https://www.themag.co.uk/2018/09/kp...atement-backing-mike-ashley-newcastle-united/ Article has apparently been pulled by KPGM and, therefore, not able to refer to all of it or directly and hence link. Anyone still think Ashley has thick skin?
I'm of the opinion that Mike Ashley is an extremely limited bloke. He looks a bit thick, acts a bit thick and so in all probability IS a bit thick. People say he's a "brilliant businessman". He's ****ing not. He's got some entrepreneurship about him, in that he identified a gap in the market in the 80's. What he didn't realise was quite how wide that gap was and that selling knock-off shell suits would form the bedrock of a certain level of society. Since then everyone has gone there in our increasingly disposable society to buy cheap ****, knowing that we won't be wearing anything - be it from Lillywhites, John Lewis or Oxfam - for more than a few months. So why pay more. That's a bit visionary - we might even give him the benefit of the doubt and say he knew what he was doing, but I don't believe he had any idea how successful it could be. Effectively he bought premises that were sat empty for a discount, filled it with the **** Nike couldn't sell and repeated the process. He knows ABSOLUTELY NOTHING ELSE. He is not a "businessman" by any stretch of the word. He cannot even retain a seat on the board of the company he owns. He employs awful, ill-equipped people because he has serious trust issues stemming from his fall out with his parents and his divorce. He thinks he knows better than Capitalism, believes that "anybody can do it", which is the exact same approach he took to NUFC. Mike Ashley is nothing more than a guy who got lucky. He's never changed, never tried to change. He's done it the same way since he 'stole' £10k from his parents to open SD in Maidenhead. He's just dealing with more zeroes - he bought HoF because he knows how to buy a shop and sell some stuff. Nothing is more apparent about his complete lack of ability than in two cases - first, in the MP questioning of Shirebrook he was asked "has SD outgrown your ability to manage it" and his answer was pretty much "yes, a long time ago". Second, his share purchases of Debenhams, HoF, etc. He fails to see there's a problem with the High Street. John Lewis are the only ones really offering something different (free personal style/shoppers), whereas his idea is to fill HoF with brands like Firetrap and make himself extra coin. It won't work, he doesn't work, and he is rapidly running out of time. I love the comments from the ITK's at the Chron. "Sources say he's planning for the medium term". What ****ing plan is that then, and how would it differ from Mike's short term, or his long term, or his indefinite term? "Keep costs to a bare minimum because at some point we'll be relegated". That's plan a, b, c through to z. He will be gone at some point. He doesn't know what he's doing, he wants too much money for the club but the amount he wants is diminishing every day. Someone is going to eventually offer £300m and he'll take it. Someone at the meeting of The Magpie Group last night even claimed there'd been SIX offers for the club last season, three from Staveley (all rejected), but one OTHER offer from elsewhere which was actually initially accepted....then rejected as he went back for more money. It's just opinion, I'm just the messenger, but that's what was said. And I can believe it. We're in an end game. Social media is considerably more powerful with more reach and the damage being done is consistent, even if small.
Personally I think you both underestimate Mr Ashley. This notion he isn't all that clever, thick skinned or he's lucky is nonsense to me. The guy is a billionaire because he is very very business savvy, and more than anything a ruthless bastard. He is extremely thick skinned, he has been ridiculed his whole life and just got on with it. He is very much a vindictive man but one who is driven by people who doubt him. A bit of ITK. I have heard this first hand from family members who travel all the way from Grimsby for our games in a car, and then sit in the secondary corporate facilities paid for by themselves as he fell out with them over something petty - so they can't go in the nice corporate rooms with Charnley etc like previously. They acknowledge his ability to make money and his sharpness to spot an opportunity. Second to none they say and he has always been that way. However they readily acknowledge he'd sell his own granny down the river too if it meant he got some cash. For sure he drops absolute clangers and can be petty as **** when it comes to trying to control the PR. That is just most guys who have money to burn - they take greater risks for a start because they can. He will do exactly as he pleases. The only thing that will FORCE Ashley to leave, is if he feels that the effect on his bank balance is no longer positively affected or his vast fortune is being risked in any way. From what I can see we are a long way from that situation. He will wait for an offer to blow his socks off, or when its time to cash in his chips, or death. He was prepared to lose a 1m at a roulette table, but it would need to be in the 10's of millions at least to even peak his interest in bailing out a la Short. I actually think he does want out. But like SJH and Fat Fred before him, he wants to leave with his pockets fully loaded. Again a trait of most rich people - there is never enough. We are in purgatory for the foreseeable. Bah ****ing humbug.
Only because Health & Safety decided that what you were cooking in there was was worse than the novichok virus!!!!
Was getting a Chinese take away last night (king prawn chow mein and pork dumplings - so ****ing good!!!) and while waiting noticed that the esteemed publication that is The Sun was on the table and I flicked through the sports pages. Some ****tard had writing a column about greedy Benitez with the Toon fans wrapped around his finger, and how he was unfairly whining and bitching about the benevolent and generous Ashley. Oh well, it was The Sun.
