Mike Ashley - Thoughts and theories...

First things first, amazing start to the season, chuffed with the point and the performance yesterday - no-one could say we didn't deserve it!

Right, to business...Mike Ashley's plan seems to be working, be it through luck, hard work or incredible foresight, we're sitting in 4th, the only team outside of Manchester unbeaten and I believe only one of 8 teams in the 'top 5' European leagues still yet to register a loss! Our transfer policy is working, our team is young (and has time to grow together) and we can be proud of our lads in Black n White.

Lets say in the next 2 years we break even and wind up in Europe. This is great considering the state of our club a little over 3/4 years ago. But at some point Ashley is going to want his money back....The question is, where will he take it from?
Player sales?
Advertising?
TV revenue?

One theory I would put forward is the extra advertising - As we all know, Ashley has plastered our stadium with his SD branding...Newcastle's revenue does not seem to have gone up at all from this, so would it perhaps be the case that Ashley will subtract a small amount of his profits and attribute it towards this revenue, thus lowering Newcastle's debt to him?

Or, will he, as he said he would, offer the sale of this advertising to an outside bidder, with his SD logos simply laying an example framework of what another company could do - then take all profits from that sale for himself, again lowering the debt?

Or finally will the extra money generated from European football (which to him will seem pure profit if we are already breaking even) go straight to him, leaving us weakened with a smaller squad and no investment?

His recent decisions over transfers have been good in my opinion - we almost bought Ruiz for £10 but weren't held to ransom...thank ****, he looks ****! But we all know he is famous for unfathomable decisions - so...what next from Cashley?

 

I'm not even going to bother arguing about Mike Ashley. I'm sick of the Sports Direct adverts, but i will turn a blind eye to them if he buys us 3-4 quality players over the course of the Jan/summer transfer windows.

 

read one decent blog this morning http://soccer-portal.org/blog/7150-nufc-future-ashley.html

especially loved the title - " Newcastle future SUDDENLY looks bright under Mike Ashley "

 

**** knows what is going to happen next. And that is the main reason why nobody is getting carried away in my opinion, because we are all aware that he might do something to mess this up. I highly doubt your theory regarding advertisement is correct sadly. He will want all his money back as well as his free advertising.

 

I think that the rumour about Ashley buying NUFC to facilitate the expansion of sportsdirect in the Far East is true. If, over the next few years we manage to get into the Europa League and establish ourselves as a top 6 club in the Premier League, he will be able to exploit the increase in our world-wide profile. This will also make it easier to attract sponsorship and advertising at SJP.

So I do not think that Ashley is in any hurry to start taking back the money that he has lent the club. It is far more important to him that the club achieves a position where it receives more media exposure and should attract more fans from overseas, but it has to run as a self-financing business.

 

Yeah fair point, lets not forget that whilst the club owe him this money, his business is still expanding and increasing its (and his own personal) profits each year. Though it would be stupid to say he doesn't seem to miss the 100m, he's certainly managing OK without it just now!

 

The thing is, I'm convinced that advertising revenue will increase if we continue to improve anyway. Barring the tops of the stands, the bit separating the away fans and the top of the dugout every bit of SD advertising is on an existing board. If we continue to improve, and the Ashley stigma continues to diminish, 45000+ fans seeing your ad every other week is an attractive prospect and 'proper' paying advertisers will return. You never know, we might even get decent Adidas kits again...

 

He'll never get back the 300mill he bought the club for, until he sells it. Its the same with buying a cottage to rent out - the money you make covers the costs plus a bit of profit to justify getting it, and you get the money back when you sell it in the future.

 

Must admit I haven't the foggiest with the fat ****. I wouldn't trust him, I hate the signs etc but I have developed a "**** it I don't care, I'm going to enjoy this little purple patch after the last few years" attitude!

 

I'm not surprised we didn't get Ruiz if we only bid a tenner.