Tony Cascarino claimed Mike Ashley does not have to sell Newcastle United but has to start handing Rafa Benitez the tools to succeed.
The pundit shared that with the money the Magpies rake in from staying in the Premier League, Ashley doesn’t really have to sell the club for it to move on.
However Cascarino quickly added that the Magpies owner did need to start sharing the rewards that the club got for their Premier League status more.
“Mike Ashley, with Premier League survival and the amount of funds that come in Mike Ashley doesn’t really have to sell the club,” said Cascarino on talkSPORT (Sunday April 21st, 8:40am)
“He just needs to be a bit more giving with those rewards Premier League clubs get for staying in the league.
“I get where Newcastle are coming from and I get when Mike Ashley spoke a while ago about not being wealthy enough, despite being a wealthy man, to run a successful Premier League club, I get all that but there still has to be an element of what do you do with this football club that has such a huge fanbase, and a demand from a manager who has won the Champions League, Spanish league and has won trophies at Anfield with Liverpool.
“He has won many things in his career but you have to give him the tools to give him the chance to be successful as in breaking the mould and maybe going from 15th down to 7th, 8th maybe even higher.”
OPINION
You can hear the Newcastle United fanbase groan at the thought of Ashley not selling the club, but it’s easy to see what Cascarino means. The pundit highlights the fact that while the businessman believes he is not personally wealthy enough to run a successful Premier League club, the amount of money the Magpies generate should be enough to help Benitez succeed. Yet while Cascarino’s verdict makes complete sense based on Ashley’s track-record at the club, he describes an unlikely scenario. As long as Ashley is in charge of the Magpies, you can’t imagine them doing enough transfer business or really investing the funds needed to surge up the Premier League table. However then again, you can never rule out anything in football. No one expected Ashley to sanction the big-money signing of Miguel Almiron from Atlanta United in January, and yet the Paraguayan attacker is now playing his football at St James Park.