Is sportsdirect.com @ St James’ Park a decent compromise to a difficult situation?

No, and I’ll tell you why not, because it’s only Mike Ashley and Sports Direct that have created the situation in the first place.

I was in the press box when the supporters were booing Mike Ashley in the last home game, and when I looked up at the owner, he was sitting there with a huge grin on his face.

I thought ‘he’s up to something’, and now we all know what that was. I think he wanted to scare the pants off the fans to get back at them, and he did that.

He really got the supporters’ backs up, but then changed the detail at the last minute to @ St James’ Park. However, that hasn’t been enough to calm the situation down and he’ll deserve all the criticism that is bound to come his way.

He’ll say he can’t sell up, but I don’t think he’s ever been serious about trying to sell the club. I think he tried to convince people he wanted to sell, but then didn’t.

When someone got very close to the price he had quoted, he immediately took the club off the market. I really believe that if you hear one thing where Mike Ashley’s concerned, you’re best to believe the opposite.

BERNIE SLAVEN

No matter what Mike Ashley does, he always seems to make a mockery of the football club. This whole @ St James’ Park thing is probably the worst of the lot.

It’s no surprise that he’s had to name the ground after his own business – no other company would touch this with a barge pole.

I know some people are comparing this to when Middlesbrough were playing at the Cellnet Riverside, but this situation is completely different.

The Riverside was a totally new ground, and it had never been called anything other than the Cellnet Riverside. Supporters put up with it because it wasn’t an assault on the club’s tradition.

St James’ Park has been there for 100-odd years, so to change the name now, purely for money, is an insult to the 40,000 supporters who are still turning up every week.

I think Ashley’s actions are disgraceful, but the bottom line is that he’s a businessman and he’s doing what businessmen do. He’s out to get whatever he can, and if he thinks there’s a few quid in this somewhere down the line, he’s ruthless enough to do it.

MICKY HORSWILL

For once, I’m totally in agreement with the other two guys, and I think anyone who tries to explain away the name change knows absolutely nothing about football.

Yet again, Ashley is taking a massive liberty with the Newcastle supporters. He’s obviously tried and failed to get other companies interested, but he hasn’t been able to, so he’s had to put his own company name up there instead.

Maybe you could have made a case for this if he had got five or six million quid off Adidas or someone and spent it on the team, but as far as I can make out, he hasn’t got a penny.

It’s just another in a long line of bad moves.

We’ve recently had new owners at Sunderland, but you haven’t seen them making decisions that have angered the fans.

They’ve been careful to stay in the background and be quietly supportive of the manager and team.

They’ve won the supporters’ respect because they haven’t tried to tamper with the history and traditions of the club.

I can’t think of anything worse than changing the name of a stadium that has existed for more than 100 years.

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