Toon fans waved banners and loudly chanted anti-Ashley songs after another turbulent summer
NEWCASTLE fans spent the morning before their first Premier League game of the season protesting outside Sports Direct.
Once again Toon fans have been angered by owner Mike Ashley after yet another turbulent summer.
Rafa Benitez was left frustrated all summer by a lack of funds made available to him - with Newcastle even making a £20million net PROFIT during the transfer window.
Immediately after the window closed, Ashley splashed £90million saving House of Fraser - in a move that really angered the Magpies faithful.
And they were quick to make their voices heard as they chanted anti-Ashley songs loudly and waved banners just hours before their season kicked-off against Tottenham.
Amongst the songs were, "You can shove your House Of Fraser up you a**e" and "You fat Cockney b***ard".
Fans also jumped onto Twitter to show their support of Benitez, using the hashtag #IfRafaGoesWeGo - as well as the ever-popular #MikeAshleyOut - as the Spaniard refused to resume contract talks.
One flyer handed to fans at the protest showed Ashley gorging on NUFC-shaped pizza, captioned: "DANGER! Club destroying parasite.
"Failure to remove may result in relegation."
Others however took a more light-hearted approach, channelling their inner Father Ted with a "down with this sort of thing" banner.
The largest banner read: “He is only one man, we are a city.” But as fans of rival clubs mockingly pointed out on social media, Ashley is very unlikely to be moved by this or any other protests.
Perhaps Benitez was making a point about the lack of quality signings in the summer in his team selection for the lunchtime kick off against Spurs.
Goalkeeper Martin Dubravka, now signed permanently, and Kenedy, back again on loan from Chelsea, were named in the starting line-up.
But the four genuinely “new” players who arrived at St James’ Park in the transfer window – Ki Sung-Yeung, Fabian Schar, Salomon Rondon and Yoshinori Muto – were all on the bench.
