Former Tottenham and Hull City midfielder Ryan Mason has said that Newcastle United fans should be fuming at seeing their side sit 19th in the Deloitte Football Money League.
The annual report from the international accounting agency, which studies the finances of football clubs worldwide, placed the Magpies just in the top 20 in terms of revenue on €201.5million in their 2019 report released earlier this week, beating Premier League rivals West Ham and just behind the likes of Everton and AC Milan.
Speaking of the revelation on Sky Sports’ The Debate (24/01), and asked whether the Toon Army should be angry that their club are not spending more in the transfer market, Mason said the fan at St James’ Park had every right to be raging.
He told The Debate: “Oh 100 per cent. I mean the magnitude of the club, they fill that stadium, the fans are absolutely fantastic and like I said, they’ve got a manager there that if you did back him you can kind of trust that he would be a success there.
“The job he’s done has been incredible and he hasn’t been backed as it is, so he’s earned that money, he’s earned the freedom to go and pick a few players. If the board don’t give him that, ultimately I don’t think he’ll be there much longer.
Opinion
Mason has hit the nail on the head when it comes to the feelings of the Newcastle faithful – something a lot of pundits have ignored or been naive to in the past. The supporters know that the money is being made by their club – the Deloitte report makes that clear as day – and Mike Ashley has previously promised that all the profit made would be reinvested. Has that happened? Not in the slightest. Where the millions upon millions of pounds that the club is turning over is going is not stated but the Toon Army have a pretty good idea – right into Ashley’s back pocket. Mason speaks a lot of sense on the goings on at St James’ Park and his opinion will be a refreshing change to some of the other voices out there who seem either uneducated and under-informed about what is happening on Tyneside or those who simply have it in for the Magpies. Still, the Newcastle fans would not care about what the pundits are saying if Ashley chose to put his hand into his pocket and give Rafael Benitez some cash to splash.