Do you trust Ashley as the custodian of our club?

If this was asked last year, the answer might have been a lot more straight forward.
I feel some attitudes have since mellowed a bit.

 

I couldn't trust him as far as I could throw him;
an old cliche but very appropriate given his weight situation.

 

He's cocked up royally in the past and I've no need to document his previous failings as we all know what they are.

I don't trust him in terms of wanting the best for NUFC and it's fans but I do trust him for wanting the best for NUFC and it's finances and those two are actually related.

Without the fans; he's lacking a fairly high proportion of revenue that the club generates and at the same time he's wanting to maximise that revenue to further improve what was a precarious financial situation that has slowly been curbed and brought back to a far healthier state.

Ensuring that the club is a stalwart of the Premier League will further improve the overall financial situation of the club and following a defined plan to buy in young and potentially talented players that have an increased sell on value is the right way to go about it.

We are not a top 4 club.
We are not even a top 10 club at present.

What we are though bodes well for the future. We are a nearly financially solvent club with fantastic infrastructure, a squad full of talent and all supported by a large and loyal fan base.

From this, we should be able to improve our league position annually.

I don't like the man but I feel that the club is moving in a direction that actually bodes well for the future.

It could be worse.

We could be owned by a company like the Venkys.

 

Trust ?

God no. Even when he does something I approve of (it has happened) I am always waiting for the catch, or for a new and unrelated balls up

 

there's one thing over the past few years i dont get.

you've quite rightly highlighted blackburns current owners and plight, but why has no-one came in with a proper bid for us when ashley wanted to sell.
you look at the support (despite relegation) the stadium etc... are potential buyers frightened off by our (lowered) expectations or was he just asking to high a price... who knows

 

No. He's a clever business man and our finances under him will improve but he doesnt have the heart for running a football club.

 

I don't think you could ever really trust him (I run with the "once bitten, twice shy" mentality). But I agree with OT's post!

 

Trust? Never. Only a fool would. However I do think in order to get what he wants (which I believe is to walk out without a loss, possibly a profit and generally stick two fingers up at all who laughed at him in London when we were relegated), he'll have to do right by the club overall. This is evidenced by the upturn in our financial position. I say overall because he will have to sell players we don't want him to in order to achieve his goal. Quite happy to just ride this out because he would be a fool to scupper the club. The negative impact on his own finances would be huge relative to his personal fortune. We'll be ok.

 

Most would be mad to 'trust' him. There again, I trust him no less than Shepherd or Hall. The main differences between Ashley and Hall is that the former is a proven giant of business and a terrible P.R communicator, while the latter has had very patchy business history but had the media in his pocket.

Hall turned a relatively democratic club into his own toy, and after deciding he didn't want it anymore, he gave it to the highest bidder and made an enormous amount of money. Ashley loved his new toy initially, but quickly discovered that the toy was rather damaged and difficult to operate; he tried to sell it on, but found that the market for beautiful but damaged toys had collapsed. These unusual toys used to be owned by all kinds of children, but now only the most spoilt and damaged children want or can afford them. So, in their anger and with all their power, they throw them around bash them still further. All the other children look on with a helpless love for their former toys: if only they hadn't believed Daddy when he said that the money made from selling their toys would be reinvested into restoring them into beautiful shiny toys for everyone.

 

+1

Saved me writing a response, thanks!

 

when you say it that way ...............my bestest toy

 

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

 

I dont trust him at all but if he really is ambitious and wants to get into top ten/europe then he'll retain our better players.

 

Wonder who voted yes.
Probably a mackem.

 

Financially I do - the club is on a solid footing. Unfortunately a part of this is acheived by selling our best assets, or intending to sell them. There is no ambition to be anything other than a mid-table PL club. So from the point of view of making something of the club, then no.

That said, there could be worse things than getting one or two solid top 10 finishes under our belt after the rollercoaster of the last few years.

Could we have a worse owner, yes (see the jokers at West Ham). Could we have a better owner, yes.

 

I've not trusted a Newcastle chairman in my lifetime, but I do feel I've got more faith in Ashley now then I ever did in Shepherd. We could have a lot worse too, so I'm happy to keep following the club. It's always interesting being a Toon fan, wouldn't have it any other way.