

The point I was making about Scholes/Carroll is that the top clubs don't sell their best local players. What if Adam Campbell becomes a brilliant striker? Do you think we'll keep him? Not a chance.

The question was would I want a mega-rich owner (which Ashley is by the way) who would heavily invest, or would I want someone who's attempting to balance the books and keep us all sweet with average and massively below-average performances? Hmm...

Yes we were in Europe, but it's been used as an excuse for our dreadful season!

Sir Bobby Robson had us in the Champions League on a regular basis and we never struggled in the league because of it.

You say we're in the same 'ballpark' as Villa & Everton, and why is that? Finance? Stadium size? Support?
Chelsea have a smaller stadium than us, a smaller fan base (but growing all the time because of their continued on-pitch success) yet were Champions of Europe, Premier League Winners and various other Trophy successes - and why? Money.

Like it or not, the modern era of football is dictated by spending heavily. It's not going to happen here so get comfortable for a distinctly average return from Newcastle United under Mike Ashley.

 

Forget the FFP rules. They will never be applied properly.

There are too many ways around it.

It's being contested through the courts anyway...

 

I think perfection is over egging that particular pudding to be honest. I can accept minor failings. Even the best run clubs have failings somewhere. Ours aren't that minor though, and in some cases represent major flaws which have had serious consequences. The lack of care taken with regard to the PR and how the club presents itself outwardly for instance, is a major issue, not a minor one. I don't think its too much to ask for that to improve. Communication wise, again I'm not asking for perfection, just a bit of professionalism would do. For instance which other club in the PL would have announced their Director of Football 1 or 2 days later after said Director of Football has been on Talksport to announce it himself in a very unprofessional manner? None is the answer.

Unfortunately whether Ashley and co like it or not, when you take on the club you also have to take on the understanding of where the football club sits in the general respsentation of the local area and importance that the fans and local people place upon it. That means ensuring the club is run in a certain way. He doesn't have to (and doesn't), but if you don't then you have to accept the resulting unrest. Personally I don't think Ashley really cares.

So no, what I'd prefer is an owner who could instill the same basic business principles that have served us well under Ashley, whilst actually caring about the club and having an interest in the surrounding community. Other clubs with far less means that Mike Ashley has it at his disposal manage this quite easily, its not a big ask.

 

Seriously Nedders? Which regime compared to Ashley is good at communicating with their fanbase? Is that even a serious question? I'd say just about every club in the land bar Blackburn. As I say I completely agree with the notion that kicking up a major fuss, threatening boycotts/protests is futile and silly. I also laugh that he is doing it on purpose or there is people lining up round the world to take it off his hands. Of course he has some interest in us progressing, its his investment.

But lets not pretend that this regime is overall pretty rosy. It simply isn't and has been shambolic at various stages. I'm all for just getting on with what we've got because all said and done, it is what it is and none of us can change that. I'm not up for pretending we match other clubs of similar standing in all departments of how we are run.

 

Fair enough.

I think it would be easier to get Ashley to improve his PR, though, than it would be to find a new owner who had Ashley's strengths and naturally good PR.

 

OK, leave the FFP comment out of it. The rest still applies.

 

You have more faith than me, I think his belligerence is an in-built trait he has little interest in changing. Spoils of being a multi billionnaire I suppose!

 

Selling our best players and not investing heavily will mean we pick up another 'also-ran' tag in the PL... flirting with relegation should never be part of his 'master-plan' should it?

 

Makes you feel old does it Obi?

 

Find it a bit strange that you're so big on communication from the owner when Pardew is the voice of our club and basically relays what MA wants him too. Yet on many occasions you've basically said you pay zero attention to Pardew's press conferences.

 

I wasn't calling any of the those players - simply telling a previous poster that shipping most of them out wasn't possible due mostly to their salaries.

The refurbishment wasn't started overnight, but the taking down of the name on Shearer's Bar and the subsequent tale about re-naming it Nine came out immediately following Shearer's criticism. Maybe it was a simple coincidence ...

So communication with customers has to be at an extreme level? There's no middle ground?

Llambias was a useless anonymity. His resignation was the first decent thing I've noticed that he's done. IMO Pardew should have went with him. But Ashley's choice of adding JFK to pressurise the manager may actually cost a bit more than a pay off. You're a member of a pretty small party if you think that JFK is the right choice for director of football here - the guy embarrassed both himself and Ashley big style on his first day. He is more intelligent than us though ...

We can argue till the cows come home over what you'd class as good and bad decisions. They are opinions. But the dynamics of what we had even going back to our promotion season was totally lost thanks to Pardew and his playing staff/lack of playing staff last summer. And Cabaye wasn't prolific last season. I'm sure we did miss a Kevin Nolan, and not just for the goals.