Where should we be right now, do you think?
Who ruined Villa and how did it come about?
Who ruined Birmingham and how did it come about?
Who ruined once premier champions, Blackburn and how did it come about?
I can go on and on with big clubs and potential big clubs and how they were ruined.
But here's the thing.
How many of those clubs were ruined by tight owners?
How many were ruined because owners refused to sanction decent money deals?
These are the questions you need to ask yourself when you think about our owner ruining our club.
You see, in terms of champions league, he's ruined it.
In terms of winning the league, he's ruined it.
In terms of winning meaningful cups, he's ruined it.
Or has he?
What's really happened to Newcastle United in the 10 years since he came?
What was happening in the 10 years previous to that?... who ruined it then?
Don;t get me too far wrong here. I wanted more from Ashley's 10 years and I believed he had a plan that would work, just as he did.
I didn't realise how naive he would have become and how the bitterness ate into him from the fans that made him take a back seat.
I certainly didn't expect relegations or flirts with it.
I never expected Hall and Shepherd and co to screw us over, but they did.
I wish I could turn back the clock and show all of them what will happen to this club if they all do the things they do, but then we wouldn't have the stadium we have and we wouldn't have had the good times under the entertainers or Sir Bobby.
Hindsight really is a wonderful thing and so is ego stroking fantasies that are set to become reality until they actually don't.
Foresight would be a wonderful thing but then it takes away the whole issue of chance or calculated gambles.
We are still here and strong as a club but weak as a main transfer market player because we do not have a money tree in order to bail us out of any slip ups or mess we find ourselves in should we take too much of a chance.
Imagine Man Utd when Ferguson stepped down and left them with an aging squad of bad attitude.
Imagine Moyes being given the cash he was given with a warning that he has to produce or Man Utd are pot-less.
Look at the state they were in but look how easily they managed to get back considering the actual debt they were/are in.
Many clubs have took those risks but very few of them could ever recover from them and the lower leagues are testament to it, just as the lower leagues will be testament to the demise of the clubs that are residing in the premier league under a guise of progress, which is anything but for most.
Now let me tell you where I'm at.
I'd love nothing more than to have stab at competing with the super clubs. Bring in the Sheikh or the oil tycoons, etc and let's go mental.
At worst, let's bring in a Glazier type crew that can borrow and borrow and borrow to keep us kicking heels at the top.
After that we can then look back on those happy times when we had a competing club for a decade until the coffers ran dry and the land that the famous stadium was built on now houses many building projects, whilst the remaining fans restart their support at a new smaller venue in the national league with a hardcore of fans that threaten to reach into 4 figures and rising.
Or......
Or......
We can sit back and wait for the whole footballing mindset to alter into the new Americanised cheerleading circus in the very same polished up stadium that once housed a club that we all knew as Newcastle United with a history that can be viewed in the archives.
Way overboard, right?
I agree....but....but....just imagine, if.