Mike Ashley delivers latest promise to NUFC fans - but his comments may have riled Rafa Benitez
As we saw yesterday, Mike Ashley came out with an all too familiar line in his end of season n statement , promising to give Rafa Benitez his 'full support' and ensure that 'every penny generated by the club' will be available to him this summer.
My first thoughts - 'we've heard it all before Mike!'. And Alan Shearer said exactly the same in his Match of the Day rant last night, claiming it was just a simple 'copy and paste' from the NUFC owner.
It doesn't add up and it'll no doubt have left Rafa scratching his head.
Ashley's claims that Rafa will, 'as always', have his 'full support', claiming he will 'continue to to ensure that every penny generated by the club is available to him'.
'Continue'?? 'As always'?? Our net spend was £13m this season and the club has made a £17m profit on transfers over the past two seasons. How on earth can he claim Rafa has 'always' had his support?
He came out with an incredibly similar line last May and we saw what happened over the summer:
May 2017 statement: “I’ve confirmed to Rafa and Lee that they can have every last penny that the club generates through promotion, player sales and other means in order to build for next season.”May 2018 statement: “I will continue to ensure that every penny generated by the club is available to him.”
It's positive that he's spoken out (to some extent), but his comments may only serve to frustrate Benitez even further.
It's been made quite public that the club have generated over £125m following our first year back into the Premier League, so is Mike saying that's what Rafa will be given this summer?
That's how it sounds, but we all know that won't be the case.
Ashley admits he wants Rafa to stay in the statement, but he's on a hiding to nothing and set for one hell of a backlash from NUFC fans if he messes things up with Benitez this summer.
