Mike Ashley -- Irrelevant Cunt

[The Fish 8978]

Ohhhhh he's a Cannuck?

 

Explains his often... unique tactical options

[McFaul 35]

This is a belta this, check out 8:02pm

 

pic.twitter.com/kcdv6LpxC4

[LooneyToony 41]

Ohhhhh he's a Cannuck?

 

Explains his often... unique tactical options

 

What's wrong with my tactical options?! So what that I like five midfielders supporting five strikers...what's wrong with that, eh???!!!

[The Fish 8978]

 

What's wrong with my tactical options?! So what that I like five midfielders supporting five strikers...what's wrong with that, eh???!!!

Many Many things

[Christmas Tree 3997]

http://t.co/Iu2m0Zecqh

[Tooj 17]

One of them on the True Faith podcast was saying how they went in the club shop and asked if they bought a shirt from NUFC Direct and it didn't fit could it be exchanged in there but apparently it can't as that has nothing to do with our own club shop.

[Kevin Carr's Gloves 3187]

Ohhhhh he's a Cannuck?

 

Explains his often... unique tactical options

 

I quite like canadians first lass to let me take her up the wrong un was a cannuck.

[The Fish 8978]

I like Canadians too, they're just not who I'd go to for tactical advice

[Meenzer 14030]

 

Awesome, eh.

[ChezGiven 0]

Canadian birds are total filth and love it in the rickshaw.

[Happy Face 29]

One of them on the True Faith podcast was saying how they went in the club shop and asked if they bought a shirt from NUFC Direct and it didn't fit could it be exchanged in there but apparently it can't as that has nothing to do with our own club shop.

 

I was genuinely confused why this was noteworthy, but had to re-read it. I read it as Sports Direct rather than NUFC Direct.

 

So when you go to the official club website and three quarters of the screen is about what NUFC kit you can buy...the suggestion is it's affiliated with Sports Direct and they'll see the profit, rather than NUFC?

[Christmas Tree 3997]

 

Monday night saw the first meeting of the Newcastle United Fans Forum, a quarterly event where fans will meet club officials.

 

The two remaining board members, Secretary Lee Charnley and Finance Director John Irving, were on hand to answer questions.

 

One of the fans attending the meeting was Peter Fanning of NUST (Newcastle United Supporters Trust) and the answers from the club directors make interesting reading as he reported back to the NUST members and general fanbase via the Trust website.

 

With the Leeds cup-tie this week, you may be interested to learn that the club admit they don’t see cup competitions as a priority. Instead Newcastle United see the knockout competitions as an also-ran with a chance to play squad members, the only show in town is trying to finish top ten in the Premier League due to the financial rewards.

 

Other replies from the club directors to fan questions were;

 

Mike Ashley has no real intention, desire or ambition to sell the Club.

In the summer their strategy was to retain the players we had rather than buying because they thought they had a good squad. There was money available during the close season but the players they wanted weren’t available at the price they were prepared to pay.

Mike Ashley appointed Joe Kinnear because he wanted someone he trusts to work with the football side of the Club and have the football conversations with Alan Pardew.

It is felt that Joe Kinnear tried hard to bring players to the Club and it wasn’t always his fault that deals were not completed. Sometimes there were problems with agents fees and other issues around the deals which meant that they weren’t completed. It was also repeated that we had done most of our planned business in January.

Club finances –it was explained that their financial planning is done on a three year cycle linked to the TV money. Our only debts are interest free debts owed to Mike Ashley which are unlikely to be called in until and if the Club is sold;

The Club accounts show that Mike Ashley took an £11million short term loan back last year but the £18million short term loan he was due to take back this year is being rolled over to future years. The long term loan of £111million will stay in the accounts but there is no definition of long term. This means that our only significant debts are the interest free debts to Mike Ashley.

[Barney 0]

 

Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley has no intention to sell up – after board members relayed the information during a fan forum this week.

 

A report from Newcastle United Supporters Trust indicated that a panel including secretary Lee Charnley and finance director John Irving took questions from the club’s fan forum.

 

In what was described as a positive step forward by NUST a statement reflected on the meeting by reporting that Ashley has: “No intention, desire or ambition to sell the club.”

 

The club’s blueprint remains to sign players under 26 years of age but there is still flexibility to bring in more experienced players.

 

The report also reveals that United did not dip into their £60million TV cash jackpot because the club felt that the extra revenue merely inflated the current market.

 

And this was one of the reasons why they brought forward their transfer activity to January.

 

As reported in the Chronicle last week, the board also confirmed that there was money put aside to spend this summer but those funds weren’t used because they were touted prices above what United felt was the valuation of the players on their shortlist.

 

The report indicated that director of football Joe Kinnear tried hard to bring in players but the he wasn’t always “at fault” after agent fees and “other issues” hindered the deals.

 

NUST’s report also says that United confirmed that cup competitions aren’t the priority for Newcastle and that the will be used to look at squad players.

 

Newcastle stated in the meeting that a top 10 finish is the main aim this term.

 

On the finance front United told fans that they were working on a three year cycle with the TV money and that there are no debts at United apart from interest-free loans to Ashley and they won’t be called in “until or if” the club is sold.

 

A statement from NUST also read: “The Club accounts show that Mike Ashley took an £11million short term loan back last year but the £18million short term loan he was due to take back this year is being rolled over to future years. The long term loan of £111million will stay in the accounts but there is no definition of long term. This means that our only significant debts are the interest free debts to Mike Ashley.

 

“On the Commercial income side we are one of the weakest clubs around. The Directors are working with Wonga and Puma to improve that situation but there was little information about what plans we have in place. Our commercial income shown in the accounts is about £13million. Man. Utd for example was shown recently as £153million! We were told that we couldn't compete with Man. Utd.;

 

“They were asked if Sports Direct paid for adverting at St. James' Park and it was confirmed that they do not. John Irving said that Sports Direct were using space that would be otherwise unused but didn't say how hard the commercial team were trying to find other (paying) advertisers,”

[ChezGiven 0]

I'm not saying its wrong or NUST dont have the right to call out the commercial income but there is a funny irony for me. On the one hand you have fans groups discussing boycotts and not buying drinks/merchandise etc and on the other you have them discussing the weak commercial income. You also have a group of fans (possibly some of the former too) who look down their noses at out of towners and 'singapore toon' etc.

 

I dont know how much stadium branding brings in at other clubs but i dont see it being more than a few million tops. The gaps we have with the likes of Man U etc are largely due to domestic and international merchandising, matchday hospitality etc. The reality is that the club having more commercial incomes means more fans need to give more money to NUFC (and therefore Ashley). Not an easy one to resolve on either side.

[JawD 31]

No surprise on the SD advertising but its a bit stupid them saying that after commenting how poor commercial income was...

 

Also cups not being a priority I can never get my head around. At all.

[Happy Face 29]

the £18million short term loan he was due to take back this year is being rolled over to future years. The long term loan of £111million will stay in the accounts but there is no definition of long term. This means that our only significant debts are the interest free debts to Mike Ashley.

 

That's the only bit that came as news to me. It's still very unclear though. Doesn't sound like the £111m loan will now become a £129m loan which would have been the preferred approach for fans. There's no clue as to how long the £18m repayment will be deferred for.

 

Has he used it for the January spending this year and want it back in full next year?

 

Will he be taking £6m a year for 3 years instead of all in one fell swoop?

 

These are the only important questions to me because as long as we're paying him back, the cost of relegation is still inhibiting our spending power. Ashley's mistakes from 08/09 are still costing the club in terms of forward momentum 5 years down the line.

[David Kelly 1117]

I think the line about how the club sees cup competitions is an absolute disgrace tbh. They expect the fans to pay our money to go to these matches knowing that we're not going to bother putting out a team that has any capability (and no doubt desire) to win the thing. Teams like Wigan, Stoke,Swansea and fucking Bradfod have all won or reached the final of the cup competitions in recent seasons (and if you added all four of those teams average gates together you'd probably struggle to reach ours) and yet we can't even be bothered to give it a go.

I understand the need for squad rotation but really that should be done in the service of trying to do the best we can in all of the competitions we enter. Not just so that we can concentrate on the league and fuck the cups off. What's next, not entering the competitions altogher? Actually, if we got into the wafa cup again it wouldn't surprise me if we actually tried to do that!

It's getting to the stage now that I'm actually pissed off that I bothered to pay for a ticket for tonight.

[TheMoog 0]

I've never had a more helpless feeling of despair and sadness towards my following of Newcastle United Football Club. The leeching parasite that is the Mike Ashley regime has no interest or intention of my club doing well on the football pitch, it is soley a yearly money-making gravy train that as long as we're in the Premiership the plan is to make us compete just enough to stay in the Premiership. League position being better or worse means very little overall, the same as winning cups as they would just mean having to spend money to compete at a higher level than is needed to just do enough to get the yearly tv money. Free advertising is a bonus for Ashley's other business. All in all the fans and anything they think or do means nothing what-so-ever and anyone thinking otherwise is only deluding themselves, the only power at the club is Mike Ashley. Even if fans chose not to go to the ground or boycott merchandise it'd mean bugger all because the TV money would still make it viable. Any profits from not buying staff playing or otherwise or in fact selling anyone decent that develops at the club disappear and the 'long term' interest free loans that could be paid off are held on to by Ashley as a final payoff should he ever decide to leave.

 

Mike Ashley makes money, that's his sole purpose in life and he does it by running companies that make him that money in the most profitable way possible - regardless of their effect on others. Personally I don't see how anyone will ever be able to remove him from the club and I can't see him ever leaving of his own accord while we're making him money. It's extremely saddening as a fan but the club I love has pretty much been taken away from me and I don't know what to do.

[Happy Face 29]

Have people seen the teams we've put out in the cups in recent years? It can't come as a surprise they aren't the priority?

[acrossthepond 699]

@Moog: Support the men in black and white who go out and play in front of you every other week. That part of the club still belongs to us no matter who the owner is or what division we play in.

 

It's a wretched situation but there's nothing any of us can do. Fat Mike won't budge until he's good and ready.

[Tom 13830]

Have people seen the teams we've put out in the cups in recent years? It can't come as a surprise they aren't the priority?

 

I think we went for the Europa mind.

 

There's nothing wrong with picking squads to win the match.

[David Kelly 1117]

Have people seen the teams we've put out in the cups in recent years? It can't come as a surprise they aren't the priority?

There's was always the thought (well with me at least) that Pardew was trying to do what was in the best interest of the team. Against Brighton in January I really thought he purposfully threw the game in order to force the fat cunt to put his hand in his pocket (well our's really) and improve the squad. But to come out and say this is just taking the piss. Really what's the point in running a football club in this way!

[David Kelly 1117]

@Moog: Support the men in black and white who go out and play in front of you every other week. That part of the club still belongs to us no matter who the owner is or what division we play in.

 

It's a wretched situation but there's nothing any of us can do. Fat Mike won't budge until he's good and ready.

Even that part of the club is being taken away from us now it seams. I really don't care if we have a shit team in whatever division but to know we no longer have any desire to win the competitions we're in is sickening frankly.

[Tom 13830]

If you don't want to try and win trophies - what's the point in existing? We may as well fold tbh.

[David Kelly 1117]

I think we went for the Europa mind.

 

There's nothing wrong with picking squads to win the match.

We went for it against Benfica. I'm not sure we were committed before that.

 

Picking squads to win matches is fine. Picking squads to not bother definitely isn't.