Ashley can’t afford to let the Magpies repeat past mistakes
RAFA GOING WOULD TRUMP KEEGAN AND ROBSON EXITS
LET’S not pussyfoot around. If Mike Ashley allows Rafa Benitez to walk out on the broken glass of empty promises then it will be the greatest catastrophe since Kevin Keegan and Sir Bobby Robson said goodbye.
Nay, it’ll be bigger in terms of immediate impact because when United’s two greatest modern-day managers left after gifting us Champions League football, neither fans nor club realised the shuddering repercussions that were to come.
But this time all of us, all of us apart from perhaps Ashley himself, knows what lies ahead should Rafa depart. United will be cut adrift into mediocrity or worse.
There’s no question that Newcastle missed two golden opportunities to change the course of history when Keegan and Sir Bobby departed. All the great work done, the foundations so carefully laid, in the end counted for nought. Let us not make the same mistake again! A restless Keegan was ready to go but Robson most certainly was not. However what we got after King Kev was two of the world’s greatest players but not greatest managers, Kenny Dalglish and Ruud Gullit, who dismantled the Entertainers quicker than a wrecking ball. Bobby, on the other hand, was criminally sacked, a cutting blow to a fan as well as a manager, and he was followed by another distinguished name, Graeme Souness, who Kevin Keegan, Sir Bobby Robson and Rafa Benitez equally couldn’t deliver despite what he inherited.
Should Benitez take to his toes, goodness knows who would replace him. Remember this is an owner who gave us Joe Kinnear, Alan Pardew and Steve McClaren!
If United with their 50,000 gates deserve to be in the trophy-winning big time then they most certainly haven’t been since Wor Jackie and Bobby Mitchell won the FA Cup three times in five years in the early 1950s.
They have a chance now should Rafa be backed financially as Keegan was by Sir John Hall.
Ashley, so disliked for so long by fans, can actually restore a little of