NUFC reporter reveals what Mike Ashley is now saying ‘behind the scenes’ ahead of January window

Some ‘interesting’ quotes have from the Chronicle’s latest transfer piece, claiming that Mike Ashley has stated ‘behind the scenes’ that he is prepared to make SOME funds available in January – but he’s insisted that he won’t compete with the ‘top six’.

Him making it clear that the club cannot compete with the top six sides in the Premier League is another infuriating one for a start. Tell us something we don’t know , Mike!

We know we can’t compete with those clubs right now on so many levels, but showing the same level of ambitions as those around us in the table would be a nice start – with it being confirmed just last week that we have the THIRD lowest wage budget in the league.

Here’s the frustrating snippet from the Chronicle’s latest transfer piece:

” Mike Ashley is prepared to make some funds available but has made it clear behind the scenes the club can’t compete with the top 6″

Saying there will be ‘some’ funds available is very vague, suggesting that there wont be a huge amount of money to spend – which is no surprise but a real worry if true given this is his last chance to convince Rafa to sign a new deal.

The report by the Chronicle states that Rafa still doesn’t know his transfer budget, which is concerning as you would have thought plans for targets should already have been made – and how can he do that without a budget?

The most irritating thing about the quotes is Ashley stating that we cannot compete with top six. Now, I know many NUFC fans and not one of them expects us to compete with the top sides like City, Utd, Liverpool and Chelsea. What they do expect however, is for us to compete with the likes of Bournemouth, Watford, Fulham and Brighton to name a few, all of which have massively outspent us over the past couple of seasons.

With respect to those teams mentioned, how is it that they can find £20m+ to spend on an individual player, while we scrap around trying to negotiate deals for £4-5m players, and pulling out as they are too expensive.

Don’t get me wrong, there are SOME fans that are still living in the Kevin Keegan days, and expect us to be competing at the vert top,  however most fans are realistic, and if Mike Ashley think that this isn’t the case, then he is more out of touch with us fans than I ever thought.

(Fancy writing for us? Send any articles/ideas over to us at [email protected] & we’ll get back to you!)

5 thoughts on “NUFC reporter reveals what Mike Ashley is now saying ‘behind the scenes’ ahead of January window

  1. Interesting.

    Lets not confuse ambition with spending money.

    Tomorrow we play West Ham, who spent what, 100 million?

    What happens to your argument if we beat them?

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  2. Brrrian:
    Interesting.

    Lets not confuse ambition with spending money.

    Tomorrow we play West Ham, who spent what, 100 million?

    What happens to your argument if we beat them?

    this is a good point. but i cant think of any fan who would rather we didnt spend any money in Jan.

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  3. Brrrian:
    Interesting.

    Lets not confuse ambition with spending money.

    Tomorrow we play West Ham, who spent what, 100 million?

    What happens to your argument if we beat them?

    Let’s not act like we’re showing any sort of ambition..

    No real money spent on the squad, the youth set up, facilities, SJP.

    It’s nigh on a fact that we’d be showing much more ambition if we started spending and competing financially with our rivals.

    I take your point though – money doesn’t always = success, but a lack of it will means Rafa leaves and we don’t achieve what we’re capable of under him.

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  4. Let’s get this straight. Under Ashley we never expect to ‘compete with the top six’. We just expect him to spend THE CLUB’S money in order to assemble a squad that can compete within the Premier league instead of just being a club that exists to advertise Sports Direct.

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  5. Beef: this is a good point. but i cant think of any fan who would rather we didnt spend any money in Jan.

    True, but it is very fast becoming apparent that Ashley’s gamble to put money into Rafa rather than players is paying off. It’s clear that it’s clear that its not about how much you spend so much as what you buy.

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