Mark Lawrenson has described Mike Ashley as “cute” for his conservative approach to transfer dealings and defended the owners decisions by questioning how much difference more money would make.
The Newcastle United owner is renowned for keeping the pursestrings tight, and Lawro has suggested that he knows exactly how much stinginess he can get away with on Tyneside.
Speaking on Football Focus, as quoted in the Chronicle (12.03), he said: “In many, many ways how cute is the owner? He just knows that they’re not going to be relegated. If you give Newcastle another £50million or £100million, how many places are they going to go up the league?
“But we have this every year, they’re dancing around the handbags, will he go? Is Benitez chucking a transfer request, he wants to leave and all those kinds of things and the owner just gives him enough money.
“He’s like ‘there you go, a little bit of money’ and they keep going.”
OPINION
Lawrenson is pretty much on the money with this one, even if his phrasing is a little bizarre. Ashley is no idiot. The man doesn’t want to invest, but noe does he want to get rid of valuable asset that is still making him a decent packet. Because of this he has managed to master toeing the line between conservatism and outright fan revolt. Yes, there are marches outside the Sports Direct on Northumberland Street, and yes, there are occasional walkouts, but ultimately, there are too many Geordies who love the club too much to simply walk away from it. That means that the revenue keeps rolling in, and Ashley continues to sit in his ivory tower, largely unaffected by the grievances of the Toon masses. Even when things are getting super prickly, he just does enough to placate fans. The signing of Miguel Almironseems to have quieted some disdain for now at least, but in the grand scheme of things, it really is the least he could do for a club he has ran terribly.
