Why Newcastle United fans hate Mike Ashley as Sheffield Wednesday takeover link resurfaces | OneFootball

Why Newcastle United fans hate Mike Ashley as Sheffield Wednesday takeover link resurfaces | OneFootball

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·12 de outubro de 2025

Why Newcastle United fans hate Mike Ashley as Sheffield Wednesday takeover link resurfaces

Imagem do artigo:Why Newcastle United fans hate Mike Ashley as Sheffield Wednesday takeover link resurfaces

Mike Ashley has recently been linked with a potential Sheffield Wednesday takeover

Mike Ashley has recently been rumoured as a potential candidate to take over Sheffield Wednesday.


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The Owls’ owner, Dejphon Chansiri, failed to pay playing staff in September, which marked the fifth instance of this happening in the last seven months.

During this time, the Steel City side have been placed under six embargoes and watched some of their best players leave for free.

With supporters desperate for a takeover, Sheffield Star reporter Alan Biggs recently revealed via X that former Newcastle United owner, Mike Ashley, holds an interest in buying the club.

Despite Ashley’s net worth standing at a sizeable $5.7 (£4.2) billion according to Forbes, the businessman wasn’t a popular man among the Magpies’ faithful during his time in charge.

Delving further into this subject, Football League World have highlighted some of the key reasons why Newcastle supporters didn’t have much good feeling for Ashley.

Imagem do artigo:Why Newcastle United fans hate Mike Ashley as Sheffield Wednesday takeover link resurfaces

Perhaps Ashley’s most controversial act was in 2011 when he decided to rename Newcastle United’s ground.

St. James’ Park was built in 1880 and has been the Magpies’ home since 1892, but history mattered little to Ashley when he opted for some subtle promotion of his Sports Direct company.

Newcastle’s home was renamed the Sports Direct Arena in 2011 until short-term payday loan company Wonga acquired naming rights for the ground in 2014 and decided to revert back to St. James’ Park.

Ashley argued that he was trying to give an example of the marketing opportunities Newcastle’s stadium possessed and how it could be a solid way of bringing extra revenue into the club.

However, it was always going to be a move that displeased the Magpies’ faithful and one that ultimately soured their relationship further.

2 Managerial decisions

Imagem do artigo:Why Newcastle United fans hate Mike Ashley as Sheffield Wednesday takeover link resurfaces

During his time as Newcastle United owner, Ashley made a number of questionable decisions from a managerial point of view.

He handed Alan Pardew an eight-year contract as manager somewhat prematurely before allowing the manager to join Crystal Palace in 2015.

The businessman sacked Chris Hughton with not much reasoning after he had secured them promotion to the Premier League, but appointed Joe Kinnear in 2008, who had spent the last five years out of work.

Ashley chose not to extend Rafa Benitez’s contract at St. James’ Park, despite the Champions League and Europa League winner sticking with them while they were in the Championship.

All these decisions built massive frustration among the Newcastle fanbase, and was eventually a massive reason as to why they wanted him gone.

Imagem do artigo:Why Newcastle United fans hate Mike Ashley as Sheffield Wednesday takeover link resurfaces

Understandably, Newcastle United’s biggest gripe with Ashley was that they had gone backwards as a club during his time as owner.

The Magpies have been relegated six times in their history and a third of those came during the businessman’s reign.

Newcastle were competing in the Champions League just four years prior to Ashley’s purchase but were sucked into the second-tier after two seasons under his ownership.

Once back in the top-flight, mediocrity resumed on the whole and in 2016, the Magpies suffered relegation once more.

As proven by their current situation, Newcastle had the potential to consistently feature in Europe and fight towards the top of the Premier League. However, they couldn’t get close to achieving this during Ashley’s time in charge and instead slipped further backwards.

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