Six years ago, Sports Direct tycoon Mike Ashley made one of his many vainglorious boasts. The burly billionaire vowed to crush archrival JD Sports and its executive chairman Peter Cowgill — just as he had steamrollered the soon-to-be-defunct JJB Sports. “I told you that I was going to smash [former JJB boss] Chris Ronnie, and I did,” Ashley told City analysts. “Now I’m telling you that I’m going to smash Peter Cowgill.”
It was an ugly threat from the Newcastle United owner, even by the spit-and-sawdust standards of sportswear retailing. But as a forecast, it was wildly off beam.
Ashley may have thrown a few haymakers, but it is Sports Direct that has been floored. Myriad scandals — including a damning House of Commons report