deanoakaram4life

Is this the return of the “Shaun Barker” type fee ?

Anyone, literally anyone, who saves our club is welcome. Out of everyone seriously linked to date, I'd choose Mike Ashley. He knows how to get a club on a sound footing and promoted. Proven.
Sam Rush was involved in a set of transfer business which did more for his clients bank balance than the club's progress. Appleby presided over solid but grindingly slow progress. Gadsby (and the LoG) dug us out of a hole but then....shudder.
It's a no-brainer for me....but any port in a storm.

Newcastle fans are delusional when evaluating Ashley’s tenure. I am genuinely perplexed when they say he never ‘invested’ in the club:
He purchase the following:
Joel Linton £40m
Joe Wilock £25m
Almiron £21m
Calum Wilson £20m
Saint Maximin £17m
Florian Thauvin £15m
Jamal Wilson £15m
Wijnaldum £15m
Mitrovic £15m 
The way he ran Newcastle enabled them to attract their new owners as they are in a position of stability and attract wealthy investors thanks to the way he ran their club. Same will probably happen at West Ham. 
 
Ashley in for me, no brainer.
On a side note, glad Kirchner is out the picture. Ridiculous how he declared his intentions early and made it public when he did. Clearly couldn’t match rival bidders and tried to convince us that it was the administrators not him. He couldn’t admit he wasn’t the preferred choice. From the start I knew it wouldn’t work out given how he behaved and the way Derby fans were swooning over him was embarrassing! 
 
Oh well, nearing a conclusion. 
 
 

Maybe I'm in a minority, but I wouldn't mind Mike Ashley being involved with Derby.
I can see beyond the newcastle stuff, as to be totally honest I regard their fans amongst the most self centred, deluded, sense of self importance and grandeur. File alongside spurs and villa fans.
Ashley isn't God, but he certainly isn't Satan either.
His financial clout, experience of admin businesses and all their pitfalls will be a bonus.
We need to look at our situation we are currently in. Not talk rubbish about how he won't invest when we are in the prem. We aren't in the lrem and probably won't be for a very very very long time.
This club needs a 10 year re set.

Derby county doesn’t just cover the city of Derby. There will be fans in Matlock, Bakewell, Buxton, Belper etc who will literally not know what to do with themselves! 

Derby county doesn’t just cover the city of Derby. There will be fans in Matlock, Bakewell, Buxton, Belper etc who will literally not know what to do with themselves! 

Jamie Ward to come back ? he’s firing them in for Buxton! 

Seeing as the EFL, PL etc., are ignoring the fact that the rest of the clubs in the Championship are only there to make up numbers, could supporters' groups from this division take their own action as a fan demonstration. No away support at Fulham, Bournemouth, WBA and Sheffield United? Like many, I was disgusted with the price increase by Sheffield United, but if jointly all away supporters boycotted their grounds and even limited the number of tickets allocated for them when they play away, that may be a start of a message clubs aren't going to stand for this any more?

Jamie Ward to come back ? he’s firing them in for Buxton! 

Jamie Ward to come back ? he’s firing them in for Buxton! 

Jamie Ward to come back ? he’s firing them in for Buxton! 

No good chairman, in the history of football, has ever put a club in administration.
Only the worst of the worst in that particular vocation manage that, considerably worse when you began cash rich in the first place. 
There is no defending him. 

Have to wonder about Sam Rush given we now know we shouldn’t have trusted a single word that came out of Morris’ mouth. 

Ashley is the best option by far! He kept loyal to Newcastle during the years and could have easily jumped ship. 
 
We need a stable backer and Ashley would supply us with the sponsorship and funding to keep us going! 
 
People forget he actually backed the Toon heavily under Mcclaren and when they got relegated. 

Ashley is the best option by far! He kept loyal to Newcastle during the years and could have easily jumped ship. 
 
We need a stable backer and Ashley would supply us with the sponsorship and funding to keep us going! 
 
People forget he actually backed the Toon heavily under Mcclaren and when they got relegated. 

Ashley now at 50% on here.
I think I know why.
He has other local investments a.k.a. the Sports Direct sweatshop.
He is English.
He withstood fan criticism for a long time, kept Newcastle solvent, and didn't bail out until new ownership was secured.
He kept within FFP rules and never had to go into Administration.
In other words, he is the devil we know, which for many people is better than the devil you don't.
From his point of view, a Championship club will tie up fewer of his resources than a PL one, and we represent a safe home for his dosh due to the loyal fanbase.
We are desperate TBH and we won't have a pop at him too much if he does the deal, not for a while anyway.
Our model of investing in local & Academy talent is similar to Newcastle's already.
From his point of view, it will make a change to be actually welcome somewhere rather than being the subject of constant abuse from the ungrateful hordes LOL.
The main issue that always crops up at Newcastle, namely "we have 50,000 fans, why aren't we top of the PL and winning stuff?" etc, won't be a problem here for some time to come, thus he obtains a breathing space from all the flak.
In conclusion, we don't have to like the person taking over, or approve of his business methods, but he has done nothing illegal (as far as I know), he isn't just a front for a deeply oppressive dictatorial regime in a foreign country, and he isn't an American with no real knowledge of how English football works.  He is the devil we know and he has money.  We could do far worse.
IMO Ashley, right here right now, is the LEAST WORST option of those available, and that's why I voted for him on here.

I’d like Mike Ashley.  He knows the only way he’ll make any money out of this club is if it’s in the prem. he’ll create a sustainable atmosphere. 

Just been re-reading this topic and I'm just astonished there are those still willing to either defend the bloke or offer up apologetics for him. All of the 'achievements' come to naught if there isn't a club at the end of it and that's exactly what could happen.  As a best case scenario he's loaded up the club with a mountain of debt that cannot be maintained, pretty much guaranteed our relegation to the third tier for only the third time in our history and has arguably irreparably damaged our reputation in the footballing community.

Mel was a custodian of the club and absolutely nothing more, his job was to ensure the survival, maintenance, and prosperity of the club and in that he's absolutely 100% failed. Instead of acting as a custodian, he increasingly acted like the club was his train set with lavish unsustainable spending and big name appointments. None of us knew the true financial state of the club only he and Mr Pearce did it seems, and an owners job is to know when to put the brakes on and when not to. The last thing an owner should do is gamble the future of an institution on the hope you'll get promotion- it's exactly that type of thinking that Risdale had with Leeds that all but bankrupted them in the end. 

I won't even mention the completely disgraceful behaviour by Mel towards the staff and fans keeping us all in the dark during this period and his decision to pull the plug. I somehow doubt he'll end up selling his house or is wandering the street with a tin cup in the near future. 

The fans!

The fans!

The fans!

The fans!

The fans!

The fans!

The fans!