Mike Ashley's Newcastle United: Cash Cow at tipping point.

The problem there is you're talking about a man worth £5.5bn. It seems slightly unrealistic to assume a man with that much wealth is so naive as to think employing the likes of Dennis Wise, Tony Jimenez and Joe Kinnear is anything other than a PR and sporting disaster. You mention a meltdown, across a period which saw SD post record turnover, record profits. You may be right about his pettiness - just look at the share debacle earlier in the year. But he's not that deep - NUFC do global advertising incredibly cheaply, SD profits are up since he owned NUFC, quid pro quo his model @ NUFC 'works'.

 

This is what its all about, we were always a vehicle for his main business. I think the mixing with the fans etc was always a bit of a charade. Is he on some personal crusade to the fans suffer because of a few threats etc? Of course not. His ego may have been tickled into a response of small proportions but his main focus will always be on money. Before he came, and ever since he arrived. People (quite understandably) take it personally and get angry. Fans will always want more more more. To him this is just a very good way to promote his main business.

He cares little what fans think of him positive or negative. He didn't get involved to be loved or hated. He got involved to make more money. Which he has. Sports Direct is bigger than ever, and his involvement in the nations single biggest sport and access to worldwide exposure has undoubtedly played a part in it. He's a smart cookie.

Yes I do love the rum but would not term myself some kind of afficianado. As you say for everyday drinking purposes, a Mount Gay or Havana is sensible. There are some absolute beauties out there though. The Mount Gay 1703 Old Cask is a good one, as is the Pyrat 1623. They have some hefty tags on them though so just other people buy me them for Xmas etc

 

There's obviously a lot more to him then, I only go off what I can see from a football fan's perspective and that's how I was so confused by the 'catch 22' like Roland says, that has been created.

From my point of view, he'll probably take you down again at some point in the next few years with his current model of manager and recruitment policy. My only issue would be as a Newcastle fan, that the behaviour of the fans towards the owner is not going to attract any potential investors from overseas and let's face it, that's probably where they'll end up coming from.

It might sound hard to swallow but I think your best chance of a takeover would be in a bargain-buy situation, after a relegation.

 

The benefit MA gets from owning NUFC is limited to the signs on the stadium. We aren't called the Sports Direct Magpies or anything, and the name of the stadium has gone back to SJP.

This is a fairly quantifiable benefit in that it has a market value. I very much doubt if it significantly exceeds the £6 - 7m that is saved from interest free financing.

The idea that MA is currently coining it from owning us is lazy brained whinging. That he may have a longer term strategy is, of course, quite possible

 

Really?

He's been here over seven years so it must be a very long-term strategy.

Newcastle United is no further forward than the day he took over.

 

Poor phrasing on my part.

That Mike Ashley may have a longer term strategy to coin money from NUFC is quite possible.

It is clear that he has no other long term strategy.

 

Nor is it any further backward, right now. Which is, strategically speaking, entirely the point.

 

Right now?

Quite right.

I'm willing to bet good money that our relegation is still fresh in most peoples minds though

 

It may very well be but so is the promotion.

 

Well, quite!

Look how they treated Chris Hughton after he guided us to the Championship Title.

No victory parade or official celebration.

The excuse was something like 'we shouldn't have been in that league anyway' or some arrogant ****e.

 

I agree with some of that, but what utter bollocks coming from a Man Utd fan that bold bit is Sanctimonious hypocrite or what?! I'm surprised you lot didn't run off to set up another club after finishing out of the CL places, or fetch out the Norwich colours again

Fact is, investors are motivated by different things, and you can be sure as **** they care not for the behaviour of fans. There are very few left who want to buy a club and spend a mega-tonne on the world's best (probs even less now they have a tax in the form of FFP), so either we'll get a local investor who cares about the club (but probs isn't a billionaire), or someone who wants to run the ship similarly to Ashley. Geographically, I think we're at a disadvantage, because we'll never be a niche club for the elitist prick type everyone wants to boost their club into the stratosphere.

I do think the ideal scenario would be a fan buyout, purely because the price would be cheaper than a top club, we have a more than substantial supporter base, and then we only have ourselves to blame if **** goes wrong.

 

At Rangers it will be peanuts to invest and virtually Champions League every year to promote his brand. Remember too Rangers have a huge following abroad.

 

Yeah Rangers are an investor's wet dream, except the one snag of financial instability following their massive spending.

 

Jesus.

1) its not peanuts when the club cannot generate more than it spends, it becomes costly.
2) Champions league clubs have to follow uefa official sponsor rules so fat mike would have to then cough up.
3) the CL enjoys significantly less coverage than the epl yet is far harder to advance in. Rangers would consistently get nowhere.
4) Glasgow Rangers have significantly fewer fans than SD has customers, and a tiny percentage of comparative prospective customers.

Come on, man! We all want Ashley out but lets keep it real.

 

appletons is nice but u cant beat a tot of woods

 

I disagree with this.

Scotland's UEFA co-efficient has slumped in the last few years and as well as losing their second champions League spot the champions now have to negotiate three difficult qualifying rounds to even reach the group stage. Celtic have had the luxury of being virtually guaranteed champions status while also collecting some decent money in consecutive CL group appearances. Rangers meanwhile have entered yet another period of financial uncertainty, and with a civil war raging that makes our walk-outs look like a tea party. Add into the mix the relegation of both Hearts and Hibs to the championship, and along with Falkirk making four viable teams competing over at most 2 promotion places, and I would not be shocked to see a hiccup in Rangers progression back through the leagues. Even one year's delay in returning could be a massive setback in Rangers finances. With all that is going on at Rangers I would be very very surprised to see Mike Ashley want to sell up here and take over at Ibrox. Even some of the previously loyal pro-Rangers journalists are now describing the situation at the club as toxic, and openly discussing whether or not a second financial meltdown would prove terminal.

 

How on earth do you reckon this like? Half of Scotland supports Rangers. That's about 2.5 million people. I doubt 2.5 million people is significantly fewer than the number of different individuals purchasing tat at Sports Direct this year. That's without factoring in Ranger's rather odd yet massssssssssssssssssssssiiiivvvvvvvvvveeeeeeeeee following in some other countries. I'd be surprised if over 5% of the UK had shopped there this year.

I'm no financial expert, but to me it does make good commercial sense, in fact. SD has been slowly but surely ousting JJB over the last few years, which were the sports retail giants in Scotland. Glasgow centre, Braehead, Glasgow Fort etc have basically seen SD take over JJB premises. JJB were actually collapsing as a high-street brand, so simply setting up similar tat on their graves is unlikely to be lucrative without some risky ventures or a bit of cunning strategy, and affiliation with one of the biggest teams in Britain (even where they are now) isn't such a bad risk.

Primary thing with Rangers though, investing at a time when shares were dirt cheap, because they'd just been tanked down the leagues, was really sensible. With their fanbase they'd always rise again, and share prices with it. I would have done the same thing.

 

So to confirm you think that less than 2.5m people shop, worldwide, at a chain of stores that has an annual revenue of £2.2bn? That would require the average customer to be spending well in excess of £1000 a year. You sure about that? And as SD is in 19 countries across Europe I would also imagine their potential customer base massively outweighs any potential customer base of Rangers.

 

To be fair fella, SD will have an annual customer base of around 10m+
Most of them in run down areas like Sunderland, Middlesborough.
Man.. some of the Pennywell kings think dressing up posh is wiping the stale dog turds off their Lonsdale trainers.

 

What are you, the bloody accountant for SD

I didn't even realise his ****ty store had spread it's infectious disease to other countries

Still, you've massively underestimated how many people support Rangers