EVERYWHERE he turns Mike Ashley is taking a bashing. He's become the Aunt Sally of the marketplace.
Consider his crime sheet:
1 Newcastle United fans have marched en bloc against his ownership and called for a mass boycott of matches following what they perceived as Rafa Benitez being forced out of the club.
2 The Belgian authorities have hit him with a whopping £605m tax bill.
3 The self styled Saviour of the High Street has publicly admitted that having purchased the House of Fraser lock, stock and barrel he now considers it in terminal decline.
4 His flagship Sports Direct whose shares peaked at 922p in 2014 plummeted to 214.8p at the beginning of the week with £2.3bn wiped off his holding since the days of wine and roses.
5 Having tried to redress the balance over a mass NUFC fan backlash with an exclusive in the Daily Mail that brought a flood of fresh abuse he woke up this week to more lurid business accusations on the financial pages. The Times headlined a two page spread "Ashley sinks to new low" with Sports Direct's third largest shareholder Crispin Odey stating that United's owner reminded him of Tiny Rowland, the boss of Longhro who was described by the then Prime Minister Edward Heath as "the unacceptable face of capitalism."
Next day the Daily Mail, who had offered him a platform to defend his Newcastle United stance, headlined a huge article in its City And Finance section "How Mike Ashley's Dream Died."
In it Jonathan Pritchard, analyst at Peel Hunt, concluded: "Sports Direct now seems to be strategically snookered, check-mated, and clean bowled."
Ouch, where does all that leave this football club? More likely to be sold? Less likely? Tighter financial grip?
Once again more questions than answers.
