Mike Ashley and Sports World

[Sheikh Rattle n Roll]

Apologies if this is contained within the many De Jong threads, but does anyone else feel that this letter from Newcastle to The FA is simply sour grapes and has been sent because Mike Ashley is simply pissed off with Sheikh Mansour?

I have read a few posts on a Newcastle Forum, where it has been said that Ashley and his sidekicks (including Dennis Wise), were meant to meet in London a few years back with representatives of Sheikh Mansour, but they missed the meeting, or were late for it because they went on a bit of a session. It could be complete bollocks, but it is widely believed that Sheikh Mansour looked at a number of Clubs before choosing City.

On top of this, Soccer Sport (or whatever they are called now) are known to be really annoyed that they have been unable to sell City merchandise in their stores, with City controlling merchandise and recently choosing Kitbag to be a Service Provider, without giving Soccer Sport a look in (see comment about missed meeting for reason).

 

[Dave Ewing's Back 'eader]

Apologies if this is contained within the many De Jong threads, but does anyone else feel that this letter from Newcastle to The FA is simply sour grapes and has been sent because Mike Ashley is simply pissed off with Sheikh Mansour?

I have read a few posts on a Newcastle Forum, where it has been said that Ashley and his sidekicks (including Dennis Wise), were meant to meet in London a few years back with representatives of Sheikh Mansour, but they missed the meeting, or were late for it because they went on a bit of a session. It could be complete bollocks, but it is widely believed that Sheikh Mansour looked at a number of Clubs before choosing City.

On top of this, Soccer Sport (or whatever they are called now) are known to be really annoyed that they have been unable to sell City merchandise in their stores, with City controlling merchandise and recently choosing Kitbag to be a Service Provider, without giving Soccer Sport a look in (see comment about missed meeting for reason).

I am quite surprised that a team should adopt the stance that Newcastle have. Most teams will have a moan when that kind of thing happens to one of their star men, and as Newcastle can only use the singular, I suspect that Hughton is well pissed off after the lad's goal against EFC. People like Wenger have more of a reason for moaning but I think even Arsène would stop short of officially citing players he felt had transgressed and not been brought to book. It opens a catering-sized can of worms, and just invites the most punitive retaliation and before you know it there isn't a shred of goodwill between any managers, players or clubs. There was not a shred of protest from the NUFC players which tells us everything. I think that it could well be the result of a past slight, but it could also be Ashley and his cronies just having a cost-free swipe at MCFC to see if they can derail anything.

 

[Dubai Blue]

I'm pretty sure the takeover saga where Wise and Ashley got pissed involved Dubai, not Abu Dhabi.

Edit 1: <a class="postlink" href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1057300/Dubai-says--8216-8217-Ashley-drinks-cocktail-public.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footba ... ublic.html</a>

Edit 2: Read the OP again and I think I'm on about a different meeting. Same outcome caused by the behaviour of the same clueless fuckwit, though.

 

[mcfc1632]

I thought it was common knowledge that the Sheik looked at Newcastle (and Liverpool I think) before choosing us - makes sense from a business POV - lets just be happy he chose is

 

[kevodevo]

It's money they just want to bang in a claim against De Jing and City - they can't afford the poor lad's wages while he's off sick- they couldn't even afford to buy him- poor old bar codes.

 

[Sheikh Rattle n Roll]

I'm pretty sure the takeover saga where Wise and Ashley got pissed involved Dubai, not Abu Dhabi.

Edit 1: <a class="postlink" href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1057300/Dubai-says--8216-8217-Ashley-drinks-cocktail-public.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footba ... ublic.html</a>

Edit 2: Read the OP again and I think I'm on about a different meeting. Same outcome caused by the behaviour of the same clueless fuckwit, though.

Thanks for the link.... it could be the Geordies getting things wrong in their heads, so it could be that meeting they were referring to.

 

[Pigeonho]

People don't operate in such a petty manner. Its common knowledge it was between us, Newcastle and Arsenal. All this is, is a club sticking up for its player. Yes they're boring the tits off me now but look at it from their perspective. They have come up from the Championship with a squad pretty much as thin as it could be, talent wise, and all of a sudden they land a player the big boys in Europe have tracked for ages. This time last year if you'd said to a Geordie they'd have Ben Arfa in their team, a player who not so long ago Man United were after, they'd have spat their Newky Brown out in utter hysterics. All of a sudden though he's pulling the strings in their team. They are bound to be bitter and angry about it, because their best player is now out for the season and as a fan/director/manager/owner of that club it probably feels like the end of the world right now. Not everyone is in a position like we are and Chelsea are. Say the Sheikh bought Newcastle, they had the squad that we have now and we have just come up from the Championship. All of a sudden our manager has managed to pull off the coup of the decade and brought in, for example, Benzema from Madrid. We're all excited as fuck, he scores on his debut, plays Newcastle and then BANG..... Barton does exactly what De Jong did. We wouldn't see it as an accident, we wouldn't see it as just one of those challenges, not in the immediate aftermath at least. We'd be fuming and rightly so. This hasn't got anything to do with envy or sour grapes, its to do with one of our players putting out their best player for the season and they are just angry about it right now, like anyone would be.

 

[Sheikh Rattle n Roll]

People don't operate in such a petty manner.

Mike Ashley would! ;-)