Ashley FULL interview

[sherwoodmag]

On Sky,fascinating,admits all his mistakes,says football is not regulated like business,more like Wild West.I tried to build Newcastle up from the bottom by improving the academy but the massive TV money keeps shifting the goalposts,I had an eight year plan but now I have to start again from the beginning.
Full half hour,says sorry to Keegan and other managers like Hughton and Allerdyce.
Charnley answers to Rafa when it comes to players in or out not the other way round but Rafa can only get money that is generated by the club not from me,my wealth is in shares not in the bank.
I would like an academy like Southamptons.
My ambition for this season is make the Prem priority but if we are comfortable in mid table then we can go for a cup.
How much money can I give Rafa just now? not enough for what he wants,the club needs to generate more money.

[waalsendmick]

it isn't an interview! it's a staged arse licking session. he answers no difficult questions and he just goes to fuel the media's delight that us deluded geordies all expect CL Football.

[Zippity]

Well he needs to find some money for a new striker before the window shuts or we will be in trouble.

[toonlegend]

possible another playmaker and defender too

[TANYA_]

i wasnt falling for that shlt. The man hasnt learned anything, he says the right things in front of the camera hoping to get some sympathy but its all for show.
he wants rid of this club but only at a price he wants, he thought he could make a few quid quickly whwn he bought us, his lack of due dilligence shows it.
I think Rafa will be off at the end of the season unless he gets some significant investment.
Its quite alarming that our defenders we ended the game with have all been relegated from this league

[Nufc24Mag]

i wasnt falling for that shlt. The man hasnt learned anything, he says the right things in front of the camera hoping to get some sympathy but its all for show.
he wants rid of this club but only at a price he wants, he thought he could make a few quid quickly whwn he bought us, his lack of due dilligence shows it.
I think Rafa will be off at the end of the season unless he gets some significant investment.
Its quite alarming that our defenders we ended the game with have all been relegated from this league

He said he wants more Andy carrols..... I thought aye so u could f*cking sell them for £35+million!!!!

[Kal]

So he's told Rafa what the club's cup policy is. I thought Rafa was meant to be in charge.

The man is a compulsive liar.

[Nufc24Mag]

So he's told Rafa what the club's cup policy is. I thought Rafa was meant to be in charge.

The man is a compulsive liar.

I'd love to know exactly how much he has really put into the club, and how much he has took out of it. Free sports direct advertising is worth about 10m a season which he gets for free and the amount of times I've seen this club make profit for the last 5-6 years he is making a fortune

[Kal]

I read his net spend has been about 4 million per season since he bought the club. Not sure how accurate that is though. His relegations have cost the club tens of millions.

[Nufc24Mag]

I read his net spend has been about 4 million per season since he bought the club. Not sure how accurate that is though.

How much did he buy the club and how much debt did he pay?

[Kal]

The net spend was on players btw and didn't come out of his pocket. The debt the club had when he bought it is still there.

[malamoto]

He cant compete with Man city, Chelsea and the likes.....We never asked him too but Burnley West Brom Watford Southampton etc we dont even challtnge in the market. He is a devious liar and not to be trusted (and David. Craig just fed him questions he had a smary answer for This man is a cancer to OUR club

[ghostrider]

He's said what he's said, which is what people wanted. They wanted him to explain, so he has. What more can he do?

If the answer is "buy a striker" I'm sure there's money there for a striker and it's down to the market and what the club can afford.
He's just saying that he can't just bank roll the club and stick his hand in his pocket and hand out 150 million or whatever.

Call him an arsehole or whatever but he put his cards on the table.

[waalsendmick]

he could however, pay for the advertising smeared all over the stadium, the training ground and all the training kit. then the money for a striker would be available. but because it wasn't actually an interview, contentious questions like that were not asked.

for 10 yrs now, he has used Newcastle United to assist sports direct. (which is fully understandable and I have no problem with that.)
BUT... He had NEVER done things the other way around. (here lies the problem)

[ranat22]

who's rattled this southurn plastics cage?from billionaire recluse to skint barrow boy who's on sky more than harry redknapp.

stick to selling fruit of the loom 3 pack t-shirts to c0ckneys ya faaakin bullshtter innit!

[ghostrider]

Whatever happens from this point on we can all be under no illusions about how we have to roll along.
We generate the cash and we can add to the squad.
We basically buy what we can afford.

Whether we think that's right or wrong is irrelevant. It is what it is and from the horses mouth.
It's entirely up to people to choose what to believe about his past tenure, because as it stands, that's irrelevant, also.

What is relevant, is now. The realistic future we have under Ashley.
Is that good bad or acceptable or not?

Let's look at it in all ways.

The best we can hope for as it stands is for Rafa to stay and build and as we build, we build the coffers and ultimately a higher league standing and cup potential.

Odds on that?....probably slim but doable with all things allowed to flow.

The worst we can expect is for Rafa to leave and we go back to a manager with plenty of talk and no walk.
Odd's on this? Extremely possible.

Like Ashley said: we are Newcastle United.
As awful as it is to admit... he's correct in the fact that we are not going to compete with the countries of the league, against one wealth individual (himself).


What's the alternative for a club the size of Newcastle United. One club in one city?

The alternative is for a similar set up as those who own the bigger clubs to take Ashley out of the equation and bank roll the club and turn it into a monetary feast for all players on the market, without fans having to bother to worry about anything other than watching the end product on the pitch.

Once we do this, we lose our club. It ceases to become what we knew it as and grew up knowing.
Basically it's a case of Newcastle United is dead and enter the New era of sport at the arena of dreams for the fans of the future who do not entertain history.

I've went a little overboard there but basically, what I'm saying is, our options for real success are largely based on blood sweat and tears and a large scoop of lady luck, as it stands.

Our long terms future for success against the big hitters is for big hitters to come in and hit the big hitters, with a team entirely made up of the best of the rest on the same money as the best of the best.

[waalsendmick]

football clubs make money through TV, merchandise, advertising and sponsorship.

we make as much TV money as anybody (more than most). our sponsorships are on a par with clubs at our level.

but we make very little from advertising as most of the ad space is given free to sports direct, and (I'm only guessing on this one) I'd wager we make very little on merchandise, as we have closed all the club shops apart from the one at the ground, and that has turned into a branch of sports direct.

when I was at the "club shop" with my son so he could buy his new top, they were competing against all the local sports direct branches for bonuses on who sold the most new kits.

we will not be able to generate the needed income, if we don't have the avenues to generate it.

the club generates money, but it remains skint!

[ghostrider]

football clubs make money through TV, merchandise, advertising and sponsorship.

we make as much TV money as anybody (more than most). our sponsorships are on a par with clubs at our level.

but we make very little from advertising as most of the ad space is given free to sports direct, and (I'm only guessing on this one) I'd wager we make very little on merchandise, as we have closed all the club shops apart from the one at the ground, and that has turned into a branch of sports direct.

when I was at the "club shop" with my son so he could buy his new top, they were competing against all the local sports direct branches for bonuses on who sold the most new kits.

we will not be able to generate the needed income, if we don't have the avenues to generate it.

the club generates money, but it remains skint!The club isn't skint.
Ashley has stated that he can't just hand Rafa 150 million to buy players because the club cannot sustain that.
He's not saying that he can't buy players, so we aren't skint, we just aren't cash on the hip rich like the country owned clubs, basically.

[waalsendmick]

we can't afford a £13M striker, but Bournemouth, West Brom, Crystal palace, stoke, Swansea, Watford..........

[ghostrider]

we can't afford a £13M striker, but Bournemouth, West Brom, Crystal palace, stoke, Swansea, Watford..........

I don't think it's anything to do with not affording the money. I think there's a little bit more to it than that, assuming you're talking about Perez.
Perez appears to prefer a move back home rather than up north in England, reading between the lines.

All the teams you mention are in no better place than we are when all's said and done.
It appears that they are but there's absolutely nothing they have that looks anything better than what we have, regardless of the money they've spent.

Also bear in mind that teams like Palace are going to suffer the consequences of their outlay because they will have an unsustainable wage bill and a lot of pissed off players soon enough, not to mention the other big spenders...barring the money bag clubs where the money is meaningless.

We aren't deal but we aren't scraping any barrels in terms of competing at the level we know we can compete at, which is outside of the obvious money no object clubs.

We have a lot more quality than many of us think we have, I believe.

[Nephy]

I honestly don't care what Ashley says at this stage; I will judge him on his actions.

He has sadly always failed to capitalise and build when we're riding a wave of positivity. The simple fact is, if he doesn't spend some money now we will be in danger of going down again, and the resulting financial effects of that will far outweigh whatever we spend now. The massive TV windfall we'd receive for still being in the Prem next season more than justifies him spending at least 50m net this window, IMO - there's simply no excuse. He has gambled on this in the past, and look what has happened to us: we've become a yo yo club.

He says he's learned from his mistakes, but all he does is continue to try and run a football club like Sports Direct: buy cheap overseas product that he thinks he can shove in a shop window and flog on for a bit more money. Sure, that's worked well in a few cases - Cabaye, Sissoko etc - but the number of overpaid underperformers we've seen in recent years has been shocking, and the tactic clearly hasn't been working. The only 'success' I can see with this strategy is that it hasn't backfired even worse than it has.

I'd love to see him pump money into the academy, but first he has to make sure we are safe and capable of consistently finishing mid-table in the PL. Nobody's asking for Champion's League football, but cementing our place as a PL club is a no brainer for the financial future of NUFC!

[Zippity]

I honestly don't care what Ashley says at this stage; I will judge him on his actions.

He has sadly always failed to capitalise and build when we're riding a wave of positivity. The simple fact is, if he doesn't spend some money now we will be in danger of going down again, and the resulting financial effects of that will far outweigh whatever we spend now. The massive TV windfall we'd receive for still being in the Prem next season more than justifies him spending at least 50m net this window, IMO - there's simply no excuse. He has gambled on this in the past, and look what has happened to us: we've become a yo yo club.

He says he's learned from his mistakes, but all he does is continue to try and run a football club like Sports Direct: buy cheap overseas product that he thinks he can shove in a shop window and flog on for a bit more money. Sure, that's worked well in a few cases - Cabaye, Sissoko etc - but the number of overpaid underperformers we've seen in recent years has been shocking, and the tactic clearly hasn't been working. The only 'success' I can see with this strategy is that it hasn't backfired even worse than it has.

I'd love to see him pump money into the academy, but first he has to make sure we are safe and capable of consistently finishing mid-table in the PL. Nobody's asking for Champion's League football, but cementing our place as a PL club is a no brainer for the financial future of NUFC!

Great post.

[Nephy]

Great post.

Cheers! It honestly surprises me that Ashley hasn't spent more this window - he is a hard nosed businessman, but surely in pure financial terms he's got to realise that it's not so much 'speculate to accumulate' as 'speculate to avoid utter financial disaster' at this stage! Relegation again would be a disaster and only put us even further behind clubs that have managed to stay in the PL and reap the financial rewards. Rafa is a great manager but he's not a miracle worker and the very first game of the season has left us with 2 injuries and a suspension; if Gayle gets injured, can we really rely on Mitro or Perez to fire us to safety? I'd say £20-30m on a proven top level striker would be a sound financial investment, even if Ashley has to spend his own money now and take it back out of next season's TV pot.

[Zippity]

if Gayle gets injured, can we really rely on Mitro or Perez to fire us to safety? I'd say £20-30m on a proven top level striker would be a sound financial investment

Being brutally honest, I'm not even sure we can rely on Gayle. Rafa will be gutted that his main striker purchase is going to be a £5 million player Stoke don't want. The teams who struggle are the ones who don't score goals rather than the ones who concede so not spending decent money on a striker is a false economy if it ends up with us getting into trouble. (no, I know the amount you spend doesn't guarantee quality nor does paying a low price necessarily mean a poor player and I'm really not trying to start the season complaining (GED's words ringing in my ears) but the more you shop in the bargain basement, the more chance that's where you'll end up, i.e. the basement).

[waalsendmick]

Boro were well organised and hard to break down last season, but they simply didn't score enough goals.

we NEED a top flight striker!

[toonlegend]

How much did he buy the club and how much debt did he pay?

not sure if he paid about 120 mill for the club

the debt at the time was aproximately 80k (i'm fairly certain it was 70+k but not 100%) and that was in the form of a mortgage for the ground - so ineterest wouldn't have been that high.

you will later get people on saying we also owed money for players etc that we had bought on tick - much like the rest of the clubs then and now.

[toonlegend]

I honestly don't care what Ashley says at this stage; I will judge him on his actions.

He has sadly always failed to capitalise and build when we're riding a wave of positivity. The simple fact is, if he doesn't spend some money now we will be in danger of going down again, and the resulting financial effects of that will far outweigh whatever we spend now. The massive TV windfall we'd receive for still being in the Prem next season more than justifies him spending at least 50m net this window, IMO - there's simply no excuse. He has gambled on this in the past, and look what has happened to us: we've become a yo yo club.

He says he's learned from his mistakes, but all he does is continue to try and run a football club like Sports Direct: buy cheap overseas product that he thinks he can shove in a shop window and flog on for a bit more money. Sure, that's worked well in a few cases - Cabaye, Sissoko etc - but the number of overpaid underperformers we've seen in recent years has been shocking, and the tactic clearly hasn't been working. The only 'success' I can see with this strategy is that it hasn't backfired even worse than it has.

I'd love to see him pump money into the academy, but first he has to make sure we are safe and capable of consistently finishing mid-table in the PL. Nobody's asking for Champion's League football, but cementing our place as a PL club is exactkya no brainer for the financial future of NUFC!

exactly, he is a total buffoon and a **** of the highest order.

[ex_pat_magpie]

exactly, he is a total buffoon and a **** of the highest order.

And the ****'s in CAPITAL LETTERS.

[Nephy]

Being brutally honest, I'm not even sure we can rely on Gayle. Rafa will be gutted that his main striker purchase is going to be a £5 million player Stoke don't want. The teams who struggle are the ones who don't score goals rather than the ones who concede so not spending decent money on a striker is a false economy if it ends up with us getting into trouble.

Totally agree! I am not confident that even a fully-fit Gayle playing every game would give us the firepower we need, and realistically he'll be out for at least some games. I feel like some of our signings have been really shrewd despite the small outlay, but the one thing that's notably absent is a proven goalscorer - and we aren't going to get one for bargain basement prices. Joselu, Perez, pretty much any sub-£20m striker from overseas - they're all gambles, with no guarantee of goals. Let's not forget that Riviere was an effective striker in France before coming here!

[Jammy89]

Boro were well organised and hard to break down last season, but they simply didn't score enough goals.

we NEED a top flight striker!

Well put Mick, that about sums it up.