Mike Ashley (what could have been?)

Good Morning and happy Friday to you

Before you start throat jumping and reaching for your pitch forks I just want to put something out there.

What if we appreciated Mike Ashley? What if his name was sung out at the terraces? Its all a bit late now and not everyone is comfortable with selling their soul and the very thought of it would disgust 99.9 per cent of you I hope.
My thoughts are that I think Mike bought the club initially to try and be a bit of a hero, to be liked (a nerd trying to be popular per say). Understandably with all the decision’s that have been made in his not so glorious reign, it has made it near enough impossible. IMO his inexperience of running a football club when the club was first purchased was 0, he tried to bring mates in and they didn’t have a clue, now his wised up, there has been too much water under the bridge and it’s all a bit late tbh.

But do you think if our fans accepted him, sang his name at games (excuse me whilst I puke), whether this would have a positive effect on his tight wallet. If St James park was a more warming place for him to spend his Saturday afternoons, whether this would pay dividends? I am certain that I would not want to spend any money if I was in his position, but saying that I would have sold the club by now. But if he had have become a bit more of a cult hero I don’t believe the purse strings would have been so tight.

I am of the opinion that Mike despises us Geordies, and Geordies utterly hate Mike, it a vicious circle and the only winner no is Cashely because of the money he is making and the fact he probably sits there laughing every time we go mental, every time there’s a protest, his sitting back counting his money laughing at us.

I hate him, but I wanted to put another perspective on it and if you look at the bigger picture, we could have someone like Vincent Tan, who is willing to spend money, but if you ask Cardiff fans, is it really worth it.
The only positive is, at some point in the future (especially with the amount of TV money in the Premiership now) we are going to be a really viable business opportunity for a prospective buyer.

 

Personally I don't think there is anything wrong with MA - business wise excellent. Sadly for him he made some crucial errors which means that by certain sections they will forever boo him. Which is why I always dread us bringing on a youngster as if he makes a mistake then that same section of fans are on his back.

 

I believe we are now just an advertising agent for the SD brand. It gets global coverage through sky / bt televised games and costs not a a single penny. He knows his £100 mill loan is safe and as we havent spent anything on players this season he can take it out of the club as and when he wants to. I`m hoping he will once we are mathematically safe and then if there are any buyers out there the club might seem a more attractive proposition to purchase.
We have an owner who doesnt care. who last watched us at St. James` last September ( so I believe) and who only interest in life seems to be money. The sooner he goes the better.

 

Welcome to the forum mate.

An interesting slant on things.
He is a gambler and if he were still drinking with the fans etc.. he probably would be throwing some of his own money into the kitty no doubt.
As a businessman and for what he's done to stabilise our club financially I've always stuck up for him. He's looked after his SD employees with huge bonuses so has proven himself a shrewd cookie.
As a person I know someone who works for him high up at his SD headquarters and he is a horrible chap on a personal level and rarely speaks to those 'below him'... this is evident in how our club approach fan communication... or lack of.
So.. purely as a fan I want him out of the club and someone to come in who will be honest with us fans and communicate with us properly. If we were made aware of his thoughts and plans then at least we can buy in to them (or not) and suffer say... a crappy H2 to this season if longer term there is light at the end of the tunnel.
Right now we are all like muchrooms... permanently in the dark and feeding off scraps the press manage to get hold if (allegedly).

 

I think he did initially think he might be making 50,000 friends.

That ended with sacking of KK. Hiring KK with the idea that you were not going to listen to him but were going to tell him how to manage the club was a classic mistake, bred of deep ignorance of KK's nature, the history of the club and the relationship that would inevitably exist between him and the fans.

Once KK was sacked the vitriol spattered everywhere - - no going back.

Somewhat ironic as hiring KK was almost certainly done to ingratiate himself with the fans, when he was still interested in doing that. If he had, in those early days, simply announced that he was going to the DoF model and that the "manager" was now going to be effectively no more than a coach I doubt anyone would have been all that bothered. He could have hired any number of managers that were happy to work on that basis and history would have been very different.

 

I made a similar, albeit throwaway comment, about perhaps just turning around and getting on with it, stopping all/any of the complaining for a number of reasons - to let the owner see we "appreciate" the financial situation, make us a more attractive club and for people to just live happier lives.

Every day we, as people, are faced with difficulties in the haves vs the have nots. The bankers bonuses, MP's & politicians/politics, old money, titles, house of commons, and so on - the class divide ever widens and football is not really any different. At Man City they seem happy to ignore the vapid soulless-ness of their situation and simply revel in the fact their side is, although built on oil money, one of the best in the World. All the geo-political and humanitarian issues associated with oil being controlled by so few is completely forgotten when Aguero scores the 200th goal of their season. There is no thought spared for the hugely inflated price of petrol, or the constant impact on living costs this control of oil has. Abramovic is an even worse story, as a guy who preyed on the difficulties of a turbulent country to make himself wealthy means nothing to Chelsea "fans". The fact he is, in essence, using every Chelsea fan as a human shield to protect him from Vladimir Putin! But it doesn't matter, because they have Eden Hazard.

Is there a single thing anyone can do about it? If Putin cannot stop Abramovic, what chance do we have? It's all such a hideous, corrupt mess that it seems somewhat ironic that we dig into so much detail about Mike Ashley. We get interested when it goes against us, but let it all slide when it's going our way. By "our", I mean the public, not just us fans. By the way, I'm including myself in this for sure.

 

Agree with Freddd.

Fatal errors were made and its been a long road of mishaps ever since, with an evergrowing dislike between all parties.

Unfortunately too (some people won't like this being said), some fans go way overboard and only want to see the negative in everything. They actually make things harder for the club, with or without Mike Ashley. They were here under previous reigns. Some have unrealistic expectations and are not willing to accept the club in its current state. They look at the stadium, the numbers of fans etc etc and assume we should be right up there. Its natural fans want the very best for their club, but at some point a bit of realism and acceptance has to kick in.

 

I know a neighbour who chucked his season ticket in after Carroll got sold... and vowed to never give Ashley a penny again.. only going back when he buggers off..
The same chap just walked past with a current Toon top on and a pair of Lonsdales..

 

The natural state of most football supporters is deep, vitriolic rage and outrage. Happiness or enthusiasm are atypical, transitory states. Mike Ashley. Shola Ameobi. Howard Webb. Sepp Blatter. The sport is a never ending smorgasbord of unbearable provocations. They're indignation junkies.

 

Exactly. We've all done it, berating Ashley, but where am I buying my astro boots from?! He knows what drives us, and exploits it.

 

When you consider that Abramovich amassed his fortune alledgedly through bribery, extortion and theft at a time when Russia was in turmoil and the Sheikhs oversee oppressive regimes both political and religious you do wonder sometimes at the bland acceptance of these guys in the football world, you can just imagine it, "Hiya I want to buy one of your football clubs", the FA "Have you acted in any way illegally or imorally by the laws and tenants of our country", "Welll I have oppressed women, hanged homosexuals, outlawed christianity, chopped bits off criminals, but I do have billions of dollars to chuck at the club" "Billions of dollars, great! come on and join the club".

 

Yup. But who's moderating the moderators?

 

Moderates.

 

Ashley has ripped the soul out of the club, I would rather be in the fourth tier of English football and working up the leagus up with a board who give a **** and without the likes of pardew in the
Camp.

All he has done is make us a complete
Laughing stock.

 

Well, you might want that, but I'd imagine with gates of sub-10,000, you'd be in the vast minority.

 

You're a WUM, aye? Please be a WUM.

 

As you well know Atticus... he isn't a wum.

 

So you would rather be gearing up for Sundays meaning less game and knowing in the summer we will get shafted further ?

 

Not a WUM at all - think it is more likely peopple like you that gives us Geordies a bad name! Do you hang around SJP waiting for Sky camera crews?
Like I said, I think MA came in with good intentions and of being adored by fans and in a business sense he has succeeded, however, he has made crucial mistakes. But why would he try and come good if all he gets is being shat upon by the likes of you? There have been far worse owners of both us and of other clubs! But of course you will be in the Freddie Sheppard corner - thankfully for us that due dilligenece wasn't taken up otherwise 'top dog' would be having his wish and watching us in League 2 away to AFC Wimbledon in front of 3000 people and Pardew would be just but a distant dream of a manager!

 

I think you will find it was Freddie that made us the laughing stock! Before MA came in we had no soul thanks to Freddie!