Moderate Power
Central Defender
Newcastle is self financing as a Premier League club. Sunderland were not.Think I had read or heard something looking at the direct correlation between wages and success in football and the link is there. But Ashley is not all of a sudden going tonchange what he does (which is his right of course) and we exist to finish 17th. As a fan it's just boring and joyless, which in turn leads to apathy. And re managers, there's not many I would trust, and that's a hard one in itself. Wilder brought in some expensive dross at Sheff Utd, but then every manager at every level can be guilty of that.
The greatest danger may be if Ashley one day does what Ellis Short did, and just not put any more money in at some point.
Ashley could recuperate any equity and loan finance through a sale.
He plays a game of Russian roulette every year which is to gamble on 17th and ask for more than such an under-invested club is worth.
It looked (to him) that he had pulled off “the Sting” last year.
He knows he is riding his luck on both counts if he can ever get somebody to stump up £300m and survive the annual game of chance.
He must know the cost of his bet going wrong (relegation) is a huge loss to himself at a time that his retail operation is racking up significant losses.