Newcastle United and Premier League legend Alan Shearer has savaged owner Mike Ashley after it was reported he was to buy the club’s players a holiday if they were to avoid relegation this season.
The Magpies are currently languishing without a win in the bottom three of the top flight table, having seen their 2-0 lead at Manchester United slip and end in a 3-2 defeat for Rafael Benitez and his men.
The Spanish boss and his squad met with Ashley over dinner last week and it is said that the British businessman offered the incentive of a holiday were they to avoid the drop, a move which has seen Shearer launch a scathing verdict.
He told the Sun: “Mike Ashley offering Newcastle players a free holiday if they avoid relegation is an insult. If I was a player at that team dinner on Wednesday and he offered me that, I would have told him to shove it where the sun doesn’t shine.
“I would have said, ‘Instead of spending money on a holiday spend it on the football club and back the manager!’ As a player, that might give me hope and extra motivation that we’re all in the fight together.
“As for the dinner, how is that going to make you better as a player? If you are motivated by that, or by the owner being at matches, there is something wrong with you. I am also suspicious as to why the owner has been at the last three games when he hadn’t been at one for 16 months beforehand.
“Ashley supposedly said he does not want Rafa Benitez to leave and he will back him in January. But I don’t believe a word that comes out of Newcastle these days.”
Opinion
Shearer has made his views on Ashley clear as day with these comments, and he poses a very good point indeed. Why on earth would the players be looking forward to a free holiday when they know they can get what they want themselves on their wages? If there was a single figure among that squad who is motivated by an off-field jaunt rather than on-field success, then they should be shipped out of St James’ Park as soon as January comes around, for that is not the attitude Benitez nor the Toon Army are looking for from their stars. Also, if Ashley were to take the money he would have to spend on avoiding relegation and invest it into the transfer window, he might well have a better chance of owning a Premier League, rather than Championship, team next season. The unfortunate truth is no one other than Ashley really knows his true intentions and while he says keeping Benitez is a priority, he is not known for being the most truthful owner.