A number of Newcastle fans lauded Henry Winter for comments that he made on Sky Sports this morning about the club's prospective takeover.
In a clip that was shared on Twitter by @stevewraith, the journalist said on The Sunday Supplement: "You can just see how much they were hated, the joylessness of the Mike Ashley era. The things that he stands for is completely antithetical to Newcastle."
"Newcastle fans are not stupid. They're not expecting to win the Champions League and they're not expecting really to win the league but they want a chance. They want some hope that they can actually see pride in the shirt, see attacking football, see the likes of another Ginola or another Shearer."
As noted by Chronicle Live, the Amanda Staveley-led consortium is on the brink of completing their buyout of the club from Ashley and the prospective new owners are confident that the Premier League will give them the green light following their Owners and Directors checks in the coming days.
If the takeover goes through, it will end Ashley's 13-year ownership of Newcastle United, during which they were twice relegated from the Premier League and he faced a barrage of protests from numerous fans of the club. Greg Tomlinson, a board member of Newcastle United Supporters' Trust, has described the relationship between Ashley and the fans as "broken" (as per Forbes).
These Magpies supporters on Twitter praised Winter for his comments on the projected takeover:
Newcastle fans, do you think Winter's verdict on the potential takeover is reflective of your view? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below!