As he is English football's answer to Howard Hughes, it is difficult to know what Newcastle owner Mike Ashley is thinking. Ashley does not do interviews. He is the Secretive One.
His Sports Direct chain has helped make Ashley a billionaire, so he is obviously a guy who knows how to make the right decisions. It is unlikely, to say the least, that Ashley would tolerate failure in any of his businesses, so why does he allow Alan Pardew to continue as Newcastle manager after winning only 19 points out of a possible 81?
Too many chairmen panic when results start to go wrong, so in some respects it may be welcome to see someone without a hair-trigger finger. But Newcastle is not going through a bad spell, it is going through a bad year. At each game there are "Pardew out" banners and a SackPardew.com website has been set up. Ashley — so far — has refused to give the fans what they want.