Ashley 'Balancing the books'

What's the question ?

Will Ashley put more money into the club in order to achieve greater success ? That's an easy one: no.

Will Ashley pull money out in order to (or if he thinks it will) ruin the club ? Again: no.

Will Ashley put money in if he thinks the alternative is relegation ? Don't know, probably.

 

i THINK i get you, can hardly claim to be knowledgeable on the whole subject, however Ashley accepts what he considers his valuation and we know how unreasonable he can be and that he will change his price depending, a buyer can offer what they want, Ashley has to agree and we already know he's turned down offers that don't match his valuation before. My point should still be withstanding as well, that Ashley's pocketing that money for himself

 

The question I initially asked was how many players you think we will sign over this particular window

 

There's no connection between the Club and Sports Direct other than that Ashley is a shareholder of both the St James Holdings and a shareholder of a publicly listed company, Sports Direct.

The loan will have been between the club (not St James Holdings) and either Ashley directly or another of his own holding companies. There would be no need for a repayment plan as he is effectlively be running both entities and, besides, any loan arranged between the two parties will have something like a 24 hour notice period for calls on the loan.

 

Have you seen how many shares he's sold recently of Sports Direct? I don't think that there's any chance that he's struggling for money unless he's got a serious yacht buying addiction. He's now got more spare cash than Greece.

 

Easy, don't be giving him any ideas. He'd probably buy Greece if he could and dot the historic landscape of Athens with Sports Direct Logos.

 

You can just imagine Sports Direct shops in every town and city across the country, topped off with a logo or two on the Acropolis.

 

This is not true. It has nothing whatsoever to do with Sports Direct. It was a personal loan made by MA out of his own personal fortune.

 

The value of the club is probably around the £130m that Ashley paid for it (from his own personal wealth).
The value is based on land owned (which we don't have much) squad value, and future income (tickets, TV etc).
He then found out that the Shepherds had spent future income before it had arrived and mortgaged the land beyond it's value (thus putting the value of the club to nought).
So he chose to move £120m of loans the Shepherd's had created, from the banks onto himself, therefore saving x millions a year in interest fees.
He also paid off fees owed to other clubs that were originally on staged payments. (again from his own personal wealth).
So say his total spend was about £250m, the club is still only worth £130 million.
When he wanted to sell the club he stipulated he wanted all of his money back, but it's only worth half what he's shelled out.
So plan B is he's steered the club into a profit making company and is now taking profit out to clear his £120m loan. '
Once that's paid off he can sell the club for £130m and break even. (or a bit more now the squad value & TV deals are improved).
It's like if your house is valued at £100k. No-one takes into account what you paid or what your mortgage has left on it, its worth 100k.
If you owe £120k you gotta find £20k from somewhere. You paid £25k for it, then the tax man will be on the phone.

 

Turning the Acropolis into a cheap version of Hollywood Hills - Massive Sports Direct logo...

 

Fair points.
So is that to say Ashley is pocketing it for himself but to clear his loan?,
I guess you gotta respect it from a business point. Sadly that's not my view, instead I'm a fan wondering how many more years of this we'll have to see before he recoups his money then ****s off

 

No one can second guess what he will do.

But, if f you looking for him to spend, spend, spend and put the club in hock the way Shepherd did - no chance of him doing that.
Being realistic, we will never compete with the likes of Man City, Chelsea etc as it stands.

Most likely scenario is that he will continue to run a tight ship and do it his way.
His expectation is probably a minimum of a Top 10 finish and hopefully a bonus like 11/12's fifth place.

Were he to sell up at some point, who's say to say the new owner would take a different view and splash the cash.

 

It appears that way. but at this rate he's around for ten years, which doesn't make financial sense to break even after 15 years investment.
Perhaps he's running the debt down to a more sellable level?
Saying that, he doesn't need the money. He refused a dividend from Sports Direct to ensure more cashflow for the business.

I would expect the mega rich will want to see the results of financial fair play and how they affect teams in the near future before splashing out on non CL teams.
I do question how Fayed managed to sell Fulham for £200m.
No squad value, no possibility to expand the stadium or develop it for that matter.
Dwarfed by their fashionable neighbours. Just seems like money down the drain to me.

 

Well, Sports Direct have been busy of late; they are doing their usual trick of finding a clothing chain in administration and then buying them up. In the past month or two SD have purchased Yeomans, Gelert and have a stake in something called Thisispulp.

As an investment (rather than a place to work in) it is an excellent company. Anything invested in at the start of last year would have tripled by now.

Ashley knows what he's doing businesswise, that's for sure, but everything he does with Newcastle just puzzles me. One can't get more through the gates so any expansion will have to be done via club tat and to do that one needs success on the pitch as no-one who wasn't born within fifty feet of Tony Bliar watching Jackie Milburn on the Gallowgate won't want a shirt if the club is fighting Crystal Palace for the last relegation slot.

Baffling it all is.

 

Baffling indeed. The adage speculate to accumulate springs to mind. You would have thought he would want success since it will increase our exposure around the world, lead to worldwide marketing opportunities and all kinds of lucrative sponsorship deals. Upshot of that being - more profit. Instead he's quite happy to run the club like a bargain basement business venture.

 

Not baffling at all then. He runs this business like his main one. He is risk averse. He takes the cheapest option. The only thing that surprises me daily are the constant comments which still, in spite of all the evidence, are confused.

 

I don't know why anyone would be surprised by Ashley raking in the profits.

He's not looking to build the club by re-investing the clear profit margin, he's looking to get back his money.

In the short-term, that means Newcastle United will not progress, in the longer-term, it means Ashley has a fully-fledged cash-cow to milk for eternity.

He was probably looking to recoup his losses from purchasing the club, but has now realised the money-making potential (now a reality) is a decent one.

I expect Cabaye to go this summer, Ben Arfa aswell if he can stay fit. All for a huge profit on what we paid for them.

Nothing wrong with that I hear some of you say?

Get comfortable, it's the way forward for us under Ashley.

If we had an owner genuinely interested in bettering the club, the profit would be reinvested - sadly, Ashley wants to take back all the money generated - a sure sign that Newcastle United will never progress under the fat man.

 

To those who still think Ashley is only tryin to pocket some cash. If we were to sell Cabaye for £25m and Cisse for £14 so around £39m the pair but then went and bought Remy £5m, Gomis £4m, Siem De Jong £9m, Bent £5m and a CB for say £9m would you be happy with that or would you whinge that Ashley has "taken £7m out of the club" even though that's the extra 2 strikers and a cb we need??? personally I'd be very happy if we did that kind of business this summer.

 

I suppose in a nutshell what I'm tryin to say is, if you can improve the squad and make money along the way then why not? As long as we start this season with a after team than last then I don't care if Ashley wants some of his money back

 

Indeed, that's why you're the perfect fan in Ashleys' eyes...

If we were looking to 'improve the squad' then surely we keep our best players and get better players to add to them, not sell our best players for a profit and then start the whole process again.

We will simply become a training academy for players on their way to 'trophy-winning clubs' of which we are certainly not one.