64 2GM Friday July 31 2020 | the times
SportFootball
It will happen. Mike Ashley will go.
Newcastle United fans will have that
all-clear filling the Tyneside air,
announcing liberation from the un-
wanted regime.
Newcastle fans have been let down,
first by Ashley, with his soulless
approach to owning a cherished foot-
ball club for the last decade.
It was, we were told, aboard the fantas-
tic Serene yacht — one of the ten biggest
in the world and worth £500 million —
that Amanda Staveley finally found
someone to invest in her plan to pur-
chase Newcastle United.
Yesterday, as one of the most pro-
tracted, draining and opposed take-
overs in the history of English football
collapsed, the mood in Tyneside could
not have been farther from serene.
Indeed, the football club a city dotes on
are heading into troubled waters.
It is worth remembering that back in
December Mike Ashley, the owner of
Newcastle for 13 years, gave away
10,000 free season tickets, such was the
concern at falling attendances and fall-
ing interest. St James’ Park had just
recorded its lowest Premier League
crowd for nine years.
There was perhaps more moral con-
cern about the change of ownership to
Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund
(PIF) than has been acknowledged, but
it was overridden by the desire for
Ashley to go.
Newcastle’s last five Premier League
finishes have been 15th, 18th, 10th, 13th
and 13th. That is a footballing flatline. In
the 13 years since Ashley bought the
club for £133 million from Sir John Hall
and the Shepherd family, there has been
one FA Cup quarter-final appearance,
one League Cup quarter-final, one Uefa
Cup quarter-final and two relegations.
Ashley, inset top left, was set to sell to the group led by Staveley, top right, and
Fear not Toon Army – Ashley will go
Henry Winter
Chief Football
WriterHe could have been smarter, bringing
fans onside, balancing running the club
as a business with an appreciation of
the supporters’ desire to feel pride when
watching their team. They don’t expect
tilts for titles but a proper dart at a cup
would have been good; a team that
didn’t struggle when injuries struck
would have been nice.
Newcastle’s magnificent following,
among the most loyal and long-suffer-
ing in the elite division, have also been
let down by the Premier League.
Its treatment of fans has bordered on
callous. It knew they were hurting, that
they worried for the future of their
beloved Toon. Even a simple statement,
showing sympathy for their plight,would have been something. The Pre-
mier League needs to remember that
clubs are formed by flesh and blood, not
simply suits and balance sheets.
It needs to show a more sensitive
touch in the future, because the take-
over saga will resume, simply with
different bidders who can see Newcas-
tle’s potential, how it could flourish with
the right nurturing, just as Amanda
Staveley could.
Newcastle will be sold. The attraction
is obvious: the special nature of a one-
club city, top-flight status and a passion-
ate fanbase. It is a club needing some
love, some money, some belief. So there
is still reason for hope. The wait goes on,
but it will end. Ashley will sell up.Fan dismay as club lurches to
Martin Hardy
That is it. The stadium is still, for all
intents and purposes, the same — save
for a giant television screen in the
Leazes End — the training ground is the
same, as is the club’s academy.
With perverse historical timing, the
statement from PIF that it was with-
drawing its interest came on the same
day, July 30, that Newcastle had signed
the most expensive footballer in the
world, Alan Shearer, back in 1996.
Kevin Keegan, the Newcastle man-
ager that day, said: “This signing is for
the people of Newcastle. It just shows
you the ambition of Newcastle United.
We are the biggest-thinking team in
Europe now.”
There are generations of Newcastle
fans who remember that period, of
challenging to win the Premier League.
Staveley, the PIF, the promise of
£250 million being invested in the club,
pointed towards a return to those days.
The sense of disappointment yester-
day, then, was huge, as was the anger.
Alex Hurst, the editor of the True Faith
fanzine, tweeted: “A plan to keep Nufc
right where we are to satisfy other PL
clubs as well as keep an international
broadcaster happy. They were never
going to reject the deal because they
couldn’t. So they’ve let time and Mike
Ashley finally kill it.”
It means that Philippe Coutinho will
not be moving to Tyneside, nor will the
former Tottenham Hotspur head coach
Mauricio Pochettino be in the dugout,
as has been suggested during 16 weeks
in which two opposing worlds existed
for the football club.
As it has been since 2007, it will still be
Ashley in charge and, as it has been
since last summer, it will still be Steve
Bruce as head coach. There have been
more than six suggested takeovers dur-
ing Ashley’s tenure.
This time, those close to Ashley were
adamant he wanted out. It will not have
gone unnoticed that when Bruce spoke
about spending plans at the end of
another damp squib of a season, he re-
peatedly mentioned the negative effect
of Covid-19 to clubs such as Newcastle
in the forthcoming transfer market.
Andy Carroll signing a contract ex-
tension in June despite having started
only four league games and not scored
all season was perhaps a worrying sign.
The owner has refused to budge from
his plan that heavy investment will only
be in younger players, despite years of
underachievement by his first team.
The Newcastle supporters’ website,
nufc.com, wrote in its match report
after the defeat by Liverpool: “What the
owner and manager have perpetrated,
Covid has exacerbated. The sense of
nothingness and indifference feels both
overwhelming and perpetual.”
The anger at yesterday’s news will
burn out, as has happened throughout
Ashley’s time in charge. But Newcastle
had moved on in many senses, and now
they will have to step back into a version
of themselves many fans have already
given up on.ji-xian-sheng