I couldn't help myself!I swore to myself I wouldn’t get involved and would stay away from this fight as Ashley has got the fans at each other throats with the current state of affairs at SJP but after reading a recent ‘blog by my colleague on here, and the fairly large response to it, I couldn’t hold my water any further!
I had decided i would reserve my judgement on the current regime and thought it would be fair to see where we are at after the window has closed and we are a few games into the season, hopefully with a new striker and some sensible investment in place, I had hoped we wouldn’t be having the Ashley argument again as we all just want NUFC to move forward with sensible investment. But after the appalling lack of squad strengthening and ambition from the current regime, the nonsense printed in the Chronicle’s Q&A and amazingly some fans actually backing Ashley as a master of business and Professor in the school of running a football club, I feel the need to point out a few things missing from this boiling pot. What immediate springs to my mind is:
What about the fans feeling more interested and enthused and therefore more inclined to forking out more money to support Newcastle United as well? (more…)
Pressure is on tonightNewcastle United manager Alan Pardew has the job of picking up the mood of fans tonight after a disappointing end to the transfer window, but does he deserve a bit of sympathy?
How about a bit of sympathy for Alan Pardew? Yes, I know he blabs rubbish a lot of the time and he doesn’t always seem to engage his brain before doing so, but he’s been let down in the transfer window as much as we have and the pressure is now on him to come up with some good results.
A bad run now would just add to that air of depression a lot of fans are currently feeling and Pardew will know that.
On the weekend, Pardew was lamenting the relationship between Mike Ashley and the fans and intimating that it doesn’t really help him do his job. Pardew said:
“It’s difficult at Newcastle and I don’t think the owner’s relationship with the fans helps. That’s obvious. I don’t think there’s anything I can say or do that will improve that.
“Hopefully over the next three or four years, if I bring some success to the club, maybe that can be looked at in a different light. But certainly not in the short term.” (more…)
"Greed is good. Greed is right."Dear reader, my estteemed colleague Hugh has already touched on this story earlier today and presented his own viewpoint on the matter. However, I am so incensed that I also feel compelled to register my extreme displeasure at the latest utterings of our unesteemed Managing Director, Derek Llambias.
In case you are still wondering what I’m gannin’ on about, in the responses to Chronicle readers questions on Mike Ashley’s intentions for the club, Derek Llambias responded to “Is Mike Ashley considering putting the club up for sale?” with the quote below amongst other things. At the end of the answer, he wrote:
“I’d like to make a further point here. This club can’t support itself without the financial backing of Mike Ashley; we still rely heavily on the owner. To date Mike has invested over £280m into the club, including £140m in interest-free loans. For him to continue to support the club, he has to be interested and enthused to do so. He deserves credit for his financial support but a section of supporters don’t make him feel welcome at St James’ Park, or when he attends away games. Criticism is part and parcel of the job, abuse is not. This makes life uncomfortable and certainly doesn’t make Mike feel more inclined to put his hand once again in his pocket. That’s not stubbornness, it’s human nature. I think most of us would feel exactly the same.”
Does the sheer gall of this little cipher and his fat controller know no bounds?(more…)
Don't call me fattyNewcastle United owner Mike Ashley appears to be fed up with the abuse he gets from some of the fans. So fed up in fact that he implies the abuse must stop or he will not do the right thing by the club.
No doubt you’ve all seen the questions The Chronicle put to the NUFC board and the answers they received from them? If not, you can see them here.
Most of the answers are along the lines we would have expected, so there aren’t really any surprises. An interesting point though was the suggestion that we have to stop abusing Mike Ashley if we want him to continue funding the club. It came as part of the answer to the question: Is Mike Ashley considering putting the club up for sale?
Apparently he’s not unless an incredible offer comes along, although quite what classes as ‘incredible’ is anybody’s guess. But the answer is followed by this:
“I’d like to make a further point here. This club can’t support itself without the financial backing of Mike Ashley; we still rely heavily on the owner. To date Mike has invested over £280m into the club, including £140m in interest-free loans. For him to continue to support the club, he has to be interested and enthused to do so.(more…)
Ashley: May be fat, but not a “Cockney”Has Mike Ashley reduced Newcastle United’s debt?
Hmmm.
Well, it has been several months since Newcastle United published their last set of audited accounts at Companies House (March 2011), and that was for 2009/10. However, at that time it did appear as if the debt had actually risen significantly, though it is hard to deny that the the club are in a somewhat less perilous position finacially since Mike Ashley took over the club from the gruesome twosome, Freddy Shepherd and Douglas Hall.
In June 2007 when Ashley finally gained full control of the club, it looked as if the club was £71 million in debt, however, after Ashley’s takeover, it became apparent that the mortgage on the ground had to be paid off, and the level of debt was actually £124 million. More details are available from the site NUFC Finances site.
In the last published set of accounts, published in March 2011 (for 2009/10), they revealed that the club’s net debt at that time stood at around £150 million, most of this figure being owed to a certain Mr.MJW.Ashley of Totteridge, Hertfordshire. It also revealed that despite a slightly misleading statement by Newcastle United in May 2010 which read: (more…)
