...or so sang seminal indie band Half Man Half Buscuit in the 1980's. According to Simon English, writing in the London Evening Standard business section on the 25/10/07, Ashley is his idea of a modern day Dean!!
Now I have never been much of a Standard fan. Indeed, living in exile in London for a number of years meant I grew to hate the Cockney Pravda, paticularily the way it believed it was somehow more than just a regional evening paper and because of the nasty Daily Mail attitudes it put out. For years Newcastle only got a mention as a team who failed to win in London or as a convenient place to go for a stag/hen party (I partly blame the media discovery for the ruination of Newcastle as a place to go out for a drink in, but maybe I am just getting old) However, I think I have finally found and article that is complementary to someone linked to Newcastle.
English argues that it is Ashleys who-could-care-less attitude, his ambivalent treatment of the media and refusal to tow any PR line (talking about the slump in share prices after float he said "Some of these city people act like a bunch of crybabies"!)that make him like Dean. Instead of responding to city egotists, according to English he has sloped off and used the cash to buy the Toon, oblivious to the cries from the spoilt city types. He concludes that "the fund management industry remains what it always was; a bunch of overpaid primadonnas, wearing the emperor's new clothes, taking credit where it isn't due and refusing to blame where it is". Ouch! Ashley has apparently made another £20m profit this week after buying Umbro shares ahead of the Nike takeover. Hopefully some of this will trckle into the club at some stage.
A word of advice for the upset City types, as Half Man Half Buscuit once sang God gave us life...but he also gave us Keith Harris, and he also gave us Little and Large and he also gave us LIONEL BLAIRRRRRR!!!!
1 comments:
Thanks for writing this.
Post a Comment