Scottish Herald - Mike Ashley remains distant, elusive, a man of mystery who shuns interviews.
For all his success and visibility, few people know or understand him.
His mystique has now transported itself north of the border, given his recent interest in Rangers.
Ashley has taken a 9% stake in the Ibrox club, and has already removed key figures from the Rangers boardroom, such as CEO Graham Wallace, and installed his own men in their stead.
Remarkably, given his relatively minor stake, Ashley now exerts significant control at Rangers, in a saga that is set to run and run.
As owner of Newcastle United, Ashley went five years from 2009 without uttering a single comment in public about the club. Instead, he brought in trusted confidants - such as Derek Llambias, whom he has now installed at Rangers - to do his bidding.
Ashley is no recluse; he has just come to enjoy telling everyone next to nothing.
In recent weeks I have spent days poking around the fringes of the Ashley empire, from his old school in Buckinghamshire to his current Sports Direct HQ at Shirebrook in Nottinghamshire, all along being met with either morsels of comment or a stony silence.
Even Ashley's various PR people go shtum when you raise innocent queries about him.
The mystery is, why has he got involved in Rangers?
Sports Direct is valued at £4bn and last year boasted a rampant turnover of £2.7bn, well up on previous years.
A city analyst: "Mike Ashley detests speaking in public. For all that his business empire is huge - and successful - he sees no need to make himself a public commodity. You will never, ever hear Ashley on Desert Island Discs.
The mystery is, why has he got involved in Rangers?
"Rangers' value is a pebble in the ocean for a guy like Ashley."
Ashley is widely known to enjoy a pint of beer - mainly lager - and at one Newcastle game a TV camera filmed him downing pint in one go.
He has a modest background - his father was a manager in a food distribution depot - and he was a determined but average pupil at Burnham Grammar School in Buckinghamshire.
Margaret Fleet, now retired but was a depute-head at the school: "Most kids are fairly malleable, and you can subtly change their views about things, but Mike Ashley was different.
"I remember him having strong views about things and being quite determined, and it doesn't surprise me that he has gone on to be successful.
"I remember him talking to friends about his Saturday job in a sportswear shop, and talking about how one day he would own the shop."
From that shop in Maidenhead in 1981,Ashley scrubbed together enough finance to open his own shop in the town and had the wits to expand and buy-out rivals and buy up sports franchises to further enlarge his empire.
Over these 30 years a shop he first christened Sports Direct back in 1982 has become both unmissable and unmistakeable in almost every British town, and now, increasingly, across Europe.
Ashley's lifestyle with it became lavish.
His divorce to Linda Jerlmyr, a Swede, in 2002 cost him a reported £50m settlement.
His most recent reported residence is said to be in Totteridge Lane in London, the "millionaires row" where some residences can set you back a cool £5m.
One newspaper report stated that his new house has 33 rooms.
Ashley now travels by private helicopter. Most weeks he flies north to Shirebrook, the former pit village which is the unlikely setting for Sports Direct's HQ, where Ashley oversees operations and meets with his inner circle, such as Dave Forsey.
Ashley's experience on Tyneside has not been without unhappiness. A section of the Toon Army detest him, contending that Ashley's interests are all wrapped up in Sports Direct, with next to no commitment to the football club.
Graeme Cansdale, a Newcastle United fan: "Ashley has no real interest in football at all.
"He is a corporate vulture, he has leached off our football club. It is very, very sad what has happened to Newcastle United under Mike Ashley.
"In sport, and in football, you want to do your best, you want to fulfil your potential. But, in terms of Newcastle United, Ashley isn't the slightest bit interested in that.
"His sole interest is his business. Ashley uses St James' Park to get free advertising for his company all over the stadium. That could be money that went into the football club. He just shows complete disinterest in the football side.
"Ashley is a huge millstone around the neck of Newcastle United. In 2007 the club's debt was around £80m. Now it's around £129m, if you factor the money the club owes him. Now no-one wants to buy it off him.
"In fact, Newcastle United is no longer a football club under Ashley. It is very, very sad. If Ashley left this club yesterday it would be too late for us."
Mark Jensen, another fan who edits TheMag website: "It is shocking what Ashley has done at Newcastle United.
"He has robbed the supporters of all hope - the very thing that keeps football supporters going.
"Ashley's view of the football club appears to be, 'spend as little money as possible, and rake in whatever I can.' I actually think, while investing very little in the team, he has raked in tens of millions in terms of the merchandising and free advertising he has secured for himself.
"When he first arrived Ashley was welcomed by the Newcastle fans. Now, seven years on, we realise what it all entails with him. His interest is all the revenue streams he can get his hands on. Like I say, he has robbed Newcastle fans of all hope."
In 2008, following a row with Kevin Keegan, then the Newcastle manager, Ashley announced that he would be selling the club, and that he had made a mistake in buying it.
In October 2009 Keegan won a constructive dismissal case against Newcastle, and Ashley was forced to make a £2m pay-out to him.
In 2009, in a rare outburst from him about Newcastle United, Ashley again admitted that he had erred in buying the club. His sentiments also appeared to clash with those of his opponents who were claiming he "leeched" off Newcastle United.
Mike Ashley: "I have to put £20m a year into the club.
"I spend more than every fan put together puts into the club each year. I have never said I was an expert in football clubs. Of course I regret it [buying Newcastle United]. I tried my best but my best was woefully short."
That was in 2009. Five years on, and Ashley is still the Newcastle United owner, with his clutches now being felt at Rangers.
He has said he won't sell Newcastle until 2015 at the earliest.
At Newcastle a total of six newspapers - the Daily Telegraph, the Express, the Independent, the Sunday Sun, the Journal and the Chronicle - have all been banned at one time or another from reporting from St James' Park.
He appears to have become more sensitive to adverse comments or criticism about his methods.
One interesting observation about Ashley is that, when Newcastle or Rangers fans have presented an unflattering image about his activities, he chooses not to respond. Ashley never fights his own case, never offers his own narrative. He is content to preside over the ongoing success story of Sports Direct.
He is one of Britain's most reticent, elusive, enigmatic billionaires. And his new port of call is Ibrox Stadium in Glasgow.