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Ant and Dec back Newcastle fan protests against Mike Ashley

9 years ago
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Ant and Dec have backed the protests by Newcastle supporters against Mike Ashley’s running of the club.

Dec says that the fans had every right to protest and that the boycott of the Spurs match was a massive success with St. James’ Park half empty.

However, the pair believe that relegation would be a disaster and set United back, even though they understand that many fans believe that if taking the drop got rid of Mike Ashley it would be best for the club in the long-term.

Dec added that he thinks the protests should take a back seat in favour of fighting relegation and indeed the Ashley Out campaign organisers went very low key when it came to West Brom last week, clearly understanding that supporters have very mixed views of the conflict between focusing too much on protests when the drop threatens.

Though Dec also said that then fans would have to look again at what would happen in the aftermath of being safe from relegation, with supporters considering their options based on what Mike Ashley does this summer.

Speaking to Gordon Barr at the Chronicle, Ant and Dec had this to say:

Dec:

“I think the fans have a right to do what they have done and the boycott worked, the place was half empty against Spurs. But I think now is the time we all have to get together and help keep the club in the division.

“Then see what happens in the summer and do what we have to do as fans next season. Relegation’s not an option.”

Relegation not a new dawn:

“I don’t think relegation will be a new dawn, I think it will be a disaster . Some people have been of the opinion it might be a good thing to get relegated and for the club to start again. I don’t agree with that at all. I don’t think that’s a viable option. That’s not what happened five years ago when we went down to the Championship the last time.

“We all thought that was a new dawn, and it hasn’t lasted very long. To be in so many relegation scraps over the last few years is not really acceptable for a club of this size.”

Europe:

 “With that support every week we shouldn’t be down there battling every year. But I think the club hopefully in the summer will take a look at how they are doing things and maybe make a few changes and look at their transfer policies and their recruitment and hopefully we won’t be back in this situation.

“We should be up the other end of the table, battling for European places, not battling down there to stay in the division.”

Ant

“We didn’t have to be in that (relegation) situation. Eight losses on the bounce is ridiculous…ridiculous. If we took a couple of points earlier, won a couple of games earlier it could have been different.

“We were the last team that should have been sucked into all of that. But here we are, we find ourselves again in that situation.”

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