According to the Northern Echo, Mike Ashley made no effort to speak with Rafa Benitez before OR after Saturday’s defeat to Chelsea – despite the NUFC owner being spotted in the stands.
This just sums up what Rafa’s dealing with here. He’s only just returned from holiday and has just watched us slip into the relegation zone after yet another defeat, yet he avoids Benitez – a man who is yet to see a single signing arrive with just two weeks of the window remaining.
Here’s a snippet from the Northern Echo – who also report that he’s ‘extremely reluctant’ to spend this month despite us falling into the bottom three over the weekend:
‘Mike Ashley ended a two-month exile from Newcastle games by watching Saturday’s 2-1 defeat to Chelsea from the directors box at Stamford Bridge.
‘However, he did not speak to Benitez either before or after the game, and even though this weekend’s results have left Newcastle in the bottom three ahead of this weekend’s home game with relegation rivals, Cardiff City, he remains extremely reluctant to sanction any significant January spending while his attempts to sell the club remain ongoing.’
Even if Ashley doesn’t want to be here anymore, you’d think he’d want to protect his ‘£300m’ asset in some way and at least give us every chance of beating the drop.
But no, he continues to act like nothing is wrong and takes a backseat role as everyone else scrambles about to clean up the mess he continues to create.
Imagine expecting Rafa to sign a new deal when you lie to him, fail to back him and consistently ignore him for months on end..
I have enormous respect for Rafa, but none at all for Ashley, or any of the sychophant journalists or pundits that he has in his pocket (or seeminly want to crawl in there).
The only think that would undermine my respect for Rafa is if he did sign a new contract with the lying, self-serving bully.
The only thing that will make Ashley sell NUFC is a parliamentary inquiry into his fitness to be a FA club owner – the man loves a gamble and has learnt to cover his tracks since way back – I can’t believe he isn’t snubbing his nose up at the world by having an illegal little flutter somewhere, perhaps in the ME or Asia and certainly lot in his name (quite a lot of arm’s distance, I would imagine) – but for a proper investigative journalist, it could be uncovered – perhaps that’s why he spends so much on ‘cash for comments.’
Peter(Quote)
‘Mike Ashley ended a two-month exile from Newcastle games by watching Saturday’s 2-1 defeat to Chelsea from the directors box at Stamford Bridge.”
Errrr – his exile was from Newcastle – the game was at Chelsea. ?????
So it’s fairly common knowledge that Ashley hasn’t spoken to Rafa at ANY match, ever ( with one possible exception) but somehow not speaking to him at Chelsea is news?
Brrrian(Quote)