Easy ammunition for Mike Ashley’s critics

Oct 29 2009 by Stuart Rayner, The Journal

After five months of stalemate, Newcastle United can finally plan for the future. But as ever with Mike Ashley, there is a sting in the tail, writes Stuart Rayner

ONLY a couple of months ago you would have got ludicrously long odds on Newcastle United fans being pleased to hear confirmation of Mike Ashley and Chris Hughton as the club’s management duo.

Granted, they weren’t exactly dancing down Barracks Road when the news broke yesterday (for starters the Magpies followed Middlesbrough’s lead in sacking Gareth Southgate seven days earlier and announced it as late as possible to bury it), but there will have been sighs of relief that part two of this interminable saga can at last be put to bed.

As always with Ashley, however, no news can ever be entirely good news. In appointing his first permanent manager in 13 months and pledging to throw another £20m of his diminishing fortune into the club’s pot, the owner has belatedly responded to the urgent needs of Newcastle’s present. But in trying to sell the name of their iconic stadium, he has shown no understanding of its proud heritage.

Ashley-Hughton is no dream ticket. The man who has tried and failed twice to flog Newcastle like a cut-price tracksuit is about as popular on Tyneside as swine flu is in Blackburn. And while many admire the job Hughton has done and have sympathy for the circumstances in which he has been asked to do it, he will never overtake Alan Shearer in their affection.

It has hardly helped Hughton’s cause that he has blotted his copybook with some poor results (two defeats and a scrambled last-minute winner) since his new contract was put on the table. A case of Ashley’s savage cost-cutting catching up on a skeletal squad it may be, but it has done little to inspire confidence.