Mike Ashley: Laughing all the way to the bank again.With the news that Mike Ashley’s downmarket sports chain, Sports Direct, is about to be included in the reshuffled FTSE 100 Index of the top 100 UK companies, I took a peek at their latest figures, as I do from time to time.
As has been the norm with Sports Direct for quite some time now, the figures were obscene, with profits rising a whopping 23.2% to £260.1 million.
What caught my eye however was the current Sports Direct share price standing at well over £7 and rising three or four times just as I was reading it over the share ticker. This means that Ashley’s current 64% holding in Sports Direct International is now worth over £2.75 billion, and this is after Ashley cashed in some 4% of his shares for over £100 million back in February.
To put this in perspective in terms of Newcastle United and it’s importance in the scheme of things to Ashley, that is well over 10 times the value of what Ashley has invested in the club, around £262 million. This includes a debt of around £129 million to Ashley, most of which is repayable on demand with the rest secured on future broadcasting revenue. (more…)
The fans are revolting, but Will they be effective this time?Newcastle United fans are revolting!
However, writing as someone who used to be an protester and fundraiser myself in the past, not over Newcastle United but over causes such as civil liberties, racism and the like, from what I have read and seen of Newcastle United fans’ planned protests so far, the chances of success don’t seem to be that great at all. This isn’t because the protestors don’t have a case, more that the protagonists don’t seem to be protesters, quite simply, they don’t know how to do it properly. They’re more like brickies and plumbers who are blundering around in a field they don’t understand, a bit like Mike Ashley trying to run a large Premier League football club really!
Please don’t misunderstand, this is not to be unecessarily disparaging at all, it’s just an appeal to realism, a plea for the protestors to consult with people who know what they are doing this time before they go blundering in once again with their size 10s and misspelled bedsheets. In a David and Goliath struggle, you don’t just need all the help you can get, you need the right help to avoid falling at the first few hurdles. (more…)
Pardew – Fist pumping his way back to the top ten?Speaking exclusively to Sports Direct News, Alan Pardew saluted Mike Ashley’s “bravery” in saving Newcastle United from the Championship, but also suggested that he may not be able to do it a second time should the club be relegated again.
He also revealed that without the handicap of European football in the coming season, though his first aim will be to avoid relegation, he will be ambitious and go for a top ten finish or possibly even higher. Though how he could aim higher than the top ten, he didn’t explain.
“I think realistically we should look to finish in the top ten and hopefully get ourselves in a position where we can attack higher than that” said the Silver Supremo, adding:
“When it gets to February we’ll have a clearer indication of where we’re going to be.”
Pardew then spoke of how it is relief from the pressures of European football, along with good players which has enabled him to aim so high after last season’s disappointing 16th: (more…)
Fans accused of anti-Semitism towards Mike Ashley.Newcastle United have threatened legal action over a piece by Jim Armitage in the Independent newspaper.
The piece is a sickly hagiography of Mike Ashley entitled “Is Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley the best boss in the world?” In it’s original version, it alleged that Newcastle United fans had abused the club’s owner on the basis of his Jewish background, despite the fact that he isn’t even Jewish..
On the club’s official Twitter page they tweeted:
“The club is aware of the article in today’s Independent and has referred the matter to its lawyers. Thanks to fans who have raised concerns.”
There is also an image of the original tweet below. To get to the meat in the sandwich though, the anti-Semitic parts of Armitage’s piece were rapidly edited out, but it was too late for the Independent and the original part of the piece which made the slur is preserved below.
Part of Mike Ashley’s £25 million transfer profit.Below are a series of tables showing the profits and losses (mostly profits) made by Mike Ashley in player trading since he assumed control of the club early in the 2007-8 season.
Firstly, they are broken down season by season from 2007-8. However, it should be noted the major transfers into the club in his first season as owner were either done in the days of Freddy Shepherd, or were arranged by Shepherd and completed in the transitional period of Ashley takeover, or the first days under the club’s new Chairman at the time, Chris Mort. Players in these two catagories include signings such as Viduka, Barton, Rozehnal, Smith, Cacapa, Enrique, Faye and Beye.
The following ones then display the season by season figures from the 2008-9 season (Ashley’s first full season as owner), with the first purely Ashley signings such as Fabricio Coloccini, Jonas Gutierrez, Xisco and the rest starting to come in. Of course, these are then followed by successive seasons up to the present day. (more…)
