What’s Mike really like?
Those who worked with him look back at his time at United:
“MIKE, this is bad. This is really, really bad.” These were not the words of Lee Charnley or one of Mike Ashley’s associates. These were the Newcastle United owner’s own thoughts as Sunderland fans taunted the billionaire with a chant of ‘There’s only one Mike Ashley’ as the Black Cats closed in on yet another Tyne-Wear derby win.
It was a remarkable contrast to Ashley’s first experience of the fixture at St James’ Park. On that day, in April 2008, Kevin Keegan was in the dugout, Michael Owen was firing the Magpies to victory and Ashley was all smiles, sitting between managing director Derek Llambias and chairman Chris Mort in the directors’ box.
After that 2-0 win, Ashley gathered a handful of club employees together and led a conga into the boardroom, where Sunderland executives were waiting.
“It was funny and no one took offence to it,” former Sunderland chairman Niall Quinn told The Chronicle. “It tested me – he pushed his delight at that result to the end – but looking back he had every right to at the time.
“The times I met him he was really warm and engaging. We had some fun moments in the challenge of Sunderland v Newcastle in the Premier League back in the day, whether it was in our boardroom or his boardroom, where he was nothing but a fabulous host and great fun.
“I also had great times with him down at the Premier League meetings and he was a good contributor there. I was young and looking at all these guys and learning. I know the relationship with Newcastle fans and the strain that’s been there, but I do know how difficult it is to run a football club as well.”
A derby win is special enough but a record derby victory? That’s something very different altogether.
Paul Barron, Newcastle’s former assistant manager, was effectively doubling up as a bodyguard as he guided manager Chris Hughton to their table, where their partners were waiting for a celebratory postmatch meal after the Magpies’ 5-1 win over Sunderland in 2010.
It seemed everyone, off-duty referee and Newcastle fan Mark Clattenburg included, wanted to stop to shake Hughton’s hand.
But all was not quite right behind the scenes. Talks over a new deal had previously broken down and there were soon murmurings that Hughton was going to be sacked.
Just a few weeks after that famous win against Sunderland, and with his side in 11th place in the table, Hughton was summoned to be dismissed by Llambias.
The conversation only lasted a couple of minutes and Hughton was given no explanation other than the club wanted to go in a different direction. Ashley, rarely one for public apologies, later admitted he was ‘very unfair’ and did not ‘give him enough time.’
Even when United were back in the Premier League, Hughton admits ‘there was still so much uncertainty about the ownership’ but he does not want to dwell on that when he reflects on his time at the club.
“I’m aware of the comments that have been made and I’m grateful for that and I thank him for that, but I always wanted to look back on my time at Newcastle with fondness,” the Irishman told The Chronicle. “It was my first job as a manager and I’m very grateful for the club giving me that opportunity. “I’m grateful for
Kevin [Keegan] taking me there in the first place and for the club giving me that opportunity to manage such a great club in my first job.
“The experience that I had there has allowed me to also go on to other jobs and to do OK in other jobs.”
Hughton’s sacking was one of many low points of the Ashley era. Two relegations, the disgrace treatment of popular figures such as Kevin Keegan and Jonas Gutierrez, and renaming St James’ Park renaming the Sports Direct Arena only scratch the surface. It’s a stark contrast to the early days when Ashley was regularly spotted in a replica shirt in grounds across the country. But as Shay Given recalls, it didn’t take long for things to turn sour. “I can remember when he
first arrived he was with the fans and stuff, having a pint and whatever, but as the years have gone by he seems to have become a little more distant and he’s at very few games now and it’s a shame really how it’s panned out,” the former goalkeeper told The Chronicle. “I suppose he’ll probably think the same. I just think the fans want a fresh start.”
After numerous false dawns, it has taken until 2020 for a prospective takeover to get to this stage.
A consortium made up of Amanda Staveley, the Reuben brothers and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund are now awaiting the outcome of the Premier League’s owners’ and directors’ test.
Whatever happens, you just wonder whether Ashley’s experience at Newcastle will actually put him off another investment in football.
Sandy Easdale and his brother, James, got to know Ashley during their spell as directors at Rangers.
Although Ashley was prohibited from increasing his minority stake in the Ibrox club – the SFA believed it was a conflict of interest, and Ashley later sold on his shares – he still meets with the Easdales.
“Mike has a great sense of humour and an incredibly sharp business brain, and is always thinking what’s the next new thing,”
Sandy Easdale told The Chronicle. “His contacts and help have been second to none for us in London.”
Just as he is not quite like any other high-profile businessman of his time – large, loud, informal and a wearer of bootcut jeans – Ashley is not your typical football club owner.
An associate who has dealt with him, who did not wish to be named, described him as a ‘firm but fair negotiator.’
“My feeling is people misjudge and perhaps underestimate him. Perhaps he encourages this?” he told The Chronicle.
“It is my impression that the media seems to portray him as some kind of yob whereas my suspicion is he is actually a long-term strategic thinker. My impression was that he had a straightforward business philosophy.”
Ashley would entice customers into his shops with the prospect of coveted brands at heavily-discounted prices as well as selling sportswear from troubled brands he later bought up, such as Lonsdale, Karrimor and Dunlop Slazenger.
Established competitors were soon driven out and Sports Direct would become the UK’s largest sports-goods retailer and now has around 670 stores worldwide.
“As an operator, he’s incredibly shrewd. He’s not concerned about adopting the most elegant or smartest appearance. His judgement is, ‘I know what I’m doing and for whom,’” a senior source who worked alongside him at Sports Direct told The Chronicle.
“He sees and understands things way ahead of the rest and there have been times where all is not quite clear what he has in mind and a few months later, you realise and think, ‘Wow, I get it. Very clever.’”
“Mike, generally speaking, knows exactly what he’s after when he makes an acquisition and therefore the extent of due diligence that most others will do, to make sure that the detail of what exactly is being bought is what one thinks it is, generally is less of a factor for Mike, who is much more interested in what the benefit will be to the Frasers Group of owning that particular thing.
“He’s a person who certainly will take chances. More have gone the right way but some certainly haven’t and I’m sure Newcastle United was a big learning experience for him.”
While thick-skinned – criticism in newspapers is not something that has ever really bothered him – there have been occasions when Ashley has been rattled.
Newcastle MP Chi Onwurah submitted a petition, ‘The Rafa paper,’ to Parliament in July 2018 and called on the government to ‘take action to prevent unscrupulous football club owners from exploiting their clubs, their fans and their local communities.’
Outraged, Ashley wrote a letter to Jeremy Wright, the secretary of state for digital, culture, media and sport at the time.
On club-headed paper, the Newcastle owner claimed Onwurah had ‘portrayed him as a pantomime villain’ – his pet peeve – when she criticised his ownership in the House of Commons and outlined his contributions to date: interest-free loans of £144m, clearing debts of £76m, ‘improved training facilities’ and a series of community engagement programmes.
Days before the MP’s parliamentary debate, she was invited to meet Ashley and his associates before the Magpies’ game against Cardiff City at St James’ Park in January 2019.
After that meeting, Onwurah was convinced that Ashley would not sell the club ‘unless he is forced to.’ More than a year on, and surely influenced by the coronavirus pandemic, a sale has never been closer.
So, if this really is the end, what will Ashley’s legacy be? Alex Hurst, chair of the Newcastle United Supporters’ Trust and editor of the True Faith fanzine and podcast, has seen the impact his ownership has had on the fan base firsthand.
“I think the saddest thing in the last 13 years has been the kind of internal conflict that’s gone on between supporters so it’s turned what was a fairly united fan base – people always had different opinions on football but it didn’t go beyond that – into conflict about whether to attend games, the best way to fight Mike Ashley, whether he should be fought at all,” he told The Chronicle. “That’s probably the saddest thing, which is a by-product of everything he’s done. That goes right back to 2008 when the problems all started. That is probably the worst thing.”