This made me think Mike Ashley was back at Newcastle United

I have been reminded of the Mike Ashley days at Newcastle United.

Not a pleasant image.

Thankfully this Mike Ashley flashback proving just to be a nightmare.

That ghost of Christmas past not coming back to haunt us.

However, this flashback moment did make me stop and think of one specific horrific moment during the Fat Controller’s decade and a half cruel reign.

Let me take you back in time…

It is the 2010/11 Premier League season, Chris Hughton has achieved minor miracles (sounding familiar…?).

Mike Ashley selling off as much of the family silver as possible after the 2009 relegation, Chris Hughton given the job on a caretaker basis because he was cheap and already at St James’ Park.

Hughton having to rely on frees and loans plus the odd bargain basement buy, yet remarkably steering Newcastle United instantly back to the Premier League with 102 points, 11 points clear of the runners up.

During that promotion season, Mike Ashley belatedly made Chris Hughton a ‘permanent’ appointment.

No surprise that Mike Ashley allowed Chris Hughton only a minimal spend after promotion. As we all know, the mission statement back then was try to survive in the Premier League on the minimum spend possible and the maximum number of Ashley’s retail empire adverts on display inside St James’ Park.

Despite the minimal spending allowed, Hughton doing a remarkable job after promotion, getting Newcastle United safely positioned in mid-table. Surely a Mike Ashley dream scenario? Maybe not. More on that later.

Anyway, here are four big moments in the timeline of that Newcastle United 2010/11 season:

23 October 2010 – West Ham 1 Newcastle 2

31 October 2010 – Newcastle 5 Sunderland 1

7 November 2010 – Arsenal 0 Newcastle 1

6 December 2010 – Chris Hughton sacked

Yes, four weeks after Chris Hughton had achieved a remarkable trio of results, he was sacked. At that moment on 6 December 2010, Newcastle United were 11th in the Premier League.

Mike Ashly released this statement to justify the decision; “The board now feels an individual with more managerial experience is needed to take the club forward.”

As always with Mike Ashley, the real truth of the matter was something very different.

Chris Hughton building something very promising, with young homegrown striker Andy Carroll at the heart of it. Carroll had scored the winners at both West Ham and Arsenal in that trio of victories. Carroll didn’t actually score in the 5-1 hammering of the Mackems but he played a key role in it.

Rumours had been building that Mike Ashley was intending to sell Andy Carroll in the January transfer window BUT Chris Hughton resisting that. Hughton was sacked and instantly replaced by Alan Pardew, who had been sacked from third tier Southampton in his last job.

The truth later came out that Alan Pardew was already at the fringes of Mike Ashley’s group of associates, Pardew knowing Ashley’s henchman and casino operator Derek Llambias.

Alan Pardew came in and was swiftly asked about Andy Carroll, would he be sold in the January 2011 window? No chance of that happening, absolutely not, was Pardew’s response to the media questioning.

At the end of January 2011, Andy Carroll was sold to Liverpool.

An appalling couple of months of Mike Ashley in action, especially what happened with Chris Hughton.

What has Mike Ashley got to do with the present day?

Well, rather bizarrely, a lot of Newcastle United fans appear to be wearing Mike Ashley masks.

Yes, Newcastle United supporters wanting Eddie Howe sacked.

This is three weeks after outperforming and beating Manchester City 2-1 who were in great form.

Two weeks after hammering Everton 4-1 away, in the middle of a run where the scouse mackems won their other four of five Premier League matches without scoring a goal.

Newcastle United are currently 12th in the Premier League BUT only four points off fifth place which would almost certainly give you Champions League football. The league table incredibly tight.

Newcastle United currently on a 13 match run in all competitions of Won 7 Drawn 2 Lost 4.

Yes, the mackem match was all but unwatchable, a game set up to be goalless and it surely would have been, without the freak own goal. United unable to successfully get themselves out of that negative set up, once the goalless draw was no longer on, failing to test the Sunderland keeper with a single serious effort on target.

However, talk of sacking Eddie Howe at this point is seriously embarrassing.

Nobody pretends this season has gone perfectly BUT neither is it a disaster, yet. Put it this way, far more chance of this becoming a disastrous season if Eddie Howe is sacked during it.

At the very least, even the lunatic fringe should be able to comprehend that this brilliant manager and character has earned the right to see out this season and see where we are come the final whistle on the 2025/26 campaign.

A lot of football still to be played and as well as only four points off a Champions League qualifying spot in the Premier League, Eddie Howe also has us one step away from a third Carabao Cup semi-final in four seasons and probably already having done enough to guarantee at least a Champions League play-off spot for a place in the last 16, whilst winning the final two Swiss League matches would almost see NUFC automatically go through to the knockout stages.

Could you ever foresee the day when any Newcastle United fans would want to sack a manager when he had just delivered seven wins and a draw in the last eight matches they had watched at St James’ Park?

What about if Eddie Howe turns that into nine home wins and a draw in the ten St James’ Park matches ahead of Christmas? Will the pitchfork wielding mob still want him out??

So many questions, but as always, the man I will trust to find the answers is Eddie Howe.

He has done it time and time again across more than four years and certainly deserves the chance to do so again in these remaining six months of the 2025/26 season.

Incidentally, it is exactly nine months today since what happened on 16 March 2025 at Wembley.

It is amazing how time (and opinion…) flies.