Mike Ashley has been buying shares in Rangers, and the only logical explanation for this that I can think of is that he plans to take over the Scottish giants at some point, and use Newcastle as a feeder club for them. I mean: what else could it be?
I think he has come to terms that he has took the Mags as far as he can and is just waiting for rangers to get back to the Scottish Premier before making his move. Perhaps he will change the Mags name to Newcastle Rangers so as they can be identified as Rangers feeder club..
I think he's investing in rangers to get him closer to forcing a buy out, in the meantime keep siphoning away the Nags profit margin plus interest then he'll sell a debt free, but skint Newcastle and sink all his profits into forcing his rangers take over. Let's face it, Rangers could work their way up from the Scottish amateur leagues and qualify for the Champions league three timers before the Nags make it there. The End game? To launch his clothing companies across Europe with a free advertisement platform and sustainable club in Rangers in which give his expansion a push. Let's face it, Retail has always been his number 1 priority.
Been ongoing for a while this, and Ashley being Ashley, it will be purely business driven. Rangers continue to bleed money, but if they hit the SPL, in debt, ripe for a takeover, Ashley could go in, invest £30million or so and have it back from CL money every year. It's tough to balance the books up there though, as Rangers state has shown, as there is no cash generated domestically, if he could make them profitable, then you'd have to say the man is beyond a genius.
Been in the pipeline a long time this one and will carry on for some time. Got to agree with Funkadelic and its the generally accepted interpretation of events (by the small sample of Newcastle fans I talk to about it, not claiming any ITK stuff here) because its classic Ashley. The one thing which doesn't add up for me is that he's in a position now of making money year on year from Newcastle (and we're talking big money) but with Rangers he'll struggle to get that. The champions league payments vary depending which country you come from and I would think Scotland was in a lower bracket, I seem to recall that there is a certain amount for the big leagues teams and if some of them don't qualify for the latter stages then the ones that do simply get more money.
ps. Ashley clearly loves a gamble and it wouldn't surprise me at all to hear he bet someone he could take a Premiership club and turn them into a profit making business whilst having them sat mid-table. Maybe he's looking for his next fix.
If he can do it then I think Ashley would rather have his fingers in both pies. He's probably hoping Scotland gets its independence and uses both clubs as a global advertising arm for his Sports Direct. I have always thought that's why he bought Newcastle, simply to see his logo on the worlds TV screens. A fat cockney sponge faced doughnut would go down like a lead balloon in Glasgow, he knows that, they know that but he would get what he wants and they would get someone other than the dregs without two pennies that seem to be getting appointed to their board of late. FFS, Charles Green, Whyte, King or Ashley even I'd take the Ashley route after what they have been through..
And if or when the make it back to the SPL, and if they ever do make it into a Super League as the big boys seem to want then he's laughing. He's getting in cheap now in the hope that one day they return to SPL and hopefully a super league with English clubs. As you say, purely business driven.
