The Mail Bag
Newcastle, Investment and Everton
Comments (46)
Regarding the situation at Newcastle at the moment, I feel there are two main issues there and one that has a direct correlation to Everton.
Firstly I believe the behavour of Newcastle fans towards Mike Ashley is completely out of order. For some reason they hold Kevin Keegan in the highest regard, and seem to be a Keegan supporter rather than a Newcastle supporter. I doubt we would be so eagerly wanting the reappointment of Kendall or Joe Royle if Moyes ever left us.
I think that Ashley hired Keegan initally due to overwhelming supporter pressure and this was the wrong decision anyway. Ignoring anything about Dennis Wise (who I think was brought in because Ashley never fully trusted Keegan), I think that any mid-table club should be more than happy with an owner who is willing to drastically reduce debt and give £20 million a year (plus player sales etc i imagine) to fund new players. In fact, I would be happy if we had an owner who could provide us with that sort of money.
The second issue here, and the issue that all this has led to, is that Ashley put the club 'up for sale' and almost immediately there is a very public interest from a multi-billionaire.
If Everton were truely interested in investment then it appears that getting it isn't that hard. We can assume that Everton are holding out for the perfect investor who has the club's best interests at heart, but I think that it is increasingly unlikely that this mythical person is out there. So eventually we must take a gamble. As long as we have someone in the club (such as Kenwright) to act as an advisor or someone to make sure nothing is done that results in disasterous long-term problems, it should be a fairly risk-free gamble.
Finally, having read Ashley's statement, I think he is possibly one of the best chairmen to have. He loved football and the club and was willing to back the club financially without playing with its future. If Ashley is still interested in football after Newcastle, I for one would welcome him to Goodison with open arms.
Phil Armstrong, Posted 17/09/2008 at 01:50:12
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I’d much prefer an owner like Randy Lerner of Aston Villa. He financially funds the club and gives power to his manager.
Newcastle, Tottenham and West Ham are complete and utter shambles year after year - the true ’laughing stocks’ of other fans (not us). Liverpool is a mess, cannot now afford its new stadium, and will probably change ownership soon amidst more turmoil. Man City? Last year was a fiasco, and I would ’watch this space’ on current owners. It will take them longer to ’buy a team’ than they think, and I suspect Mark Hughes will be a casualty in the process. Even Arsenal is not really rich enough to compete at the top table now without Wenger’s genius.
Why does that matter at all, I would take any owner as long as he invests and supports the club, they quickly become supporters especially when they start to feel the passion of the fans.
Who for that matter in the recent past was a supporter of the club they invested in.
Steve Gibson at Middlesborough.
By the way I was under the impression that Ashley was a Spurs fan.
Mike Ashley buying Everton is possibly the worst idea I’ve ever seen on Toffeeweb and that’s a pretty impressive achievement. I think he’s about the worst chairman I’ve seen since Agent Johnson. His heart may well be in the right place but he’s fucked things up big time.
He’s single-handedly screwed up Newcastle. The appointment of Wise and the set-up there stinks, can you imagine Moyes working in that structure? Which manager worth their salt is going to want to work under Mike Ashley now?
Did you not read the slanging match in the papers? He completely undermined Keegan’s power over his own team and then tried to make it look like Keegan’s inability to work in the club’s structure.
If Ashley comes in, Moyes walks out for sure. I’d rather have Bill than Ashley any day. He’s turned Newcastle into an even bigger circus than it already was and that’s an even bigger achievement than the most ridiculous suggestion on Toffeeweb ever.
I doubt whether any manager - not just Keegan would have stayed at Newcastle under the current circumstances, with somebody else deciding transfer policy. If you are going to have a director of football ? you should consult the manager as to who he would like to work alongside. Wise vetted the transfer deals ? players could be and were signed without Keegan?s approval or knowledge. What manager is going to agree to working under those conditions!!
Having a good backroom team is important but could you imagine Arsene Wenger not knowing which players Arsenal were going to sign?!
Ashley has been a disaster for Newcastle United ? I mean come on: Denis Wise as Director of Football ? he did a brilliant job at Leeds United, he got them out of the Championship!! As Russell Buckley states, the guy at Villa is one of the better owners ? he trusts his manager to get on with the job, supports him and doesn?t try to "hog" the limelight. Ashley is just a mega-rich glory seeker ? as owner of Newcastle I think he is very popular among Sunderland fans. If he sells Newcastle and buys us expect there to be whoops of delight at Anfield!!
I have over the years had business dealings with Ashley and one of his close partners. He runs an open-plan office with a very casual approach and sits with the workers on a day to day basis. He is very intelligent but at times stand off sort of person but he has many loyal colleagues. His old HQ in Dunstable was a tip but JJB were so worried they put a store right in front of his nose so every day he could see the competition.
Today Sports Direct is much larger than JJB and Ashley is worth three time what Whelan is. That tells us all what sort of man he is.
If he wanted to but EFC and take us forward then I suspect he would do it for the long term and not to gain himself publicity, as this is his biggest fear believe it or not he prefers not be in the public eye. Ashley now owns brands like Dunlop Slazenger USA and Donay this he done several years ago, he is not a fool and would certainly have the ability to brand EFC but would he be willing to invest in Football ever again, I would say not. COYB
Then there are rumours of the Newcastle board cold-calling Dubai hotels to try and sell themselves like whores. I think ? and hope ? that we?re above all that. "One of the best chair men to have" ? whatever you were on when you wrote that, I don?t want any. Go back to your room and don?t come out.
I was only complaining about Michael and his comment relating to who a potential buyer supports, which is not important.
If the thread is a campaign for Ashley then I am for one do not support that.
I can only assume that at some point there was a falling out between board and manager and this probably resulted in Keegan's departure later down the line. I suspect that Ashley was waiting for a more suitable time to get rid of Keegan.
I didn?t really expect such a hostile reception to this idea. I doubt Ashley would buy Everton anyway, but as I said, if you had someone involved in the boardroom making sure nothing happens like appointing a DoF that has full control in the transfer market, that kind of investment would make sense.
Finally, if there was someone who supported Everton who had enough funds to come forward and take us to the next level then they would have by now. This person either doesn?t exist or doesn?t want to invest, so we will have to accept that whoever invests in us in the future didn?t grow up a Blue.
Kenwright, advisor. Priceless.
The welcoming Ashley part at the end was me saying that overall he wasn’t the worst investor and he obviously wasn’t in it for the money, his biggest downfall I think was not being public enough throughout his reign. I’m not talking about running his mouth about everything, but just letting the fans know the score about his plans.
I would certainly want someone to come in and clear our debts rather than make them worse (Man U, Liverpool)
I hope the iminent sale of Newcastle will show people that Kenwright has absolutely no intention of selling because whoever is interested in buying the barcodes would surely be more interested in buying Everton.
Whatever he did with Sports Direct he greatly misjudged the challenge of owning a football club.He failed to do due dilligence before he handed over the cash and has only himself to blame for discovering all the hidden debts.
Then he surrounded himself with self-seeking ’advisers’-most of which he met whilst playing the casinos and let them tell him how to organise the club.None of them had any affiliation to Newcastle and werent even prepared to live there.
As far as Keegan is concerned, he only got that idea when Harry Rednapp gave backword as he thought it would apease the lads he boozed with down the quay.
He deserves all the problems he’s got and I’d support Tranmre before I would give him a shilling of my money.
Daftest post of this-or any year!!!!!!
As a piece of thought provoking writing, this piece certainly hits the spot.
For a start I though the whole point of New investment was to get rid of that clown Kenwright - yet you suggest keeping him as chairman!
And from there your article gets even worse.
http://www.blogonthetyne.co.uk/2008/09/mike-ashley-wants-to-sell-newc.html
As for using Arsenal as a prototype, easily said - more difficult to do. Ashley patently failed to do anything constructive at Newcastle he’s left the club in a right mess. He didn’t even look at the books before he dived in! Derrrrr!!
So he screws up buying the club, then ties himself to Wise in the hope that he could turn NUFC into the Arsenal of the North? How did someone so stupid make so much money?
Michael is right, Randy Lerner is the best model for a club owner; cash+brains.
I wouldn?t want him.
Not ’super’ rich, but rich enough, he invested with a minimum of fuss (teh press were more interested in Doug Ellis finally leaving) and since then you hardly hear anything about him - its all about the manager and the team and nothing else. No public shopping lists, no grand statements about winning the champions league, no ridicule from the rest of the football world. Just as it should be.
Phil - can’t agree with you about Ashley, if only for the appointment of Wise! But you are right in saying that the money is out there, but the right ’type’ is certainly harder to come by. I’m not a BK fan, but I find myself giving him the benefit of the doubt when he says that the search for money ain’t that easy.
I think he’ll appoint the ’yes’ man he wants, the Toon will have another moderate season and the fans will soon get sick of waving banners around, boycotting booze in the ground and not wearing their barcode tops.
Business as usual at Toon Towers....
You say that getting investment isn?t hard and that it would be a fairly risk free gamble. How do you know? What do you base this on? If it?s such a piece of piss, get down to Everton and offer your services, you could find the investment (not hard to find remember) and then we can all sit back worry free, as it?s risk free (like Man U, Liverpool, Newcastle, West Ham, etc.). Happy days, bring it on.
What really gets to me is the amount of publicity Newcastle get when they say the club is up for sale. No-one seemed to care when Kenwright announced Everton was up for sale. Is that because we didn?t hold a mass protest or because the media aren?t obsessed with us? Either way, if I was a billionaire with a choice between Everton and Newcastle, I?d go for Everton.
To get success at Newcastle, I?d have to find a decent manager (not exactly easy at a place with the worst reputation in football), completely dismantle the idiotic management structure, fund the buying of a completely new squad (because the current lot are no use at all) and be very patient and tolerant of the grumpiest fans in football. If I?d gone for Everton, I?d just give the manager some cash to strengthen the squad.
Okay, Newcastle have the stadium, but I could build a new one for Everton with the change I found down the back of my settee. I?d rather have a good club in a crap stadium than the other way around.
So, please, someone explain why Everton get no interest from these billionaires whilst there is a list of people supposedly interested in Newcastle? Is it all lies or are we not trying hard enough?
As I and a few others have said before, finding the money is one thing, finding the right terms for EFC are another.
Remember the Fortress nonsense? The club seem to have learned their lesson there (i hope...god, i can be so naive sometimes) and are keeping quiet so far. Other than saying the club is for sale and always has been, BK hasn?t gone into any specifics ? everything else has been speculation.
Do we really want to be part of the circus that has surrounded st james park for the past month?
The US ’investors’ in the RS, from what little I know about them, seem to have quite different ideas, and lets face, you couldn’t have wished a better pair of owners on a nicer set of people, could you? We may have to wait for another few years to find out what Roman’s Circus is really all about, but the long term health and development of CFC seems to have been an unlikely box to tick on his checklist.
But what the money-no-object, let’s-buy-the-Champion’s League multi-billionaires of Middle Eastlands are up to is no secret. Their petty cash millions aren’t simply a gift, no questions asked. And neither are they an investment in the Americans’ sense - they don’t intend to make a money profit. What they are after might be called ownership of world culture - another plaque in the trophy room. And City are just part of their ambitions.
Anyone fancy that for EFC?
As for your points about the RS yanks over there, well, couldn?t agree more.
I?ve lost count of how many people on this site have said ?be careful what you wish for? on this topic, but it is so very true in this instance.
He is just the guarantor against all the Bank loans they are taking out. It’s only going to directly affect him of the club can not service the debts one day.
His is the more sensible investment approach. ie take it on, support it and try and develop the team so the Club is worth more in the future to another investor. He then sells and makes a profit with everybody’s good wishes.
Mike Ashley and the Icelandic buffons at West Ham look at things in a far more short term way and want a quick return. At Upton Park they though that the Hammers would inherit the Olympic stadium after 2012 and could have then done a Man City selling on a club with cxheaply acquired world class facilities. ( BK’s thinking about Kirkby is of a similar vein except it’s far from world class, but that’s not for now! ) Meanwhile at Newcastle, you can only titter to yourself at the thought of a man buying the club for £200m engaging it in a series of farcical public disputes and then expecting somebody to pay £400m for it when they are being held to ransom by King Kev after another dummy chucking session. The biggest irony of all is that Keegan was never the right man for the job anyway. Allardyce would definitely have achieved more.
If that Indian billionaire is really looking at Newcastle and Everton as a choice, despite our clueless Board, he’d be one mango chutney short of a condiments trolley to buy Newcastle!
No - the multi-millions will have to come in (if they do) from a benefactor. And for whatever reason these people look us over, they will have their own agendas which might be clash strenuously with the wishes of rank and file supporters.
The owner has said we are for sale. We’ve all been bought and sold in the market place. It doesn’t mean we have to like it.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/premierleague/2968287/Credit-crunch-How-Premier-League-teams-will-be-affected--Football.html
Just a couple of weeks ago there was at least one thread on here where folks were venting their spleen at Kenwright in all sorts of different ways but mainly a desire to get rid of him.
Now all of a sudden the "Be careful what you wish for" brigade seem to have taken over ?
I have no time for the man myself due to his almost pathological lying. But this now seems to have been overtaken by a sad admission that maybe he is the man to take us forward.
I am gobsmacked !
Everton
Chang (brewing)
Everton?s deal with Chang, part of the ThaiBev brewing giant, is more likely to encounter problems when alcohol sponsorship of sport comes under renewed pressure from the government as they act on binge drinking than the credit crunch.
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Liverpool
Shirt Sponsers
Carlsberg (brewing)
"Carlsberg?s 15-year commitment, the longest commercial relationship in British football, is thought to be in a safe condition."
Excuse my ignorance but why are our sponsors [Chang] under threat and the RS [Carlsberg] arent??
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/premierleague/2968287/Credit-crunch-How-Premier-League-teams-will-be-affected--Football.html
I can?t stand Kenwright and the lies and deception he and his people have perpetrated. But I sure don?t want a Frank Sinatra, the jolly promisers from across the park or the clown who took over the Barcodes.
That's why I?m among the ?be careful? group.
Fools gold is always just that!
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