Master Ashley and His Puppets on a String

They probably offered £5 million for each knowing they wouldn't get them. This way the fans would see headlines like 'Newcastle in hunt for Gervinho' and 'Magpies bid for Gameiro' and the fans start to beleive the money would be reinvested. Then at the end of the transfer window Pardew can come out and say 'unfortunately we just missed out on our main targets blah blah blah, blah blah blah, etc, etc but we are confident that the players we have are good enough to build on last season blah blah blah, blah blah blah, etc, etc.

 

No, but until a large portion of this debt has gone the club won't be sold. Simply because to buy NUFC now will cost value of club + value of debt, currently around £450m in total. Hence the reason Ashley has to keep the club on an even keel and in the premier league.

 

Now we're getting somewhere.

Yes, that's right - Mike Ashley is gambling that Pardew can keep us up with free transfers/low wage earners while he claws back what he is owed...

Fair enough from an Ashley point of view but what about that thing called ambition? There isn't any from this board and you've very kindly pointed out why...

 

Haha

No just to protect his investment so he can eventually sell and get out I would think. But I would guess that he will still end up selling for a loss or at best break even (on his loan) because I can't see anybody ever paying over £200m for the club. He'll never realise the value of the club plus debt so it would just be an exercise in minimising his loss.

But my point is that during this time the same funds £282m would have earn't him shedloads of cash so to argue that he is in it for the money just does not make sense.

 

A big chunk of the debt MA inherited. He also inherited an out of control wage bill. The only way that MA can ever hope to make the team competitive and ambitious on the pitch is through the careful management of wages and transfer fees that he has been following. Especially if you want him to also reduce the debt over time so that you can eventually see the back of him.

With FIFA Fairplay in mind I would also argue that the value of achieving a european place is somewhat diminished if you are unable to meet the financial regs and therefore are disqualified, so improving the team will for the time being have to be done on the cheap. That is the way the numbers are playing out. An nobody, whether you are MA or any of us can do anything to change that.

 

The thing that concerns me is that it will take years of this kind of nonsense until Ashley makes his money back - the fans will keep turning up and Newcastle United will make no forward steps. Of course, it's just my opinion and I could have it all wrong.

 

Yep years and years and years of this nonsense ...

****ing depressing hey!?

 

This has just dawned on me! Christ, it's gonna be a good 20 years before he's made anything approaching a profit

 

Well it's not so bad for me now - i've voted with my feet and am well out of it. I wont be back until MA has gone and we see a genuine chance of some advancement for NUFC...

 

Maybe not too long to be fair. Like I said early reports indicate that a small operating profit was made last year and then there is the Carroll money on top of that. Even after taxes there would have been a fair chunk of cash left. We all now know that not all of that is going on player purchases (personally I think that is a good thing, we have to pay that debt off) so maybe some of it will go towards repaying the loan.

It is also therefore possible that this year and future years will also see profits and maybe profit growth. I'm hoping that if he can ever get his loan down to about £200m he would accept that price to sell up. We can dream ...!

Unfortunately though any money put towards repaying the loan means less to spend on players. So Ashley haters have to decide what they want more; expensive signings or the end of Ashley? Because they sure as hell aren't going to have both anytime soon!

 

Or he could see the getting profit after profit as a good thing and keep doing it to the club. Sorry I know doomed

 

Don't go there ... just don't!!!

 

its catching.