If Ashley returned to the Premier League, would he stick or twist?
Posted on February 3rd, 2010 | 179 Comments |
Mike Ashley’s tenure on Tyneside has been a troubled one to say the least. Seemingly riding into The Toon like a knight in shining armour, the billionaire investor the club needed to get us challenging towards the top of the Premier League. Unfortunately this didn’t happen, reports came out that Ashley never bothered to even glance at the clubs finances before signing up to buy the club. A look at the books would have revealed just exactly where the clubs finances were, and if it was feasable for him to conclude the purchase.
Not a great start then, and something that is arguably still having a knock on effect even now as the Sports Direct owner still wrestles to balance the books. Some will say fair play to him, he put his own money in to make the club more sustainable, and to correct his mistake. Others will say that it’s his mistake for not looking through the books first, a schoolboy error on his part and he, rightly, should cover the cost of his own mistake.
Several unpopular mistakes later, a lost employment tribunal against Kevin Keegan, a relegation, 2 failed attempts at selling the club, a lack of investment in the team that would, arguably, have kept us in the Premier League and a lack of communication have all not helped Ashley’s ownership of the club.
Part of Ashley’s business plan was always to make us sustainable, buy within our means and end the days of transfers that kept maxing out the credit cards of the club. Deals such as Michael Owen, financed by using the entire sponsorship money from the Northern Rock deal in one hit, were a thing of the past.
The wage bill was another target for Ashley’s budget cuts. At the time of relegation, the squad had the 4th largest wage bill of any in the Premier League. I’d imagine this would have been cut gradually had we have stayed up, but relegation and the lower incomes in The Championship forced the hand. Massive earners like Viduka and Owen were already out of contract and left the club. These were swiftly followed by more high earners like Martins and Duff being sold off. This slashed the wage bill dramatically to around £40 million a year at the start of the season – still massive compared to other teams in The Championship but nearly half of what it was just a couple of months previously.
The acquiring of some loan signings brought us through to the January window where many expected more big earners to be sold, only to be replaced with cheaper alternatives. To many people’s surprise we were relatively active this window, adding a total of 6 faces to the current sqaud and not selling any of our first team high earners (Geremi doesn’t count).
So that brings us to today. Where do we stand?
To my mind, there are 2 trains of thought on this. Inadvertently, you could argue that Mike Ashley’s cost cutting plans have been implemented, perhaps not the way any of us wanted, with relegation being a catalyst. However, through the other side of this we are now much sleeker as club. I wouldn’t say we are rolling in cash all of a sudden, revenues and attendances have still dropped, but if we were to go straight back up the club would be in a much healthier state, having lost a lot of deadwood along the way, and with a Premier League income. At a time when a lot of other clubs are struggling, Liverpool, Manchester United and, most notably, Portsmouth, this could put us in a position to capitalise and play catch up.
On the other hand, some will say that although slashing costs was needed, it will ultimately be to make the business as a whole look more attractive to prospective buyers in the summer when Ashley will put the club back up for sale. A leaner business leaves more cash to be spent in buying the club, and that would suit Ashley, pocketing more money on his investment.
So what about the reinforcements we have acquired? We know Ashley is a gambler. Did he decide that sticking with what we had before the window was too much of a gamble? Too much of a risk to his investment? The consequences of not going straight back up this season would be dire for the fans, the club and for Ashley’s bank balance. Has he signed these players to try and ensure a swift return?
Or could this be the start of an Ashley fightback? One way to get fans back on side is through success on the pitch, perhaps this is what he is aiming for? Maybe he is deciding to stick around and give it another go in the Premier League if we get there? Perhaps the £20 million a season he invests into the club could actually be used on players given our new (relatively) slimline wage line? For the first time in a long time we wouldn’t be buying on credit and financing deals over years, we’d have full houses again, sponsorship and corporate deals would soon return, we’d have Premier League money, dare I say it but we may even turn a profit!
Whichever side of the fence you sit on, there is an interesting debate to be had. For me, I’ll just wait and see. I’d like to see more communication from the board room, it’s free and and easy to do! On top of that I’d like to see some long-term commitment, putting the club on the market and spitting his dummy everytime someone says a negative word about him is not professional. Im far from forgiving Ashley for all the negative stuff that has happened since he has been here, but what’s to say that if he did sell that any new owners would be any better, or worse? Sometimes it’s a case of ‘better the devil you know’.
Time will tell I guess…..
The big NUFC Blog poll.
I think he will look to sell but I don’t think the club will be put up for sale like last time, if the right offer is made then he will take it.
If we do go up then we will be in good shape financially but building a squad will still take time, Spurs were in a similar situation where they needed a big squad makeover before Jol joined and it’s taken them 5 or 6 years to get the squad they have together.
The hardest thing is going to be bringing players in while keeping a sensible wage structure as that is the secret to making profits every year which we can use to buy players from.