The backfired BIG TIME! What he DID say was blatant lies and half-truths.
He said on the appointment of Kevin Keegan as manager: "Kevin Keegan was always my first choice, the only man for the job".
Then a day later Harry Redknapp came clean: "Ashley offered me the job last week!"
When it came out Ashley was a Spurs season ticket holder he replied: "I can promise you, Spurs is the LAST team I would support. I have never supported them."
Then the Wigan chairman replied: "I have known Mike Ashley for years, and he was always a Spurs supporter".
How the hell can a manager trust someone like that?
But fanzine editor Mark Jensen, who writes the Mag, said: "But he at least he is showing now he is willing to try to communicate rather than sheer silence.
"At times when Freddy Shepherd or Sir John Hall used to come out and talk, a lot of it was rubbish.
"If he means that he is trying to take the club forward, it's very much a case of actions speak louder than words."
But with Ashley - when DOES speak - it is usually a load of BOLLOX!