Being a Newcastle fan has been pretty good over the last few months, with the Magpies impressing in the Premier League. We’ve still had our off days, but we’re confident that we’ll be in the Premier League next season, and provided we improve the squad during the off-season, maybe we’ll finally start to reach the levels that we all know we can.
There has been one controversy that has continued to rage at St. James’ Park, though, and it relates to the owner. Mike Ashley has always been divisive, and it’s fair to say that fan anger towards him has hit a high this season.
He said: “I understand the frustrations but, at the same time, it did start to affect the atmosphere around the stadium”.
He continued: “That’s no criticism towards the fans because they’ve been fantastic and I understand the unrest. But support is what the team needs.”
Whilst it can be hard, he’s absolutely right. The last thing that the team needs is more negativity – there’s clearly enough of that behind the scenes – and it must be tough for the players to deal with.
You never want your own team to lose, but there have certainly been points this season where it’s been easy to think that a loss could help to get Ashley out of the door, and most fans would be lying if they said they hadn’t thought that.
Fortunately, there have been signs that the owner is changing. He signed Miguel Almiron, and he’s apparently open to securing another major transfer this summer.
We’re lucky that 99% of everyone associated with our team wants to be successful, but without our passion and support, they won’t achieve that. It’s time to put our energy into the right things, even if we’ve still got to see Ashley around the club.