One thing that we can say about Newcastle United is that they never fail to give us a strange variety of news on a pretty consistent basis. This is in no thanks to the man behind the veil, Mike Ashley. Since 2007 he has always managed to surface large amounts of controversy around him.
To shed some light on how many controversies this man has caused in the space of six years, here are a few; appointing Dennis Wise as Director of Football in 2008, failed to sell the club on numerous occasions but fully committing his future in late 2009, further in 2009 he decided to sponsor the stadium with his company re-branding it the ‘Sports Direct @ St James’ Park Stadium’, in December 2010 he sacked Chris Hughton despite doing reasonably well in the Premiership following an immediate return to the Premier League, sold Andy Carroll, Newcastle’s young starlet at the time for £35million to Liverpool and more recently in 2011 fully renamed St James’ Park to the Sports Direct Arena.
Now he has managed to rile the Newcastle fans again by making a decision to, well basically, punish Alan Shearer. With Shearer being a god to most Newcastle fans, it all seems very petty to strip the title of a bar named after him. Shearer’s bar had originally been instated in 2005 lasting just 8 and a-half years. For speaking what views he holds, Shearer has been socially disconnected from the club. Of course Shearer has shrugged of the notion and insists he will still purchase a season ticket like everyone else. Despite trying to diffuse the situation and say the plans were in place before Shearer’s comments, you can’t help but think why, why has Ashley gone and done this again? This man just keeps constantly shooting himself in the foot. After going through a period of relative ‘quietness’ and just as people start to think ‘ok, he might be doing a good job’. He goes and does it again. So why is it that Ashley seems to be doing this on a regular basis, it’s far too consistent and too much on a larger scale to be just random mistakes. Is it actually all intentional and very clever, and perhaps there is precise methodical action to the madness that we see. What I’m saying is, Mike Ashley knows exactly what he is doing.
It is simple, you don’t manage to be the CEO of a very successful sports franchise or a chairman of one of the biggest fan based clubs in England without holding a few brain cells. Ashley is in exactly the position he is in to make the decisions no one else can. These decisions, especially those controversial ones that Ashley has made, have seen him get slaughtered by fans, the press and past and present players. Yet every one has been for the greater good for the club, not Ashley. Ashley is the man to take the hit in order for the club to gain, he will be that man who is hated, that person to blame so the club can go on. I’m not saying Mike Ashley is in fact Batman, but he certainly embodies a high level of sacrifice for the greater good like our caped crusader. He makes those decisions no one else can or will do and take all the stick that comes with it, so no one else has to suffer, so the club can prosper. Going back over some of his controversial decisions we see an immediate onslaught of anger and rebellion, and then it calms down. The same order repeats itself. Why does it calm down? Because it turns out to be right decision. Looking at those previous examples, deciding to take away the name ‘St James’s Park’ was a massive decision. No one could understand it and near on everyone hated it. But it grabbed peoples attention, it was such an ingenious way of sponsoring your own company. The commotion died down and in late 2012. Wonga took over a 4 year deal as sponsors, re-instated the stadium name as St James’ Park and invested £1.5million into the youth academy. For all the slack he got, Ashley’s move to do this paid off and he was able to put together such a nice transfer kitty for the influx of French players you now see today. The fans are back to being happy and all has ended well. Another example was deciding to not keep Shearer on, employing Chris Hughton as manager led Newcastle back into the Premier League in one season. A tough feat, clubs struggle with finances and adjustment into a new league, but with Ashley, he steered Newcastle in the right direction. Which led to further controversy when Hughton found himself sacked, despite Newcastle being in a promising league position. The outcome of this was that Pardew was hired and Newcastle finished 5th the following season. Everyone knew that sacking Hughton would cause uproar, but only Ashley saw that some one with better managerial experience and tact could guide Newcastle further. A pattern is emerging.
Drawing this back to more recent events, fans were up in arms about the decision to strip the grounds bar name ‘Shearer’s’ to ‘Nine’. However lets think about this logically. Ashley appointed Joe Kinnear for a reason he thinks deeply important, Ashley isn’t stupid, he knew how much controversy this would cause, so let’s give Kinnear a chance. Shearer jumps the bandwagon and blasts his thoughts publicly. Now when you’re as big a man as Shearer in Newcastle, you’re going to get heard and you’re going to get a following. When Shearer voices something as public as this and as negative as this, Ashley has every right to protect the club. There is no doubting Ashley’s commitment and passion, and he will go so far as to risk allegiance with a club hero to protect the club. If nothing, this was a very admirable and brave move. Ashley has given Shearer his fair amount of chances at the club. Some of the gloss was lost when Shearer took charge and failed to avoid relegation. Shearer has had his chance and failed it. As said, Ashley appointed a different manager for the Championship and Newcastle came back up.
Of course there are some fans that will want Ashley out as soon as possible and there are some that are used to this behavior by now. Speaking on Twitter, a Newcastle fan group, @NUFCFansUtd stated that they would like more communication between Ashley and themselves. It is very evident that no matter what decision Ashley makes it is always for the clubs greater good. It is time that Ashley is praised for the work he has done and recognised as being one of the only true brave men in football. Not many people can cut the slack like he does. If more trust is put into Ashley, Newcastle fans will enjoy a much better life.
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