I COULD not help but celebrate the news last week that Mike Ashley officially wants out of Newcastle United.
It is something the fans have wanted to happen for some time. He has held Newcastle back for too long. Former Crystal Palace chairman Simon Jordan spouted absolute nonsense this week that Ashley was never going to be accepted at the club because he was a southerner. What? It didn’t seem to hold back the affection the fans at St James’ Park had for Rob Lee or Les Ferdinand.
The reason Ashley has been disliked during his ten- year tenure is because he has not invested enough to realise the club’s potential. Trying to change the name of the ground, plus his poor treatment of certain managers - which he admitted in a recent Sky interview - have not helped either. Nor has selling the best players. I have never quite got why he bought the club in the first place. It has made him unhappy and everyone else connected with it for that matter. Among some of the other ill-informed claims Jordan made about Newcastle was that the fans expected to win the title the season after Alan Pardew took them to fifth. No, they didn’t. This long-held view by people from outside the club that Newcastle fans have unrealistic expectations of where their club should be always leaves me perplexed.
All we have ever wanted is hope our club can challenge the very best, hope that they can win a trophy, hope that our dreams and desire for the club can be matched by those owning and running it. Much in the same way they were by Sir John Hall and Freddy Shepherd. Now the hope is that a new owner can match them again.
And I don’t know potential buyer Amanda Staveley, or what her plans are for the club, but I know what they should be. They should be to back a world-class manager to the hilt. Because the club has one in Rafa Benitez. My fear is that if a takeover does not go through by the end of this season, he will be lost to Newcastle. Benitez has them up in seventh place. Imagine what he could be doing with some serious financial backing.
What any owner of the club will get is a guaranteed passionate fan base that will support and work with anyone who has the best interests of Newcastle United at heart. I remember hundreds of thousands lining a bus parade I was part of twice - and that was when we had lost FA Cup finals.
You get 52,000 in the ground every other week, no matter what is happening. The potential to be tapped is huge. My son Will is probably sick of hearing me say this. But I want him to experience what Newcastle can be - and it can be huge. It is one of those clubs whose influence goes well beyond the confines of the ground.
The spill over from St James’ Park goes deep into the community. It can lift the city or leave it flat. It is that which Benitez loves so much.
It reminds him a lot of Liverpool and I know from my conversations with him that he loves it. It is his connection with the fans and the city that probably kept him at the club beyond this summer, when he felt certain guarantees were not followed through. Right now, Newcastle is at one of those moments in its history where things can go one of two ways. I don’t want to think of the wrong turn that could be made.
There is a book called ‘Touching Distance’ about how close Newcastle got to winning the Premier League back in 1996. They may never come that close again.
But all Newcastle fans want is the belief it COULD happen again. To be challenging. To have a club and a team they can be proud of once more. The door is now open for someone to realise that - I just hope they can walk through it.
From The Sun
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