According to Sports Direct, Mike Ashley is planning to give away free t-shirts to everyone if England win the World Cup – a move that’s not impressed NUFC fans waiting to see money spent on new signing for Rafa Benitez this summer.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not going to be sat there moaning if it comes to this – as it’ll mean England have won the World Cup! – but this just sums up his priorities.
It’s all about Sports Direct and gaining as much exposure and money from that as possible, not about putting all his pennies into making a success of Newcastle United.
Hopefully not funded by the sale of Merino ?? #NUFC https://t.co/QfP77HLMpG
— NUFC 360 (@NUFC360) July 5, 2018
‘Hopefully not funded by the sale of Merino’
‘If Mike Ashley can see the impact that getting people excited about football has, why does he run #nufc like he runs it?’
‘Instead of shirts give Rafa the money so that he can spend it on players so that we have a chance of doing better than 10th.’
‘How about just supporting the club you happen to own?’
‘Perhaps he could save himself the bother and invest that t-shirt money in his football club. #nufc’
‘Hopefully that won’t come from our transfer budget…’
‘Bang goes Rafa’s transfer kitty lol’
‘You are not a football person Ashley, so cut out the opportunistic, shabby, money driven PR stunts, and leave us proper fans to enjoy the feel-good mood without your ugly interventions. And your T-shirts are utter tat.’
‘Forget that , How about a centre forward ?’
“Couldn’t give a s**t. Tell the fat ******* to spend some money on the club he owns rather than cheap publicity stunts for S**t Direct. Although thinking about that’s about all he’s ever been capable of.
‘What a lovely gesture Mike!! Keep up the good work at NUFC’
Here’s a snippet from the piece on his latest bright idea at Sports Direct:
Sports Direct boss Mike Ashley will hand out free souvenir T-shirts if England win the World Cup.
The Newcastle United owner has won the rights to make shirts with the official Three Lions logo, emblazoned with the words “2018 Winners” underneath it.
Mr Ashley was in Italy to witness Gareth Southgate’s anguish as he missed a penalty against Germany in 1996, and wants to give England fans an extra boost if their team bring the World Cup home.
The shirts will be available through Sports Direct’s app, and the company has warned Apple and Google that there could be a huge surge on their servers if England do win.
A spokesman for Sports Direct said:
“Mike knows the whole country will go potty if Gareth Southgate’s boys go all the way.
“The only limit on how many we can give away will be how fast we can get them printed.
“Mike’s ordered everybody at Sports Direct to pull out all the stops in order to make it happen.
“Mike has always been an England fan and he was in Mexico in person to see the heartache of Maradona’s Hand of God goal, and in Italy in 1990 to see Gazza’s tears. He knows how much it will mean to people if we bring home the World Cup.”
Thoughts?
So he’s giving free shirts to EVERYONE?
I don’t think so.
Plus – when are we going to accept that Sports Direct and Newcastle United are not the same company? Ashley paying a million quid for free England shirts which probably have a sports direct logo on them doesn’t take anything away from NUFC. It’s not like he’s spending cash that he would have spent on the team.
We just don’t seem to ever grasp that. We seem to think that every penny Ashley has is available for players, when he’s made it perfectly clear, many times, that as a self sufficient company NUFC get every penny that NUFC generates – that’s it.
Brrrrrian(Quote)
I get all the above, but surely you see why this is frustrating?
He’s doing something here to create a buzz around football, yet he has an opportunity to do exactly that at Newcastle – his club – yet he refuses.
He’ll pocket £10m for Merino and he’s replaced him with Ki on a free. Are you absolutely certain that, the Mitrovic/Mbemba money will all go into Rafa’s transfer pot on top of what he already has available?
I’m not.
Olly Hawkins(Quote)