Mike Ashley

[Joakim]

Hvis det du sier stemmer, Daniel (ikke at jeg har noen grunn til å tvile) så skjønner jeg virkelig ikke hvorfor Alan Pardew ikke ennå har tatt hatten sin og forlatt klubben med æren og ryggraden i behold. Da kunne han kanskje også funnet seg gode klubber i fremtiden.

Men å godta å bli overkjørt på den måten, og bli degradert til en coach, det skjønner jeg ikke hvordan Pardew på noen måte kan finne seg i.

Godt å se at Llambias har moralske skrupler da. Har alltid tatt han for å være mer intelligent enn ryktet hans tilsier.

[lefsen]

Kanskje fordi Pardew synes det er bedre å ha en jobb hvor verden rundt han TROR han er manager, enn å gå arbeidsløs? Han får neppe noen annen jobb i PL for å si det sånn.

[torfinn]

Pardews move bør være å være ærlig i media og gi tjukken og Kinnear det glatte lag. Da kan han vel bli sparket, men få cash. Taperen er selvsagt klubben, men vi er fucked uansett hva som skjer.

[Eriksen]

Pardew tjener vel ganske mye mer på å heller bli sparket uansett da.

[torfinn]

My point.

[Eriksen]

Oida, så ikke ditt innlegg før jeg skrev mitt.

[Kristoffer]

Akkurat nå er jeg livredd for å miste Pardew. Det trodde jeg ikke jeg skulle si en mnd etter sesongslutt.
For hans egen del bør han slutte - men for vår del håper jeg han blir.

[TommyWee]

Bør lage ny poll med samme spørsmål ovenfor, så kan vi se hvor mye det har endret seg i det siste.

[Daniel]

Bør lage ny poll med samme spørsmål ovenfor, så kan vi se hvor mye det har endret seg i det siste.

Done

[ElvenKind]

You can't get much more vulgar and pretty.

Satser på at det skal være "petty" (smålig) da "pretty" (pen) ikke er et ord jeg forbinder med noen av de gutta der :p

[ElvenKind]

Litt konspiratorisk så kan man jo nesten si at dette er en geni-strek av Ashley da det har tatt *alt* Pardew-hatet fra supporterne og lagt det på Kinnear. Pardew har jo mer eller mindre sympati fra en stor andel supportere nå...

Kanskje det er Kinnear som er den virkelige dokka her?

Som sagt, litt konspiratorisk. Just saying.

[Christian]

Even SportsDirect?s annual report trumpets Ashley?s business as the ?consumers? champion?. So why such current disregard for the customers and consumers otherwise known as Newcastle supporters?

Ashley?s appointment of Joe Kinnear as director of football on a three-year contract has been greeted with inevitable dismay by the majority of them. Their anger understandably intensified when Kinnear made derogatory remarks about them, questioning their intelligence in a radio interview. A SportsDirect employee showing such a lack of respect to customers would not last long.

Since it emerged that Kinnear was returning to St James? Park, the spotlight has primarily shone on the ebullient, often foul-mouthed, always opinionated Dubliner with the gift of the gaffe. After four years out of the game, Kinnear was hardly going to turn down the opportunity of such an influential role at such a prominent club. Three years? money? Thank you very much.
It is pointless blaming Kinnear. The real question is why Ashley has rolled this 66-year-old human hand grenade through St James? Park (unless it is an elaborate plan to try the patience of Alan Pardew to the point where the manager walks).
Ashley knows that Newcastle fans themselves will not walk away, that they are not like SportsDirect customers who can switch to another store if the service or goods are poor. Newcastle fans are loyal.

St James? Park dominates the city landscape figuratively and emotionally. Season‑tickets are a laminated show of faith. Deciding not to renew is a huge and painful step. Ashley understands that. So why push some towards considering cutting bonds made at birth? At the very least, some fans may simply record their dissent by limiting expenditure at the club shop, at the catering outlets, affecting Ashley?s profits.

Ashley is a brilliant businessman, an entrepreneur who incentivises his SportsDirect workforce to deliver impressive returns. I have only ever had five minutes in his company but even during that fleeting period it was impossible not to admire his sharp analytical mind. He took a couple of the footballing issues of the day, dismantled them and then put them back together, suggesting possible solutions. So his alienating of Newcastle fans defies the logic he applies to his working life.

So where to go from here? First, Ashley needs to remind Kinnear of some of the principles that make SportsDirect so successful. The new director of football has to show more respect to fans, staff and players. Creative tension may work in rock bands and theatrical troupes but teams and clubs need unity. Togetherness was one of the key ingredients of Wimbledon under Kinnear in the Nineties. There were some feisty characters in the dressing-room but they usually stood shoulder to shoulder when it counted, when the opposition threatened most.

At Wimbledon, some of the players would talk positively about Kinnear?s man-management qualities, the way he challenged them to do better. Marcus Gayle improved under Kinnear?s constant coaxing. When Gayle suffered a dip in form for the then Premier League side, Kinnear would shout: ?Do you want to go back to where you come from?? Back to the third tier.

If Ashley?s gamble is to pay off, he needs Kinnear to appreciate that the game has changed, that motivating modern millionaires requires more subtlety than his Wimbledon rhetoric. Footballers now are far more sensitive than the old Crazy Gang. If Kinnear wants to keep Newcastle?s best players, he cannot refer to Yohan Cabaye as Yohan Kebab. He called Charles N?Zogbia Charles Insomnia in 2009 and the winger left. It is disrespectful. I have interviewed Kinnear down the years and he is a far shrewder individual than the circus act currently filling bulletins and headlines. He must know this aggressive stance is dangerous. Ashley might want Kinnear to shake Newcastle up, avoiding a repeat of last season?s wobble, but not to the extent of civil war.

It is hard to imagine Ashley allowing one of his executives to belittle those business reporters who help to shape the image of SportsDirect. Kinnear should urgently rethink his denigrating of what he calls the ?snidey press?, who are actually individuals who care about the club and spend their life chronicling its importance to so many. Deliberately fostering a stressful environment is also hardly sensible for somebody who suffered a heart attack in 1999 and underwent heart bypass surgery in 2009. Kinnear should calm down and make some friends in one of the country?s friendliest cities.

Ashley also needs to advise Kinnear that his old recruiting grounds, lower leagues and non-League, are not as fertile as before. Newcastle have enjoyed success bringing in players from France. Ashley needs Kinnear to work well with the chief scout, Graham Carr, whose talent-spotting skills are much admired by other chairmen. Newcastle?s statement must have made painful reading for Carr and Pardew, saying they ?will report into Joe?. Kinnear is in charge. The new director of football insists he will not pick the team but he?s above the man who does. Pardew has effectively been downgraded to first-team coach, unfair on a decent manager.

This is no way to run a club or a business.


by Henry Winter in today's Telegraph

[Fluffy]

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/mike-ashley-wants-blood-after-last-seasons-trauma-at-newcastle--and-it-wont-stop-with-derek-llambias-8665918.html

[Joakim]

Skremmende. Urovekkende. Kall det hva du vil. Dette er et mareritt som er i ferd med å bli til virkelighet.

Det vil ikke overraske meg et sekund om Graham Carr er nestemann ut. Da er krisen et faktum, og farsen komplett.

Og Kinnears oppgave virker å være å presse Pardew ut, eller presse Pardew til å prestere.

Mike Ashley er en ekstremt dyktig forretningsmann. Men hvordan man styrer en fotballklubb, se det har han ikke peiling på. Og han beviser det bare ved å ansette Joe Kinnear som "sine øyne og øre" på treningsfeltet.

[ripsgard]

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/exclusive-newcastle-uniteds-star-talentspotter-graham-carr-on-brink-as-joe-kinnear-sparks-walkout-at-st-james-park-8665925.html <- tja... hva skal man si? MA graver sin egen og VÅRES grav!