The Athletic’s Chris Waugh has claimed that there is “mass frustration” from Mike Ashley due to the fact that he is still the owner of Newcastle United.
Back in May 2007, the English businessman launched his takeover of the Toon after acquiring a 41.6% holding in the north-east club (per The Guardian).
Over the following 13 and a half years, Newcastle have dropped into the Championship twice and only finished above ninth in the Premier League once (as per Transfermarkt).
Currently, Ashley is in a battle with the Premier League to force through the sale of the Toon to a Saudi Arabian-backed consortium after initiating arbitration (via Chronicle Live).
During the latest episode of The Athletic’s Pod On The Tyne podcast, Waugh revealed that there was “mass frustration” from Ashley that he still owns the club.
He said: “The club are in a position where the hierarchy wanted to have moved on by now. Mike Ashley, certainly, is begrudgingly still owner of the club.
“So, from his perspective, there is mass frustration as well that he remains owner.
“That is, I suppose, if you want to call that a positive, that there is still that view that he is trying to push [the Saudi-backed deal] through.
“Obviously, that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s going to happen, because that has been the case for certainly the past nine months since it’s been with the Premier League.”
TIF Thoughts on what Chris Waugh said about Mike Ashley…
As can be seen in what the reporter had to say, he believes that Ashley is frustrated that he is still the in his position at St. James’ Park as he is keen to move on.
Do you share Mike Ashley's frustration?
Yes, I want him gone
No, he's not that bad
Certainly, it seems likely that Toon fans will share the feeling of Ashley as the club seems to have stagnated since his arrival in the north east.
In the 14 seasons prior to his arrival – from the 1993/94 campaign – Newcastle recorded eight finishes in the top nine and were Premier League runners-up twice without being relegated.
Since the 2007/08 term, their league finishings have been far worse and went down on two occasions, so hopefully for Toon fans, Ashley is not at St. James’ Park for all that much longer.