Why St. James' Park farce could be the own-goal that finally drives Mike Ashley out of Toon

By Brian McNally

Published 11:56 06/11/09

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Any lingering doubts that Mike Ashley holds the Newcastle United fan base in complete contempt were swept away by his breathtakingly insensitive decision to defile the club's spiritual home with the crass email-style title sportsdirect.com@St. James' Park.

The relationship between the Toon Army and successive boardroom regimes has rarely been a harmonious affair, but never has one of football's most passionate supports been so alienated from those who occupy the corridors of power.

It is increasingly difficult to equate Ashley's growing reputation as the biggest serial bungler in football history with his self-made success in the field of sportswear retailing.

His litany of mistakes which ranges from relegating the third best supported team in England, driving out Kevin Keegan, snubbing Alan Shearer, lying to the fans, putting the club up for sale by email and buying players on the basis of You Tube videos is spectacularly inept by any standards.

But weighed against the success he achieved with a business that mushroomed from his front room it becomes even more incomprehensible.

The stage skit on the Ashley era "You Couldn't Make It Up" perfectly captured the mood of total bewilderment on Tyneside over his increasingly bizarre antics.

But, despite the repeated humiliations heaped upon them by this rancid regime, Newcastle fans have struggled until now to present any sort of unified or effective opposition to Ashley's debilitating ownership.

That is understandable give the sense of hopelessness and impotency felt by disparate groups of ordinary working-class fans faced by a powerful individual whose wealth when he took over was £1.8billion and who now owns the club, lock, stock and barrel.

An air of weary resignation, not surprisingly, crept into the sporadic chants urging Ashley and his equally-unpopular sidekick Derek Llambias to get out of Toon.

When fan fury was at its height the despised duo skulked away until things calmed down, now  they are sufficiently emboldened to sit in the directors box sniggering and smirking.

Their arrogance both angers and frustrates me. The sight of two men, who clearly struggle to comprehend football, cocking a snoot at 40,000 dedicated fans makes my blood boil.

But I sense that his latest insult may turn out to be Ashley's biggest misjudgement - an own goal too far.

The mood of public rebellion has been revitalised by this most grotesque of gaffes and I sense that he is not going to be allowed to get away with his shameful attack on the very soul of a great club.

St. James' Park will  forever remain St. James' Park as far as the Toon fans and most of the media are concerned and I believe potential sponsors will be frightened off by the outcry.

Ashley's spin that any funds raised by the re-naming fiasco would be made available to manager Chris Hughton have been lampooned by supporters who no longer believe a single word he says.

The fans fight-back will start in the next couple of days and I wish the supporters trust well. With determined and intelligent leadership I believe they can force change at St. James' Park.

Whether they can raise sufficient funds to buy the club is doubtful, but they offer a central rallying point for those that genuinely love Newcastle United and are prepared to stand up and defend its heritage and traditions.

But Toon fans be warned: It will require all the collective power and long-term resilience of the entire Toon Army to ensure that Ashley isn't allowed to go on taking the Michael.

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