When Setanta won the rights to the Premiership they had a show on a Friday on for about 90 minutes previewing the next days game, and the star man was Sir Les Ferdinand. There was no massive indication things weren't generally ok at that point other than the Milner rumours, and he said things are about to get cataclysmic at NUFC, without saying he'd spoken to anyone directly, and at the time I thought pipe down a bit Les, he was sadly right.
LM is a much better bloke than people give him credit for, and this isn't a dig as he was right all along about Ashley, but I don't want to cause a row, I think his opinion was based on the fact he was fucking devastated FFS was no longer there, Ashley wasn't FFS, and a hunch, nothing else. I don't see how anyone could've known what a cunt Ashley would be in those very early days.
No probs Stevie mate.
Devastated ? No, not at all. I never thought that Fred was the sharpest tool in the box, but he/they backed their managers and understood how big the club is and how big it could be. McKeag was an intelligent man but was a pygmy in footballing terms. Maybe it depends how you define "intelligence". Solicitors don't necessarily understand fuck all about football.......
The thing is, people like me of my age, we spent nearly 30 years supporting this club, run by shit directors who had no ambition but were supposed to be "intelligent people" etc etc.....between the years of 1964 and 1992 I actively supported this club, completely, it all became a sort of underachieving limbo in the end. Then these blokes came along and said it all has to change, everybody has had enough. And after a hesitant start, it came, and Keegan made it happen, he drove the board and they allowed him to manage the club when they realised he was doing it right. We all know what happened, and what nearly happened from there.
When the club became a PLC I had massive reservations, not about the board because Keegan had showed them how to make NUFC work and, if they had had any initial reservations, they had been convinced that Keegans way worked [under his management because he bought and spent the money well]. But when they floated, I was bothered that the backing of the club as we had got used to, would stop. I know Shepherd was the front man for the board by the late 1990's and while he wasn't so media friendly as Hall Snr, it didn't bother me so long as the direction and ambitions of the board didn't change. After initial doubts, they naturally subsided when the club continued to bring top players to the club and expanded the stadium. I wasn't bothered in the slightest about this "dogs" business, which I maintain was a deliberate attempt by the ManU supporting press to scupper the main challengers to their darlings and they were quite happy to whip up the frenzy, which succeeded. A relation from Jockland on wifey's side, taken in by this bollocks, asked me on the phone what I thought of it all, I said that I don't give a shite. She didn't understand that given a choice between media friendly or "nice" gentlemen running the club without ambition and a group who showed ambition and wanted success on the pitch, was a complete no brainer. The absolute LAST thing I wanted, at any price, was to have small minded unambitious people running the club again.
This is the whole basis of my reservations about anybody taking over from the Halls and Shepherd, in the last few years, when people wanted rid of them. Having supported the club from 1964-1992 I knew exactly what I didn't want, and as the club had been in a position where only 4 clubs had done better [sorry but it's relevant] what were the odds on someone coming in and doing better ? Its simple maths, and betting odds, commons sense, what were the chances of it happening ? The odds were stacked against it. Apply any sort of betting logic and it is obvious.
I saw the quotes from Mort, Allardyce, the PR stunts from Ashley and the nagging doubts I had quickly surfaced about him. Everything I saw and heard just added up to someone who wasn't going to attempt to keep the club competing at those levels. Add to that, what I've always said about football, which is that football clubs just don't make profits in the normal business sense, and it stuck out a mile what was going to happen. The club was starting to behave just like it had done during those decades of frustration prior to 1992.
I am still amazed that long term supporters like myself, who witnessed these years, took so long to cotton on to Mike Ashley.
I posted on NO for all that time, mainly NO, and people accused me of winding people up, I knew I was doing it but I also knew that I believed what I was saying. I wasn't going to say what people wanted to hear. They banned me for going on about it so much, but I just replied to people, and gave them what I thought was the truth, its that simple.
I didn't want to sell my shares in the club to Mike Ashley, but I didn't want to sell them to anybody. I quite liked having shares in the club, so when I opposed that forced sale of my shares, it was nothing to do with Mike Ashley and nothing to do with backing the old regime either.
I wanted someone to buy the club who would do better than the old regime just like everybody else, I only realised the odds were stacked against it. They are also stacked against whoever buying from Ashley doing it too. It's obvious when there are only 4 other clubs to beat so to speak. Now, only getting someone who restores ambition and direction to the club will be progress, such is the level this club has dropped to.
I am now convinced Mike Ashley wants his money back, and he is selling players to do that. He might sell the club when he has done this, or he might keep the club and run it at low operating levels and make a small profit, whichever he chooses, he will NEVER get anywhere near the old regime now, because he doesn't have the will to do what is needed, and realises selling a player to make a profit is easier than speculating on reaching the Champions League places. Which is the only way he is going to make a profit from the football "as a business", and is the only ways any club can make a worthwhile profit "as a business".
I'm afraid we face years of mediocrity with him as owner, the likes of which people never dreamed of when they were dishing out flak to the old regime for not qualifying for europe or the Champions League. It could be decades before anybody matches them, people may realise by then that they were a lot better than they thought at the time.
See for me, LM can be a good poster when he puts his thoughts in to it like this one.
More of this LM and less of the bollocks
I dont see that there has to be a right/wrong stance from the start. Plus I dont see that under FS we had to be 100% behind him at the end. Fact is, no matter what club you are, you want to improve. You think Arsenal are happy right now? Or should they be content they are not going to languish in 15th? No, they want to improve so we hear some wanting rid of Wenger etc.
Under FS we had reach some heady heights and it's stupid to even suggest everyone here didnt enjoy it. But the wheels started to come off in my opinion with some knee jerk reactions and managerial appointments. Souness to be exact. So, are fans, including myself, wrong to want the club where it was there an then to improve? Course not, We were neck and neck with chelsea and they were bought. We had seen what was possible, so was it wrong to want the same thing for us? Or should we have just settled for finished lower mid table as we'd tasted the top 4 and should be content with that?
When MA came along, SJH stuck his neck out and said it was a good move for the club. That MA would take us forward. It even started with promise when the likes of Colo came in. At the time, I had said the grass isnt always greener but I was excited at the prospect of change. Who wouldnt be? You yourself said it was possible we could see the top 5 again (or CL at least).
So where did it go wrong? I think MA has changed him plans as time went on. More an more I think he slowly slipped into where he is now. I think with the stick we give him and the fuck ups he has made (under bad advice or not) he is at the "fuck it" stage. He wont put a penny in, wants the club to support itself and I think he'll sell it at the first opportunity.
Now, I really dont understand why MA bought the club. Any club. I'm not sure what else he expected.
I dont see what is a bitter relationship changing. No matter what all the fans groups try and do to build bridged of communication.
My biggest gripe with you on here is that you seem to need to pigeon hole people into either Pro Ashley, or not. Fact is everyone enjoyed time under FS, everyone wanted us to get back where we had been with him. Everyone was excited at the prospect of a new owner and most are now fucked off with it.
When you sit and construct a post with thought, you can be one of the best posters on here with the club knowledge you have. But it seems to be 1 in 10 or 1 in 15 as the rest are just bickering and point scoring.
