If he can pocket even a minimal amount of cash per season with zero to no investment, or paying anything out, why would he sell? I mean would you rather take a guaranteed installment payment of $1000 for the next 200 months with no fees vs taking a lump sum of $200K today and having to pay $30-$60K in taxes and fees in order to do so? Sadly Ashelys asnwer is to take the payments and keep on going. Once the payments dry up, or the amount needed to keep them going rises above a minimal level would he reconsider.
He can recoup his loan money here (and then some), sell for a modest profit or break-even, buy Rangers for a relative pittance and get them to the Champions League pretty much every year and/or sell for a MUCH bigger profit. EDIT: Evidently I'm not the only one who thinks this.
I really hope you're right. If you're wrong, the only way to get rid is to boycott the games or at the least the merchandising. Saying that, what sort of knacker would you be to want a t-shirt with Wonga written on the front of it? Seems like they've done that to themselves.
Look I dislike the Right Fat Bastard as much as anyone, but the pure mentalness of some of the breathless speculation and conspiracy theories on his motivation are simply unbelievable. Its as if he is a brilliant supervillian who schemes from a secret base inside the the caldera of a tropical island volcano and is hell bent on destroying his arch enemies The Geordies with some ridiculously convoluted, yet deeply flawed plan. When in reality he's just a fat drunk whose simply made loadsamooney slinging Slazenger to Chavs all over Britain at a discount.
Hmm I have a few problems with that Mag article. For one they don't seem to understand what a PLC is... He bought all the shares, so took it private... and? Why would he buy the club and then refloat on the stock market? And what would the Mag's reaction be if he had sold him for £10m? Are they actually having a go at Ashley for not selling a player? What couple of players could you get for £2.5m each? He's the owner, if he wants to call them off he would just call them f*cking off. Gomis was being chased all Summer, Aubameyang went to last year's CL finalists. I'm still not buying that Ashley wants to destabilise Pardew so he can get rid of him without a pay off, because that's exactly what happened with KK and they lost the constructive dismissal case and had to pay out more than if they'd sacked him. As for taking over Rangers for an easy route into the CL. Well he does seem interested, but in Scotland the TV deal is a pittance. Even with Celtic making the last 16 of the CL their turnover is still less than ours, and they still have to sell players to buy. I honestly don't think he's in this to make a profit, if you wanted to make a profit a football club is amongst the last things you would buy. There's a lot of money in football, but it all goes straight through clubs to players. I still think this isn't a plan. It wasn't planned all along not to sign anyone, they just happened to put someone totally incompetent in charge of transfers. It says a lot that the only deal he was able to pull off was with 'Arry's QPR. Probably the only manager that was around when JFK was around. The stories of how he was still trying to do deals manager to manager only underline how out of touch he is. The transfer market is a different beast these days, usually negotiated at boardroom level and a plethora of agents. We've got some idiotic fantasist dinosaur trying to convince players to come to us... apparently Darren Bent's people say the meeting they had with Kinnear was embarrassing. That I can believe, a subtext of 2+2=16 is a little harder to swallow. Having said that, I'd still like to see the true shape of our books.
The part about public/private is a reference to keeping Newcastle (and his shares in S*****D*****) private and the rest of his companies public. Hence his investors shoulder the risk. It's all a shell game to protect his ass...ets. Businessmen are in business to make a profit. I understand football clubs are generally financial black holes but there's got to be some way he's making money or he wouldn't be here. As to Rangers, the Champions League is where the money (and regional, maybe continental, platform for promoting S*****D*****) is. If he can get that money every year with minimal outlay (because nobody challenges the Old Firm ever) with far less risk than trying to navigate the Premier League on a shoestring, it's a smart business decision. I don't think for a second that he wouldn't have sold Cabaye at any price. Make his money back and then some by driving a bidding war l, but it never materialized. Ashley might be a dick but he's an intelligent dick. He knows Newcastle fans will come no matter what (thereby producing the 20th biggest revenue stream in world football) and will put up with his chicanery longer than most. There's really no other explanation for us sitting in the oft-mentioned pile of cash (that evidently doesn't actually exist).
Amalfitano out on loan to Dijon (Ligue 2!!). So that's now 23 fit senior players, several of whom suck (I'm looking at you, Tavernier, Obertan, et al), plus two-three underage players we'll probably mishandle. Quite the strong squad, there.
Call me a heretic but with any other manager I'd say we "would" be guaranteed a mid table finish with the squad that played last weekend, as it is right now, barring anymore injuries a day after the window closed. Please note the caveats... We have decent players, none of them are regular goal scorers; but we do have "depth" ( I use quotes because its a relative term based on one's expectations. For example the back four has cover pretty much every where, cover meaning warm bodies in positions they are relatively familiar with...or they dont suck at too badly...) Where we have no depth is with those decent players who can potentially score goals on a regular basis, or have nobody to challenge them to make them better (see Cisse and our lack of threat in the final 3rd of the pitch). Hence Pardew's bleating about a new striker. But then again would you trust Pardew's eye judging a striker?
That walkway gets canny high when they tilt it for boats mind. Looking at it after some reflection, our back four look okay, our midfield is lacking in creativity, and our attack is threadbare. Thing is, even if we signed a good forward to play alongside Cisse, how are we actually going to get the ball to them in a position where they can threaten?
Play on the deck! ------------------Cisse---------------------- -----Remy----------------Hatem----------- ------------------Anita---------------------- ------------Kebab----Sissoko--------------- ----Santon----Colo----MYM----Debuchy--- -------------------Krul---------------------- ...on second thought, nah. That makes too much sense.
Oh come on now, step away from the canyon, I did warn you to pay attention to the caveats did I not? Anyway my point was it all should make sense, much like your team posted above (I'd swap Marveaux for Anita in the number 10 role myself...) but since nothin about the people in charge's reasoning and decision making makes any sense, all reasoning is insensible and therefore wasted effort. Its like an acid trip that just went really weird, Just relax and enjoy it it will soon go away...
Here is my problem. Baring injuries, a keeper-D combo of Krul-Debuchy-MYM-Colo-Santon would start/have fan bases satisfied for all but 5-6 EPL squads. If, and this is a big IF, his head is in the right place, a Cabaye-Sissoko CM pairing is one of the better pairings in the league and would start for all but 3-4 clubs. HBA is one of the better flair/attack minded mids in the league. So 8 out of 11 starters you are looking at Top 10 (table wise) talent in the league. Now I think that Remy could make that 9 out of 11. So the problem is squarely on Pardon't and CAshley here. See I think CAshley views things the same way as I just laid them out and is expecting those players to always play up to their potential. In his opinion the talent is there to win and he's not spending money on players to sit on the bench. As has been pointed out he's a cheap bastard. The only way though that this team challenges for a top half finish is if they tank hard and Pardon't is replaced. Unfortunately the schedule is not set up where a rough patch of games would finish Pardon't off. Only if this team is in the relegation zone come mid to late October. CAshley will only invest in players and staff if the club's chances of staying a cash cow in the EPL are threatened.
I'd swap Anita and Sissoko round in that, but neither are really creative players. Given Kebab's shot it may even make more sense to play him in the advanced role, or perhaps buy a creative attacking midfielder in the ilk of Ozil or Willian or Mata etc etc. What we need is to employ someone more qualified to be a Director of Football than anyone else in Europe. Someone who can call any manager whenever he wants (perhaps he previously worked as a BT engineer?). Someone who's happy to sit in his North London home and earn more in three months than probably any of us will in three years, whilst doing nothing. He'll get us some players.
You're right, spot on, about Pardew, far too negative in games. Never talks about his intentions to cause the other team trouble, but always about how we can nullify their threat. We need to be taking the initiative and going after teams. We do have some good players, and while I love Ben Arfa, he's more about dynamic moments of brilliance rather than an irrepressible, creative heartbeat for the team. If we could add one ball-playing midfielder to knit all those good players together, a Riquelme or Laudrup in their prime, and if Cisse rediscovers his form from two years ago we would be laughing. Not easy to find mind you.
Just to clarify, I see that more as a revolving three-man midfield (though if Marveaux were in the game that couldn't happen, obviously). All three have their moments going forward and are at least passable in defense.
Oh, NUFC. Naming Ryan Taylor in your 25-man (24 in our case) squad for the fall despite having zero chance of playing....is the most Newcastle thing ever.
Yeah, HBA is more Robben than David Silva. More flair and nose for has own goal than providing opportunities for his teammates. Newcastle has a real playmaker if Cabaye has his head on straight and he seems to be the only one capable of producing those Riquelme moments. What Newcastle lacks, a real striker may help to cover up the deficiency. I'm hoping Remy could be that spackle that covers Newcastle's cracks. Without a true dangerman, HBA has no reason to believe his "moments of brilliancy" will be finished. Unfortunately Cisse had the half season of his life but Newcastle (and the fan base) had no idea that was an aberration and not what to expect from him. Beside the point, I doubt HBA would be much more accommodating if he had a true finisher up top.
...and thats why Cabaye wants to leave and has been shit last season, he's being told to play in a way that he can't. Remember Tevez petulantly refusing to play for Pardew at West Ham? Remember how Pardew handled it? Fast forward to now. Cabaye's "attitude" toward playing now and Tevez's toward playing then are identical. Thats is what pisses me off the most; how short people's memory is about how badly Pardew handled Tevez and Mascherano back then. Its as if since he got the LMA award for manager of the year its all been erased.
Great blog entry that. On the score of transfers, have you lot noticed that our one time target Stephen Hunt is a free-agent? As is Yossi Benayoun. Both look likely to sign for top tier clubs this week. Both have a little creativity about them and potentially that little something we need in midfield. I'd take either or both for nothing. I'd imagine though that we've not even looked into it.