The Chronicle have shared some fan footage from the aftermath of Sunday’s 5-0 defeat at Leicester, showing an exchange between frustrated Newcastle supporters and Jamaal Lascelles.
As the clip shows below, one fan asks the NUFC skipper to pay for their travel back to Tyneside, with another saying “you’re on 40 grand a week!” when Lascelles states he’s ‘got no cash on him’.
A witness has since told the Chronicle that Lascelles said “What do you want me to do? Rafa’s gone” when supporters told him this sort of performance wouldn’t have happened under Benitez.
Fans who travelled down to the Midlands for that AWFUL game on a Sunday night may be furious, but I’m not a fan of the way a few of these supporters have approached this. Some of the questions are embarrassing.
They’re taking their anger out on the wrong person here too, with Lascelles being one of our most honest players who’ll be the first to apologise to fans (as he did at the full time whistle) when we’re not good enough.
Also, just because he’s on thousands per week does not mean he carries it in his wallet! Considering some of the mindless comments thrown at him here, I feel he deals with it pretty well.
Dave Bage, a NUFC supporter who witnessed the exchange, said this to the Chronicle:
“He was in his car and receiving a hell of a lot of abuse so came out to speak to the fans, not in an aggressive way but just to face up to us. I’ve got big respect for the guy as most of the players disappeared into the coach as fast as they could.
“He came over and was signing autographs and posing for pictures but even then he apologised for the performance. Some of the fans were asking him to pay for their cab fare home but he said he didn’t have any cash on him.
“Some of the fans were saying to him that it wouldn’t have happened under Rafa and he just kept saying: ‘What do you want me to do? Rafa’s gone.’
“It was tough one to keep my son happy on Sunday but by the 60th minute when we’re 4-0 down I told him just to enjoy the game and the season now. I said we need to accept that this will be a relegation season but not to stop coming to the games because otherwise we are simply letting (Mike) Ashley destroy the one thing about the club that makes us great – the fans.
“In the end, we had a fantastic day and the atmosphere was incredible”
