Simon Jordan & Souness debate Saudi approach, Ashworth's comments & top six hopes - Video
Speaking on talkSPORT, Simon Jordam, Graeme Souness and Jim White have been debating Newcastle's evolution vs revolution approach, Dan Ashworth's denial that we have a bottomless pit of money and our hopes of finishing in the top six.
Ex-Crystal Palace owner Simon Jordan disagreed with Ashworth's idea that it has to be 'evolution' rather than 'revolution' when it comes to developing the club. He believes our sporting director is simply 'managing expectations' and choosing his words carefully to steer away from that 'richest club in the world' tag; something which makes it tougher for us to land good deals in the transfer window.
The 55-year-old feels that we have a lot more money available than the club is letting on, although with a lack of commercial income from sponsors and FFP being so restricting, I feel there is definitely some truth in what the club are telling us.
Despite spending over £200m so far this year, investment was desperately needed as we lacked quality or depth in a number of positions. Yet, Jordan feels the Saudi approach can only be described as 'evolution' not 'revolution' given we've appointed a new manager, broken our transfer record, spent big money on and off the field, made several behind the scenes appointments and transformed our buying policy all in the space of 12 months.
On our form, Graeme Souness, who was also on the show, admitted he was 'surprised' to see Eddie Howe doing so well with Newcastle after relegating Bournemouth - certainly a very narrow-minded point of view to begin with.
Now, the former Toon boss believes we have 'every chance' of being in the top six going into the break for the World Cup but was hesitant to suggest we could maintain that position by the end of the season.
Watch the debate in full below:
