Is it time to lay off Ashley?

Mike Ashley

Mike Ashley
Time to give Ash a chance? Or not?
This is likely to be a controversial subject as I pose the question of whether or not it’s time that we, collectively, stop giving grief to Mike Ashley.

This has been prompted by Harry Redknapp and his insistence that enough is enough when it comes to Mike Ashley and the grief he has been on the end of since his NUFC tenure.

Perhaps it’s easy for Redknapp to say such a thing when he is not really involved in it all. It either allows him to be objective from a distance as he can see some form of bigger picture, or it means that the distance he is away from what has happened at St James’ Park is too great for him to actually grasp what fans are unhappy about.

Without further delay let’s hear what Redknapp has had to say about it all.

“Their chairman has taken some serious grief up there – and he’s put millions and ­millions of pounds into the club,” said Redknapp in quotes that are widely available although I nabbed these ones from The Star.

He continued: “Mike Ashley has put fortunes into Newcastle and they’re still shouting and moaning at him. He’s probably spent about £100m and yet they still call him all sorts and give him loads of abuse.”

I don’t think the amount of money that Ashley has put into the club has ever been denied, even by the staunchest opposition to Mike Ashley. What does rile people is that not too much of it, if any, has actually gone into strengthening the team where it matters – on the pitch – and has instead been used to exchange debt from the club owing to the banks to instead owing it to Ashley. Yes it will save the club money in the long run, but it’s also saving Ashley money in the long run even without the added tax avoidance benefits that having his fortune tied up in an asset brings about.

Now it’s all fine and dandy at the moment as we sit 4th in the league which is serving as somewhat of a justification for the parsimonious approach, but imagine what it would be like if we’d have spent a bit of cash. Nothing outlandish, just a bit more than nothing. Imagine that eh?

Then there are the controversial signs at St James’ Park, the shocking decisions like sacking Chris Hughton and so on. Granted the last one seems to have paid off in hindsight, but it was a very unpopular decision at the time.

However there are two sides to the story and it isn’t all bad news. We seem to be getting the finances in order although I’ll wait to see what the accounts say before I get too carried away with that notion. We’ve signed good players on cracking deals thanks to careful scouting, and we have a youth academy that is starting to look as though it is bearing fruit with players like Haris Vuckic and Shane Ferguson knocking on the door of the first team.

So what do you reckon? Is it time do as Redknapp says and lay off our illustrious owner and give him the benefit of the doubt? Or does Ashley deserve a rough time thanks to his past mistakes? Has he done enough to atone for the disasters of the last few years? Or has it gone too far for you?

As ever, it’s over to you.

About toonsy

A lifelong Newcastle fan and current webmaster of this very 'blog who has the sole aim of creating a place by Newcastle United fans, for Newcastle United fans.

98 thoughts on “Is it time to lay off Ashley?

  1. reet, guess I better get dressed. Probli be back on later talking absolute *****, to myself 🙄

    ….laters.

      (Quote)

  2. wish the match would hurry up this is starting to drive me mad !!

    @rod you must have loads of money off your wins eh mate :mrgreen:

    nudge nudge nudge nudge any subs ganning like rods

      (Quote)

  3. Rods be good lad.
    Ice its pretty much what we have allready been told, I don’t really see the need for that statment 😕 but atleast they are talking 😆

      (Quote)

  4. ….I break about even over the year Pup. Probli bet about 6k a year, and get around that back, give or take a hundred quid. Reet, I’m off..

      (Quote)

  5. simonbirdmirror Simon Bird
    Danny guthrie just drove out of sjp in tracksuit. Guess fed up at not being in squad? Why not watch? #nufc
    12 minutes ago

      (Quote)

  6. Ice I have said that a few times on here when some are talking about getting players in Jan, Lambs-**** has stated before the prices are over inflated and dont offer value for money.

    Hitman who’s in the new avatar is that Baldy Al

      (Quote)

  7. Krul,
    Simpson, Saylor, Colo, Raylor
    Obertan, Tiote, Cabaye, Gutierrez
    Best, Ba

    BENCH: Elliot, Santon, Gosling, Marveaux, Barfa, Lover, Shola

    SPUDS

    Friedel
    Walker, Kaboul, King, Assou-ekotto
    Bale, Parker, Livermore, Modric,
    Van Der Faart, Adebayor

    BENCH: Cudicini, Bassong, Townsend, Rose, Giovani, Pavlyuchenko, Defoe

    …….there’s goals in this one lads!!!!

      (Quote)

  8. I completely agree with the financial planning including debt reduction, wage structure and player purchases. No dividends have been taken, only debt repayments which is much better for the long term survival of the club. I just wish he’d improve his communications.

      (Quote)

  9. @97. I think most on here would agree with you. Tough to argue with their ability to bring in quality on a shoestring

      (Quote)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *