The Labour Government’s proposed plans for fans of English clubs to own 25% of their clubs is interesting, but hardly practical.
Mike Ashley – NUST have no chance as long as Mike owns Newcastle
And it doesn’t even seem to be possible, because why would owners want to sell 25% of their club to the fans?
The NUST (Newcastle United Supporters Trust) was formed in 2008 after Kevin Keegan had been fired (or left the club – whatever it really was) and they have had pledges (to buy the Newcastle club) of around £50M, we understand.
But that means in reality that they’ll get about half of that amount, by their own admission.
Once Newcastle are promoted they’ll be worth at least £200M, and that’s only one reason why we think owner Mike Ashley should give Chris Hughton a big bonus for saving him over £100M.
It could well be just an election ploy by the Labour party, but there’s no doubt at all that English clubs just cannot keep overspending and getting themselves into such financial debt, as we have witnessed at Portsmouth, as just one example.
Manchester United owe £716M right now, but that will not stop them spending big time in the transfer market this summer, with money they don’t have.
It’s just completely daft the way some of these clubs are being financilly managed, and we learned a couple of days ago that many PL clubs still have wages that are in excees of 70% of revenues – sheer madness.
If Hull are relegated this year they will also be in financial peril, and Iain Dowie has a big job to do through the end of this season.
Financial restraint is one reason we are pleased that Ashley has put some brakes on spending at the Newcastle club.
We like the plans in place to build the Youth Policy and to significantly fortify the scouting network, so the club can start making top players of the future, and buying players before they have fully developed their potential.
That will hopefully mean the club will not have to spend ridiculous amounts in the transfer market, like we’ve done in the past, for scant return.
It seems that Mike has had to put over £30M into the club’s coffers (interest free loan as we understand), so we can survive on a day to day basis, but it looks like it will all pay off big time with promotion a reality soon.
We have seen the NUST articles recently about how good it would be if the Labour idea gets support and indeed goes ahead , but as long as Mike Ashley is owner of the Newcastle club, the NUST has absolutely no chance in owning any part of the Newcastle club.
But maybe they are looking to the future and a new owner, but we’re not sure that will happen anytime soon.
Mike is unlikely to give the NUST any encouragement, given the way that organization has insulted the Newcastle owner and accused him of taking £7M a month out of the club, which was a huge mistatement and error made by the NUST.
Most of us didn’t particularly disagree with some of the insults hurled at Mike at the time, we have to admit, but that £7M a month had a lot of us puzzled, since the revenues this year at Newcastle are just £50M.
We were told to do the maths, and we did, and found the whole premise ridiculous and embarrassing for the NUST.
It’s not something that would make Mike want to spend the time of day with NUST either, which is why they can do nothing with Mike as the owner.
It proved some of them at NUST have no idea at all about how businesses are run financially, and certainly a portion of Newcastle fans have no place for the NUST at the club, according to some of the comments we have seen.
There are some areas that I don’t know too much about – but that doesn’t stop me writing about them. 😀
However in this area I do have some knowledge and credibility, since I built a $1B services business for IBM, before retiring back in 2004.
And from November through the end of January did some consulting in this area for a large global services company, which is the reason the blog closed down for a couple of months.
We are neutral to slightly positive on the NUST, but some of the things they have done and said in the past, like publishing their poll on Ashley that said 96% of Newcastle fans are against Ashley, does them no favors.
That’s 96% of those who took the poll of course, which was over 5,000, but you could also vote multiple times, and voters never saw what the current vote was. That’s an unusual poll to be sure.
It just loses them considerable credibility with common folks.
Maybe they will be able to do something in the future, but the NUST have a snowball’s chance in hell of doing anything at all, as long as Mike Ashley owns the club.
Comments welcome.
15 comments so far
DJG
Apr 2, 2010 at 12:30 PM
Comment #1The NUST have lost the repect of many sensible fans with their frankly insane comments.
”If Hull are relegated this year they will also be in financial peril, and Iain Dowie has a big job to do through the end of this season.”
Oh please god let this be the case. 🙂
Thump
Apr 2, 2010 at 12:37 PM
Comment #2I think the prospect of NUST not getting anywhere near the day to day running of the club excites me more than promotion.
Captain Beefheart
Apr 2, 2010 at 12:47 PM
Comment #3Thump, I could not agree more with your sentiments but I would perhaps have substituted ‘satisfies’ for ‘excites’ – perhaps it’s my age…
bro56
Apr 2, 2010 at 1:01 PM
Comment #4for the first time in 2yrs I actually see some sense in Mike keeping the club which seems the best option for the fans. We need stability and we need to get used to being prudent in the transfer market.. look at Villa, they didn’t buy a team in 1 season they bought players to strengthen certain areas every season.. I’m ready to forgive the FST SHIT! (jk) and look to a better future with Ashley at the helm..
TheShadow
Apr 2, 2010 at 1:24 PM
Comment #5Lads i have created a group on facebook dedicated to keeping andy carroll and steven taylor at our club
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?email_confirmed=1#!/group.php?gid=111087142251391
come join and tell all your mates and lets get it out there that we want them to stay
thanks
NuFc TuRnEr
Apr 2, 2010 at 1:30 PM
Comment #6i wish hull and west ham get relagated!!!
just becuz of the transfer targets!!
my 1st aim would be jimmy bullard!!!
then Upson and carlton cole
wouldnt you agree????
geoff777
Apr 2, 2010 at 1:34 PM
Comment #7It’s Ashley’s fault we got relegated and lost the Sky money.
It’s Ashley’s fault we’re playing Peterborough tomorrow and not Man Utd or Liverpool.
So whoopy he had to put in £30million in to sort out the mess he created.
Remember KK? The tribunal and lies?
Remember JFK … omg what was he thinking?
Remember the embarrassment of relegation?
Why do you call him Mike … is he your best mate or something?
Don’t trust NUST and their 10% … where’s that money going?
I’ll never forgive Ashley .. unless he buys me a pint in the Bigg Market … unbelievable
Captain Beefheart
Apr 2, 2010 at 1:47 PM
Comment #8Geoff777,
a reiteration of some of Ashley’s many faults does not eclipse the fact that the club needed this time in the wilderness to put right problems that had been festering since the Hall/Shepherd dynasty.
MA’s biggest error was in trying to please the fans with KK, a high maintenance manager when the club was already spiralling out of control. It was only ever going to end in tears. His other many mistakes are well documented.
Difference is, MA seems prepared to learn from these mistakes which is why from being vehemently anti-Ashley, I am prepared to remain quiet and see how he handles the Prem. It is not the time to forgive or forget yet, but it is the time to keep an open mind.
NUFCELITE
Apr 2, 2010 at 2:14 PM
Comment #9Ithink fans owning the club would be a very bad idea myself.Cant even get there maths right for a start off,if fans owned the club i think we would go under in less than 18 months simple as.
Captain Beefheart
Apr 2, 2010 at 3:18 PM
Comment #1018 months, NUFCELITE? Vous êtes optimiste, vous! 6 months max and the administrator would be stalking the corridors.
stuart no9
Apr 2, 2010 at 4:24 PM
Comment #11captain beefhear
you think MA will learn from his mistakes?
the firstt lesson he should learn is “dont try to run a football club, when you know nothing about football,the club ,or the fans, that he has at his disposal. this is not a tacky clothes shop, this is NUFC , confide in people who know what they are talking about ( whoever they may be ) before he makes major decisions , that way someone will tell him, he is living on another planet if he thinks £15m is going to keep us up amongst the big guns , somehow i am not holding my breath
geoff777
Apr 2, 2010 at 4:59 PM
Comment #12Ashley trying to do things on the cheap got us relegated.
The last transfer window was the only one that more money was spent than received from sales.
He appointed JFK because he could pay him peanuts.
Why a casino manager is MD I don’t know. Perhaps because he’s cheaper than anyone with a bit of football knowledge?
He could have kept Shearer on but didn’t fancy paying to rebuild the squad properly.
I think his idea is to keep us in the Prem with as little layout as possible.
As soon as a player is worth more than £5-8million he’ll be sold.
Buy young and cheap for the acadamy and cream the profits.
Expect to finish in the bottom half or worse until he gets a decent offer …
The man is a billionaire but not a classy one. Everything has to be done cut-price, bargain-basement … on the cheap.
cupiddstunt
Apr 2, 2010 at 6:29 PM
Comment #13I don’t quite agree with the last two comments,
Maybe he thought he was confiding in and with people that he thought knew their way around in football, ie Wise, Jiminez and co. The problem was I think Wise had an agenda of his own hence the problems that came out.
You are right £15 mil will not “keep us up among the big guns” and this is precisely the attitude that put NUFC into so much debt, trying to buy a place at the top table and failing.
£15mil to improve the squad we already have is all that is needed to give us a fighting chance of staying in the premiership against the little guns. Season one back in the prem the object is survival, season two we spend some more and look to improve our table placing, season three the same and four the same again, if all is well and everything is in its place by season four to five we could be challenging for Europe and it is then that the club will attract the top players and be earning the levels of cash that will and allow us to be able to buy and pay them.
It was KK’s plan to build over around five years in the prem and be challenging for Europe he admitted himself that the problem was he was far too successful far to early.
As for MA doing it on the cheap the guy has spent over £250 mil what the hell is cheap about that?
By the way name me one classy billionaire and I will name you someone that has walked all over people, used and abused people and has almost guaranteed to be less than honest and fair when dealing with money. You do not become a millionaire let alone a billionaire by being nice, so by the nature of the beast none of them are classy you whingeing mug.
stuart no9
Apr 2, 2010 at 8:44 PM
Comment #14cupittstunt
sorry i did not make my last comment very clear , i meant £15 m would not keep us up in the prem , keeping up with big guns wont come in my lifetime that is fantasy football, as far as i am concerned , however , any body that knows anything about football, woudnt ask , that poison little dwarf,for advice on how to run a club as massive as NUFC , its strange for the amount of time our owner has been in charge, the amount of fans he has got settling for 2nd best, he has got u thinking we dont deserve to be challenging for trophies , and that mediocrity is acceptable
Sav
Apr 3, 2010 at 1:54 AM
Comment #15We sold James Milner, Villa’s best player this season, to fund a deal to grease the palms of some South American agents (so we were told), leaving the club saddled with an expensive flop that clearly nobody had bothered to properly scout.
Ashley sanctioned that, and stood over it against his manager. That was a disgrace. Then he lied flatly to everyone connected with the club. Then he destabilised the club by trying to flog it mid-season and appointed a foul-mouthed muppet no club had let near them for 4 years to replace the manager he had shafted. Then he got us relegated.
We earn 5 million for Shay Given from Manchester City, richest club on the planet and we pay upfront for our transfers while we receive payment income in installments?
And you’re telling me this guy is a businessman?
Funny idea of business that.
Sure, Ashley’s spent a lot. Lets face it, if he had done his research properly he’d never have bought the club in the first place. And having bought it, if he had run it well since he got it, he’d be a lot richer now.
Its not that I don’t have an open mind. But it didn’t get wiped clean and so I well remember Ashley being a proven liar, an embarrassment to the club (on several serious instances) a poor judge of character, reckless and incompetent. The sooner he’s gone, the better.