Tubby laughing all the way to the bank again..

http://hereisthecity.com/en-gb/2014...grenier-sports-direct-record-massive-profit/?

Newcastle United fans may be upset with Mike Ashley at the moment - but he might be running all the way to the bank after sound business in the last quarter.

It has been a tough 2014 for Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley.

Her has seen Joe Kinnear resign from his position at the club, he sold Yohan Cabaye to Paris Saint-Germain and has seen newspapers allege that he could be about to sack Alan Pardew if he does not win this weekend.

He has even seen sports entertainer and WWE owner Vince McMahon linked with his job - believe that if you will.

But results on the pitch have to be the most worrying.

Newcastle have not scored a goal since the 18th January - and have conceded 10 in the four game since.

The game with Aston Villa this weekend is therefore of vital performance.

The team are struggling massively to adapt to the loss of Cabaye - after Ashley decided the £19 million offered by PSG was too good to refuse.

This week Cabaye scored his first goal for PSG in the Champions League tie against Bayer Leverkusen - so everything is going well for him as his former club toil.

Newcastle fans have never been keen on Ashley - but recent events have seen the fans confidence in him plummet to new depths.

But Ashley probably won’t mind - as this has been a very good weekend for him on a personal business level.

His primary business, sporting goods retailer Sports Direct, had a bumper Christmas - making a profit of £280.7 million in the last quarter, up 14.6%.

That saw the share prices in Sports Direct go up by 5.3% yesterday and employees are now set for bumper bonuses as the group in total, including fashion brands such as USC and Republic, recorded a 52.5% increase in sales.

All good for Ashley then - Newcastle fans will wonder why they couldn’t have bumped up their offer for Lyon midfielder Clement Grenier by a couple of million even more now.

 

Nice misdirection, Sports Direct is a separate buisness entity, just cause it made increased profits doesn't mean that NUFC magically has access to an extra 10/20/30 million quid, the constant notion that you can just dip in and out of different companies at whim is disingenuous, companies are bound by rules and legislation.

 

Not least of all those with shareholders.

He exploits NUFC for free advertising, which is clear, but doesn't run NUFC for either profit or personal gain, per se.

 

But if he wanted to he could pay for the advertising thereby boosting our coffers... He clearly doesn't want to as there is no emotional, or even to a degree business need for him to do so.
My takeout is that, as his main business flourishes his willingness to hang onto NUFC may dwindle... especially with Rangers on the horizon as a possible out for him.

 

he should pay the going rate for the advertising and the money raised could pay off his loan quicker,

then maybe, just maybe he can feck off even more quicker

 

This may be slightly controversial but I can understand him getting something back for providing interest free loans to the club as it saves us millions in interest payments every year. What I don't think is on is the fact that SD pay nothing whatsoever yet Ashley actually only owns 61.7% of that company, meaning 38.3% of SD's shareholders are most definitely getting something for nothing. Or did they provide funding to the club? I think we all know they didn't, so if Ashley is adamant about not paying for his other company's advertising then the best SD should be getting is a 61.7% discount on the ads they get.

 

I see it's being reported that Rangers are being loaned money by one of their shareholders so that players can be paid. Could this be A$hley by any chance ensuring he gets his feet further in the door. I hope so.

 

I'd be surprised if it isn't.

 

He's a successful businessman, I suppose we should be grateful in a way. No chance of him going bankrupt, all his assets liquidised and our club getting auctioned on e-bay!

We're like the step-child he not-so-secretly loaths, he won't spend anymore on us than he has too.

If he wanted to ship in his personal fortune, that would be great. He just carries on making huge profits and yet holds back with making Newcastle United a Champions League contender. Truly baffling?

We've said it all before with various conspiracy theories... Who really knows what will happen next in the World of Mike Ashley, professional Fat-Boy.

 

love him me like.................

 

If we want him to be fair and business like with us he should pay for the advertising and charge us interest on the £00m + he's provided as an interest free loan for the last few years. This would almost certainly see us financially worse off.

 

Excellent post! People only know how to critice MA yet without him we would be worse than Pompey!

 

Thanks.

Personally I regard MA as something like chemotherapy: unpleasant, quite destructive, nothing that any sane person would want under normal circumstances but, given the situation at the end of the Shephard years, probably necessary.

 

At least MA has put money into the club, Fat Fred just thought it was a cash cow to take money out of.

 

I am hoping the Lambiarse is being drafted in to effectively manage the sale of the club...... DAYDREAMER!

But seriously, The value of the club goes down with every effective player sale without reinvestment.

He sells cabaye for £20 million, takes the money out of the club. The club is worth £20 million less..... His net position is the same.

The fact that the club is operating within its means (we keep hearing this) means that the business model is working. But we keep selling players and not buying any. Thus sooner rather than later we are gonna have no actual assets (players) of value in the club.

When contracts start to expire (in the near future) they will not be renewed (players wont want to stay). Fat Cashley knows that players will be sold before the contracts are expired so in theory the lack of investment now is in theory reducing the future value of the club.....

Simples!

 

Maybe he's going to enter us into a 5 a side league.

 

Good businessman is Mike. I have no real problem with him on the financial side of things. Obviously as a fan I want to see us do well, so I'd love to see him speculate some of his vast personal fortune to accumlate. I fully understand why he doesn't though as football is a tricky business to accumulate in. The safe bet is to do exactly what he is doing. There are not masses of top level football clubs running at a profit! He is slowly chipping away at the debt. His plan is either a clever exit plan or a slow painful road to recovery. i.e. once his debts are paid off, profit starts to be reinvested. Or he may just stick around and have himself a profitable little business which provides an excellent ally to his main business.

I don't think anyone can realistically have designs on HIS money. Of course when he took us on, a grand picture was painted. Its gone south since then for all parties so you just have to deal in the here and now. Overall when you look at the reign previous to his its difficult to make a case for moaning too much.

My problem with him has always been the other side of things. The way he has draggged us through the gutter and tarnished the clubs image.

 

I tend to agree unfortunately. Nice analogy.

 

whats your lotto numbers ? as you can see into the future you must be a winner every week

 

Don't tell him Yoshie, I don't want it to be a three way split.