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Jermaine Jenas gets it with Newcastle United

5 years ago
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Jermaine Jenas has became one of the most reliable pundits when it comes to talking about Newcastle United.

You might think that this is common sense seen as Sir Bobby Robson signed him and he played a decent number of games for NUFC.

However, as Kevin Nolan and Shola Ameobi have proved, now they are appearing in the media after playing, just because they once wore the shirt doesn’t make them credible pundits who will tell it as it is.

Newcastle kicked off the season on Sunday with a 1-0 home defeat to Arsenal and in the aftermath, Jermaine Jenas discussed the game and predictably the politics as well, on MOTD 2.

Whilst Phil Neville made a fool of himself (as usual) with embarrassing attacks on Rafa Benitez and the Newcastle fans (see here), Jermaine Jenas was on the ball.

The former Newcastle midfielder admits his thought was ‘It’s a joke’ when he heard Mike Ashley had forced Rafa Benitez out of the club in the summer.

Alan Shearer attacked Mike Ashley’s running of the club before Sunday’s game and pointed out that in the first 12 years of his ownership, there had been an average net spend of less than £6m per season on the NUFC squad.

This summer Mike Ashley and his people had promised at least £61m would be available for signings plus money from sales but as Jermaine Jenas says, the reality has been: ‘The net spend (this summer) is around £30m, would that settle fans a little bit more…? It hasn’t and the reality is you can’t blame them, they know exactly what has gone on at the football club.’

Jermaine Jenas speaking on MOTD 2:

“After seeing Rafa Benitez actually leave, my reaction was what’s going on at my old club? It’s a joke.

“Steve Bruce has been really wanting to get hold of that job for many years and he is a Geordie himself who will be looking to do a really good job…but the fans are disappointed Rafa has left.

“I give the fans credit because they love their club so much and all they want is it be treated right, for the money to be spent right…they feel that over the course of Mike Ashley’s tenure that has not happened.

“The net spend (this summer) is around £30m, would that settle fans a little bit more…?

“It hasn’t and the reality is you can’t blame them, they know exactly what has gone on at the football club.

“I go back to when Phil (Neville) was playing against Newcastle, when I was at Newcastle and playing in the Champions League, that is Newcastle United to me…not a team that is hanging on in the Premier League.

“Not sure that I 100% agree with Steve Bruce (who thought Newcastle deserved something from the Arsenal match).

“The first 45 minutes Newcastle played reasonably well and were good value for money…but then I thought in the second half Arsenal took complete control, with Newcastle really struggling to cope with the runners and the attacking threat of Aubameyang, Willock and Mkhitaryan.

“The Newcastle defensive three (centre-backs) Schar, Dummett and Lascelles, were a bit on their heels at times – Arsenal found it really easy to get behind them.

“He (Allan Saint-Maximin when coming off the bench in second-half) was exciting, he looks quick and powerful, everything that defenders hate.

“When you looked at that team sheet (with Arsenal’s makeshift defence and overall weakened team) you half thought that if you test that they might give you something, but Newcastle didn’t manage to do it enough until Saint-Maximin came on – running at players and asking questions, taking responsibility, the kind of player Newcastle fans will take to.”

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