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Simon Jordan & Craig Hope clash live on air over "media nonsense" - Watch here

by Jaspar Shepherdson ·
Simon Jordan & Craig Hope clash live on air over "media nonsense" - Watch here

After the transfer window we’ve had so far, it wouldn’t be any surprise if Newcastle United fans had all collectively tuned out from the media and their reports.

Following day after day of frustrating news stories, it's been a brutal exercise for supporters keen to catch up with the latest goings on - or the lack of them, in Newcastle's case!

Simon Jordan has been one of our more ‘supportive’ figures in the media as of late, but his latest rant has been aimed solely at one of our North East reporters.

And it’s inspired quite the argument between the former Crystal Palace chairman and The Mail’s Craig Hope over the state of things at the club right now.

Simon Jordan vs Craig Hope

Speaking on talkSPORT, Simon Jordan has accused Craig Hope of being part of the "media nonsense" around our sporting director position and the perceived lack of support for Eddie Howe.

Jordan asked 'which one is it' regarding what Howe wants, claiming Hope has reported on his dissatisfaction with Paul Mitchell last summer, then bemoaned the lack of support in his absence 12 months on.

Watch the debate in full below, which got a little heated as Hope defended his reporting!


Simon Jordan - “Everyone was turning around and saying how dreadful it was for Eddie having to work with Paul Mitchell, as Paul Mitchell was being divisive and not being facilitatory, and that there was a rift between Eddie (And Paul).”

“Now the narrative this year is that the poor sod doesn’t have a sporting director. Which one is it?”

Craig Hope - “Simon, you get me on here all the time to tell my stories because they’re true. So you guys sit here for three hours talking about it, so don’t come back at me and say it’s nonsense - you really enjoyed the Isak story I broke last week didn’t you? So there you go, it’s not nonsense.”

Hope continued “Would it have been better if Paul Mitchell stayed there in the summer? Probably yes because someone is better than no one. But was the Mitchell appointment right? No it wasn’t.”

“You guys were spinning the narrative last year that there was a massive division between the sporting director and the manager…so the reality is that Eddie Howe is perfectly capable of making decisions without a sporting director on what players he does and doesn’t want.”

“You call it spinning the narrative. I call it reporting the facts, so there you go.”

Hope 1-0 Jordan?

Hope stood his ground well here and is right in what he says. Both things can be true. Howe and Mitchell did not seem like a good fit and issues clearly existed last summer.

But that doesn't mean that Howe can't be frustrated and left with too much to do when Mitchell decided to suddenly announce his exit at the end of May.

Fans are right to have legitimate complaints surrounding the club’s management of the sporting director role, which is something deemed to be essential if you want to be a top team nowadays. Yet, we've had those gripes dismissed in the media and called hypocrisy, echoing the idea that we’re not being portrayed fairly.

Credit must go to Hope for his reporting of the ongoing situation at the club, where much of the mainstream media’s focus has been on the failed transfer window, and not so much the lack of organisation at a club missing several key figures.

Watch Hope's full appearance on talkSPORT's breakfast show below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76ZINxONvJE

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