| The Classic Ashton thread 15:32 - Jun 19 with 2745 views | waveneyblue |
Utterly depressing how everything this bloke does is picked apart by the usual posters who still consider him the devil incarnate.
I still maintain that any sane fan would have taken the last 4 years warts and all for whats been achieved, but this bunch just wont let it go.
Tedious. |  | | |  |
| The Classic Ashton thread on 17:38 - Jun 19 with 648 views | BloomBlue |
| The Classic Ashton thread on 16:52 - Jun 19 by andyblue231 |
Why don’t we have a separately chairman? What’s the advantage of consolidating the position? |
We're a small company, you're talking as if the club employs 100,000 people.
Many large organisations has the same person in the 2 roles. JPMorganChase is the biggest bank in the world, they employ something like 250,000 across 50+ countries and have the same person performing the CEO and Chairman role for over 10 years - they weren't the biggest until after they merged the role. They have a Board of Directors and Shareholder keeping control over that individual.
The owners obviously feel the oversight they've instigated mean Ashton can do both roles and they can still control him.
You only have to look at the success the club has achieved to understand the owners will argue their setup is obviously working.
I'm sure they will continue to review it throughout their ownership. After they sell to some Arab oil barron, the new owners might go for 2 different people in those roles
People seem to be forgetting in Sheepshanks era we had a different CEO and Chairman, but that didn't stop Sheepshanks f**king up and taking us into administration after relegation. Whereas people seem to think its some form of silver bullet. |  | | |
| The Classic Ashton thread on 18:16 - Jun 19 with 596 views | SuffolkPunchFC |
| The Classic Ashton thread on 17:27 - Jun 19 by rkc123 |
I think the picking apart of every twitch of an eyebrow or whatever in an interview becomes a bit tiring, but the suggestion that because we have owners he can't be in full control of the day to day running of the club is naïve to say the least.
Tyrannical managers exist in many workplaces, and they don't have to be at the top to exert unfettered power, they just have to ensure there is no way for those below them to communicate to those above them, so their voice is the only one heard. I would say from what we see, and anecdotal bits and pieces from people within the club, Ashton has that structure in place. It doesn't mean he can't be good at his job, but I think it will be very interesting to see how the appointment of a new manager goes, and how that new relationship works. When there is success in an organisation it is hard to put a finger on what causes it, undoubtedly Ashton is part of that, but how big of a part was him and how much was McKenna will likely become more apparent in the coming months and years. [Post edited 19 Jun 17:28]
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Corporate governance is in place to prevent precisely this, and it is naïve to think that it is not in place with Town given the level of investment, and the type of people involved.
In fact the articles today indicated just how involved some of the shareholders are in the process for choosing the next manager.
Some people just don't like Ashton, and look for anything to beat him with. Much of it is very churlish. [Post edited 19 Jun 18:26]
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| The Classic Ashton thread on 18:20 - Jun 19 with 589 views | WD19 |
I find it more interesting that such a thoroughly unlikeable man suddenly has an army of fanboys. I don't know of any other football club CEO who has their own supporters club.
....and no, I still cant unsee him running down the touchline at Lincoln..... |  | | |
| The Classic Ashton thread on 18:20 - Jun 19 with 572 views | noggin |
Who needs Kieran McKenna when we have Mark Ashton ?  |  |
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| The Classic Ashton thread on 18:23 - Jun 19 with 560 views | Swansea_Blue |
I’d like to publicly thank him (or Phil if this is his creation by paraphrasing Ashton). The line ‘ I've Got a Direction of Travel But Work Still to Be Done’ is superb. I’ll definitely be trying that out on my better half next time she’s badgering me about chores. |  |
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| The Classic Ashton thread on 18:25 - Jun 19 with 548 views | andyblue231 |
| The Classic Ashton thread on 17:38 - Jun 19 by BloomBlue |
We're a small company, you're talking as if the club employs 100,000 people.
Many large organisations has the same person in the 2 roles. JPMorganChase is the biggest bank in the world, they employ something like 250,000 across 50+ countries and have the same person performing the CEO and Chairman role for over 10 years - they weren't the biggest until after they merged the role. They have a Board of Directors and Shareholder keeping control over that individual.
The owners obviously feel the oversight they've instigated mean Ashton can do both roles and they can still control him.
You only have to look at the success the club has achieved to understand the owners will argue their setup is obviously working.
I'm sure they will continue to review it throughout their ownership. After they sell to some Arab oil barron, the new owners might go for 2 different people in those roles
People seem to be forgetting in Sheepshanks era we had a different CEO and Chairman, but that didn't stop Sheepshanks f**king up and taking us into administration after relegation. Whereas people seem to think its some form of silver bullet. |
OK. Though it was deemed necessary a year ago. | | | |
| The Classic Ashton thread on 18:26 - Jun 19 with 533 views | noggin |
| The Classic Ashton thread on 18:20 - Jun 19 by WD19 |
I find it more interesting that such a thoroughly unlikeable man suddenly has an army of fanboys. I don't know of any other football club CEO who has their own supporters club.
....and no, I still cant unsee him running down the touchline at Lincoln..... |
You either support Reform UK, or you don't. | |
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| The Classic Ashton thread on 18:41 - Jun 19 with 491 views | Joey_Joe_Joe_Junior |
| The Classic Ashton thread on 15:55 - Jun 19 by J2BLUE |
Who cares though? He can't do or say anything without people trying to twist it. If people said I think he's a tw@t then fine but when everything he does gets a negative reaction it gets old quickly.
We want him to be competent. I don't really care how he speaks or if he has an ego. Show me a CEO who isn't that type. |
Some people just seem rather bitter and angry and clearly live their lives that way. They are also the same people that will never let things go and are basically on repeat. Not sure how it's particularly helpful or healthy.
I really couldn't don't care about his soundbites but I am concerned with spending 160-180M and starting 5/6 players form league 1 five transfer windows later! |  |
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| The Classic Ashton thread on 18:42 - Jun 19 with 491 views | Scuzzer |
| The Classic Ashton thread on 18:20 - Jun 19 by WD19 |
I find it more interesting that such a thoroughly unlikeable man suddenly has an army of fanboys. I don't know of any other football club CEO who has their own supporters club.
....and no, I still cant unsee him running down the touchline at Lincoln..... |
I think its you who has moved away from the majority to form that opinion of Ashton. From the day one the guy has worked his nuts off for the club. |  |
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| The Classic Ashton thread on 19:08 - Jun 19 with 444 views | SuffolkPunchFC |
| The Classic Ashton thread on 16:16 - Jun 19 by NederlandseBlue |
CEO competence includes not disrupting critical moments in the year, when he created disharmony among the staff and players during the run in. Competence includes not upsetting commercial partners, like the club's sponsors. Competence includes not lying to "customers" (urgh). Competence also means having contingency plans, which he claimed he had ready.
He has improved the professionalisation of the club's operations and overseen a number of successful building projects. Commercial revenues (excluding transfer dealings and TV money) have not improved much but are slowly trending in the right direction. He did incredibly well to appoint Kieran.
Both things can be true. |
” Commercial revenues (excluding transfer dealings and TV money) have not improved much but are slowly trending in the right direction.”
Commercial revenue is improving pretty well. We don’t know 2026 yet, which will presumably show a drop being in the championship, but even so, they show more than modest YoY growth.
2022, 2023, 2024, 2025
£5.5M, £10M, £16.5M, £36.5M
Any business showing this growth would be delighted. | | | |
| The Classic Ashton thread on 19:12 - Jun 19 with 426 views | SuffolkPunchFC |
| The Classic Ashton thread on 18:20 - Jun 19 by WD19 |
I find it more interesting that such a thoroughly unlikeable man suddenly has an army of fanboys. I don't know of any other football club CEO who has their own supporters club.
....and no, I still cant unsee him running down the touchline at Lincoln..... |
Unlikeable to you maybe. That’s purely your personal take.
You don’t need to be a fanboy (what a derogatory thing to call other supporters of the club) to recognise how much good he’s been instrumental in for the club. | | | |
| The Classic Ashton thread on 19:18 - Jun 19 with 402 views | darkhorse28 |
He’s the CEO, he’s the head of talent ID, the Chairman and the ONLY football voice at the club - the ONLY voice.
I you don’t think that warrants scrutiny. Especially when we’ve just lost the actual football IQ at the club in McKenna and potentially a generational talent, partly because side of Ashton and a clear breakdown in relationship, or certainly a deterioration.
There’s no doubt (from me at least) he’s done an excellent job in many areas, engagement has been good, getting player deals down has been excellent, professional standards have largely been an improvement, and the obvious success in the pitch has been excellent.
BUT talent ID with resources had been poor.
He’s forced a top coach out of the club, or certainly hasn’t helped.
He seem incapable of talent ID or attracting a top manager at this level.
He looks totally out of his depth at this level in truth…, and that doesn’t mean he’s not effective in the EFL.
Your guilty of what you seem to be accusing other of, being reductive, and only wanting to see one side.
His success includes the worst season in our clubs entire history, and in a few days I suspect we’ll have a manger that will make it the second worse season in our history.
Nuance is important. There are times he deserves more credit for what he HAS done for the club, 100% true.., but equally the Bally clappers need to wake up.
We are Ashton FC now, and you’ve allowed that to happen. He has 100% control and even the media including Phil are petrified to offer any genuine critical evaluation …, that’s never good in any context, even if he was premier league level.
And he’s not.
The bus appointment will define Ashton. We have the resources and status to get a WORLD CLASS manager - and not a single one has been linked for a reason.
He’s not a world class CEO he’s not a world class chairman and he’s certainly not world class at talent id, and I wouldn’t index my reputation to him either!!
He’s just thrown our last manger under the bus announcing through a politician he’d be sacked!!!
Who wants that smoke??
And YOU clapping and conflating us to Morecombe is 100% why he has the keys to the castle with ZERO oversight.
I’ve made my lobby though, one point you do highlight very well is there’s no point banging on,
We’re stuck with Ashton FC, in the short to medium term, we are. Bigger than him though, MUCH bigger.
I half hope for Ole. That will bring Ashtons tenure to a speedier end, and we could 100% do worse than Ashton, far worse, but if we EVER want to be at this level, and in my opinion it’s where we should be, it won’t be with Mark, 100% you can bank that.
I’ve worked with and been the best in my field, it a business out of evaluating elite managers, with psychometrics to profile traits required.
Mark isn’t it. Sorry. He’s just not. Too fragile, too much need for control, and Ole, too agreeable to be an effective leader.
I can be wrong, it happens, it it’s not very often around judging elite leaders - not sure I’ve. Even wrong in decades.
It’s why Ashton breaks my heart.
He could have been a great part of a leadership group …, but he has zero self awareness around his weakness, and zero ability to let go of what others can do better than him.
If you keep just clapping …, with no critical thinking, the consequences can be decades of inertia, see us, Leeds etc etc
This was such a glorious opportunity, again!
Not Marks fault though. We have an ownership group that from a football perspective are AWOL!
If I was the money in the room and they’d put it all on one person, Mark or not, you run for the exit (just like Brett did).
Scrutiny. Standards. Critical thinking. They’re important.
Mark does deserve credit for what he has done though, including working I spect incredibly hard - and that’s the issue, I think he has to run hard to be here, which is 4/10 at this level…, he should have brought more talent in around him.
Would have been better for his career.
He won’t be here in 18 months. And you might be surprised after all our success how much closer we are to the group that he took over than we should be.
Look at our 25 buddy! Jesus. Our legacy group would beat us what, 2-0? A band of brothers that cost £2.50 and I’d bet my life they’d beat this group in any one off game - Leif V’s Leif would be interesting.
We’ve spent £250 million on players (gross) and we have a shockingly poor squad, and I know we’ll go spend and other £100 million, it after spending so much and been here before, if you need to, you’ve got bigger problems.
Ashton measured in promotions. Great.
Measured in squad develop based on resources, and five years - 3/10 at best.
And no. As per Spurs etc, it’s not because our training ground wasn’t a five star hotel, ask Lincoln and Coventry and Millwall.
The excuses are already in …, that’s NOT how elite people self talk and it 100% isn’t what they put out to the world.
Can you imagine Jose starting with a raft of reasons he’s about to do badly???? He’d tell you he’ll win the champions league with Morecombes reserve side!
Either Ashton go’s or we stay Ashton FC are the sum of his talents.
He’s every inch championship mid table, even with parachute payments.
McKenna carried him. And him appointing McKenna doesn’t mitigate that, because he’s appointed a LOT of poor managers too over the years (he’s about to do that again). | | | |
| The Classic Ashton thread on 19:26 - Jun 19 with 395 views | BasingstokeBlue |
| The Classic Ashton thread on 16:53 - Jun 19 by backwaywhen |
Storm in a tea cup . |
Coffee mug. |  |
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| The Classic Ashton thread on 19:28 - Jun 19 with 392 views | MattinLondon |
I thought the Farage episode showed him up to be a lying weasel but I can forgive that if lessons have been learnt.
But this alleged aggressive behaviour towards Blue Action highlighted to me that he doesn’t really care about ‘legacy fans’. |  | | |
| The Classic Ashton thread on 19:38 - Jun 19 with 371 views | Leaky |
| The Classic Ashton thread on 15:41 - Jun 19 by Benters |
This. |
Ashton in |  | | |
| The Classic Ashton thread on 20:03 - Jun 19 with 334 views | DropCliffsNotBombs |
We all know OGS and GON are red herrings and the big man has lined up himself. Been taking lessons from Phil.
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| The Classic Ashton thread on 20:48 - Jun 19 with 293 views | peterleeblue |
| The Classic Ashton thread on 15:45 - Jun 19 by Marshalls_Mullet |
I have been consistent all along.
I think he's good at his job, but I don't like his David Brent style, and I don't like the way he lied to / gaslit the fans.
Its OK to disagree. |
In my experience people who don’t like the David Brent style are generally jealous of successful people who have the ability to say the right things and deliver sound bites that keep senior people happy and pacify the media.
In reality it’s a hard skill to master and actually generally is executed by people who can tow party lines in order to be seen united in common goals.
Personally I have always been a say it as it is warts and all sort of person. I don’t have that skill set. In reality others who are not as effective as me as foot soldier and grass roots progress as they are able to communicate in sound bites and say the right things
Like it or not Ashton is one of life’s leaders. He is good at it and we should be grateful to have him. Streets ahead of Clegg and Milne.
While we all love Kieran he needed Ashton’s backing. |  | | |
| The Classic Ashton thread on 21:08 - Jun 19 with 260 views | NederlandseBlue |
| The Classic Ashton thread on 19:08 - Jun 19 by SuffolkPunchFC |
” Commercial revenues (excluding transfer dealings and TV money) have not improved much but are slowly trending in the right direction.”
Commercial revenue is improving pretty well. We don’t know 2026 yet, which will presumably show a drop being in the championship, but even so, they show more than modest YoY growth.
2022, 2023, 2024, 2025
£5.5M, £10M, £16.5M, £36.5M
Any business showing this growth would be delighted. |
I had seen different (lower) numbers for '24 and '25 but there is progress. '24 brought us up to the level of Stoke, etc. Promotions are a factor of course. | |
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| The Classic Ashton thread on 21:11 - Jun 19 with 256 views | Benters |
| The Classic Ashton thread on 19:38 - Jun 19 by Leaky |
Ashton in |
This.
Ashton In! |  |
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| The Classic Ashton thread on 21:56 - Jun 19 with 231 views | SuffolkPunchFC |
| The Classic Ashton thread on 21:08 - Jun 19 by NederlandseBlue |
I had seen different (lower) numbers for '24 and '25 but there is progress. '24 brought us up to the level of Stoke, etc. Promotions are a factor of course. |
The numbers are pulled directly from the accounts filed at Companies House. | | | |
| The Classic Ashton thread on 23:10 - Jun 19 with 180 views | waveneyblue |
Same old with the responses, but its interesting how the voting goes.
Surely we need to stick together now and back the club/team.
You know, like fans do | | | |
| The Classic Ashton thread on 23:27 - Jun 19 with 163 views | FrimleyBlue |
| The Classic Ashton thread on 23:10 - Jun 19 by waveneyblue |
Same old with the responses, but its interesting how the voting goes.
Surely we need to stick together now and back the club/team.
You know, like fans do |
You can back the club/team and not like ashton.
Your op was about ashton. Not lack of support for the club. |  |
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| The Classic Ashton thread on 23:32 - Jun 19 with 145 views | TRUE_BLUE123 |
I dont really like the bloke as I dont appreciate being lied to by club officials as someone who spends a lot of money following the club.
But I support Ipswich Town FC not Mark Ashton FC so try not to think about Ashton much. |  |
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| The Classic Ashton thread on 23:52 - Jun 19 with 94 views | waveneyblue |
| The Classic Ashton thread on 23:27 - Jun 19 by FrimleyBlue |
You can back the club/team and not like ashton.
Your op was about ashton. Not lack of support for the club. |
I couldnt give a monkies if you lot like Ashton.
Its the negativity, snide comments, at every decision.
Its pathetic | | | |
| The Classic Ashton thread on 00:04 - Jun 20 with 66 views | FrimleyBlue |
| The Classic Ashton thread on 23:52 - Jun 19 by waveneyblue |
I couldnt give a monkies if you lot like Ashton.
Its the negativity, snide comments, at every decision.
Its pathetic |
But if you dont give a monkies ignore it.
I dont like the fella i refrain from saying to much about him but i can undwrstand when others do esp on a day where hes involved in the days news | |
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