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When anybody questions why Mike Ashley had to leave Newcastle United – Just point out this

4 years ago
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Mike Ashley will soon become the former owner of Newcastle United.

Unless there is any shock lying in wait the Saudi PIF financed bid will take control in the coming days.

Be warned though, even after the takeover you will have to be prepared to defend your corner.

The pro-Ashley, enemies of Newcastle fans, will be lying in wait to question both anything negative that happens under the new owners, as well as making scurrilous claims as to why supposedly things actually weren’t that bad under Mike Ashley.

When anybody questions why Mike Ashley had to leave Newcastle United – Just point out these…

Alan Pardew left for Crystal Palace in 2014 because he thought they were more ambitious than Newcastle United under Mike Ashley.

Mike Ashley implemented an actual official club policy of not trying in the cup competitions which lasted for many years.

After being diagnosed with cancer, Jonas Gutierrez found himself discriminated against by Ashley and the club with regard to his illness, winning compensation when his legal team took on the NUFC owner. The tribunal finding that the owner/board had ordered that the cancer sufferer shouldn’t be selected in the team, to avoid triggering an automatic contract extension. Jonas ended the 2014/15 season two starts short of triggering that extension.

In 2011, Mike Ashley renamed Newcastle’s famous stadium ‘The Sports Direct Arena (at St James Park)’, with not one penny paid by Sports Direct to the club. Incredibly, Ashley claimed that this was SD doing NUFC a favour as supposedly no other company was willing to pay to sponsor SJP and so this was needed to show potential future paying sponsors, what the benefits would be…

Ayoze Perez left for Leicester City in 2019 because he thought / knew they were more ambitious than NUFC under Ashley.

Mike Ashley convinced Kevin Keegan to return to St James Park in January 2008, giving him concrete assurances that he would have the final say on all transfers. Unbeknown to KK, at the same time Ashley was telling Dennis Wise that it was actually him who would have the final say, Mike Ashley and his people disgraced when Keegan won his constructive dismissal case and decided he was clearly lied to.

In May 2018 at the end of the 2017/18 season when Rafa Benitez guided Newcastle to a tenth place PL finish despite minimal financial backing, Mike Ashley once again promised every penny’ of support, just as he had stated a tear earlier: “Rafa, as always, has my full support, and contrary to some media reports that portray me as a pantomime villain, I will continue to ensure that every penny generated by the club is available to him. I hope very much that Rafa will remain at Newcastle United.” In the summer 2018 transfer window, the reality was Ashley blocking Rafa’s attempts to try and strengthen the squad, the owner forcing instead a £20m+ net profit on transfers in and out in that window.

Mike Ashley gave Joe Kinnear the manager’s job on 2008 despite being out of work for four years and not involved in the Premier League for nine years. Then in 2013, Kinnear turned up on Talkport claiming Ashley had given him the job of NUFC Director of Football after meeting him in a pub. This turned out to be true.

It turned out that Ashley had only given JFK the job so that he (Kinnear) would take as much of the blame as possible for Newcastle not buying any players. Joe Kinnear pocketing his wage in return for being ridiculed by media and fans for not able to complete any player purchases. Mike Ashley having decided to go 18 months without buying a single player, from the end of January 2013 to summer 2014. As soon as the January 2014 window closed with not a single player bought (the same as summer 2013), JFK left NUFC for the last time (hopefully!).

Mike Ashley ‘succeeded’ in driving so many Newcastle fans away from SJP (average crowds of 51,000+ in 2016/17 Championship), that in December 2019 he had to give 10,000 free season tickets away to fill some of the empty seats.

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