The Sun have revealed that they turned down Mike Ashley’s offer of a ‘commercial’ deal with Newcastle United AND Sports Direct for exclusive press access.

Author Dean Wilkins thinks it looks like the Chronicle’s attempts to climb back into bed with Mike Ashley haven’t gone too well…

It has just been revealed that Newcastle United have been in talks with the Chronicle to lift the long running Mike Ashley newspaper ban.

The irony of what he has to say is so sweet. Lecturing fans that they should be grateful when their team spends nothing on an under-sized squad, this coming from somebody who put Liverpool on its knees with a disastrous few months in the transfer market.

While boycotting matches is always going to be an emotive subject that drives at the very heart of what being a fan is about IE going to support the team, fans who want to show their displeasure at Ashley’s actions and at the same time support the concept of a free press have been offered the perfect opportunity tomorrow.

At the beginning of his tenure, I said to various friends that his ambition was to finish seventeenth in the Premiership in order to maintain the cashflow associated with being in the top flight and using that top flight status as a marketing tool to sell the NUFC ‘brand’ on a worldwide basis.