Can Mike Ashley still be regarded as a successful businessman? His sportswear empire has been haemorrhaging cash, and his clueless involvement in football has hammered his wallet. His decision yesterday to stick rather than twist at Newcastle United will further deplete his fortune.

More importantly, it will further damage this once great football club, and sadden the hearts of its hundreds of thousands of fans. Mike Ashley is no longer a successful businessman, but he is certainly still a f*ddl*st*ck*ng t*gb**t.

I’ve not written about Newcastle United so far this season. That’s because, after 16 years as a season ticket holder, this summer Mike Ashley drove me out of the club I love. I decided not to renew in the hope that Ashley would depart, and with the determination that he wouldn’t take my season ticket money with him. As it transpired, Ashley didn’t go anywhere. So I did.

This was not an easy decision – and it hurt. I felt guilty at abandoning my team, and angry that I was being pushed away. And, of course, I had nothing to do on Saturday afternoons. I spent my season ticket money on Sky Sports HD, but that overhyped emperor’s new outfit hardly filled the void.

Inevitably, I couldn’t stay away for long, and I’ve been back to enough individual matches this season to determine that Chris Hughton’s team, thin in number and talent, is top of the Championship by virtue of the standard of the league being absolutely woeful. Saturday’s Newcastle United versus Doncaster Rovers match was, for long periods, excruciatingly bad, like watching two hungover pub teams. And the worry is that things are going to get even worse.

Perhaps the most surprising thing about Saturday’s match was the attendance – a remarkable 43,949. That’s just 239 less than watched Liverpool versus Manchester United in the Premier League 24 hours later. Newcastle’s home attendances in the Championship this season have averaged 41,251 – well over 10,000 more than any other team in the division, and more than almost every Premier League team with the exception of Man United, Arsenal, Liverpool and Man City.

That’s an incredible show of support for a club that has treated its fans with such disdain over the past year or so. But, ironically, the faithfulness of the fans, and the huge injection of cash they continue to provide, has offered the stability that allows Ashley to stick around.

Yesterday, Ashley announced that the club has been taken off the market. He clearly believes that the team will win promotion, and the value of his hobbyhorse will subsequently rise. Last season he clearly believed that the team would avoid relegation, and that his investment wouldn’t implode. The guy knows less about football than a chimp knows about quantum physics.

Meanwhile, Chris Hughton has been appointed as permanent manager on an 18-month contract. There is no question that Hughton is a decent bloke who has done a more than decent job with the paltry tools afforded to him. But, by his own admission, he is not a manager. He is, however, both cheap and a “yes” man. He will not be kicking Ashley’s door down during the January transfer window, and he’ll continue to toe the party line in press conferences. And he isn’t that pesky Alan Shearer. All good news for puppet-master Ashley.

For the players, the permanent appointment of Hughton is unlikely to inspire greater effort. It seems more likely that they will get out the deckchairs, pipes and slippers. There has been much talk of the team spirit that Hughton has fostered, but he has also abandoned many of the disciplinary measures introduced by Shearer. The players no longer eat together, and are no longer fined for persistent lateness. Injured players are no longer required to attend the training centre for ice baths and extra treatment. No wonder some of the players are happier. No wonder some of them are persistently late and repeatedly injured.

The final insult in Ashley’s announcement was the claim that he will look to sell naming rights for St James’ Park. This is not an out-of-town, flat-packed, identikit arena of the type inhabited by the likes of Middlesbrough, Bolton or Wigan. This is a city centre stadium that has evolved as a hub of its community over more than 100 years of history. Any new name would be ignored by all right-thinking football supporters, and any interested sponsor should think very carefully about the implications of becoming involved in such a deranged scheme.

Ashley doesn’t even properly own the stadium. And he certainly doesn’t own the fans who fill it. What does he own? The contracts of a bunch of overpaid, overrated and unloved players, and a big thick wad of debts. Does that really constitute owning a football club? The fact is that without the fans Ashley has nothing.

The day St James’ Park is renamed the Cillit Bang Arena is the day we should all finally withdraw our support and our money, and leave Mike Ashley to count the cost of destroying one of the world’s greatest football clubs.

Read more Newcastle United posts.
My book about Newcastle United is Black & White Army.

Paul Football