Welcome to E-Goat :: The Totally Unofficial Royal Air Force Rumour Network
Join our free community to unlock a range of benefits like:
- Post and participate in discussions.
- Send and receive private messages with other members.
- Respond to polls and surveys.
- Upload and share content.
- Gain access to exclusive features and tools.
Trending
This Week
View More Trending
- 9,741
- 113
- 821
Kk
Kk
Just been watching Sultana sports news and they showed Keegans stats first time round he won 163 of 251 games this time from 21 games he has lost only 9 not to shabby. But in these crazy days probably not enough. Sadly there are only 3 domestic trophies he could win. 19 clubs won't win the title so by todays standards all but 1 will have "failed". The others are cups where luck of the draw plays a part. Newcastle have massive fan base who expect the world of their team but it's donkeys years since they won anything. The North East has a long and proud tradition of watching football in their 10's of 1000's but a poor record of winning things. Sunderland FA 1972, Boro dunno, Newcastle's last trophy of note can't remember Inter City Fairs Cup perhaps. Sadly the fans think they can mix it with the big boys and the cheque book says they can't but that won't stop the endless dreams.
Kk
Just been watching Sultana sports news and they showed Keegans stats first time round he won 163 of 251 games this time from 21 games he has lost only 9 not to shabby. But in these crazy days probably not enough. Sadly there are only 3 domestic trophies he could win. 19 clubs won't win the title so by todays standards all but 1 will have "failed". The others are cups where luck of the draw plays a part. Newcastle have massive fan base who expect the world of their team but it's donkeys years since they won anything. The North East has a long and proud tradition of watching football in their 10's of 1000's but a poor record of winning things. Sunderland FA 1972, Boro dunno, Newcastle's last trophy of note can't remember Inter City Fairs Cup perhaps. Sadly the fans think they can mix it with the big boys and the cheque book says they can't but that won't stop the endless dreams.
- 1,743
- 63
- 162
I gave up my season ticket for St James's years ago...they didn't come to see me when I was bad! Today's news comes as no surprise; it's not the first time players have come and gone without the manager's knowledge..same thing happened years ago when Richard Dinnis was their manager. All the owner has succeded in doing is make the club the laughing stock of the football world. Shearer for manager??... I don't think so- he's got his head screwed on the right way and won't want to throw his hero status down the pan.
A
Albert Park
Guest
Looks like Wonky Eyes is getting the push now.
Wonky Wise
The Barcodes are getting all excited again.
Wonky Wise
The Barcodes are getting all excited again.
1
1GEORDIE1
Guest
Get rid of Wise. Drawing a fat wage packet for what?? Feck all from what most of us Black and Whites have seen.
I could do his job for a tenth of the money and I would still be well off.
Wise....on your bike mate!!
I could do his job for a tenth of the money and I would still be well off.
Wise....on your bike mate!!
Hammer and stillson
Corporal
- 369
- 16
- 0
Picture proof:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/berkshire/content/image_galleries/history_bbc_in_berkshire_gallery.shtml?9
DT_Xtremez_30:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/berkshire/content/image_galleries/history_bbc_in_berkshire_gallery.shtml?9
DT_Xtremez_30:
G
grumpyoldb
Guest
So, two high profile manaqers quit in two days............just as City start spending big bucks. ???
Trying to make themselves available in case someone else can't cope with the pressure..........???
I'm sure I'm wrong.................................but................???
Trying to make themselves available in case someone else can't cope with the pressure..........???
I'm sure I'm wrong.................................but................???
Nothing to do with pressure on King Kev here, this is plain undermining by the board. It pains me to say that even the stinky mackem tramps have got a better setup than us. Mike Ashley - as Steve Gibson will tell you, football is not a business as such - its a PASSION. Gisbon has thrown millions of his own money into the smoggies good and bad but as he is a fan he accepts it is part and parcel of the game.
However, selling your best assets for a quick short term profit, potentially endangering future income through hacked off fans - is that a viable business strategy? If mister ashley is indeed a billionaire, he could just set fire to £500 million and I'm pretty sure he'd have a rather good quality of life.
However, selling your best assets for a quick short term profit, potentially endangering future income through hacked off fans - is that a viable business strategy? If mister ashley is indeed a billionaire, he could just set fire to £500 million and I'm pretty sure he'd have a rather good quality of life.
propersplitbrainme
Warrant Officer
- 4,194
- 0
- 0
On SSN this evening Mike Ashley has confirmed he is putting the club up for sale. Another mega-bucks owner coming into the prem perhaps?
mad_collie
The Other Mods Made Me Do It
- 4,273
- 36
- 0
I won the lottery last night, I might put a bid in.
It's been ages since I had 3 numbers.
- 9,741
- 113
- 821
BBC news 24 read out extracts from his statement. Seems Ashley has got the message and will sell ASAP to a suitable bidder. He cites not being able to take his kids to games for fear of assault and the fans vocal objections to him carrying on as major reasons for wanting to sell. He reckons though that he and Keegan still get on. Who does he sell to good question.
The geordie fans will be hoping for a Man City moment. Capt Slog will be hoping for a Persimmon Homes buy out
A
Albert Park
Guest
14 Sep 2008
Mike Ashley - Official Statement
I have enjoyed sport since I was a boy. I love football. I have followed England in every tournament since Mexico '86. I was there to see Maradona and his hand of God. I know what it means to love football and to love a club. I know how important it is to other people because football is so important to me.
My life has been tied up with sport. It was the passion that I felt for sport that helped me to be successful with my business. That success allowed me to mix my passion and my business.
I bought Newcastle United in May 2007. Newcastle attracted me because everyone in England knows that it has the best fans in football. When the fans are behind the club at St James' Park it makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. It is magic. Newcastle's best asset has been, is and always will be the fans.
But like any business with assets the club has debts. I paid £134 million out of my own pocket for the club. I then poured another £110 million into the club not to pay off the debt but just to reduce it.
The club is still in debt. Even worse than that, the club still owes millions of pounds in transfer fees. I shall be paying out many more millions over the coming year to pay for players bought by the club before I arrived. But there was a double whammy. Commercial deals such as sponsorships and advertising had been front loaded. The money had been paid upfront and spent. I was left with a club that owed millions and part of whose future had been mortgaged.
Unless I had come into the club then it might not have survived. It could have shared the fate of other clubs who have borrowed too heavily against their future. Before I had spent a penny on wages or buying players Newcastle United had cost me more than a quarter of a billion pounds.
Don't get me wrong. I did not buy Newcastle to make money. I bought Newcastle because I love football. Newcastle does not generate the income of a Manchester United or a Real Madrid. I am Mike Ashley, not Mike Ashley a multi-billionaire with unlimited resources. Newcastle United and I can't do what other clubs can. We can't afford it.
I knew that the club would cost me money every year after I had bought it. I have backed the club with money. You can see that from the fact that Newcastle has the fifth highest wage bill in the Premier League. I was always prepared to bank roll Newcastle up to the tune of £20 million per year but no more. That was my bargain. I would make the club solvent. I would make it a going concern.
I would pour up to £20 million a year into the club and not expect anything back. It has to be realised that if I put £100 million into the club year in year out then it would not be too long before I was cleaned out and a debt ridden Newcastle United would find itself in the position that faced Leeds United.
That is the nightmare for every fan. To love a club that overextends itself, that tries to spend what it can't afford.
That will never happen to Newcastle when I am in charge. The truth is that Newcastle could not sustain buying the Shevchenkos, Robinhos or the Berbatovs. These are recognised European footballers. They have played in the European leagues and everyone knows about them. They can be brilliant signings. But everybody knows that they are brilliant and so they, and players like them, cost more than £30 million to buy before you even take into account agent commissions and the multi-million pound wage deals.
My plan and my strategy for Newcastle is different. It has to be. Arsenal is the shining example in England of a sustainable business model. It takes time. It can't be done overnight. Newcastle has therefore set up an extensive scouting system. We look for young players, for players in foreign leagues who everyone does not know about. We try and stay ahead of the competition. We search high and low looking for value, for potential that we can bring on and for players who will allow Newcastle to compete at the very highest level but who don't cost the earth.
I am prepared to back large signings for millions of pounds but for a player who is young and has their career in front of them and not for established players at the other end of their careers. There is no other workable way forward for Newcastle. It is in this regard that Dennis and his team have done a first class job in scouting for talent to secure the future of the club.
You only need to look at some of our signings to see that it is working, slowly working. Look at Jonas Guttierrez and Fabricio Collocini. These are world class players. The plan is showing dividends with the signing of exceptional young talent such as Sebastein Bassong, Danny Guthrie and Xisco. My investment in the club has extended to time, effort and yet again, money being poured into the Academy.
I want Newcastle to be able to create its own legends of the future to rival those of the past. This is a long term plan. A long term plan for the future of the club so that it can flourish.
One person alone can't manage a Premiership football club and scout the world looking for world class players and stars of the future. It needs a structure and it needs people who are dedicated to that task. It needs all members of the management team to share that vision for it to work.
Also one of the reasons that the club was so in debt when I took over was due to transfer dealings caused by managers moving in and out of the club. Every time there was a change in manager millions would be spent on new players and millions would be lost as players were sold. It can't keep on working like that. It is just madness.
I have put Newcastle on a sound financial footing. It is reducing its debt. It is spending within itself. It is recruiting exciting new players and bringing in players for the future.
The fans want this process to happen more quickly and they want huge amounts spent in the transfer market so that the club can compete at the top table of European football now. I am not stupid and have listened to the fans. I have really loved taking my kids to the games, being next to them and all the fans. But I am now a dad who can't take his kids to a football game on a Saturday because I am advised that we would be assaulted. Therefore, I am no longer prepared to subsidise Newcastle United.
I am putting the club up for sale. I hope that the fans get what they want and that the next owner is someone who can lavish the amount of money on the club that the fans want.
This will not be a fire sale. Newcastle is now in a much stronger position than it was in 2007. It is planning for the future and it is sustainable.
I am still a fan of Newcastle United. We, my kids and I, have loved standing on the terraces with the fans, we have loved travelling with the away fans and we have met so many fans whose company we have enjoyed. We have absolutely loved it but it is not safe anymore for us as a family.
I am very conscious of the responsibility that I bear in owning Newcastle United. Tough decisions have to be made in business and I will not shy away from doing what I consider to be in the best interests of the club. This is not fantasy football.
I don't want anyone to read my words and think that any of this is an attack on Kevin Keegan. It is not. Kevin and I always got on. Everyone at the club, and I mean everyone, thinks that he has few equals in getting the best out of the players. He is a legend at the club and rightly so. Clearly there are disagreements between Kevin and the Board and we have both put that in the hands of our lawyers.
I hope that all the fans get to read this statement so that they understand what I am about. I would not expect all of the fans to agree with me. But I have set out, clearly, my plan. If I can't sell the club to someone who will give the fans what they want then I shall continue to ensure that Newcastle is run on a business and football model that is sustainable. I care too much about the club merely to abandon it.
I have the interests of Newcastle United at heart. I have listened to you. You want me out. That is what I am now trying to do but it won't happen overnight and it may not happen at all if a buyer does not come in.
You don't need to demonstrate against me again because I have got the message. Any further action will only have an adverse effect on the team. As fans of Newcastle United you need to spend your energy getting behind, not me, but the players who need your support.
I am determined that Newcastle United is not only here today, but that it is also there tomorrow for your children who stand beside you at St James' Park.
Mike Ashley.
Mike Ashley - Official Statement
I have enjoyed sport since I was a boy. I love football. I have followed England in every tournament since Mexico '86. I was there to see Maradona and his hand of God. I know what it means to love football and to love a club. I know how important it is to other people because football is so important to me.
My life has been tied up with sport. It was the passion that I felt for sport that helped me to be successful with my business. That success allowed me to mix my passion and my business.
I bought Newcastle United in May 2007. Newcastle attracted me because everyone in England knows that it has the best fans in football. When the fans are behind the club at St James' Park it makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. It is magic. Newcastle's best asset has been, is and always will be the fans.
But like any business with assets the club has debts. I paid £134 million out of my own pocket for the club. I then poured another £110 million into the club not to pay off the debt but just to reduce it.
The club is still in debt. Even worse than that, the club still owes millions of pounds in transfer fees. I shall be paying out many more millions over the coming year to pay for players bought by the club before I arrived. But there was a double whammy. Commercial deals such as sponsorships and advertising had been front loaded. The money had been paid upfront and spent. I was left with a club that owed millions and part of whose future had been mortgaged.
Unless I had come into the club then it might not have survived. It could have shared the fate of other clubs who have borrowed too heavily against their future. Before I had spent a penny on wages or buying players Newcastle United had cost me more than a quarter of a billion pounds.
Don't get me wrong. I did not buy Newcastle to make money. I bought Newcastle because I love football. Newcastle does not generate the income of a Manchester United or a Real Madrid. I am Mike Ashley, not Mike Ashley a multi-billionaire with unlimited resources. Newcastle United and I can't do what other clubs can. We can't afford it.
I knew that the club would cost me money every year after I had bought it. I have backed the club with money. You can see that from the fact that Newcastle has the fifth highest wage bill in the Premier League. I was always prepared to bank roll Newcastle up to the tune of £20 million per year but no more. That was my bargain. I would make the club solvent. I would make it a going concern.
I would pour up to £20 million a year into the club and not expect anything back. It has to be realised that if I put £100 million into the club year in year out then it would not be too long before I was cleaned out and a debt ridden Newcastle United would find itself in the position that faced Leeds United.
That is the nightmare for every fan. To love a club that overextends itself, that tries to spend what it can't afford.
That will never happen to Newcastle when I am in charge. The truth is that Newcastle could not sustain buying the Shevchenkos, Robinhos or the Berbatovs. These are recognised European footballers. They have played in the European leagues and everyone knows about them. They can be brilliant signings. But everybody knows that they are brilliant and so they, and players like them, cost more than £30 million to buy before you even take into account agent commissions and the multi-million pound wage deals.
My plan and my strategy for Newcastle is different. It has to be. Arsenal is the shining example in England of a sustainable business model. It takes time. It can't be done overnight. Newcastle has therefore set up an extensive scouting system. We look for young players, for players in foreign leagues who everyone does not know about. We try and stay ahead of the competition. We search high and low looking for value, for potential that we can bring on and for players who will allow Newcastle to compete at the very highest level but who don't cost the earth.
I am prepared to back large signings for millions of pounds but for a player who is young and has their career in front of them and not for established players at the other end of their careers. There is no other workable way forward for Newcastle. It is in this regard that Dennis and his team have done a first class job in scouting for talent to secure the future of the club.
You only need to look at some of our signings to see that it is working, slowly working. Look at Jonas Guttierrez and Fabricio Collocini. These are world class players. The plan is showing dividends with the signing of exceptional young talent such as Sebastein Bassong, Danny Guthrie and Xisco. My investment in the club has extended to time, effort and yet again, money being poured into the Academy.
I want Newcastle to be able to create its own legends of the future to rival those of the past. This is a long term plan. A long term plan for the future of the club so that it can flourish.
One person alone can't manage a Premiership football club and scout the world looking for world class players and stars of the future. It needs a structure and it needs people who are dedicated to that task. It needs all members of the management team to share that vision for it to work.
Also one of the reasons that the club was so in debt when I took over was due to transfer dealings caused by managers moving in and out of the club. Every time there was a change in manager millions would be spent on new players and millions would be lost as players were sold. It can't keep on working like that. It is just madness.
I have put Newcastle on a sound financial footing. It is reducing its debt. It is spending within itself. It is recruiting exciting new players and bringing in players for the future.
The fans want this process to happen more quickly and they want huge amounts spent in the transfer market so that the club can compete at the top table of European football now. I am not stupid and have listened to the fans. I have really loved taking my kids to the games, being next to them and all the fans. But I am now a dad who can't take his kids to a football game on a Saturday because I am advised that we would be assaulted. Therefore, I am no longer prepared to subsidise Newcastle United.
I am putting the club up for sale. I hope that the fans get what they want and that the next owner is someone who can lavish the amount of money on the club that the fans want.
This will not be a fire sale. Newcastle is now in a much stronger position than it was in 2007. It is planning for the future and it is sustainable.
I am still a fan of Newcastle United. We, my kids and I, have loved standing on the terraces with the fans, we have loved travelling with the away fans and we have met so many fans whose company we have enjoyed. We have absolutely loved it but it is not safe anymore for us as a family.
I am very conscious of the responsibility that I bear in owning Newcastle United. Tough decisions have to be made in business and I will not shy away from doing what I consider to be in the best interests of the club. This is not fantasy football.
I don't want anyone to read my words and think that any of this is an attack on Kevin Keegan. It is not. Kevin and I always got on. Everyone at the club, and I mean everyone, thinks that he has few equals in getting the best out of the players. He is a legend at the club and rightly so. Clearly there are disagreements between Kevin and the Board and we have both put that in the hands of our lawyers.
I hope that all the fans get to read this statement so that they understand what I am about. I would not expect all of the fans to agree with me. But I have set out, clearly, my plan. If I can't sell the club to someone who will give the fans what they want then I shall continue to ensure that Newcastle is run on a business and football model that is sustainable. I care too much about the club merely to abandon it.
I have the interests of Newcastle United at heart. I have listened to you. You want me out. That is what I am now trying to do but it won't happen overnight and it may not happen at all if a buyer does not come in.
You don't need to demonstrate against me again because I have got the message. Any further action will only have an adverse effect on the team. As fans of Newcastle United you need to spend your energy getting behind, not me, but the players who need your support.
I am determined that Newcastle United is not only here today, but that it is also there tomorrow for your children who stand beside you at St James' Park.
Mike Ashley.
- 699
- 0
- 0
If I had the money I would buy St Jim’s Place and I would take great delight in turning it into an proper entertainment centre run by Billy Smart so the clowns there can have somewhere proper to perform. Better still; turn it into a block of flats to house all the illegal immigrants from Whitley Bay, Tynemouth and North Shields.
StickyFingers
Sergeant
- 833
- 43
- 115
Whats the betting the fat knacker sells it to Peter Ridsdale or Ken Bates to get back at us?
In the past when he first came in I was over the moon, sitting in the stands in his Toon top I thought we'd had it made, and now hes made it look we had a good deal in Freddy Shepard. Thats saying something. I'm hating my football club at the moment, yet another season over before its even begun. Cheers Mike.
And whats with all the love for Keegan? All he does in every job he's ever had is walk out. Did it with us once before with us, did it with England, he'll do it again if he comes back. He can stay gone the clown. Which manager in his right mind would come to Newcastle at the moment after the past year? Brian Little? Hes from the North and Wexham probably dont pay as well as Newcastle would even if it means being Wises whipping boy. Aye right.
Plus I doubt someone will assault Mike Ashleys kids. Idiot.
In the past when he first came in I was over the moon, sitting in the stands in his Toon top I thought we'd had it made, and now hes made it look we had a good deal in Freddy Shepard. Thats saying something. I'm hating my football club at the moment, yet another season over before its even begun. Cheers Mike.
And whats with all the love for Keegan? All he does in every job he's ever had is walk out. Did it with us once before with us, did it with England, he'll do it again if he comes back. He can stay gone the clown. Which manager in his right mind would come to Newcastle at the moment after the past year? Brian Little? Hes from the North and Wexham probably dont pay as well as Newcastle would even if it means being Wises whipping boy. Aye right.
Plus I doubt someone will assault Mike Ashleys kids. Idiot.
A
Albert Park
Guest
- 699
- 0
- 0
At last a Newcastle fan who can really see what "King Kev" is all about. As a Mackem, I salute you as one of the few Newcastle fans who does know what he is talking about.
- 699
- 0
- 0