As a businessman, Mike Ashley is well-schooled in the art of cutting corners. It’s what allows Sports Direct to sell Adidas t-shirts for half their recommended retail price whilst still taking a tidy profit; it’s what has resulted in Newcastle finishing in the black rather than the red for the last four seasons, including an £18.7million surplus for the 2013/14 campaign.
But in the world of football, more than any other industry, you tend to get what you pay for. Certainly, there are bargains to be had – especially in the transfer market. Yet, cutting financial corners at every single opportunity will inevitably lead to ruin, relegation and eventually, implosion.
Mike Ashley is clearly impervious to criticism. During his reign as Newcastle United owner, he’s forced out legend Kevin Keegan and replaced him with the most detested manager in the club’s history, Joe Kinnear, hired him again as Director of Football, continually sold the first team’s most important players without replacing them, renamed St. James’ Park the ‘Sports Direct Arena’, struck up a sponsorship deal with debt creators Wonga and kept Armageddon-surviving-cockroach-manager Alan Pardew in the job for so long he eventually decided to leave of his own accord, all the while constantly battling against supporter protests and match-day boycotts. He’s either thick-skinned or thick-headed, or potentially a mixture of both.
But this season, and particularly the appointment of John Carver, has surely taught Ashley the dangers of operating a football club on the cheap. When Pardew left they were ninth in the table, with a first team functioning well enough to record wins over Tottenham Hotspur, Liverpool, Everton and even Premier League champions Chelsea. Now, they’re just two points above the relegation zone and winless in nine – pointless in eight before last weekend – with an inexperienced manager completely out of his depth and a starting Xi that wouldn’t look out of place in the Championship – barring the odd star like Moussa Sissoko, who Ashley will almost certainly cash-in on this summer.
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And it all stems from the money-saving measure not to hire an immediate replacement for Pardew. They must’ve already had names in mind, considering how close they’d come to sacking the now-Crystal Palace boss before. But perhaps fearing the cost of a compensation package, perhaps enchanted by the amount that could be saved in wages between now and the summer, perhaps concerned that new managers often means new signings, Ashley appointed Carver to fill Pardew’s void.
That set the tone for the rest of the club; there would be no push for a Europa League spot, or even a top half finish. Just get to the end of the season with the Premier League status intact, even if it means six months of atrocious performances and just nine points from the next 15 games. One can question the integrity of the players – Fabricio Coloccini’s open letter to the fan base certainly hasn’t gone down as well as the Newcastle skipper would’ve hoped – but the mindset was passed down from the top, so it’s no surprise they’ve had ‘their flip flops on’, to paraphrase BBC Sport pundit Phil Neville, as early as mid-March.
Likewise, every player in that squad was bought after Ashley took over the Tynesiders in 2007, many clearly with his input. So whether you view the mentality of Newcastle’s players as nature or nurture, at some point it traces back to the man with the purse strings tied to his fingers. As previously mentioned, you get what you pay for.
Of course, Newcastle fans will think I’m beating a drum they’ve heard a thousand times before. Money, not success on the pitch, has always been Ashley’s motivation. But the two are unavoidably interlinked and during this season more than any other, it feels like relegation into the Championship would completely tear the club apart; the few remaining big names would leave, a squad overhaul would be required in the summer and the fans would become even more militant in their disillusionment, making a return to the Premier League all the more harder. It’s a fate that could cost Ashley unimaginable millions – if he somehow survives the Geordie relegation riots.
So although Ashley would like to remain as parsimonious as ever, it’s becoming clear that even to maintain the status quo – the status quo that’s allowed him to continually make a profit on Newcastle in sheer defiance of the fans’ interests – investment in both players and staff is desperately needed this summer. For the sake of his own financial gain, failing to do so is a corner he can no longer afford to cut.
