Oliver Kay Article in the Times

[Jammy89]

Even now, the bare facts of Mike Ashley’s ownership of Newcastle United are best digested with a glass of water. Two relegations, a solitary finish above tenth place in the Premier League, a solitary appearance in the last 16 of either FA Cup or League Cup and, just in case you imagined that this highly successful businessman has transformed Newcastle’s fortunes away from the pitch, a mere £600,000 increase in annual commercial revenue over 11 years in which other clubs have been laughing all the way to the bank.

That £600,000 figure probably bears spelling out. Newcastle made £27.6 million in commercial revenue in 2006-07, the final season under the ownership of the Hall family and Freddy Shepherd. Last season, according to figures released this week by Deloitte, they made £28.2 million. Over the same period, Manchester United’s commercial revenue has risen from £58.1 million (roughly double Newcastle’s) to £280 million (roughly ten times Newcastle’s); Arsenal’s from £42.7 million to £106.9 million; Liverpool’s from £43.1 million to £151.3 million; Tottenham Hotspur’s from £38.5 million to £103.2 million; Inter Milan’s from £25 million to £130.9 million; FC Schalke’s from £35.7 million to £93.7 million; Everton’s from a measly £6.7 million to £30.1 million — to say nothing of those clubs, such as Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain, whose brand value has been inflated so dramatically as to arouse the suspicion of Uefa’s financial compliance department. To put it politely, Newcastle have bucked the trend.

All of this would be galling enough for Newcastle’s supporters even if their beloved St James’ Park, one of the great cathedrals of English football, were not splattered with billboards advertising Ashley’s high-street sports retail chain. It is doubtful whether any stadium in the Premier League — not even those bearing the name of a Middle Eastern airline, a credit card company, a health insurance provider or a brewery — screams “rampant commercialism” like St James’ Park does, or for such little benefit. At least Lee Charnley, Newcastle’s managing director, was able to reassure supporters at a fan forum event in October that “there is now an agreement in place whereby Sports Direct pays for all advertising in the stadium”. “Now”? Well, that’s good of them.

When Ashley arrived in 2007, Newcastle had the sixth-biggest turnover in the Premier League and the fifth-highest wage bill. Full accounts for 2017-18, after promotion back to the top flight, are not yet available, but when they were relegated in 2016, their turnover was the ninth-highest (overtaken not just by Manchester City but by Tottenham, West Ham United and Leicester City) and their £75 million wage bill was only the 16th highest in the Premier League (lower than Crystal Palace, Leicester City, Southampton, Stoke City, Sunderland and Swansea City, among others).

The fact that Stoke, Sunderland and Swansea have since followed Newcastle down to the Sky Bet Championship — and have shown altogether less gumption in trying to get back — is no justification for the parsimony on Tyneside. None of those clubs had anything like the platform that Ashley has had the opportunity to build on at Newcastle. Yes he inherited a £76 million debt and an underperforming squad, but this was a club that had great potential to move onwards and upwards with the right kind of investment — “one of the jewels, one of the diamonds of the Premier League,” as he put it in 2008. He talked back then of setting the club’s sights high. To have opted for a smaller club, he said, would have been “like settling for the high jump when you really want to do the pole vault. You want more excitement, so you go higher.”

Ashley wants excitement? Seriously? Because looking from the outside, it has seemed that his sole ambition for Newcastle has been a seat on the Premier League gravy train, which would see the business grow with every new broadcast deal. The only time there has been any notable surge of ambition is when underinvestment has led to relegation, which has led to a more aggressive approach in search of promotion. When Newcastle were promoted under Kevin Keegan in 1993, their ambitions soared. When they were promoted under Rafael Benítez in 2017, it was as if, once again, a place in the Premier League was all that Ashley required.

There has been some investment over the past three transfer windows, but a total outlay of £70 million on Jacob Murphy, Florian Lejeune, Yoshinori Muto, Christian Atsu, Mikel Merino, Federico Fernández, Fabian Schär, Martin Dubravka, Joselu, Javier Manquillo and Ki Sung-yueng, plus various loans, smacked of a bargain-basement approach in trying to bring a Championship squad up to scratch. That outlay has largely been subsidised by sales in any case. That Newcastle’s three biggest acquisitions (Michael Owen, Alan Shearer, Albert Luque) and indeed seven of their 12 biggest came more than a decade ago, pre-Ashley, is remarkable in an era of transfer-market inflation.

So too is the lack of investment in the club’s infrastructure. Whereas clubs such as Everton, Tottenham and Brighton have moved to highly impressive new training grounds over the past decade or so, and others such as Burnley and Wolverhampton Wanderers have revamped theirs at considerable expense, Newcastle’s plans for a new complex at Darsley Park, announced in late 2013 and initially scheduled for completion in early 2016, have not progressed. Newcastle’s accounts suggest that capital expenditure across the first decade of Ashley’s ownership was just £10 million. He said last year that “our training facilities have improved significantly during my tenure” and are “fit for purpose”, but Benítez is as almost exasperated by this issue as by the constraints he has faced in the transfer market.

In 2015, in the grip of another relegation battle, Michael Martin, editor of the True Faith fanzine, wearily described Newcastle as “a zombie club, half-alive, half-dead, going nowhere.” A year later they dropped down to the Championship. It briefly seemed that there might be a realignment after that, a willingness to learn from past mistakes and to capitalise on the optimism generated by Benítez and a promotion campaign, but no, it remains a club in limbo. No buyer has been found to meet the owner’s £300 million-plus asking price for a club that, having stood still for so long (even pre-Ashley), needs serious investment.

Whereas managers usually live in fear of a takeover, Benítez has been dismayed to see one potential buyer after another come and go. He is in the final months of his contract and is understood to be highly unlikely to sign a new deal unless something significant changes. No Newcastle fan will blame Benítez if he departs at the end of the season. Many of them are amazed he has stayed this long. They share his sense of disillusionment. That attendances remain so healthy — upwards of 49,000 for every league match this season — is testimony to the fans’ loyalty, which only accentuates the feeling of potential unfilled.

There is still a perception in some quarters that Newcastle’s supporters, still giddy from the Keegan years, are asking for too much. They really aren’t. A sense of adventure, of hope, would be nice. Victory over Watford, to reach the FA Cup fifth round for the first time since 2006, almost feels like too much to ask in these straitened times. A banner unveiled at St James’ Park a few years ago read: “We don’t demand a team that wins. We demand a club that tries.” Is that really too much to ask?

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Good article.

Shows how ****e he is at business for Newcastle as well.

[toonfalifekevbrown]

But we are financially stable .pmsl

[ex_pat_magpie]

That is a great read pulling no punches and it doesn't point a finger at Ashley, it points 50,000 sets of fingers at the fat, greedy, stupid moron.

[waalsendmick]

Shepherd had us almost in administration and Ashley saved us....I know that because I read it on here.... even though the accounts I read as a shareholder never said anything like that....

[ex_pat_magpie]

Shepherd had us almost in administration and Ashley saved us....I know that because I read it on here.... even though the accounts I read as a shareholder never said anything like that....

We were no more debt committed under the Hall/Shepherd regime than the other clubs in the Premiership, and far less than some beneath us.

The biggest difference was that we were either successfull or trying to be successful and therefor had the additional earning potential to create or cover spending power.

[AP69]

Revoke the idiots bans and let them argue 'Ash's' corner after that...

Second thoughts don't it's a decent read on here now

[Derek57]

Unfortunately it will only kick Ashleys little bunch of PR ****s into overdrive to support the fat ****.

[Jammy89]

Unfortunately it will only kick Ashleys little bunch of PR ****s into overdrive to support the fat ****.

Aye, don't think you're wrong.

We'll see a slew of pro-Ashley articles and interviews from the standard names. Making themselves look bigger laughingstocks.

[toonfalifekevbrown]

Revoke the idiots bans and let them argue 'Ash's' corner after that...

Second thoughts don't it's a decent read on here now

Don't need to they are still here

[AP69]

Not seen any pro Ashley bile lately mind