Andy Gray has claimed Rafael Benitez and not Mike Ashley is to blame for Newcastle United’s wretched start to the season.
The north-east giants are rock bottom of the Premier League after taking just two points out of a possible 27 from their nine matches in the campaign.
BeIN Sports pundit Gray does not believe unpopular owner Ashley should shoulder all of the blame for Newcastle’s precarious position as he explained why Benitez is underperforming.
“You can blame Mike Ashley all you want, for a lack of funds. In the last two or three seasons, 15 or 16 players have arrived. Mike Ashley does not pick the team,” Gray said on beIN Sports, as quoted by their Twitter account.
“When August comes around, only one man picks the team, and that is Rafa Benitez. People will say that they have played four of the top six…but Wolves got a point against Man City.
“The next seven games Newcastle fans will be thinking they can win them. But other teams will be looking at Newcastle and thinking, ‘we can win that’.
“He (Rafa Benitez) should not have said ‘We have to hope there are three worse teams in the league’. That was wrong. You can’t say this to fans.
“He has the responsibility and he is not producing the goods. He has to turn it round and very quickly.”
"Mike Ashley doesn't pick the team. There's only one group of people responsible for how the team plays and that's Rafa Benitez and his coaching staff." #beINPL #NUFC pic.twitter.com/qqzAlDpbcB
— beIN SPORTS (@beINSPORTS_EN) October 22, 2018
OPINION
Benitez has got off almost scot-free from Newcastle fans over the team’s dreadful start to the season that leaves them fighting a relegation battle for the second time in four seasons. Supporters have been pointing the finger at Ashley for his lack of investment in the playing squad in recent years. The revelation this week that he took £10million of his own money out of the club over the summer after promising to give Benitez “every penny” made by the club for transfers has gone down like a lead balloon. Not unexpectedly. Yet, Gray does have a decent point. Newcastle’s squad is not so poor they should be propping up the division. It was the Spaniard’s decision to sell Aleksandar Mitrovic, a striker who has taken his impressive 2017-18 Championship form into the division. It is Benitez who is failing to get the best out of Premier League-calibre performers like Jonjo Shelvey, Ayoze Perez, Jamaal Lascelles, Kennedy and Martin Dubravka. Yes, he’s been dealt a poor hand by the king of caution Ashley, but he should be doing better.