John Barnes with bizarre new comments on Mike Ashley, the 'Cockney Mafia' & 'hard to please' fans

Former Newcastle player, John Barnes, has forged a reputation of being a well-spoken and sensible person after his retirement from football, but his latest take is absolutely ridiculous.

Here’s what he said about Mike Ashley and the running of the club:

“Well he does put money into the club.

"It’s quite tribal in Newcastle and Mike Ashley is from the south and some used to describe him and his associates as the ‘Cockney Mafia’.

"There are things he may have said or done in the past which Newcastle fans would have found disrespectful.

"Newcastle fans are obviously going to know more than me, but from the players they’ve bought, the money they’ve spent and the salaries they’ve paid then it seems as if football fans are just hard to please.

"I however believe that the players and Steve Bruce have done a fantastic job.”

Barnes seems to think that our hatred for Ashley is created mainly from the fact that he is from London and that we once referred to him and his awful associates as “The Cockney Mafia”…

This interview honestly screams of a person who hasn’t got a clue about what they’re talking about but is determined to have an opinion on it anyway.

This is mostly apparent by his assertion that Ashley “may” have offended us in the past. Yeah, John, and you “may” have been clearly past your best when you played for us.

I would invite Barnes to actually do some research on the players we’ve bought, money we’ve spent and salaries we’ve paid because if he actually looks at it for longer than five seconds then he may realise that there’s a reason we’ve been discontented for 13 years.

Even a cursory glance would easily inform you how woefully underfunded and supported we have been for the many years we’ve had under Ashley.

To establish that our pain under Ashley is simply because “football fans are hard to please” is downright insulting and furthers the media’s bizarre agenda to crush any sort of ambition from clubs they don’t deem worthy.

Of course, Barnes tops off is absolute drivel with the notion that Bruce has done a “fantastic job”… How? How has he? I don’t need to state my case on how poor Bruce is because I’ve written enough on that before but for Barnes to simply state this and leave it without any evidence or reasoning is bad punditry and he should be ashamed.

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