Niall Quinn says connection with fans is 'broken'
Monday 20 April 2015 12:53, UK
Newcastle owner Mike Ashley must be bored of watching his club play, reckons Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher.
John Carver’s side lost 3-1 to Tottenham on Super Sunday, but the build-up to the game was dominated by fans’ protests over Ashley’s ownership of the club.
Defeat to Spurs was their sixth Premier League loss in succession, and Carragher believes Ashley should be looking for more excitement rather than profit.
“Since Mike Ashley’s been there, seven or eight years, they’ve been relegated once and could be close again – under Alan Pardew they came close once before,” he said.
“He’s balanced the books, he’s made money because he’s a businessman and that’s what he wants to do.
“These people come in and they want to make money, we know that, but don’t you want to be excited yourself? Is he not bored watching Newcastle? I’m getting bored by it.
“When you watched Newcastle over the years it was madness, it was excitement, stupid goals going in one end or the other. It was exciting and you wanted to watch them.
“Now it’s boring. Why does Mike Ashley want the club if nothing’s going to happen? He’s not interested in a cup run. I just don’t get it – I don’t understand why he wants to own a football club.”
A fan campaign to boycott Sunday’s game resulted in the Toon’s lowest home gate of the season, and Carragher believes the dismay among supporters stems from misguided motives among club owners.
“Some people may say you’re not helping the situation [by boycotting] – I can understand that argument – but it’s getting to the stage now where football is so big,” he added.
“There’s that much money coming into the game with the new TV deal, and I’m sick of owners coming in, who are successful businesspeople wherever they’ve been, and they think ‘where else can I make money, oh I’ll buy a football club’.
“I had it at Liverpool with George Gillette, Tom Hicks, and I think it’s the same at Newcastle. It’s the same further down – look at Blackpool, owners taking money out of a club.
“People will tell the supporters they’ve got to come back, support the club, they’re not helping. But what are the owners doing for the supporters?
“I’m not wanting some owner to come in and do something stupid, spending all kinds of stupid money and putting the club at risk, but they’ve got all kinds of money sitting in the bank.”
Niall Quinn, who was Sunderland chairman for five years, admitted the connection with supporters is vital for owners – something he feels has gone at Newcastle.
“You’ve got to get the balance right,” he said. “It’s not just a simple case of going in to make money. I think there is a certain amount of ego and ambition involved.
“Then what happened, in this particular case with Mike Ashley, it hit him that the club was churning out loads and loads of money.
“He wasn’t used to that with many of his other businesses, he was getting criticism, and it was as if he put a wall up early on in his tenure here, saying ‘right, I’m doing it my way and I don’t care what the fans think’. That’s something that doesn’t work.
“The Geordie fans have been through everything with their club, and for them to stay away and not watch their game of football with the club they love, that hurts, and that’s something that tells you the disconnect has to be resolved. The connection has been broken.”