Here we go again – the next episode in the Toon soap opera begins.
Posted on October 28th, 2009 | 383 Comments |
Emotions were running high when this was announced last night but I wanted to try and analyse the situation a little more objectively in the cold light of day.
It looked like Barry Moat might actually have been in with a chance at one point. According to the press, he’d had a £40m up-front plus £40m at the end of the season deal rejected and had come back to Ashley with a £60m-£20m upgrade to that, having been led to believe by Ashley that it would be accepted. Ashley however did not accept it and decided to take the club off the market amongst a lot of familiar-sounding rhetoric.
The rhetoric sounds familiar because it’s pretty much what he said the last time he took the club off the market. He stressed his commitment to the future of Newcastle United then too and he put some money into the club, but then we were relegated and the club was up for sale once again. So I have no reason to believe that Ashley’s aim is to do anything but maximise the club’s appeal so that he can put it up for sale yet again.
But what option did he have? All Moat had to do was find £80m cash to buy the club and he couldn’t. There were no other serious bidders – and in fact I don’t believe there have ever been any other serious bidders beyond Moat – so he could either let the situation continue to drift or do something about it. In that respect I think Ashley made the right decision to take the club off the market even if it is just until such a time as he feels he can sell it. 5 months is long enough to see if he could find a buyer at his asking price. Taking the club off the market removes a lot of the uncertainty surrounding the club for now and even short-term stability is better than none at all.
I wanted to see the back of him too but I can’t see what else he could do.
Based only on the length of Chris Hughton’s appointment, I’m guessing that Ashley’s plan is to get us promoted, spend a year stabalising us as a Premier League team and then put us up for sale again. It is likely that by then the world’s economy will be healthier and with Newcastle back in the Premier League he should be able to find a buyer willing to pay a decent price for the club. He could of course be genuinely committing to the club for the long-term but recent history makes me doubt that.
What we have to look at is where Ashley’s aims match our own. We want promotion and so does he. We want the club installed as a ‘safe’ Premier League club and so does he. Maybe our aims coincide enough to make this situation bearable, not that we have any choice in the matter.
Where the plans could fall down of course is if we don’t get promoted this season but I think Ashley’s prepared to gamble on that. It will be interesting to see what happens in the January transfer window when our emergency loans expire. Chris Hughton will certainly need to replace them if promotion is to remain a realistic hope and, if we’re still looking like contenders at the that point, both Ashley and Hughton will need to be thinking about preparing a team that can survive in the Premier League.
Another thing that could scupper Ashley’s plans is Ashley himself. He’s made some dreadful decisions and by his own admission he knows little about running a football club. If he’s really serious about making a good go of things – and if he’s learnt anything from his past experiences at Newcastle – I’d expect him to get shot of Llambias and employ a football-savvy Chairman to carry out his plans and manage communication with the fans.
Ah yes, communication with the fans – not Ashley’s strong suit. A point he demonstrated last night with the announcement that he plans to sell the naming rights to St James’ Park. What a master-stroke of fan communication that was, slipping in something like at the end of an announcement that he surely knew would already have the fans in fractious mood. It is hard not to wonder if he does it deliberately.
I am not usually one to wax lyrical about the emotional aspects of football in these articles, but they do exist. The whole point of football is to entertain and emotionally engage the supporters. Things like heritage and tradition are all part of what gives football its appeal. Fans may not actually own a football club in the commercial sense but there is no doubt the football club ‘belongs’ to the fans, they are it’s raison d’etre.
Ashley’s announcement about the renaming of the stadium simply didn’t take that into account and shows the same lack of sensitivity to such things as we’ve come to expect from the man. Does he even understand any of these aspects of the game? First of all, if you’re going to try something like this it has to be sold to the fans. If it was a choice between selling the stadium rights and Newcastle United going out of business you might be able to sell it to the fans, perhaps as a last resort to save the club. What you don’t do is put it matter-of-factly at the end of an already provocative statement.
I appreciate the financial realities of our club but there are some things that really should be ‘last resorts’ and if they have to be done they should be done carefully. Ashley appears to be thick-skinned about the fans’ hate for him these days but we saw after Keegangate that it can indeed get to him. If he’s planning on keeping the club for another season and a half he would do well to try and get fans on-side as much as possible and start treating them with respect. Some will no doubt ask why he should do that when all he gets is vitriol in response but he’s the owner of the club and I would expect a good owner to be able to rise above all that and start building bridges.
He’s just making life hard for himself and miserable for the fans if he doesn’t, and that doesn’t even make commercial sense.
NUFCBlog Author: Hugh de Payen
I'm a baby-boomer of the punk rock persuasion, currently exiled in Somerset for crimes committed in a previous life where locals keep trying to poison me with something called 'scrumpy'. Hates sprouts, coat-hangers, Cilla Black, ornaments, Steven Seagull movies and 50 Cent (he's not worth 10).
Hugh de Payen has written 634 articles on this blog.
Now he wishes to sell the name of our stadium …….. F@~k Me!
how low can this fat idiot stoop ? we have to find a way to rid ourselves of this moron once and for all.
Hughtom the manager…… No supprise there hes a Yes man bot boy who wont kick up a fuss when he has no money to spend in january while yet more of our players are sold to line that fat nobs pockets “oh yes mr ashley sir … we’ll manage ok”
I’m off to support Gateshead! cant take anymore of ths!