Give Ashley more credit, says pundit
NEWCASTLE United fans should give owner Mike Ashley more credit for bringing Rafa Benitez in as manager, claims TV pundit Andy Gray.
In his latest defence of the Sports Direct owner, Gray has questioned the attitude towards Ashley – who has been subject of protests from United fans.
After a summer where both Benitez and fans felt the club failed to properly back the manager in the transfer market, discontent towards the owner has begun to once again rise.
However, Gray believes more credit should be put at the door of Ashley.
He said: “I think Mike Ashley has done a really good job with them – they finished 10th last year.
“I heard last year Mike ...did not give Rafa Benitez enough money – they were this, they were that – they finished 10th and Benitez then spent more money. He has brought more players in and they might finish ninth this year but I don’t know what they want.
“Do they want Mike Ashley to say ‘here’s a quarter of a billion pounds of my money, you can have it and spend it however you want Rafa’? It is not going to happen.
“These clubs are businesses now, they are not football clubs anymore, they way I knew them, the way I grew up with them. These Americans and Chinese owners who have come into the Premier League, and Mike Ashley have come in to make money – they are not in it to throw money away.
“If you look at the investment he has made, I don’t get the stick he gets, I really don’t. Then I am not up there seven days a week like the Newcastle fans are - but I don’t know what they want from Mike.
“He has brought in Rafa Benitez, he gets no praise for that. He brought him in. He was the man who said ‘I am going to bring in Rafa Benitez to this club’ and yet he gets no praise for that.”
Benitez took over from Steve McClaren in March 2016 but the Spaniard was unable to save United from the club’s second relegation under Ashley.