Ashley still in denial amid the

IT IS no surprise to learn several Newcastle players have already made up their minds to quit the club in the wake of relegation. After all, their hearts have never been in it in the first place.

Just last week, Sunderland striker Jermain Defoe was overheard telling a pal, “God, I really love this club.”

Newcastle could have done with his goals but perhaps even more importantly, they could have done with his sense of commitment.

When you are treated as an economic asset first and a player a distant second, it is almost inevitable too many signings failed to embrace the club they had just joined.

There is little identity, no real bond between themselves and the Toon Army – and why should there be when they are brought in as mere pawns in owner Mike Ashley’s business empire?

Newcastle is merely a convenient showcase for Ashley’s Sports Direct brand. St James’ Park is plastered with more than 150 garish blue and red logos, and he even tried to change the name of the stadium.

Photographs of legendary players from the past were found in dustbins as two fingers were stuck up to history and tradition. This week’s events are the inevitable culmination of an erosion of values, deemed alien in the cold, soulless, balancesheet world of Ashley and the men who surround him.

Ashley says he will not leave and the word from inside the club is that despite mass demands for Lee Charnley to fall on his sword, the managing director retains the