Michael James Wallace "Mike" Ashley On 23 May 2007, in a surprise move, Ashley bought Sir John Hall's 41.6% stake in Newcastle United Ashley's ownership of the club . He was initially popular with fans , Ashley acted as one of the fans, drinking in local bars and clubs, and watched the team from the stands with the supporters wearing the team shirt. This caused fierce local rivals Sunderland AFC to publicly refuse to give Ashley permission to wear it in the Stadium of Light. On the 14th of September 2008 Ashley made a statement announcing he had put the club up for sale Since the club's relegation, Ashley struggled to find a buyer capable of providing proof of funds to purchase Newcastle United F.C . On the 27th of October 2009, Ashley took Newcastle United F.C. off the market A Newcastle statement confirmed, "Mike Ashley is totally committed to the future success of Newcastle United and will be focused on gaining promotion back to the Premier League. Mike will put a further £20m into the club. Newcastle then went on to win the championship and have a very fruitful first season back in the premier league. He only discovered upon purchase of the club how much debt the club were in, and that it cost him another £100m. Firstly the sacking of keegan then houghton brought alot of criticism. Ashley again drew criticism on 31st January 2011, when the club agreed to sell Andy Carroll to rival Premier League Club Liverpool F.C. for £35,000,000, with no replacement The man to replace hughton was not a popular choice upon fans. But with the end of the season drawing to a close , pardews team are battling for a euro spot. The jan transfer window made Newcastle united the top spenders on a single player Cisse , and with no big players leaving and krul , collo and taylor signing new deals. Mike Ashley's Newcastle is fast approaching the break-even point after reporting an operating loss of £3.9million. The Magpies, who lost £33.5million in 2009-10 and £37.7million 12 months earlier, reduced those figures to below £4million after amortisation in 2010-11, their strongest financial showing for several years. Significantly, wages accounted for 60.6% of a turnover which rose by 69% from £52.4million to £88.4million, where in 2008-09, the season they were relegated from the Barclays Premier League, the ratio was 82.7%. EVERYONE WAS WAS QUICK TO JUMP ON THE ANTI ASHLEY BANDWAGON WHEN IT WAS GOING WRONG , ITS NOW TIME TO BACK HIM