Time for an Ashley olive branch?

Ok, so a few things to get straight before I say this:

1) This is partly because of the Cisse signing tonight, I accept that, plus of course results have softened my thoughts towards the regime – success is what we all want in football and it isn't 'fickle' to be happy with that.
2) I was as gutted as anyone about how Keegan was treat, Dennis Wise, relegation, the treatment of Chris Hughton, flogging Andy Carroll (even Nolan/Barton too) and more recently the SJP name change.

However, as much we criticise we must also give credit for the good things...

Despite it being largely his fault we went down, Ashley did as much as possible to keep the players we needed to come straight back up. Without that Chris Hughton, as great as he was, would have struggled.
Under his regime we've notably signed Coloccini, Tiote, Ben Arfa, Best, Obertan, Cabaye, Marveaux, Santon, Ba and now Cisse. Apart from Obertan, who I think will improve, this is an impressive list that has and will improve us massively from last year.

A big factor here has been Pardew, backed by John Carver who was a massive addition to the backroom staff and the brilliant Graham Carr. But I feel Pardew has been impeccably good – the way he handled the situation when appointed, the way he talks to the media, by and large his tactics in some key games this season and how he has made players like Krul, Ryan Taylor, Steven Taylor, Danny Guthrie, Jonas and Danny Simpson look like world beaters at times.

Now, some will say Mike Ashley and Lliambias have enjoyed luck rather than foresight. There's always an element of that within good decisions but lately they've had too much for it to be totally down to coincidence.

I think most of us can see that 'the plan' is finally working and on a night like this when we can all finally enjoy a new number 9 joining the club (the one the regime clearly wanted) that we can enjoy it without negativity.
It may be that outgoings happen before the window shuts, but perhaps there's starting to be enough trust to see it as part of a longer term scheme and not to panic.

So my main point is, should we at least contemplate offering a metaphorical olive branch to Mike Ashley and Derek Lliambias to say thanks and well done on this news and the season so far?
It's my belief that if the board and fans can wipe the slate clean and unite we'll be far stronger and maybe help to ignite Ashley's passion in the club again to do more of this...

 

Ashley will do whatever he wants whether we support him or not.

 

We're certainly up to a strict 'no comment' on the owners now, if we win a trophy I'll like them.

 

I shall wait until the end of January before deciding. MA does not really care too much about what we think anyway

 

True, he is the owner. But are we not starting to think there's maybe some method in the madness?

 

no

 

Bar the renaming of the stadium i can't think of anything that Ashley has done massively wrong for about 2 years. He's slowly got the club back on a solid financial grounding and judging by recent signings seems to be eager for us to push on and get European football.

I can think of many worse owners we could have!

 

I don't believe he is the accept all bids type that some reckon. He will do what is best for the club. Learnt from his mistakes I think

 

Wait until January is over before you change your mind on Ashley just yet.

 

Ashley is a business man, and the way he's running the club at the moment is simply a sound way of running this sort of business. Investing in hungry players with potential re-sale value is just business sense, so I don't think he's making these sort of signings out of the goodness of his heart! So no kudos to him there.

In the same way it made financial sense to keep hold of our best players when we went down, as he must have known this was the best chance of getting back to where the money is. Equally, no kudos.

I'm perfectly happy with how he's running things atm, but I certainly won't be surprised when he does something unpopular!

 

Ashley saved the club, I've always said that.

 

This, given up criticising him, cos love him or hate him he doesn't give a **** what we think, he'll do things his way.

 

To be honest apart from the obvious major cock-ups like renaming the stadium, how he got rid of Hughton and just being a mute ****, I like how he is running the club. He is making us in a strong financial position while buying player who are young and have both quality and potential while also making sure they will fit in at the club. While I know it is is Carr and Pardew doing this it still seems to be his blueprint and for that you have to give him credit because look at how well it has worked so far. Plus he brought Pardew here.

 

So... No criticism of Ashley and Pardew for lying to the fans about not getting a striker this window?

 

I take your point on the business man thing but that's kind of how modern big clubs need to be run if not funded by an overly generous benefactor. Players with a good possible sell-on value won't make money if they are only young – they need to be good too and we can use that potential while we have them surely?

To me this is in stark contrast to the old policy we had of spending big on poor players on big wages with no hunger. This was a big factor in taking us down a division...

 

Yeah actually, Pardew out

 

a bit of credit where its due i knocked pardew but i take it all back now hes done us well ,

 

The club deserves a lot of credit if what Cisse says is true, that he was set to move in the summer to us and Freiburg blocked the transfer.

How tempting must it have been for them to try to appease us fans who so badly wanted a striker, to say how close we had been and try and gain some support.

Instead they have acted perfectly and waited this one out til January, nobody saw it coming and we've nicked an awesome player for £7.5m.

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Pardew could well have meant it if they didn't yet know that a Cisse deal was possible. But frankly I'd rather have expectations dampened and then have surprises like this.

By keeping rivals guessing and not broadcasting our ability/willingness to spend then we have more chance of signing coveted players like Cisse...

 

I completely agree, he is running the club the right way... but that doesn't mean I like him !
Perfectly happy to just carry on letting him do his thing.