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Opinion

Newcastle fans presented with ultimate conundrum by Rafa Benitez and Mike Ashley

7 years ago
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What a choice for Newcastle fans.

The summer transfer window showing exactly where we stand with both Rafa Benitez and Mike Ashley.

A talented manager with a clear vision of how he could build on the momentum of promotion, with realistic investment in the squad able to secure Premier League safety and then move on from there.

An owner with no interest in short or long-term success on the pitch, only Premier League survival at the minimum spend, starving the manager of funds and putting even that survival at risk.

So what should Newcastle fans do?

Continue to fully back the manager and his players with 100% support?

Or, vow to not put another penny into Mike Ashley’s pocket?

Sadly, the two things are intrinsically tied together.

Buy a match ticket, a pie/pint inside St James Park, buy a replica shirt, whatever, it all means paying money over to the club’s owner.

Even your presence inside St James Park is added value to Mike Ashley, to give a (full) backdrop to the acres of free advertising for his retail empire. There really is no escape.

Supporters feel powerless after Ashley pulled the rug from under both Rafa Benitez and the Newcastle fans, a net spend of only £11.5m nowhere near realistic in allowing Rafa Benitez the chance of taking the team/club forward.

The big modern day problem in the Premier League and particularly at St James Park, is that most of the crowd are season ticket holders, some 40,000 having already committed for this season.

Knock off the 3,200 places for away fans, then the corporate areas as well, you are left with season ticket holders making up around 90%+ of the Newcastle fans at each game.

Hard to imagine now but back in the day (1980s and further back) those ratios were pretty much reversed, only a small minority of supporters with season ticket holders and the vast majority paying match by match.

If people weren’t happy with what was happening on and/or off the pitch then they could simply not turn up at the next match, these days it is not so easy.

To further pin people down, Mike Ashley makes fans commit in January for the following season if they want to use the zero interest monthly direct debit scheme to pay for season tickets, with price fixed for a number of years.

I made the decision three years ago to rid myself of those shackles, so sick of the manipulating zero ambition way Ashley runs Newcastle, I told the club in January 2014 I wasn’t renewing and boycotted those next two seasons (2014/15, 2015/16).

By boycotting, I lost loads of loyalty points that were attached to my season ticket and which ensured I got a ticket for any away match, or Wembley game…that came along.

However, despite that, I wanted to make my own personal protest and that was worth far more than ‘guaranteed’ cup final tickets!

I was liberated from being under such total control of Mike Ashley, no longer having to commit in January if I didn’t want to go to the match for the next season in seven months time.

The arrival of Rafa Benitez convinced us to go back and my son and I got season tickets but ones that are renewed after the end of the summer.

Obviously it doesn’t see you have a chance of finding out what happens (or doesn’t) in the transfer market first…but it does give you an element of control back.

I said when I bought my Rafa inspired season ticket for 2016/17 that I would boycott once again if Ashley played dirty tricks on Benitez and forced him out – and I stand by that. I won’t be going back next season if Rafa Benitez isn’t there.

On top of that, no way am I going to get another season ticket and have Ashley hook me for another year where I can’t react. Even if Rafa stays it will be tickets match by match. Yes it is more hassle and a few quid more but it is worth it for my self-respect with regard to the owner.

It is our club but Mike Ashley is making it so so difficult for us to carry on being an active part of it.

Nobody said it would be easy being a Newcastle fan but does it really have to be quite so difficult as we have it these days?

(All contributions from Newcastle fans welcome, send articles (as well as ideas/suggestions) to contribute@themag.co.uk)

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