Paul Gascoigne believes that it will be another season of Newcastle United fans calling for Mike Ashley to leave the club.
The Magpies’ legend highlighted that no matter who is in charge, the controversial owner will not continue to release large sums of money to strengthen the squad.
Gascoigne believes that Steve Bruce will have to put up with he has got at St James’ Park, and went on to highlight how he thinks the squad is good enough.
The exit of Rafael Benitez in the summer was a massive decision by Ashley according to Gazza, who speaking to the Chronicle, claimed nothing will change as long as the owner stays in charge.
“What’s changed?” he said.
“To get Rafa Benitez was a big achievement given what he’s won in football. It’s massive. But he wouldn’t give him the money to sign massive players so the pressure was always going to be. It’s going to be another season of Ashley out, isn’t it?”
“He’s got the money to put into the club but he doesn’t want to do it for whatever reason. Steve probably knows he’s just going to have to do whatever he can with what he’s got, and it’s not a bad squad to be fair – whatever anyone says. I can’t see it changing much while he’s still there, to be honest.”
OPINION
Bruce will definitely have weighed up what he was walking into before accepting the chance to become the boss of his boyhood club – with Ashley not exactly having the biggest fan base in the North East and Newcastle. Gazza is right in his comments, what is going to change whilst Ashley is still at the club? Yes, the owner did spend money on the squad this summer, but he put himself in a position where he had to – selling Ayoze Perez and Salomon Rondon. He would have plunged into even more hatred if he didn’t put money back into the team. One transfer window isn’t enough, to put it into simple terms, Ashley must continue to put money into the squad for many more windows to come, or face the backlash that he only used this summer to cover up some of the bad feedback he’d received before. To get rid of a Champions League winner in charge of your club and to replace him with a manager whose biggest achievement is an FA Cup runner-up is a massive decision, but Bruce must fight to prove everyone wrong, and this season will mean everything for him and Ashley.
