He really doesn't give a toss, does he?

With the growing news that Lee Charnley is about to be appointed, erm, Transfer Director (??), and that his space will then be backfilled by his goddam assistant, it has struck me now just how accurate some of you have been and quite how misguided I was in calling for fans to 'back' Mike Ashley.

We are running an absolute skeleton crew as it is. Willie Donachie has not been replaced, with Beardsley simply doing his job as well. Premier League rules stipulate that any club must have a minimum of two directors. We have two. As an exercise I thought I'd find out what the average was, what our competition are doing. So I started at the bottom with Sunderland. The mackems have 4 directors and a host of senior management officials responsible for commercial, conferencing, events, accounts, security, etc. Fulham have 3 directors and a bunch of senior managers. Confused, as I realised I didn't know who did what at Newcastle, I tried the same searches (executive managers/board of directors/senior management) for Newcastle. Unfortunately, I came up with nothing. No breakdown, no org chart, no information as to who did what. So I tried the NUFC official website. There's no page dedicated to the senior figures, the accountability is non-existent, the visibility non-existent. Heading back to Google, it took me 1.6s to find Aston Villa's board of directors. At this point I gave up - which I am pretty sure is the overriding principal of Ashley's stewardship.

Why/how is this happening, or allowed to happen? How are we, alone, allowed to run a ghost ship of hidden agenda's, shadow figures and clandestine operations? The MoD has more transparency, it just doesn't stack up.

Now Lee Charnley is being given a new job title. Not even a promotion, because he was pretty much doing this stuff anyway, but now he's on his own without Llambias' helping/Kinnear hindering. And it has now taken more than 2 months to simply change his business cards. Does Ashley really give so little of a fook that he just cannot be bothered? It's like he suddenly remembered and waved his hand saying "just let Lee do it".

I wanted it to be a possibility, that with a man worth £3bn cash plus another couple of bill in shares we might somehow see an epiphany of sorts and the club would suddenly discover dynamism or direction. But the silence that surrounds yet another Pardew debacle is deafening. I suppose, in the realisation that Ashley really is as uninterested as seems, one has to have a modicum of sympathy for Pardew but that the owner seems content with constant thrashings purely because - one speculates - the club remains top 10 and will likely finish 10th is as big an indictment of the ambitions than perhaps anything else.

I guess the point of this post is to see if anyone has any other insights either contrary to or supporting of the view that Mike Ashley really doesn't give a fck. I am of the opinion that Ashley's SD empire runs on the ethos that there's no such thing as bad publicity, that even contentious issues like Zero Hour contracts aren't given the slightest bit of attention because they are good for his balance sheets, and free advertising in red tops. Same for Newcastle - skeleton crew of meek and humble servants, skeleton crew of a playing squad, constant bad press through the ill feelings of fans but it's all just column inches and profitability, so as long as we're in the PL where he gets 1 billion views of free advertising every day, he just doesn't care. I'd imagine he correlates the recent sales figures from SD on the free advertising from NUFC. It's like the Wonga agreement - I could easily speculate that he would deliberately go for a contentious and unpopular sponsor, because a safe sponsor attracts no interest. At the time, Wonga were fighting for credibility and I think it's the exposure he cares about, not the reputation.

This could go on and on, but I feel more depressed the more I think. Over to you.

 

I know people who have and do work for him and he runs a tight ship and likes to control everything.
He basically has a view on something and doesn't let anyone tell him any different.
I don't think he is intentionally trying to **** us up as he loves money more and a depreciation asset is contrary to his whole philosophy.
What I do strongly believe is that he is fattening the goose to take it to market.
By improving the balance sheet he is hoping to hook in a prospective buyer.

 

I've thought he wanted to sell for some time, but why not put the rumour out there, is there really any harm in doing so? His own news feed could constantly feed a rumour mill of him wanting to sell. I suppose the only thing going against that is if a buyer knows someone wants to sell the price likely goes down.

Christ, the thought of him considering selling might actually give the supporters some hope and we'd more inclined to turn up and make noise. We should make placards reading "SAVE US!". Do you think it's even remotely possible for the fans to do something, or has it always been impossible? How does Barcelona's model work (aside from them being infinitely more successful and glamorous)?!

 

I don't think Ashley thinks in these terms, NUFC for him is only a small part of his empire but is a vehicle to promote his primary brand, as for all the senior management and executive staff you only need what it takes to get a job done, most boards of directors are made up of people who don't have anything to do with the daily running of a business. It does make life easier to have a small group of decision makers with clear lines on responsibility, I have found over the years working in the Hotel and Catering Industry that the more layers of management you get, the more people work at protecting their turf and inhouse politics rather than getting to targets and objectives. As for selling I get the feeling that he has moved away from the immediate term to a more long term view, as long as the club is relatively successful and he doesn't have to fund it to cover losses maintaining ownership with higher TV and prize revenue will in the long term create a greater sale value for the club particularly as there are still economic recovery issues in various areas of the world where potential buyers might be found. A fan buy out is unlikely, the amount of money needed to buy the club would be hard to raise let alone to operate and for future player recruitment along with issues such as stadium refurbishment and maintenance.

 

I agree and though we have great fans we are nowhere near cohesive enough to make it work either.

 

I think it's this aspect that would make it very difficult, unlike the continental systems we haven't grown up with fan power like this, I know reading an article about Portsmouth that the Chairman that had been appointed found the fan involvement one of the hardest aspects, as if they haven't got enough problems with league status/finance/debt the divergence of opinions and attitudes about the running of the club made his life so much harder.

 

Ashley openly tried to sell the club for, what, 18 months? The only interest he received was from jokers and publicity-seekers. If and when a real buyer comes calling, he'll sell up; until then, he'll use the club to his own advantage - largely as an advertising tool.

So Newcastle United has become a vehicle to sell white socks, tracksuits and payday loans. What would Colin Veitch make of that?

Ashley is a product of post-Thatcherism. He cares about very little other than himself and a few friends, and making more and more and more money. He has few scruples and no class.

He is stuck with us and we are stuck with him. It's like an ugly arranged marriage, with Hall as the arranger and where the husband (Ashley) needed the wife's (NUFC) status and good name. He amuses himself with the occasional rape, but otherwise just locks his wife at home in her chastity belt while he comes and goes. I'm not sure how the marriage will end. Mariticide or uxoricide perhaps?

 

I only realised the advertising on the gallowgate roof had been covered up on saturday

 

Didn't even know that.

 

Apparently Wonga insisted on it....

 

As long as Pardew keeps us in the division, his job is safe.

No cup runs, no European competition, just simply doing enough to stay in the Barclays Premier League.

That's the fate of Newcastle United under Mike Ashley.

I take no pleasure in the fact i've been saying this for the last three years, thankfully people are beginning to awaken to Mike's madness - not that there is anything anybody can do apart from stay away, which they won't, for some reason - I think a relegation fight next season will sober the masses and perhaps inspire some direct action.

The way we are falling apart currently, frightens me... still, it could be worse, we could be as bad as Sunderland!

 

Yes, kudos to all who stood by the view. I've personally realised that as the success of the club does not relate to the amount of advertising or success of SD, save for staying in the PL. Pardew may be replaced if we flirt with relegation. But we will do enough this Summer to ensure we have a solid first eleven. We will never have a competitive squad.