Former Newcastle United goalkeeper Shay Given has claimed that if it was not for owner Mike Ashley, the Magpies would probably have been much bigger than what they currently are.
In his Autobiography “Any Given Saturday – The Autobiography”, Given has claimed that Newcastle United did not have the best leadership under owner Mike Ashley and believes that the billionaire stalled the growth of the club.
Given wrote that Ashley enjoyed “pi**ing off” the fans and made decisions deliberately to do just that, one certain example being the appointment of manager Joe Kinnear.
Given stated, “The ambition of the club when I left was zero, zilch. It was a ship just bobbing along with no leadership. The appointment of Joe Kinnear just about summed things up.
“When you say it slowly, Joe Kinnear – joke in here – we honestly thought it was a wind-up. He’d been out of the game for so long. This was Newcastle United and they got someone out of the wilderness to come and manage us.
“It just summed it all up, he was friends with Mike Ashley. It felt like he was thinking, ‘What can I do next to p*** the fans off?’.”
Recent reports have suggested that Mike Ashley is looking to sell the Magpies in the near future and has put the club on sale. Given has welcomed this news and has also expressed his opinion that under new ownership and stewardship of Rafa Benitez, the club can enjoy prolonged success.
Given continued: “A club like this, with the backing of a Sheikh Mansour type, could go wherever it wants. It can be as big as Manchester City. It wouldn’t happen overnight. But they have the right manager, the stadium, everything is in place.
“You could sell that stadium twice over. If there is investment on the pitch then they’ll be queuing around the block to get in.”
Given left St James Park in 2009 to join Manchester City amidst controversy but eventually became a key part of the early success, with the goalkeeper paving the path for the greater revolution which has resulted in the growth of the powerful Citizens of now.
