When the club was officially put up for sale last October, Mike Ashley told Sky Sports that he ‘promised’ to invest in the squad in January – even if a Christmas sale was not concluded ahead of the transfer window.
Several months on and a sale is yet to be agreed (never mind concluded). We are now half way through January and in the midst of a relegation scrap, and not only are we yet to sign a soul, Rafa Benitez recently admitted that he STILL doesn’t know his budget.
Here’s what Ashley told Sky (according to Sky’s North-East correspondent Keith Downie) back in October, proving once again that he is happy to break promises and mess our club about in times of real uncertainty:
Ashley says he'll only sell to someone who can take the club forward. He has promised to invest in the squad in Jan if it's yet to be sold.
— Keith Downie (@SkySports_Keith) October 16, 2017
Not only did a statement from the club promise to invest in January if a sale was not concluded by then, Mike Ashley’s lawyer Andrew Henderson made some clear statements in an appearance on Sky Sports back in October.
Henderson states that funds would be made available to the club in the short term (January transfer window) if Ashley had not found a buyer by the end of the year (see end of video below):
WATCH: Mike Ashley puts #NUFC up for sale and wants a deal done by Christmas. More on #SSN now. pic.twitter.com/35VcZTKwzd
— Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) October 16, 2017
One big question I’d have is this. Mike Ashley promised to invest MONTHS ago (with the above statement from his lawyer coming back in October), so if he does stand by this, how on earth can Benitez STILL not know his budget? What has he being doing in the mean time?
He’s had months to put a budget together, yet we and Benitez find ourselves over half way through one of the most crucial transfer windows in the club’s history in no clue where we stand and little hope of new signings.
Mike Ashley is a parasite, a pathetic owner and a man whose words mean nothing – he rarely speaks out, but when he does, he lies.
Remember when he said he was about to ‘bolt on the horse’ and have NUFC ‘make their own luck’ in a rare interview on Sky Sports back in 2015? Sigh..
