Newcastle United Fan View: Why now is the perfect time for Mike Ashley to sell

Since I started to write for Yahoo almost 3 years ago there have been two clear subjects that have dominated my articles; Mike Ashley and Rafa Benitez. It is hard to mention Newcastle United these days without referring to one or the other but the stories that accompany each man are polar opposites. With Ashley you have the negativity, the lies, the total lack of support, some would even say a pure hatred from the fans. With Benitez you have the love, the complete trust in the man, the gratitude from the fans and the hope that he stays at the club for years to come. Unfortunately for Newcastle United fans, we’re pretty sure that the two men can not work together and that may once again come to a head this summer.

When I first started writing blogs on Newcastle United around ten years ago I was actually in support of Ashley. It was at the time of the takeover from Hall and Shepherd and I for one was pleased with the new owner; under Shepherd I felt we were over-spending and whilst relegation was a word that was never, ever muttered, I feared for the long term future of the club; the trophy signings, the spending above our means, the lack of trophies to justify the spending, I genuinely felt we were going to “do a Leeds”. So, when a billionaire owner took over who promised investment in youth, the return of Keegan and the scouring of European markets I felt good, and I wanted to write about it.

However, as we all know, this turned sour, there were mistakes, some which I could forgive but the mistakes were never learned from and Ashley came across as if he was wanting to punish Newcastle fans for the way they had jeered him and wanted him out of the club. The signing of Joe Kinnear (twice) beggars belief. The Dennis Wise recruitment blueprint, the Keegan court case, the two relegations, the lack of power given to the manager, the lies, the lies, the lies. The Mike Ashley story has been told over and over again so I will leave it there but the one thing he has got right is the appointment of Rafa Benitez.

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Rival clubs and fans will sneer at Newcastle, they say Rafa took us down in the 15/16 relegation season but we all know differently, we all know this was not the case and the appointment of Rafa Benitez was the start of something magical. Newcastle United fans often get knocked in the press for forcing their managers out; Pardew and McClaren in particular, both of which have friends in high places within TV land were made to look like the victims of a baying Newcastle United crowd – Newcastle United fans were blamed for being inpatient and hounding out good, solid managers, good men, proper football men. However, when they see our unconditional love for Benitez, they don’t like it, it doesn’t fit with their rhetoric that Newcastle United fans only like geordies, they don’t like foreigners and they don’t stick with their team. Benitez has changed this and the press don’t like it one bit.

To his credit, Ashley backed Benitez in the transfer market in the summer of 2016, prior to the EFL Championship starting; thanks of course to the large sums received from the sales of Sissoko and Wijnaldum but nevertheless, Rafa was backed, and the title came at the end of the season. You only have to look at Sunderland to see what that relegation could have done to us, we lost the first games of the season and were sitting close to the bottom of the league, unlike Sunderland though, we invested in players with Championship experience, players Rafa wanted and the rest as they say, is history. I will give Ashley credit in investing as he didn’t have to, he could have pocketed the proceeds from the players sales but instead he handed it over to the manager. For once he trusted someone from outside his inner circle but his hand was forced, we were playing in the second tier, he had lost and was going to lose millions if promotion back to the Premier League was not achieved at the first time of asking. Surely he must look at this now and think that investing in the side, with Rafa in control, will mean success in the future? The signs are pointing to no given the lack of investment this January when it was most needed. Instead he gambled, as he always does, in the current manager and team getting enough points to survive. Ironically, his gamble seems to have paid off.

The message this season has always been clear; survival. Every Newcastle United fan knew this and accepted it even though the national press will lead you to believe that Newcastle fans were expecting a swift return to European football and long cup runs but this is not, and never was, the case.

As it stands, Newcastle sit comfortably in 10th place in the league – the top half of the Premier League – on 38 points. Whilst not mathematically safe, it would take some sort of catastrophic and monumental muck up to be relegated now so can we now say job done? I think so. I would of course like to see Newcastle United push on and finish as high up the league table as possible but survival comes first and I will not be too disheartened if we drop a few places come mid-May at the season’s end.

What we have to do is give Rafa Benitez credit, a lot of credit at that. He has transformed the club from top to bottom and he has made it clear that Newcastle United is very much a work in progress. Rafa Benitez wants to win things so he will not be happy if Ashley shows no ambition in pushing on from what has been two successful seasons in a row; he gambled this January and his gamble paid off but Rafa Benitez will not stand for that again this summer. Appointing Benitez was Ashley’s greatest achievement and if he is to stay on as the club’s owner, the owner of a Premier League club, he must back Rafa. Rafa will not be expecting the £500m war chest the likes of Manchester City, United and Chelsea get each and every year but he will expect to be backed, he will expect to get his primary targets and not revert to plan F as he has done for the most part since his time as Newcastle United manager.

Ashley must understand that things are going very well right now. He might not have the support of the fans, far from it in fact, but his manager has the support in droves. He has a manager whose popularity rivals Keegan and that is something most Premier League club owners can only dream of. There is now a strong foundation at the club, the basics are being done right and well but much like in the season when we finished 5th, now is the time to invest, to build and to strengthen and Ashley must learn from his mistakes now or all the good work will be undone in an instant.

If Ashley still wants to sell the club he must do it as soon as possible once the season has ended. He now has a strong Premier League club to sell, unlike the club on the brink of relegation and with a struggling team he tried to sell back in December. Potential owners will be more interested now than they were in the winter but the sale of the club could be a huge turning point this summer and mistakes can not be made. As fans we have to put our trust in Ashley to get this right but past history tells us this trust is likely to be misplaced.