What Will Ashley Take Away From His Toon Experience?

In the case of Ashley ... he made the job IMPOSSIBLE!

If the manager is seen as responsible for results, he must be allowed to bring in the players he wants, not the ones some bloke on the Board suggests.

We all know it has been going on for years at St James' Park to a lesser degree, with a couple of players involved in the promotion season back in the 1940's brought in on the recommendation of a Board member.

In 1977 a player called Ralph Callachan was signed (by the Newcastle directors) from Hearts for £100,000 behind the back of manager Richard Dinnis.

He never impressed, although Hearts supporters thought much of him, and he only made 11 appearances for the Toon. He joined Hibs as part of the deal that brough John Brownlie to Newcastle.

But Ashley is in a different league. The guy told us Newcastle Utd is a "business", just as Sir John Hall did in 1993, but he thought he could run it like he runs his shops.

At the end of the day ... it became his hobby. And he decided he was going to run it HIS way ... even though he knows as much about football as the average Geordie knows about the stock market. Not a lot!

But the appointment of Joe Kinnear came after a desperate trawl through the ranks of the terminally unemployed and executive director Dennis Wise's little black book in an effort to find a man ready to take on a job which few genuinely want.

Kinnear has nothing to lose. The former Wimbledon and Luton boss has been out of the management game since his horror spell at Nottingham Forest drew to a close in December 2004, and he will not be expected to perform miracles.

If he turns NUFC into a full-blown disaster, little of the mud will stick to him, because Ashley and Wise have already made their names in Geordie legend as 'Morecombe And Wise'.

Kinnear's appointment was greeted with bemusement in Newcastle on Friday afternoon, but although Wise will take the blame for it, Ashley is said to be the man who appointed him.

The billionaire is understood to have taken over the task of finding an interim manager personally after losing patience with the lack of progress made by Wise and vice-president Tony Jimenez.

 

Ashley was either naive or spectacularly badly advised - and perhaps both - if he expected the Geordies to take to Kinnear.

But it is just one of many 'shocks' he has given the Toon fans ... and nothing could hit them worse than seeing Kevin Keegan walk out.

Had Ashley donned a Sunderland shirt and danced on the legendary Jackie Milburn's grave, he could not have caused more anger or offence.

Ashley decided there was only one way out.

If he does not have the stomach to see his mission through, he is probably right, and the divorce cannot come quickly enough for either party.