EPL Talk » Mike Ashley

Big Sam Sparks Rovers’ Revival

Michael Scallon — Sun, 10 May 2009 18:37:41 +0000

Allardyce's Arrival Has All But Staved Off Relegation

Who else could have saved Blackburn so effortlessly? Sat second bottom of the Premier League, five points from safety with just 13 points from 17 games, Sam Allardyce succeeded Paul Ince as Blackburn Rovers’ manager, and in less than 20 games he has made them all but safe – almost in second gear.

He took Bolton up, took them into Europe and developed them into a club so stable that even Gary Megson can keep them afloat with ease. His over-eagerness to join Newcastle perhaps has meant that he probably will be firefighting with clubs like Blackburn forever, but even that “marriage made in hell” was not as bad as first seemed: Mike Ashley sacked Allardyce with the Toon in the heady heights of 12th place, and subsequent failings have shown that Big Sam’s performance - in the cold, hard textbook of results – was in fact a relative success as he seemed - initially at least – to be able to wring the best of Mark Viduka and Obafemi Martins (the latter’s brace at Bolton on opening day the highest peak of his short managership). Ashley’s happiness to jump into bed with the fans meant that he immediately replaced Sam with Kevin Keegan – a man who, even four years previously had looked to sign a host of ageing nineties’ superstars for Manchester City (Robbie Fowler, Peter Schmeichel, David Seaman, Michael Tarnat, need I go on? ) and whose work in football for three years amounted to running a childrens’ “Soccer Circus” in Glasgow. It was like replacing Fabio Capello as England manager with Glenn Hoddle – and it was shabby treatment for a manager who, whilst not putting any trees up was definitely not going to make Newcastle relegation candidates.

Of course there are mitigating factors: Newcastle were in a shocking run of form, and the “brand of football” issue raised its ugly head once the results started to turn. He is oft-mocked for his “agricultural” style at Bolton, but with signings like Youri Djorkaeff, Ivan Campo, Nicolas Anelka and Jay-Jay Okocha, can you play completely long-ball football? His football tends to be direct, of course, but his organisation and motivation of players is second to none – at Bolton he came away with two draws from three games at Stamford Bridge during the José era, and with consecutive wins at Old Trafford in his first two seasons in the Premier League, surely he was the man to take Newcastle to the level they had slipped from since Bobby Robson left in 2005. I guess Mr Ashley had other ideas.

So Sam ended up at Blackburn. What had become (under Ince) a gung-ho football team with a brittle underbelly, became a drilled, structured outfit with an underbelly made of titanium. Benni McCarthy went from the outskirts of the side to a prolific Premier League goalscorer, Jason Roberts went from an Ade Akinbiyi impression to a spirited strike partner, and Ryan Nelsen has remembered how to defend: In other words, Blackburn are now a worthy Premier League side, who, with Big Sam at the helm can perhaps look towards Europe next season – after all, since Allardyce’s arrival, they have taken 27 points from 19 games, which is European form and would place them comfortably in seventh if taken over a whole season. He is no Mourinho, no Benitez, no Ferguson, but he has sparked a remarkable revival from a team on it’s knees, and – this becoming an increasing Big Sam trademark - has got the best out of a (relatively) small Premier League club.

Whelan Warns Of Looming Financial Disaster

Paul Bestall — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 23:32:26 +0000

Dave Whelan, the owner and chairman of Wigan Athletic has today been discussing his feelings that a Premiership club going bankrupt is only a matter of time due to the level of debts certain clubs are carrying. Whilst I think he may be overcooking the situation a little but if I’m honest, i’m surprised it’s not happened yet, or we’ve not seen at least one club go into administration so far.

It’s not so far away from the truth though when you look at the bigger picture of clubs that have played Premiership football since the league was created in 1992. Of the 42 clubs (Has it really been that many??) that have played at least one season in the Premiership, at least 17 of them have had major financial problems once they were relegated, with Leeds United being the most well known of the clubs to hit the skids. Add to that Barnsley, Bradford City, Swindon Town, Crystal Palace and Leicester City to name 5 that have gone into administration after leaving the Premiership, saddled by large wage bills and unsuccessful attempts to gain promotion within two seasons of dropping into the Championship.

One former Premiership club of course doesn’t even exist anymore in their original form, Wimbledon, but the phoenix has risen from the ashes and AFC Wimbledon are currently sitting on top of the Conference Division One South, 5 steps below the Premiership. They can’t return to the Football League quick enough for me, the other lot in Britains dullest city don’t count.

Yet, could a side really go bust whilst still in the top flight? Whelan’s discussions also pointed to his own Wigan Athletic, who he stated now had debts of £15 million and he hoped to have them debt free within 18 months. As he pointed out though, he does need higher crowds at the JJB Stadium to get to that target. Perhaps renaming the ground The DW Stadium from next season, as Wigan are doing, will attract more people in??

Of the Big 4, Only Arsenal probably have the lowest amount of debt in comparison but it’s still a staggering £300 million,but the big four have massive revenue streams that can allow them to swallow enormous debts based in the loans the owners have used to purchase the clubs or fund massive spending sprees. In Arsenal’s case, the debt they incurred was used to build the Emirates Stadium, which has seen their match day revenue jump from around £35 million a season to a whopping £179 million.

The solvent clubs are obviously led by Manchester City, Aston Villa and Tottenham. The only thing Mike Ashley seemed to do right at Newcastle United was clear their £110 million debt when he took over. Everton, Stoke City, Wigan, Bolton and West Bromich cut their cloth according to their means and carry small amounts of manageable debt. Everyone else would seem to be playing with fire, relegation a sure fire route to administration. Fulham apparently owe their owner Mohammed Al Fayed £165 million, Steve Gibson has underwritten nearly £70 million at Middlesbrough, West Ham will await the Icelandic courts decision on owner Bjorgolfur Gudmundsson’s ability to repay his debts in June.

In 17 seasons, we’ve only witnessed one club having a fire sale, as Leeds United desperately tried to keep the wolves from the door, but lets not forget before Abramovich arrived, Chelsea were in severe financial difficulty, finances so tight they could only afford to sign one player on a Bosman transfer in Ken Bates’ final season. Whatever happened to Enrique De Lucas? Chelsea were very close to asset stripping before the takeover in the summer of 2003.

So, as Whelan refers to, is it only a matter of time before someone actually hits the wall? Let’s hope not, but I fear he may be right sooner rather than later and we see the issues that blight clubs relegated to the Championship and cannot return within two seasons finally reach the Premiership.

Newcastle Call For Venables? Things Can’t Get Any Worse

Paul Bestall — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 22:37:09 +0000

Well, can things get any worse for Newcastle United than they currently are? One win in the league in 3 months, the manager still recovering from his triple heart bypass operation, crowds are falling, the caretakers pointing out, in case you’ve missed it, that Newcastle find themselves in a relegation battle and then today the English papers are full of a certain ex-England manager riding to the rescue of the Geordie nation.

Ah, the return of Terry Venables to the Premiership once again. Could he be the man to save Newcastle United from returning to the Championship, 16 years after they left it? A man who has given me some of my favourite footballing memories during his spells at Barcelona, Tottenham and England but has seen his stock fall rapidly with disastrous spells at Crystal Palace, Portsmouth and Leeds United during the beginning of the implosion for the Elland Road club.

Now El Tel has several contacts in the media and his name often crops up whenever high profile vacancies or situations are in the media, so it’s no real surprise to see this latest connection being made today but honestly, can Venables really save Newcastle United? I’m not so sure he’s got the clout to pull it off at all anymore. At Leeds United, his term there was dreadful and the club were in real danger of going down, despite having a much stronger squad than Peter Reid inherited, ultimately keeping them up.That was nearly six years ago now and Newcastle are in more trouble than Leeds United were when he took over. Venables has always been Teflon coated in the eyes of some media outlets in the UK, who conveniantly forget the Palace/Pompey/Leeds situations. In fact, for a glimpse of Newcastle potential future, they only have to cast eyes down the A1 towards West Yorkshire.

The report uses the usual British media tactic of ” a club insider told us” to give credence to the story,but ultimately, Venables has been so out of form managerially recently I can’t see there being any substance to it. As much I loved the memories of the 80’s and 90’s under Venables at White Hart Lane, I can’t seeing him being able to do anything to save Newcastle United. Yet, it wouldn’t surprise me under the current regime if he did reappear at St James’ Park as interim manager until the end of the season such is the lack of football knowledge in the boardroom in Newcastle.

The Geordie fans may be thinking just what they’ve done to deserve this but ever since Bobby Robson was sacked after 4 games of the 2004/2005 season, Newcastle have fallen further and further down the table, seeing 5 managers and 3 caretakers try and fill his boots. What they would give for Robson to be anywhere near healthy to come in and save them but his battle with terminal cancer is catching up with him sadly. Mike Ashley’s made plenty of mistakes, hell, he’s hardly made any right decisions since coming in, but getting Venables in would compound them all.

Newcastle are facing relegation in the face, with trips to Liverpool, Tottenham, Stoke and Aston Villa to come and the only bonus being that they’ve got to play Middlesbrough at home. To stay up, they need all the luck in the world to fall for them but with every passing defeat safety becomes a more distant prospect and the realisation that next season could see them playing at Barnsley, Peterborough and QPR will reduce the staunchest Geordie to tears. If Mike Ashley is serious of transforming Newcastles fortunes, he needs to prepare for relegation under Kinnear, wait until the end of the season and then ask SV Hamburg to name their price for Martin Jol and allow him to rebuild them in the Championship.

Can Eduardo Get Past an Apology

Johnathan Starling — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 06:36:30 +0000

Now that Eduardo is back, I was expecting this one. Last year when the injury happened, we got headlines galore about no apology being made. Tonight, that same headline is back.

Of course there is two sides to every story, and Martin Taylor certainly has his. He claims to have done everything to apologize after Eduardo came out of surgery, but even Taylor admits that Eduardo probably doesn’t remember it due to the drugs. Taylor then admits to doing everything possible to keep up on Eduardo’s progress. Yet, no apology…at least one Eduardo remembers.

I know it’s difficult to apologize for anything, accidents in particular. And it’s even stranger that some people want them more than others. But for Eduardo almost a year to again say that he has yet to receive a formal apology directly from Martin Taylor just doesn’t make sense to me. Does Eduardo think that he’s going to get one now?

Martin Taylor in the Daily Mail had every opportunity to say I’m sorry. Instead, Taylor just wanted to reflect on how happy he was that Eduardo was back, the death threats he received, and what would happen if the two played against each other. That tells me we probably never will read about Eduardo getting one directly from Taylor. It’s a pity, if there is anything to say ‘I’m sorry’ about, an accidental tackle that left a player out of the game he loves for a year would be it.

Other Stores
Harry Redknapp is placing their UEFA Cup tie against Shakhtar Donetsk at the bottom of the priority list. Getting out of the fight for relegation and staying in the Premier League is just a little more important than the extra two games the round of 32 brings.

I would like to thank Stiliyan Petrov for letting the whole world know he can’t make a decision on his own. Instead of deciding for himself without any outside influences helping to make up his mind about staying at Aston Villa, he’s going to wait and see what Gareth Barry does before deciding if he stays or goes. Talk about the ultimate cop-out.

Thank you Arsene Wenger for finally admitting Arsenal have no shot at the title this year. At least he’s also right in saying that Manchester United right now are untouchable.

The famous Colorado doctor Richard Steadman has a new patient, Jimmy Bullard. No wonder why Fulham was so quick to sell him for only five million pounds after he was starting to get a sniff around the England National Team. I guess the bigger question now for Hull is if Bullard will play again this season?

Two more footballers have been charged in the same assault case that Steven Gerrard was charged in. These players though play for Accrington Stanley.

In a suck up to fans move, Mike Ashley will cut the price of a season ticket in order to keep fans coming to St. James Park.

FC Copenhagen boss Stale Solbakken feels that all the money Manchester City have will end up destroying football. Gotta love bulletin board material.

Mark Hughes though has finally had it with City’s players with regards to their away form. Mark, don’t you think it’s a little too late for that statement?

Marseille president is saying he’ll do everything he can to resign Didier Drogba. Works for me.

I have to admit when I first read this I simply went ‘that’s it’. But that was my first reaction to when I read that Arsenal are set to offer Theo Walcott a 50,000 a week deal to keep him at the club.

And finally in a move that I can only put into the category of ‘boy Chelsea are desperate to show their fans they are moving forward’, around 5,000 people showed up for a Chelsea training session on Tuesday.

Mike Ashley Faces His Most Important Decision

Paul Bestall — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 21:45:22 +0000

Whether they want him or not, the Geordie nation are stuck with Mike Ashley as much as he’s stuck with them. Since the Keegan debacle back in September, the hard pressed fans have continued to watch their beloved Magpies struggle along with no real resolution in sight and last weeks news regarding the long term health of current manager Joe Kinnear leaves them in managerial limbo as Chris Hughton and Colin Calderwood take control of team affairs until further notice. Kinnear had his triple heart bypass operation of Friday and is expected to convalesce for at least 2 months, taking us into the middle of April and misses 8 matches at the earliest if he returns at all this season. Mike Ashley is taking a massive risk in allowing the coaching staff to cover for the foreseeable future with Newcastle only 4 points off the relegation places but what can he do?

The win at West Bromwich was a massive result for the club especially after the very fortunate draw at home to Sunderland but January saw them gather 1 point and get dumped out of the FA Cup, so it was the least they required. I’m just concerned that they could get sucked back into the bottom three and be adrift before any decision on Kinnear’s future is made. After his heart attack whilst manager of Wimbledon, on leaving the club he didn’t return to work for 20 months until Luton Town took a chance on him. The chances that he’ll return in 8 weeks after a major operation is, in my opinion, generous at the very least.I hope everything goes as well as it can for Joe Kinnear and his family and he recovers his health as quickly as possible but his health is the key issue here, that alone is the only thing that should matter to Kinnear and Mike Ashley.

Ashley is stuck with a make or break choice, does he leave the door open for Kinnear to return and allow Hughton and Calderwood to deputise or does he get someone in to take over and help out with some experience of the situation Newcastle find themselves in, probably lowering his stock even further. Whilst Hughton had several years as Assistant Manager at Tottenham, Calderwood has spent his entire managerial career in the lower leagues with Northampton and Nottingham Forest before being sacked in December. The likeable Hughton has already had one spell as caretaker manager of Newcastle this season but Calderwoods managerial skills leave me cold, having seen enough of his Nottingham Forest side to think they managed to get promoted last season in spite of his tactical mistakes. Being seen to push Kinnear out of St James’ Park whilst recovering from his operation would leave a sour taste in the mouths of most fans across the country.

Ashley needs his team to win some games and quickly, to try and assure safety as soon as possible but what happens if they lose the next 3 games? It’s not unthinkable seeing they have Everton and Manchester United at home and a trip to the Reebok Stadium in that run before games against Chelsea, Arsenal and Hull City? Can he afford to see Newcastle relegated whilst Kinnear recovers? Of course he can’t, but can he afford to replace Kinnear without generating even more bad publicity? Once again, of course not. For all the loathing Ashley has garnered during his dreadful run as owner, he certainly generates some sympathy for his situation here. Critics will point to the fact that Kinnear shouldn’t have been appointed at all, he hadn’t managed at the top level for nearly a decade and had been out of work since December 2004 and only got the job because of his connections with Dennis Wise. Ashley is stuck between a rock and hard place and is pining his hopes on two men who haven’t managed in a permanent capacity in the Premiership to keep them out of the relegation zone and it’s not a situation I envy in the slightest, for once Mike Ashley deserves some sympathy.