Ashley to sell.....OFFICIAL

[Barney 0]

To be fair the level of hatred levelled at him for simply having a different view of the future of our football club is fucking ridiculous.

 

oh aye and for daring to think that his way was better than Keegan's.

 

Not blaming Keegan for sticking up for his beliefs, but I cannot blame Ashley for sticking up for his. It's a shame that yet again NUFC fans have demanded instant success their way and in so doing have condemned the club to yet another wasted season.

 

 

Fuck off Fish.

 

The fans are the only people in all this who are blameless.

 

 

The hell they are. Objectively, we do this time and time again, we demand success our way. We hound out managers when they don't deliver in a season, we've hounded out a bloke who's come in with a genuine "plan" to get the club challenging. Basing our club on Arsenal is not a bad idea at all, they've challenged for major honours on a (comparatively) small budget, they've played some cracking football while they're at it.

 

the only thing I'll blame Ashley for is the hiring of the wrong people for the job.

 

And Jonny, hypothetically, if it was anyone but Keegan I'm willing to put every penny in my pocket against every penny in yours we'd have taken a different view.

 

I agree with that.

 

Had he gotten rid of Wise and let KK get on with managing, I'd have been happy with Ashley at the helm.

 

I really am worried that we'll end up with someone in with less money to spend, or worse ideas for running the club.

[Bombadil 0]

That's quite a statement!

[Jimbo 133]

If he wants to imitate the Arsenal model, why did he undermine his manager by taking away is control of transfer affairs, could you imagine Arsene Wenger tolerating being dictated to by distant members of the set up like Keegan was ? not a chance.

 

After reading his statement I do feel some slight sympathies for Ashley, but why has it taken so long, and for such a level of collapse before he opens his heart to the fans, he's made massive errors, and is paying the price.

[The Fink! 0]

There was never going to be a way back for Ashley though he's made some monumentally bad decisions mainly in appointing Wise, failing to back Keegan in the transfer window and not dealing with the Keegan issue personally.

 

I know he's never owned a football club before, but he got the wrong people in to run it for him and thats cost him big time

[Happy Face 29]

There was never going to be a way back for Ashley though he's made some monumentally bad decisions mainly in appointing Wise, failing to back Keegan in the transfer window and not dealing with the Keegan issue personally.

 

I know he's never owned a football club before, but he got the wrong people in to run it for him and thats cost him big time

 

Could have been worse, could have been Redknapp and El Tel.

[Bombadil 0]

We could be fucked in the short term if Ahsley doesn't find a buyer soon - who would want to come in and manage us now that he's made it official that he wants out? Most takeovers seem to take quite a long time, too.

[The Fink! 0]

There was never going to be a way back for Ashley though he's made some monumentally bad decisions mainly in appointing Wise, failing to back Keegan in the transfer window and not dealing with the Keegan issue personally.

 

I know he's never owned a football club before, but he got the wrong people in to run it for him and thats cost him big time

 

Could have been worse, could have been Redknapp and El Tel.

 

At least if it was Redknapp and El Tel you could bet your bottom dollar that the squad would be about 5 to 10 players better off at this moment in time

[Gemmill 34299]

I have to admit I do feel a bit sorry for him having read that, but at the same time it's not hard to write something emotive that pulls at the heart strings when you're feeling a bit down in the dumps about the fact that nobody likes you.

 

At the end of the day though £20m per season is not enough to EVER bring us success. If that's all he can afford then it's all he can afford and the model he has built is the only way Newcastle United can be run with his resources. And maybe that's something we'll all have to come to terms with unless some serious Daddy Warbucks turns up.

 

To be honest, I don't know what to believe. If that statement is 100% genuine then I think he sounds like a decent bloke and I have some sympathy for him. But who fucking knows, and why not just tell us all this earlier ffs. If he'd come out earlier on with a statement like that I'd have been gutted at the planned level of investment, but I could have talked myself into accepting it, but we've had to wait for Ashley Out protesting for him to come clean with us. What a shame. What a fucking mess. How very Newcastle United.

[NJS 3969]

It seems reasonable but I don;t like the implied insults - the possible assault and the idea that we almost demand bankruptcy in pursuit of success especially.

 

As many have said I don't think anyone thought that the general idea of the structure was flawed - the problem is that either because of failed bedding in or the personnel involved (or both) it hasn't worked well enough. I'm sick of being told we've signed some good players - we have - but nowhere near enough. If he thinks fans would rather have seen us sign Berbatov than say 4 more defenders and midfielders then he has badly misjudged us to a huge degree.

[ewerk 26209]

I'm sick of being told we've signed some good players - we have - but nowhere near enough.

 

He does neglect to address the fact that we have had a net spend of fuck all under Keegan.

[luckyluke 1]

It's a well written piece and I do feel some sympathy towards him but he is missing (or more likely, choosing not to address) the point: that he lied to and undermined Keegan. I know it took two to tango but given Keegan's history with the club, his reputation as a man of principal and his ability at getting the most out of any group of players* it was a catastrophic error and if Keegan was willing hold talks then buying the Angel of the North for Kev's garden would have been a small price to pay, let alone slightly altering Wise's job description.

 

*I will miss Keegan for many reasons, but with a paper thin squad, on the pitch, where it all comes down to in the end, is where we will miss him the most.

[Gemmill 34299]

Thank fuck for that!

i have no doubts he was getting us sorted out to be more of a going concern business wise,

but as he said he was prepared to take a bit of a loss on us and enjoy the football, but that doesn't really make us ambitious...

 

(using arsenal as an example of how to do it is funny mind considering their debt is massive from what i remember esp after the new stadium)

 

 

the Assaulting him bit is laying it on fucking thick, I'm sure he got some threats from mongs just like Wise and Llambias

...who was at the match yesterday and i didn't see him getting lynched.

 

Threats are exactly that...something that will no doubt come of nothing

 

all the protests were peaceful and organised, and frankly i know that statement will tug on a few peoples heartstrings for him being "upfront" or whatever

 

but sorry the other statements he released were contradictory and made him out to be a lying fucker

 

Bye Bye Ashley!

 

(can someone ring up for an Indian tell them their order is ready for collection. send keegler round to pick it up )

 

To be fair he says he's been advised he would be assaulted. If he'd asked me if I thought he should go to the game I would have told him there was a chance someone would have belted him. Wouldn't you?

[TheMoog 0]

Had he gotten rid of Wise and let KK get on with managing, I'd have been happy with Ashley at the helm.

 

And that pretty much sums up how I feel. I can honestly say that I have never craved instant success and was happy with how things were going up until the point he chose Wise over Kev, I was happy for things to take a slower progresion knowing that the team was in the hands of someone who would give their all for us and bring back the football we wanted. If Ashley had just let Kev manage as you'd expect a manager to do then he would have been up there with the best owners for me. Sadly it wasn't to be, I do feel a little sorry for Ashley if his statement is true, maybe he was just ill-advised.

 

On a side note I do think if he'd not appointed Keegan and it had been anyone else the fans wouldn't have been anywhere near as bothered, and because of that I'd be very surprised if a new owner brought Keegan back for a third stint at manager risking the wrath of the fans if something went wrong.

 

Whether it was the boycotting of sales or the general anger shown towards Ashley and his regime that has brought this about I guess we'll never know, we're just left to wonder now what the next chapter at the NUFC circus will bring.

[The Fish 8973]

We've hounded out a bloke who tells us one thing and does another. He stood a few rows in front of me at Stoke away last year and I had not a bad word to say to him then, even as we floundered badly in Allardyce's last game, I believed in Ashley.

 

I've even supported him after Keegan went. But the man is a liar.

 

...and as has been said. Wenger has control at Arsenal.

Are you really that precious as to get upset that someone has lied to you? I couldn't give a toss if he told me the sky was Green and my hair was full and voluminous as long as he delivered success.

 

 

He's lost 2 managers in 8 months. Is that the steady road to success you crave.

 

It wasn't the fans that got either of those managers sacked either.

 

Allardyce had to go and Keegan wasn't sacked, it looks to me like Ashley tried to build the bridges with Keegan as well.

 

I can't see anything good happening because of this.

 

[Gemmill 34299]

It would have been easier to go on hating him if he'd started every sentence with "It is a fact", that's for sure.

[NJS 3969]

I would also ask where the £20m per season investment (aside from his initial outlay) has gone because it hasn't gone on players in the last two summers.

[I R Toon Fan 0]

I really hope Ashley going doesn't bite us on the arse and we should appreciate him staying till we are sold.

[TheMoog 0]

It would have been easier to go on hating him if he'd started every sentence with "It is a fact", that's for sure.

 

QFT

[The Fish 8973]

Had he gotten rid of Wise and let KK get on with managing, I'd have been happy with Ashley at the helm.

 

And that pretty much sums up how I feel. I can honestly say that I have never craved instant success and was happy with how things were going up until the point he chose Wise over Kev, I was happy for things to take a slower progresion knowing that the team was in the hands of someone who would give their all for us and bring back the football we wanted. If Ashley had just let Kev manage as you'd expect a manager to do then he would have been up there with the best owners for me. Sadly it wasn't to be, I do feel a little sorry for Ashley if his statement is true, maybe he was just ill-advised.

 

On a side note I do think if he'd not appointed Keegan and it had been anyone else the fans wouldn't have been anywhere near as bothered, and because of that I'd be very surprised if a new owner brought Keegan back for a third stint at manager risking the wrath of the fans if something went wrong.

 

Whether it was the boycotting of sales or the general anger shown towards Ashley and his regime that has brought this about I guess we'll never know, we're just left to wonder now what the next chapter at the NUFC circus will bring.

 

apropos nothing, would you have felt so strongly if it was Jeff Vetere as DoF and Fatih Terim as manager?

 

I truly believe a lot of the furore has manifest because of the personalities, rather than the situation.

[Lazarus 0]

Been a series of errors compounded by poor communication.

 

imo

[russyy 0]

just read his so called statement on ssn and not once is the name of wise in it?

[Bombadil 0]

The media will have a field day. Notice how the first quote the BBC have put up is the bit where Ashley says that he hopes "the next owner is someone who can lavish the amount of money on the club that the fans want", even though that is not the point at all.

[Guest Stevie]

The thing is he can go on and on about what type of player we currently demand, the fact is the squad is wafer thin, it was implied we'd get five in towards the end of the transfer window, and we got two, one of them in a position we're not badly off. Yesterday emphasised this point, and even if they were Bassong or Guthrie type players we badly needed extra numbers. I knew in my heart of hearts we would lose that game yesterday, how can you win Premiership games when the only player with genuine pace is playing left back? Forget the squabbles, that is his, Wise, Vitere and the other cunts major fault.

Edited September 14, 2008 by Stevie

[Gemmill 34299]

The media will have a field day. Notice how the first quote the BBC have put up is the bit where Ashley says that he hopes "the next owner is someone who can lavish the amount of money on the club that the fans want", even though that is not the point at all.

 

Fuck the media. Just don't read it, that's what I do. They've been on the wind up with us for years, so the best thing to do is just avoid it completely and it can't bother you.

 

The only time I ever read anything is when it's copied and pasted onto here.

[The Fish 8973]

The thing is he can go on and on about what type of player we currently demand, the fact is the squad is wafer thin, it was implied we'd get five in towards the end of the transfer window, and we got two, one of them in a position we're not badly off. Yesterday emphasised this point, and even if they were Bassong or Guthrie type players we badly needed extra numbers. I knew in my heart of hearts we would lose that game yesterday, how can you win Premiership games when the only player with genuine pace is playing left back? Forget the squabbles, that is his, Wise, Vitere and the other cunts major fault.

 

to clairify, you're saying it's Mike Ashley's fault we didn't sign more players than we did?