Mike Ashley had pretended for over a decade that he was trying to sell the football club.
Some Newcastle United fans amazingly so naive, that to this day they actually believe Mike Ashley, that he couldn’t find a buyer until these new/current Newcastle United owners came along.
This despite the vast majority of major Premier League clubs getting sold and able to find buyers during Ashley’s NUFC reign, some of them more than once.
These naive Newcastle fans honestly believing Mike Ashley, that somehow Newcastle United couldn’t find a buyer!
Quite incredible, it is like say three quarters of the houses in your street/road getting put up for sale, all of them finding buyers in a decent time period and getting sold. apart from one that a decade later is ‘still up for sale’ and supposedly nobody is willing to buy it. I think fair to say that any rational person wouldn’t believe that no buyers were willing to purchase, quite obviously a case of the owner having no intention of selling.
The proof that Mike Ashley can indeed, fool some of the people (Newcastle United fans) all of the time.
If you remember, back in 2008 when he forced Kevin Keegan out and the Newcastle United fans rebelled, Mike Ashley came out and said to the supporters that they could call off their protests, he accepted they wanted him out AND he would sell the club ASAP.
Well, why anybody believed a single word of that is beyond me.
However, he got away with it, the Newcastle United fans largely stopped their protests, certainly massively diluted from what was on the cards back in September 2008.
Mike Ashley got away with it.
Newcastle United fans did protest, Newcastle United fans did boycott, but not enough did either.
Mike Ashley was able to crawl along and take all the (free) benefits out of NUFC for his retail empire and most importantly, himself!
In 12 Premier League seasons he managed to relegate Newcastle United twice, plus a number of other narrow escapes.
A disillusioned Newcastle United fanbase were united in their hatred of Mike Ashley but totally disunited in deciding how best to deal with him. This allowed him to carry on, enough fans still turning up, so his adverts not looking embarrassing with massive sections of empty seats.
Mike Ashley’s biggest stroke of luck also became his Achilles Heel.
Rafa Benitez had just become the latest high profile manager to be sacked by Real Madrid and was looking for his next challenge, amazingly he decided offering his services to a Mike Ashley Newcastle United heading for certain relegation, was his best move.
Appointed in March 2016, too much damage had already been done by Mike Ashley and the clueless Steve McClaren, too few games and not enough time for Rafa to turn it around.
Amazingly, Rafa Benitez was persuaded by Mike Ashley to sign a new three year contract despite set to start his first full NUFC season in the second tier. Ashley making promises to Benitez that if he got Newcastle United promoted, then the Spanish manager would get his full backing once back in the Premier League.
The rest, as they say, is history.
Rafa Benitez in his first full season got Newcastle United promoted as champions, as well as delivering a massive transfer profit to Mike Ashley. Just as importantly for Ashley, Rafa amazingly also sold out St James’ Park week after week, breaking records in the second tier. Despite relegation and Mike Ashley the owner, just because Rafa offered some hope, the fans flocking to back him in astonishing numbers, St James’ Park averaging over 51,000 across 23 home Championship matches. Only one Premier League club got more paying customers through the turnstiles that 2016/17 season, Manchester United. Newcastle United across their 23 second tier home matches bringing in more paying fans than the likes of Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea, Spurs, Man City… across their 19 Premier League home games.
The then Newcastle United owner then rewarded Rafa Benitez, by going back on his promises to fully support the manager once back in the top tier.
Instead of confidence and momentum capitalised on as United returned to the top flight, we instead had Rafa Benitez playing out the final two years of his Newcastle United contract, having to look for bargain buys simply to try and keep NUFC up, rather than aiming for anything better.
As I said earlier, Rafa Benitez had now become Mike Ashley’s Achilles Heel, especially with regard to the fans.
As it became increasingly clear how badly Mike Ashley had treated Rafa Benitez, there was finally some unity amongst so many Newcastle United fans who had clung on to the hope that things might eventually change for the better, just maybe Ashley would see the benefits of running Newcastle United in a proper decent way and with ambition, rather than just for his own personal benefit. Or more realistically, he would eventually accept he had to sell the football club and then new owners could work with Rafa Benitez to build a bright new future.
As the three year Rafa Benitez contract neared its conclusion, the ‘If Rafa goes, we go’ campaign gathered huge momentum.
So much so that when the inevitable happened and Mike Ashley forced Rafa Benitez out at the end of his contract in June 2019, thousands and thousands of season ticket holders made good on their promise. Their decision massively helped when Miek Ashey made clear his intentions, bringing in his preferred choice of manager. Somebody who was nowhere near good enough and so desperate for a job at a club of the standing of Newcastle United, despite all that Ashley had done to it, they would take the job under any conditions.
Mike Ashley Lee Charnley Newcastle United
Those conditions being someone who would do as they were told, would have no say on transfers would say whatever was expected in support of the then owner. Yes, Steve Bruce following on in this way from previous characters such as JFK, Alan Pardew, John Carver and Steve McClaren.
The 2019/20 Premier League season came along and very quickly it became apparent that huge numbers of season ticket holders had said enough was finally enough. Massive numbers of empty seats and indeed many season ticket holders who had kept theirs for obvious reasons (protection of their loyalty points, a sense of loyalty to the name of NUFC, still wanting to go at times to meet up with friends and/or family, keeping their season ticket in the hope that one day something better might come along in terms of new owners…) were also clearly missing any number of matches, as the declared attendances (those who had bought a ticket) were clearly far far higher than the number who had actually turned up.
Mike Ashley knew the game was up.
The Newcastle United fans had finally said this was it, or at least enough of them had done. Both the many thousands who had given up their season tickets and the countless thousands of others who refused to replace them.
Mike Ashley knew the game was up and surely any Newcastle fan did as well, when Ashley then announced he was giving away 10,000+ free season tickets for the rest of that 2019/20 Premier League season, to fill all those empty seats that made his trampy adverts look even more cheap and nasty than they already looked.
Quite obviously, this was a very short-term fix.
Mike Ashley WAS finally waving the white flag at last and accepting he was going to have to sell Newcastle United.
The Newcastle United fans had drawn their line in the sand and Ashley desperately looking for a buyer.
Newcastle Takeover Surfer Flag
Very clearly the message had gone out that Mike Ashley would finally be willing to sell.
Amanda Staveley came on the scene and once she had partnered with the Reuben family who were already associates of hers and then getting the Saudi Arabia PIF onboard, it was game on.
Mike Ashley so relieved to have found his buyer and he even took a low figure (look at what other big Premier League clubs have gone for an continue to do so, even Everton which is in such an enormous mess, especially with its finances) of £305m to sell it.
The delay caused by the Saudi Arabia situation with beIN Sports/Qatar regarding TV piracy issues, then saw the Newcastle United takeover drag on… and on… and on.
As time went on, Mike Ashley realised he could get far more for Newcastle United than the £305m he’d agreed with the Saudis and Reubens. As the Premier League continued to stall, Ashley tried to get out of that takeover deal, as he knew now he could get far more, from either the Saudis and Reubens, or from others.
Amusingly though, Mike Ashley couldn’t get out of the agreement and so it came to pass that the Newcastle United takeover happened and 7 October 2021, the Newcastle United fans were at last free of him.
Thousands and thousands of Newcastle United fans flocked instantaneously to St James’ Park and joyous scenes, this eruption of joy was overwhelmingly due to getting rid of Mike Ashley, NOT the identity of the new owners or their perceived financial power.
Newcastle Fans Outside St James Park
If any Newcastle United fans honestly still think that Mike Ashley was happy with the eventual sale of the club and wasn’t VERY upset that he had sold it on the cheap.
Just look at what has happened since.
He has tried every trick in the book to cause trouble for these new/current Newcastle United owners.
Trying to keep his free adverts inside St James’ Park, taking legal action against Amanda Staveley, taking legal action against the new owners regarding where the Adidas are allowed and not allowed (Ashey’s shops!) to be sold and so on.
Mike Ashley is a very unhappy man with his things turned out at the very end at NUFC and Newcastle United fans should take great pleasure in this.
The greedy man saw his personal fortune grow from just about being a billionaire to being a multi-billionaire by the time he sold the club.
However, greedy people always want more, no matter how rich they become. Hence Ashley’s tears at losing out on that far higher eventual Newcastle United selling price.