Newcastle: 5 Ways Mike Ashley Can Restore The Faith This Summer

2. Show Ambition In The Cups

The popular theory is that Ashley is content for Newcastle to merely tread the Premier League waters, avoiding European qualification and taking little interest in domestic cup competitions, and bank the prize money gained from a top-half finish. How else could the weakened team fielded at St James' in the FA Cup Third Round loss to Cardiff be explained other than progress through the respective competitions is deemed a threat to league position and the mundane objective of top-flight restoration. What we'd give to be in Hull City's shoes right now! It's a damning indictment of Ashley's ambition-less mentality that we've never made it further than the fourth round in either the FA Cup or the League Cup during his seven years in power at St James' Park and remains a major bone of contention for supporters, starved of silverware for 45 years since Joe Harvey's side lifted the Fair Cup in 1969. Surely the virtues of delivering a major trophy to St James' Park aren't lost on Ashley but the prospect of seeing a Newcastle side lifting a cup under the Wembley arch continues to wane.