The Magpie Group have announced that Newcastle supporters will again be protesting against owner Mike Ashley before Saturday’s game against Arsenal.
The club’s fans have been in uproar throughout the new season, with protests taking place outside Sports Direct in Newcastle city centre prior to the club’s home games against Tottenham and Chelsea last month.
This Saturday, 2:15pm. #AshleyOut pic.twitter.com/PeIPYbKviE
— The Magpie Group (@MagpieGroupNUFC) September 10, 2018
The supporter’s group announced on their Twitter account that Saturday’s protest would be staged outside the club’s shop at St James’ Park.
The announcement noted that the shop is now run by Ashley’s Sports Direct company. Magpies fans have grown increasingly frustrated with Ashley over recent seasons, particularly with his failure to back manager Rafael Benitez in the transfer market this summer.
OPINION
This sort of thing is not good for a football club, and can’t make it any easier for the team to focus on winning games. However, the club’s supporters clearly feel that they have no other option. Ashley has sucked all the life out of Newcastle during his time in charge of the club, and is now wasting the first world class manager the team has had since Sir Bobby Robson. It’s simply not good enough and supporters have had enough. The protests’ change of location is interesting, as they’ll now be even closer to the stadium while still targeting Ashley’s Sports Direct facilities. What Rafael Benitez must think of the state of things at Newcastle is anyone’s guess, but you suspect the Spaniard shares much of the fans’ frustration. There seems to be no end in sight for the conflict between board and supporters, and it must be taking a toll on the team, who are winless through four Premier League games.
