We all know how much money clubs are getting through TV revenue etc. Newcastle just about broke their paltry transfer record last year. I'd want Ashley to **** off too. I don't see why fans always have to be stuck within the confinements of their chairman's pissy ambitions.
I’d hate for us to be owned by Sports Direct and to have Ashley as a Chairman. Yeah, so the Toon fans act as though they are “hard done by,” but I don’t have a problem with that. They are passionate about their footy, which is why they continue to pack SJP even though they get beaten there more often than not, these days. The idea that such passion is going to live cheek-by-cheek with mediocre expectations is unrealistic.
Most Toon fans would kill to finish top 4 just once, this decade. This is a serious footy discussion, Bambs. Please leave it to those that know, yeah?
Which was actually my point - his spending is geared around protecting his investment. What we would like to see is recognition that while it is a business it is also a football club and the fans are important stakeholders in that club. Of course we are not the hardest done by set of fans in the country but I don't think that has ever been a criterion for not complaining about the way the club is being run. We don't want to see him start ploughing his own money into the club, and with the exception of taking over the club debt when he first took the club over, he has only had to put up a 'bridging' loan during our last relegation season which he has now paid himself back. He has promised to put every penny of club profits into the playing side and then adopted the most conservative accounting procedures/business practices possible to make it look like we are not making as much. So agreeing to take staggered payments for outgoing transfers (e.g Sissoko) but insisting that we pay up front in cash for all incoming players. Then apparently writing off a load of players full contract term salaries so that we ended up with an increase of 45million in player salaries during our time in the Championship. With the lack of clarity and openness you can't blame the fans for thinking he is saving up money so he can take more out. I am still hoping the takeover is on the cards but it is looking less likely by the day. Hopefully Benitez will now come out and clarify why he left but I suspect it was lack of clarity on player-spend. We had hoped that at least one of the two might happen (Rafa staying and new owners coming in). It now looks increasingly likely that neither will so I think this season is going to be an extremely difficult one.
Thanks for getting thread back on track... ignore Fosse and his lack of footy know how getting in the way
... and there was me just quoting facts ... some very sensitive types on here ... you'd think they have won **** all, or someat
Whos the mug thats been lumping so much money on Jose being their next manager Couldn't agree a transfer budget and wages with Rafa, so sure, lets try to get the much more reasonable Mourinho.
That the NE is some sort of football mecca is a load of mythical ****. All clubs have passionate fans, most PL clubs fill their grounds, Newcastle fans are just the whiniest. Fact is their club tried, and failed, to buy the league in the 90's and the upshot from that is they had to get someone to bail them out quick before they did a Leeds.
You're going to be less sympathetic with the Toon Army, because their owner is better than your own! It's marginal, I know, but Ashley is still better than Gold and Sullivan.
No-one expects Ashley to put his own money in. Our transfer dealings with him have almost always resulted in the club making good money (which is something your particular club are very good at) but none of it gets reinvested. Honestly I don't know where money is, we have one of the lowest wage bills in the league, make money most transfer windows, have no board making chunks of money... When he arrived we were competing with clubs like Everton and Tottenham, now we're relegation fodder, again. With another decade he'll have us milling around the middle of the Championship and still we'll be told others have it worse so we should be thankful. He skimped, caused us to be relegated, then we're expected to thank him for not letting us sink. There are worse owners without doubt but I don't have to like rapists just because they aren't serial killers.
They stopped us going to the wall thanks to the Icelandic 'billionaires' we had, and it's taken them until now to get the debt cleared. We helped out, of course, by donating coins to the transfer fund during the Burnley match last year. It worked and we spent £90m+ last year and have spent £24m so far. But we had to take the pain. I have no sympathy for them because they are like the millenials of the Premiership, they seem to think challenging for titles is their right, but the only time they've ever done that in my lifetime is after they borrowed heavily to try and buy it.
And I've never said you have to like him, if a lack of ambition is the worse thing about him though then you haven't done too bad. Owners who show huge ambition are very much in the minority. My main point is Ashley isn't a terrible owner that deserves *all* of the stick he gets, wouldn't say he's necessarily a good owner either mind, probably somewhere in the middle and fans should be careful what they wish for. The stick he gets is disproportionate imo.