10 Questions from the Chronicle for Ashley...the Chronicle growing a pair at last?

http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/ten-questions-want-ask-newcastle-5835966


Ten questions we want to ask Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley

The Chronicle has inside put ten questions to the man who holds the hopes and dreams of ever Toon fan in the palm of his hand

Mike Ashley wasn’t available for interview yesterday.

Meanwhile, in other news, night followed day, followed night

The man who owns Newcastle United doesn’t do interviews. He doesn’t even have a right-hand man at the club any more to act as his mouthpiece.

Football journalists whose job it is to cover the club – and this newspaper in particular – are constantly criticised by supporters for not asking the hard questions.

They, quite rightly, demand to know what is going on at St James’ Park during these troubled and peculiar times.

But who do we ask these hard question to? Alan Pardew, with the best will in the world, is only the manager. He can’t say what his boss is thinking.

As for Joe Kinnear, the director of football, he can’t sign anyone or pronounce the name of existing players, never mind anything else.

No the buck – and he has almost three billion of them – stops with Ashley and we can’t get near him.

But after the summer transfer window closed without the club spending a single penny on a permanent player – which might be a first for any Premier League outfit – we need to ask the owner these hard questions.

Even if there is little chance of receiving any sort of reply.


1. Do you actual like owning Newcastle United?

Let’s start with an obvious one. It seems to me that you bought the club on a whim because it looked like jolly larks having your own Premier League team.

You drank pints with the fans, stood with the travelling support and enjoyed the adulation for a bit.

But then it went sour. Bad decisions, bad results and an awful relegation.

You wanted to sell and nobody wanted to take the club off your hands.

We are now a few years down the line and there is not the smallest hint that you take any enjoyment of being the owner of Newcastle United.

You seem unwilling or at least incapable of strengthening the playing squad, which leads everyone to think that the club is a tool to promote Sports Direct and nothing else.

Do you feel as if it’s a burden.

You are a fantastically rich man. It’s not like being left with a mortgage you can’t pay. You can walk away any time you like. Just a thought.


2. Are you actively trying to sell the club?

If so, do you have an asking price or anyone lined up as a potential buyer? From the outside looking in, that would appear to be your plan.

Can I even go one further and enquire whether Rangers is next on your list? That is certainly the strong rumour doing the rounds in Glasgow since you became the third biggest shareholder.

It would make a lot of sense because Rangers might be in the grubber now, but they will recover soon enough and that club has the potential to be a real cash cow.

Will you only walk away if the next man is willing to pay over the odds?


3. Please explain Joe Kinnear.

Honestly, at least try.

If I were being a cynic, I would suggest your friend is only there to put pressure on the manager.

His job was to sign players. He didn’t sign anyone – Loic Remy can hardly be described as his bit of business.

In any other walk of life, this would surely mean at worst a sacking, or at best a severe reprimanding.

As a successful and hard-nosed businessman, it seems odd to keep on a man who has quite obviously failed.

Or is Kinnear there for another reason?


4. Are you deliberately ostracising Alan Pardew?

Because that’s what it looks like.

In public he has spoken time and again about getting players over the line. He has been left high and dry.

Is this a tactic or incompetence on the part of Kinnear? Is the manager being forced out the door?

If the DoF has done nothing wrong, then you are obviously happy with going into the rest of the season with a weaker squad than ended last season.

Managers gets sacked for bad results.

If Pardew goes, is Kinnear his replacement?


5. Do you care whether Newcastle win or lose? Does a result, good or bad, affect your mood?

This is important. The fans live and breath this great football club. They are suffering right now.

Did you sleep after last season’s derby defeat? Did you go in a bad mood after the humiliation at Liverpool?

Or does it not make a blind bit of difference?


6. Why do you believe Newcastle supporters don’t deserve to know what you are up to?

Rich men are not known for their empathy, this is true.

But there are 50,000 people who pay good money, many of them who can ill afford it, into your coffers every home match.

If they all disappeared, Newcastle United would be nothing.

Surely to goodness they should be kept informed.

I don’t mean revealing every minute of every meeting, but a bit of transparency would not hurt.

Unless you have something to hide, of course.


7. What’s that website all about?

You know, the Sports Direct News one that had Manchester United buying Yohan Cabaye on Monday night, and Newcastle in for Wayne Rooney a while back.

It does you no service at all. It’s an embarrassment, in case you didn’t know. Shut it down.


8. Is annoying the supporters something you enjoy?

Wonga, changing the name of the stadium, the appointment of Kinnear.

Surely you knew what the reaction would be when those decisions became public. Many fans believe these are deliberate ploys to anger them. If that’s the case, it’s working.

If not, then who told you that any of these choices were good ones?


9. Have we got this all wrong and in fact there is a grand plan?

The thing is, Mike, nobody knows what you are up to. We can guess, but that’s really all it is, a guess.

And when there is a vacuum, it tends to be filled with nagativity.

Maybe you can see the way English football is going. Perhaps you have worked out that the bubble is about to burst and the other rich owners are getting bored and will leave the clubs with huge debts. And then Newcastle rise to the top.

Do you know something we don’t? Is the club strategy in place because all your competitors are teetering on the brink?

If so, well played. If not, please see points one to eight.


10. And finally, how much do you pay the North East Press pack to write nice things about you?

This is one straight from the websites and social media.

The fans would like to know what it costs to ensure us lot don’t criticise you, although I personally can’t remember one piece appearing that has praised you.

If you could come out and admit that, in fact, you have no influence on the written media at least, then that would be nice.

 

What questions would you ask the fat man?

 

Those really aren't bad.

 

Q. Mike, are you really Jabba the Hutt, and have no pockets to keep your money

 

Neil Cameron / Lee Ryder putting their jobs on the line maybe ??

the renowned vengeance of Ashley will ban the Chronicle surely

 

Fair play to them... Its all fine and good having a rant on here and down the pub etc but until someone with a voice actually stands up to the Chunky Geriatric and tells them how it is... nothing will be done.

Unfortunately like many people say, unless we start getting attendances sub 20,000 things wont be different.

Maybe there in lies a question...?

"Would you consider making changes if we started to boycott matches?"

 

you mean boycoutt

 

Boycoutt like!

 

Any chance of a loan Mike?

 

All these questions needed to be asked, now they need answers, which we have a snowball chance in hell of getting. The questions I'd mainly like answered are 1,2,3,6,7,9. Especially number 7 the website is a joke nothing on it is evr right and I swear he only puts up negative/ridiculous story's.

 

Sorry was meant to like the boycoutt comment but won't let me change it

 

Are you still wearing pork pie patches or have you completely kicked the habit?

 

I'm almost sure that NUST brought in a specialist to give advice on what was going on at the club and get to the bottom of things ( there was talk of a supporters buy out at one time, but that didn't get off the ground ), it seems we're not the only club to have had this kind of problem before. I think Whelan has caused unrest in the same way that Ashley has.

Money talks as they say. It doesn't always say the right words though.

 

Do you want NUFC to be successful or just a business to make a profit?

 

It would simply be an echo of question 2.

Are you selling the club?

Who are you talking to?

With FFP rules kicking-in from this season, it seems the days of Abramovic-style sugar-daddy's are gone. No bad thing as football has become as financially obscene as American sports.

It would though, mean that any profit made by the club would be re-invested and to the betterment of Newcastle United.

That's all the fans want.

Is that too much to ask?

 

I think all we ever wanted was for good communication channels to be prevalent.
We all love the club so it's only natural that we have a strong interest in how it is run.

 

I think I can speed the process up as I have the answers:

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

Next.

 

Boba Fett or Jango Fett - who do you rate highest as far as bounty hunters go

 

How much would it take to buy the club?

 

I would put the following to him:-

It seems that the location of the newly restored gates to St James's Park have been put in a place that could be seen as a message to fans....i.e. if you were to go through them you would be going nowhere.

It would seem that a lot of fans are of the opinion that this exactly where the club is heading under your ownership.

Please discuss.