Braced for winter of discontent at Newcastle United

Nov 4 2009 by Luke Edwards, The Journal

Everything seems to be going to plan on the pitch but are we in for a stormy winter at St James’ Park? Chief sports writer Luke Edwards reports

On the other there is barely constrained animosity towards Mike Ashley and the regime he presides over. There are wounds which just won’t heal, the pain of Kevin Keegan’s departure, the lies told to them as a botched public relations exercise, the failure to give Alan Shearer the manager’s job they promised and the sheer frustration that, after a second failed bid to sell the club, Ashley remains in control and operates with impunity. There is nothing serene about Newcastle United. There is little opportunity to relax or to even enjoy good results because of the presence in the boardroom and the directors’ box of a man perceived as a pariah.

Ashley has been tolerated for the last 13 months, ever since the initial burst of protests after Keegan’s departure in September last year, but patience is thin and emotions are raw again.

The announcement he was willing to sell the name of St James’ Park for a few million was akin to lighting a match in a gas-filled room. Given his continued presence at matches, Ashley has a thick skin, but he is not the first at the club’s helm to possess that.

If he is hated he shows no signs of it upsetting him and neither does Newcastle’s managing director Derek Llambias. And they cannot really afford to. They have tried to sell the club twice and have failed. We have never been given the precise reasons as to why, but if they cannot sell, they have no reason to leave. Ashley owns Newcastle United outright. It is not a public company, he does not have to explain anything to shareholders and he can run it as he sees fit.

He has been a hindrance, but he will also argue he has tried to help. Given the money he has spent to bankroll Newcastle over the last couple of years, firstly to deal with the debt left by former chairman Freddie Shepherd, and then cover the cost of the relegation his decisions facilitated, he has hard numbers to support his argument.

However, he has never fully grasped why he has upset so many and he has never appreciated the damage his decisions have made, whether it is the appointment of Dennis Wise as a director of football or the inability to spend more in the transfer market when the squad has so obviously needed strengthening.