In the nine years Mike Ashley has owned Newcastle United this is now our second relegation. We have spent several of the other years variously fighting relegation or in the The Championship. We had one decent season with a fifth place finish which now looks like a fluke.
We want you to contribute to a discussion using the comment boxes below to express your views on Ashley’s stewardship 
of Newcastle United, the people he has employed to run the club, his strategy and where United goes from here. Is this relegation too far now and is it time for sustained action to remove him from the club by all means at our disposal? Does the support have the will to make that happen? Do we have the unity and determination to stick together to effect a real change? Is it possible for a completely disenfranchised set of fans to make the change we want or are we just pissing in the wind?
Who could lead a campaign against Ashley and who would want to given our support can’t agree on the most minute of issue?’Who would want to step forward to take that task on given the abuse and vilification that comes with it
Is Newcastle United finally on the point of crashing and burning? Is the club set for an extended stay outside of the top division? Or can it bounce back and what needs to be done to make that happen?
Is the whole Rafa to stay line just a Keith Bishop PR ruse to draw a sting from what might be a poisonous atmosphere on Sunday at SJP?
You may wish to comment upon Lee Charnley’s frankly incredible e-mail to us which dropped into our in-boxes when relegation was confirmed. Click here to get it.
Express yourself below but please remain polite and respectful of each-other. We are all hurting now but remember we all support the same football club and are bound by that for better or worse.
My reply to Mike Ashley’s letter to Newcastle fans…
Dear Mr Ashley,
Thank you for your letter! What a surprise it was to hear from you, especially as it’s almost a year since you last got in touch (apart from that time when you told us the money was all gone, but we know that isn’t true, so we’ll not count that!)
It’s so good to know that after the club’s inevitable relegation, you are ‘sharing our pain.’ It’s always good to share, although I somehow doubt that your pain can reach the bottomless depths of ours, but I suppose it actually might do when you consider the millions of TV money that would have come our way next season and which you have now missed out on. (Mind you, I guess you’ll already have teams of underpaid workers out in China frantically churning out replica tops for the championship clubs that you can stock in the club shop, so that might boost the coffers a little? Every cloud and all that eh?)
I loved the bit where you said that “When I take on a challenge I am prepared to go through both good times and bad,” That’s fantastic news. Let’s hope we actually have some good times soon, because we’ve certainly had nine years of bad ones, and the law of averages would surely indicate that we’re due for a change in fortunes fairly soon. Won’t that be fun? There used to be good times at Newcastle I seem to recall, but that was before we met you. At least nine years ago! Wow! Doesn’t time fly?
Mind you, I’ve just remembered something! You know when you first came here you said you bought a football club because you just wanted to have some fun? Do you’remember that? In the days when you used to go to the Bigg Market and would buy everyone a drink to make them like you? Well, not being funny but a few of us were wondering if you’really meant that you wanted to have some fun at our expense? I bet you had a right old chortle when you got Dennis Wise up here to upset Wor Kev, and old Joe Kinnear (twice!) and ripped down the St James’s Park sign. Ha ha! Such jolly japes. I hope you enjoyed those good times because there haven’t been many other ones.
Anyway that aside, I think it’s lovely that you’ve always “tried to achieve the very best for Newcastle United.” It’s great that you mentioned that because, to be frank, it hasn’t always been obvious to us. I’m sure you will be thinking about the people who work at the club and who are probably desperately longing for the good times to come so that they know they still have a job and can pay their bills. Wouldn’t it be nice not to have to worry about all of that? Oh, wait a minute… That might be a concept you’re not familiar with.
So, moving on…I like the bit where you say “Many of you have expressed strong views about what we could have done differently” and that you’respect those views. Now you’re just being silly aren’t you? You tease! I bet you never really listen to those views at all do you? I might be wrong, but I’m guessing that you’ve got it all worked out from a profit and loss perspective and you just won’t be budged from that model, will you? Fair enough. What do we know? We’re just simple souls who want to see a team of players who work well together, who understand and respect each other, who are skilled at their jobs and who care passionately for our club and our city… Oh and who can actually play football in the position we put them in.
Some of us would even have gone as far as employing players with some experience in the Premier League and even managers with a good track record. A radical suggestion I know and one that might mess up the balance sheets, but it could have made the standard of play a bit better, and, who knows, we might even have had some good times by now?
I don’t want to be accused of teaching Grandma to suck eggs but here’s a thought. Have you ever considered employing people who actually know a bit about football? You know the sort of person I mean? Someone who is respected in the footballing community. Someone who can negotiate a deal for a player who will fit into the team and whose skills we need, rather than a cheap foreign import with good sell-on potential? Just a thought.
Now then. I know what a busy man you are and how you’really just want Mr Charnley to run things smoothly at the club for you, but if you think he needs a bit of a hand I’m more than willing to help. I’m quite good at Performance Management processes and would happily take some of the pressure off your senior staff by reviewing their progress towards targets and setting new SMART ones while they put their feet up for a while and get over the shock of being relegated. I can’t imagine it would take too long!
You mentioned in your letter that “the club will now be doing everything it can at all levels to try to ensure a swift return to its rightful place in the Premier League.” I don’t want to be presumptuous, but I don’t think we have a God given right to be in that league. I think we have to earn it and, once there, to continue to improve so that we can compete with the best.
And talking of the best reminds me that although Mr Charnley left it far too late to get him in, now that we have Rafa we need to do everything possible to persuade him to stay. He could be the difference between the good times and those all too familiar bad ones. But he would need to use his expertise to its fullest extent, without interference from the people you’ve put in charge but who clearly haven’t got a footballing brain between them.
And on that note, I shall bring my reply to a close, but just before I do I need to say one final thing. Never underestimate how important this club is to the fans, or indeed how important the fans are to the club. Newcastle United is the heartbeat of our city and right now it’s in need of a transplant.
Hope it’s not too long before we hear from you again.
Best wishes
A Sad Toon Fan
My reply to Mike Ashley’s letter to Newcastle fans…
Dear Mr Ashley,
Thank you for your letter! What a surprise it was to hear from you, especially as it’s almost a year since you last got in touch (apart from that time when you told us the money was all gone, but we know that isn’t true, so we’ll not count that!)
It’s so good to know that after the club’s inevitable relegation, you are ‘sharing our pain.’ It’s always good to share, although I somehow doubt that your pain can reach the bottomless depths of ours, but I suppose it actually might do when you consider the millions of TV money that would have come our way next season and which you have now missed out on. (Mind you, I guess you’ll already have teams of underpaid workers out in China frantically churning out replica tops for the championship clubs that you can stock in the club shop, so that might boost the coffers a little? Every cloud and all that eh?)
I loved the bit where you said that “When I take on a challenge I am prepared to go through both good times and bad,” That’s fantastic news. Let’s hope we actually have some good times soon, because we’ve certainly had nine years of bad ones, and the law of averages would surely indicate that we’re due for a change in fortunes fairly soon. Won’t that be fun? There used to be good times at Newcastle I seem to recall, but that was before we met you. At least nine years ago! Wow! Doesn’t time fly?
Mind you, I’ve just remembered something! You know when you first came here you said you bought a football club because you just wanted to have some fun? Do you’remember that? In the days when you used to go to the Bigg Market and would buy everyone a drink to make them like you? Well, not being funny but a few of us were wondering if you’really meant that you wanted to have some fun at our expense? I bet you had a right old chortle when you got Dennis Wise up here to upset Wor Kev, and old Joe Kinnear (twice!) and ripped down the St James’s Park sign. Ha ha! Such jolly japes. I hope you enjoyed those good times because there haven’t been many other ones.
Anyway that aside, I think it’s lovely that you’ve always “tried to achieve the very best for Newcastle United.” It’s great that you mentioned that because, to be frank, it hasn’t always been obvious to us. I’m sure you will be thinking about the people who work at the club and who are probably desperately longing for the good times to come so that they know they still have a job and can pay their bills. Wouldn’t it be nice not to have to worry about all of that? Oh, wait a minute… That might be a concept you’re not familiar with.
So, moving on…I like the bit where you say “Many of you have expressed strong views about what we could have done differently” and that you’respect those views. Now you’re just being silly aren’t you? You tease! I bet you never really listen to those views at all do you? I might be wrong, but I’m guessing that you’ve got it all worked out from a profit and loss perspective and you just won’t be budged from that model, will you? Fair enough. What do we know? We’re just simple souls who want to see a team of players who work well together, who understand and respect each other, who are skilled at their jobs and who care passionately for our club and our city… Oh and who can actually play football in the position we put them in.
Some of us would even have gone as far as employing players with some experience in the Premier League and even managers with a good track record. A radical suggestion I know and one that might mess up the balance sheets, but it could have made the standard of play a bit better, and, who knows, we might even have had some good times by now?
I don’t want to be accused of teaching Grandma to suck eggs but here’s a thought. Have you ever considered employing people who actually know a bit about football? You know the sort of person I mean? Someone who is respected in the footballing community. Someone who can negotiate a deal for a player who will fit into the team and whose skills we need, rather than a cheap foreign import with good sell-on potential? Just a thought.
Now then. I know what a busy man you are and how you’really just want Mr Charnley to run things smoothly at the club for you, but if you think he needs a bit of a hand I’m more than willing to help. I’m quite good at Performance Management processes and would happily take some of the pressure off your senior staff by reviewing their progress towards targets and setting new SMART ones while they put their feet up for a while and get over the shock of being relegated. I can’t imagine it would take too long!
You mentioned in your letter that “the club will now be doing everything it can at all levels to try to ensure a swift return to its rightful place in the Premier League.” I don’t want to be presumptuous, but I don’t think we have a God given right to be in that league. I think we have to earn it and, once there, to continue to improve so that we can compete with the best.
And talking of the best reminds me that although Mr Charnley left it far too late to get him in, now that we have Rafa we need to do everything possible to persuade him to stay. He could be the difference between the good times and those all too familiar bad ones. But he would need to use his expertise to its fullest extent, without interference from the people you’ve put in charge but who clearly haven’t got a footballing brain between them.
And on that note, I shall bring my reply to a close, but just before I do I need to say one final thing. Never underestimate how important this club is to the fans, or indeed how important the fans are to the club. Newcastle United is the heartbeat of our city and right now it’s in need of a transplant.
Hope it’s not too long before we hear from you again.
Best wishes
A Sad Toon Fan
Before Ashley came to NUFC, I would never have believed one man could bring NUFC to its knees, pit supporter against supporter, again and again. One man could ripped the soul and heart out of the club I loved with all my heart. One man has forced long time Nufc supporters to turn away from the club they love & cherish. My pride has gone for the club I’ve loved all my life. I cant be arsed to fight anymore.
Newcastle United is broken
He’ll produce a full performance report with a set of KPIs. What more do you want?
What’s Big Mike to do?
He can’t turn back the clock so to me there’s no use or value in listing his misdemeanours. We all know what they are.
To avoid this constant merry-go-round of underachievement, he needs to finally set the place up professionally. I doubt that Rafa Benitez will stay anyway, much as I’d love him to, but regardless of this, Mike Ashley has to get the structure right and the right people in. Will he though?
Then, in order to get us back up, in the short term he has to suspend the club wiping its own nose business, and invest to get us back up as soon as possible. By all means live within our means in the long term, but get the setup right to support it.
Apologies and expressions of sorrow are meaningless. Only through action will the situation be recovered.
I know this’ll be an unpopular post, but anyway,
Ashley appointed the guys to lead the club, Lee Charnley, Moncur and Carr. He gave them a whole load of money last season and in the transfer window (many will argue too little too late). They failed absolutely at their job. The transfers were mostly failures- whatever happened to the French fella we got for ’12million who we sent right back to France? McClaren was a mistake, but as an ex-England manager and the last English manager to win a trophy he had *some* pedigree (however laughable), still the greatest mistake was not axing him when we had that 20 days without a game and everyone went to Spain. He was obviously a lame duck by that time and hadn’t got results all season. Imagine if we got Rafa in at that time?!
The three clowns in the boardroom need to go and Rafa needs to stay. If Ashely can do that, then appoint a decent chairman with football experience, then perhaps he doesn’t need to sell (cos as everyone says here, wonga shirts keep being bought from Sports Direct and 50,000 turn up every week to eat the pies at St James’, so he’s probably happy to keep that income coming in).
Ashley is the probably only man who can convince Rafa to stay. if we can keep Rafa and get in a board worthy of the club, then we’ll be back up and win the league in 2018.
Well, according to the statement passed to him by his PR, Ashley is not going anywhere, if that is the case, I would rather they put their hands up and admit yeah we fucked up and start afresh with Rafa, not looking at him as a saviour of all things, but he is the best signing since Keven/Bobby and will if given carte blanche carry out a roots and all sweep through, which is what we need and put some love back in st james park
It isn’t about Charnley, Carr or any of the others brought in during Ashley’s tenure. It’s about Ashley. He appointed them all . Personally I’ve always believed he bought the club on a whim. Ashley was pretty much unknown as Sports Direct was a private company which went public and made him a billionaire overnight, once public the rules change but he didn’t and alienated everybody who did or said anything he didn’t like. I’m pretty sure he soon regretted buying the club but being Ashley he never admits to being wrong – at least not genuinely.
I don’t think Benitez will stay and am not convinced he would necessarily be the right choice in the Championship. He might be but it isn’t odds on by any means.
That statement by Charnley is a joke and it is just bewildering that someone with such a tiny brain has been running the club.
The saga of Ashley’s actions since buying the club Are all you need to know that the only solution is for him to go – the question is where and who the hell do we get to replace him?
–
There’s no doubt the incompetents at our club prepared the path to relegation as only they could but it still irritates me that the mackems aren’t joining us thanks to the services of a nasty little pervert. Apart from Byrne resigning (not too bad a sacrifice when you’re on ‘726k pa), nothing else has happened – complete silence. The luxury carpets at the FA & PL must be getting quite full and worn out at the edges with all the sweeping. It wasn’t until the trial that you’realised justly how badly the victim was treated and I’m still really cross.
Songs for Sunday,
Charnley Charnley clear your desk, Charnley clear your desk.
Hello Hello Charnley must go, Charnley must go.
I think the club is backed into a corner over Rafa. The strength of feeling from the fans is that they want him to stay. So much so I’d expect that will be the focus of the support on Sunday rather than protests.
Imagine if Ashley and his idiots let Rafa go (or get rid of him) and install another cheap option ‘head coach’ then persist with the current failed strategies. Something like that would potentially galvanise protests against them, maybe even see an exodus of fans.
If there’s been a toxic atmosphere at some matches before, I wouldn’t like to think what awaits should we be starting the Championship season with the same old nonsense and stupid decision making going on.
That said, I’ve got a nagging feeling we’re likely to end up with Ian Cathro in the role of ‘head coach’, and everything else remains as you were with some Keith Bishop spin, trying to dress it all up as a new dawn with lessons learned etc.
I agree with all of this but remember Rafa could choose to leave at which point Ashley/Bishop can spin it to say “he wanted to leave”…thus almost keeping the fans on side.
Sadly I think this will be the case and we’ll get what you suggested – a clear out with Cathro as head coach. Supporting NUFC these past few years has turned me into a pessimist of the highest order!
Couple for Sunday,
Hello Hello, Charnley must go Charnley must go.
Charnley Charnley clear your desk, Charnley clear your desk
We had him by the balls at the end of last season, he was on the ropes, that’s what his outburst on Sky was about . What happened? couple of signings you all went back. I gave up the year before, however if it’s not clear now that a huge boycott of games is needed then we get what we deserve. Yes it’s painful, but it’s a boil that needs to be lanced. By going back your feeding his passion for cash.
I hope Charnley is shitting his pants now in fear of losing his job, which should happen soon. The atmosphere should be high in an effort to persuade Rafa to stay. However I have no problem with side issues of Sack the Board. I have differing views on the players, for the wasters I move from getting rid and then insisting they stay to tell them if they want to play in the premier they will have to gain promotion.
This has been on the cards for 4 years since we finished 4th and failed to invest. That was the missed opportunity to cement our place in the top 6 at the time. Ashley would also have had increased opportunities to sell the club at a price that would have left him without losses. Football has and always will be about establishing momentum, and NUFC is a club that typifies this more than most. It’s either a meteoric rise (Keegan/Robson) or a rapid slump (Ashley years). The only person who should suffer is Ashley as it was his flawed strategy of no net investment, appointment of incompetents and no ambition. Most of the players that have arrived during Ashley’s reign have one eye on the exit door as soon as they put on the B&W shirt. They have never expected to achieve anything as a group of men, so no collective team spirit. I would happily go down to the conference if we could get rid of Ashley and the supporters take the club on. But that will never happen as he would lose ‘250m, and he can’t be seen as a financial failure. If we could provide him with a truly empty SJP then we might persuade him to cut his losses. However, I would give him one last throw of the dice if he can retain Benitez, but he must give him full control of all football matters. If Ashley were to go back on such a deal, we all know that Rafa would walk, unlike the lick spittle Pardew. Plan B would then need to be executed – abandon the club on mass. We need to take a leaf out of the ‘Spirit of Shankley’ and be a collective with power. Why can they do it and not us? Have the Thatcher years sucked all the fight out of the Geordies? We are too divided and Ashley continues to rule. And too many of our support are more interested in meeting their mates in the pub than expressing their collective power. Cardiff at home 2 years ago as an example. I’ve paid for my ticket so I’m staying put to the end. So short sighted. We will have to make sacrifices to get what we want, but before then let’s see if Benitez stays.
*5th
Lets get serious.
The teams relegated, back to a division full of decent teams with ambition and supporters who love their clubs.
The championship is competitive, perhaps more so than the premiership. If we do well we can bounce back but if not, so what, its football.
My prediction for next season which could be a good price? Newcastle to go up Sunderland to go down.
as a random aside… can anyone tell me why we are above Norwich in the table?
Same points, same goal difference, same goals for/against… what does it come down to next?
Just curious!
It will be head to head meetings I think (?). We beat each other this season but our 6-2 win over them at home means more than the 2-3 loss.
* looks around to check if anyone can confirm *
Alphabetical
Time to change our name to Aardvark Athletic, be top of the league for one minute every season.
Creating the football board was a master stroke by Ashley – built in deniability that any of this is his fault. Coupled this with his recent statements of “I provide a bank account and once it’s empty that’s it” and this entire mess falls on Charnley’s shoulders – a man either too thick to realise he’s being played or happy to take all blame and criticism for a small fee – which ‘150k is for a few years service – he’s hardly employable now is he?!
Charnley may be sacked, but Ashley will simply replace him with another thicko happy to take a ‘150k salary for a few years abuse.
I don’t care for the “better the devil you know” argument with Ashley. We know this brand of cancer has no interest in properly developing our club. I’d rather take a chance on another owner.