OPINION
You would have to search high and low to find too many Newcastle United fans wallowing in their good fortune at the conduct of the club’s owner.
But judging by how Mike Ashley runs his other companies, most notably Sports Direct, supporters of the north-east giants can be thankful for small mercies.
That Ashley is not using club money to hand multi-million deals to a new member of his family, or for shareholders to have to form an alliance to block an £11million payment to his brother.
For that is how the tycoon operates at Sport Direct, according to analysis by the Guardian.
The newspaper highlights a number of examples of Ashley’s “idiosyncratic” governance style, which is expected to prompt an avalanche of shareholder gripes at the company’s upcoming AGM.
One of them is the billionaire’s fondness for sanctioning huge payments to members of his nearest and dearest.
Michael Murray, engaged to Ashley’s daughter Anna, was handed a £5million deal as “head of elevation”, in charge of revamping stores, while shareholders had to step in last year to block a proposed £11million payout to John Ashley, brother of Mike, after an unorthodox arrangement had come to light in the company’s annual report.
By contrast, Ashley’s governance of Newcastle is saintly and in absolutely in the best interests of the club.
The main issue United supporters have is that the London-based owner has no ambition and his moves are cloaked by caution and control.
After a decade of what they regard as uninspiring leadership, they are fed up, frustrated and have had enough.
The revelations about Sports Direct suggest that it could, in fact, be far worse for Newcastle under Ashley than it actually is.