Boohoo's governance was in a mess already. Enter Ashley to complicate matters even more

Who would be the better chief executive of a severely ailing online retailer?

- Nils Pratley

Candidate A isn't everyone's cup of tea, but he does tend to deliver the goods: his 73%-owned retail business has defied doubters for two decades, has adapted to the digital age and sits in the FTSE 100 index, sporting a market value of £4.6bn. Or would you prefer candidate B? This one is yet to be identified because the last bloke only resigned suddenly a week ago. But they would be chosen by a board that has overseen a collapse in the share price of 90% in the past five years, to the point where a former star of the UK retailing scene is worth just £375m. Put like that, it's a no-brainer. You go for Mike Ashley, for it is he, of Frasers Group/Sports Direct fame, to be the boss of troubled Boohoo. And, if you were an outside shareholder in Boohoo, you might reflect that it could happen anyway because Ashley backed his unorthodox public application for the job yesterday with a threat to call a special meeting of Boohoo shareholders, of which Frasers is the largest with a 27% stake.