Tales from the Toon. The ups and downs of an NUFC supporter....

[mondatoo]

Yes i did know that because Ashley is using it as a trial to see the impact to then sell the rights to outside businesses for $.  However even if he chooses to keep it as Sports Direct there will be an inter company transfer between his two companies for an amount to suit his companies for tax reasons which as the sole owner of Newcastle he has every right to do.

So when was there a huge amount of cash for stadium naming rights that we all wanted turned down ?

[mondatoo]

I very much welcome anyone else suggesting how Arbboy is correct and I'm just a blind Newcastle fan ?

Nice one on offering 5/1 on us being relegated to prove your point  as well,  SkyBet is 7/1, C for effort, bit like your posts itt.

[mulhuzz]

lol arbboy so clueless about newcastle he thinks ashley makes statements in public.

roflaments.

He is a shrewd business man he knows no matter how loud the newcastle fans bark they will still turn up week in week out.  Football to use an economics term is a very inelastic product (basically means customers are very loyal and don't move easily as the price goes up) therefore he knows one revenue stream is pretty constant the match day revenue.  The other key revenue streams are the tv deal which is constant as long as they remain in the EPL.  He controls his profit like most businesses by paying as little as possible for his overheads (players wages - 65% of his total turnover) to ensure the above revenue streams keep rolling in.  Most business owners don't care about their customers and i am sure he doesn't either as long as they keep turning up and buying his products (which they do every other week at stjames).  He has spent the last 20 years of his life buying up destressed firms and making them profitable.  Pretty sure whatever he says in public this is just another business for him which is he using to promote his main business sportsdirect.com which has made him one of the richest people in the uk.

not for two years at least.

[arbboy]

Course you are a blind newcastle fan like adz is a blind arsenal fan.  It's not a bad thing but blind football fans (99.5% of football fans in general) never see things from the other side of the fence (ie the owners).  But equally they moan like hell when owners and managers like harry at pompey O'leary at leeds win the world relatively in a short space of time, turn the club into a world beater relatively then the club goes busto 5 years on.  Ask most leeds fans and pompey fans if they would take some mid table epl entertainment and realise life isn't quite so bad as it looks.

[mondatoo]

You run a business to maximise shareholder wealth which is probably what ashley is doing a very successful job of.  Pretty hard to argue he hasn't bought at the bottom of most players valuations and sold at the top.  Pretty simple way to make money.    All whilst easily maintaining their position at the top table of the EPL and all the financial rewards it brings.

You mean other than us being relegated once and having the threat of relegation again looming over us just last season ?

[mondatoo]

Yes i did know that because Ashley is using it as a trial to see the impact to then sell the rights to outside businesses for $.  However even if he chooses to keep it as Sports Direct there will be an inter company transfer between his two companies for an amount to suit his companies for tax reasons which as the sole owner of Newcastle he has every right to do.

So when was there a huge amount of cash for stadium naming rights that we all wanted turned down ?

I guess you keep missing this...

[arbboy]

You run a business to maximise shareholder wealth which is probably what ashley is doing a very successful job of.  Pretty hard to argue he hasn't bought at the bottom of most players valuations and sold at the top.  Pretty simple way to make money.    All whilst easily maintaining their position at the top table of the EPL and all the financial rewards it brings.

You mean other than us being relegated once and having the threat of relegation again looming over us just last season ?

Why shouldn't you be in a relegation dog fight once every 10 years or so?  Unless i am missing something Newcastle haven't been prolific trophy collectors during the past 50 years even when the money was being splashed all over the place left right and centre under Hall.  What exactly have you won in the past 50 years to make yourself entitled to think you belong at the top table of English football on a consistant basis?

[mondatoo]

You run a business to maximise shareholder wealth which is probably what ashley is doing a very successful job of.  Pretty hard to argue he hasn't bought at the bottom of most players valuations and sold at the top.  Pretty simple way to make money.    All whilst easily maintaining their position at the top table of the EPL and all the financial rewards it brings.

You mean other than us being relegated once and having the threat of relegation again looming over us just last season ?

Why shouldn't you be in a relegation dog fight once every 10 years or so?  Unless i am missing something Newcastle haven't been prolific trophy collectors during the past 50 years even when the money was being splashed all over the place left right and centre under Hall.  What exactly have you won in the past 50 years to make yourself entitled to think you belong at the top table of English football on a consistant basis?

You can read what you said yes ? Which was, amongst a lot of other things you have said, factually incorrect.

"All whilst easily maintaining their position at the top table of the EPL and all the financial rewards it brings"

[arbboy]

You run a business to maximise shareholder wealth which is probably what ashley is doing a very successful job of.  Pretty hard to argue he hasn't bought at the bottom of most players valuations and sold at the top.  Pretty simple way to make money.    All whilst easily maintaining their position at the top table of the EPL and all the financial rewards it brings.

You mean other than us being relegated once and having the threat of relegation again looming over us just last season ?

Why shouldn't you be in a relegation dog fight once every 10 years or so?  Unless i am missing something Newcastle haven't been prolific trophy collectors during the past 50 years even when the money was being splashed all over the place left right and centre under Hall.  What exactly have you won in the past 50 years to make yourself entitled to think you belong at the top table of English football on a consistant basis?

You can read what you said yes ? Which was, amongst a lot of other things you have said, factually incorrect.

"All whilst easily maintaining their position at the top table of the EPL and all the financial rewards it brings"

yes they do maintain their position in the epl easily on the vast majority of seasons but why shouldn't they be involved in a relegation fight once every 10 or 15 years when they 'run bad' during a season?  They went down once and instantly went straight back up in style the next season with little fuss.  Like i said, what have you won during the last 50 years to suggest otherwise?

[mondatoo]

You run a business to maximise shareholder wealth which is probably what ashley is doing a very successful job of.  Pretty hard to argue he hasn't bought at the bottom of most players valuations and sold at the top.  Pretty simple way to make money.    All whilst easily maintaining their position at the top table of the EPL and all the financial rewards it brings.

You mean other than us being relegated once and having the threat of relegation again looming over us just last season ?

Why shouldn't you be in a relegation dog fight once every 10 years or so?  Unless i am missing something Newcastle haven't been prolific trophy collectors during the past 50 years even when the money was being splashed all over the place left right and centre under Hall.  What exactly have you won in the past 50 years to make yourself entitled to think you belong at the top table of English football on a consistant basis?

You can read what you said yes ? Which was, amongst a lot of other things you have said, factually incorrect.

"All whilst easily maintaining their position at the top table of the EPL and all the financial rewards it brings"

yes they do maintain their position in the epl easily on the vast majority of seasons but why shouldn't they be involved in a relegation fight once every 10 or 15 years when they 'run bad' during a season?  They went down once and instantly went straight back up in style the next season with little fuss.  Like i said, what have you won during the last 50 years to suggest otherwise?

Yeah because that was what you originally stated right.

We haven't won a trophy for a very long time, weren't you aware of that.

You tilted me into responding more but I won't bother replying to anymore of your questions, bit like you haven't with mine that don't suit your agenda.

[mulhuzz]

i'm going to watch Gateshead hopefully qualify for the Conference Playoffs tomorrow vs Grimsby. Hopefully they'll make it to Wembley and give their fans a day out and maybe even get promoted to the league. Amazing what a little ambition can do for you.

Funnily enough, one of the very earliest football memories for me was watching Newcastle beat Grimsby 2-0 in the promotion season on 1992/93. That was the result, with goals from Andy Cole and David Kelly, which clinched promotion. I'm hoping Gateshead can follow suit, and whilst I'm glad that we aren't Grimsby, Leeds, Portsmouth or any of the other clubs which have fallen by the wayside and tumbled down the football pyramid in the intervening years, and in some respects I'm grateful for Ashely for stepping in and making sure we didn't fall so far down, I still remain unconvinced that not wanting to be treated like a mug, lied to, blamed and seeing the club I love getting it's soul removed by someone who doesn't care for the club, only for his bottom line makes me in any way a 'deluded football fan'.

I want to have a shot, I want to go to Wembley in the cup, but I'd settle for trying to win a cup tie of any description, and for making constant attempt to improve our position. I don't care that when we overperform it's Pardew's genius (cf 8 year contract) but when we underperform it's the press, the fans, anyone but Pardew.

I want an owner that engages, that at least pretends to care, maybe even speaks to the fans sometimes. I don't want some guy in the Big Market trying to be all the fans best mate, just someone who listens, and even if he disagrees at least gives me the impression he took my opinion seriously.

If that makes me deluded then fine. But that's not something specific to Newcastle. Or even football. It's about being a human. And caring that when something you love is being destroyed.

[arbboy]

I think Newcastle fans delude themselves because they see 50000 fans going through the ground every week and think that makes them a massive club.  It did in the dark ages when gate revenue made up the vast majority of the revenue streams.  In 2014 it is little more than a blip on the P+L account every year.  Hence why players get paid 200k a week rather than the 8k a week dalgeish and lineker were on in the 80s.  The 50000 fans who actually go to the games nowadays to owners like Ashley who run clubs as businesses are far less important to him than to the owners of the 1980s.

[mulhuzz]

I think Newcastle fans delude themselves because they see 50000 fans going through the ground every week and think that makes them a massive club.  It did in the dark ages when gate revenue made up the vast majority of the revenue streams.  In 2014 it is little more than a blip on the P+L account every year.  Hence why players get paid 200k a week rather than the 8k a week dalgeish and lineker were on in the 80s.  The 50000 fans who actually go to the games nowadays to owners like Ashley who run clubs as businesses are far less important to him than to the owners of the 1980s.

aye, ok Mr Football-is-Business-And-That's-All-That-Matters.

Newcastle aren't a big club.

Click to see full-size image.

Definitely not a big club. But in the top 20 in Europe as measured by Deloitte, who I think we'll agree, know a little about the Business of Football.

[arbboy]

I think Newcastle fans delude themselves because they see 50000 fans going through the ground every week and think that makes them a massive club.  It did in the dark ages when gate revenue made up the vast majority of the revenue streams.  In 2014 it is little more than a blip on the P+L account every year.  Hence why players get paid 200k a week rather than the 8k a week dalgeish and lineker were on in the 80s.  The 50000 fans who actually go to the games nowadays to owners like Ashley who run clubs as businesses are far less important to him than to the owners of the 1980s.

aye, ok Mr Football-is-Business-And-That's-All-That-Matters.

Newcastle aren't a big club.

Click to see full-size image.

Definitely not a big club. But in the top 20 in Europe as measured by Deloitte, who I think we'll agree, know a little about the Business of Football.

Correct you are 20th in europe but 7th in the epl and more importantly nowhere near any of the top 6 above you.  You currently sit in 9th in the EPL (2 spots below where you should sit during a normal season per your chart) mainly because soton are having a freak year with an unusual amount of home grown talent coming through and everton who are not a million miles behind you in the financial table also having a great season under a great manager.  Yet your club is in crisis.  This is the bit i don't understand.  This should be a pretty normal season for you.

[mulhuzz]

Correct you are 20th in europe but 7th in the epl and more importantly nowhere nearly any of the top 6 above you.  You currently sit in 9th in the EPL (2 spots below where you should sit during a normal season per your chart) mainly because soton are having a freak year with an unusual amount of home grown talent coming through and everton who are not a million miles behind you in the financial table also having a great season under a great manager.  Yet your club is in crisis.  This is the bit i don't understand.  This should be a pretty normal season for you.

Being 20th in Europe's Money League doesn't win you any trophies. And who gives a shit if we stay 20th here until the end of time, if the owner doesn't invest we'll never improve. Who wants to do anything without wanting to get better at it.

How is this so hard for you to understand.