Aye his short term thinking and lack of noticing any blatant patterns is baffling to see in a bloke that’s become a billionaire.
As you say he’d lucked into the perfect situation, a top manager who would comfortably keep the team in the PL, just give him a mediocre budget and a % of transfer sales and he’d happily work within those constraints. Instead, after one fucking season Ashley sees he kept the team up so the fucking mug has pulled the rug to try and keep a bit in the coffer now completely ignoring the fact this path ends in yet another relegation. What a complete fucking disaster this bloke has been for Newcastle United.
The most baffling part of this entire thing is this lot desperately chased Steve McClaren and gave him more of a budget than any manager during Ashley’s tenure iirc, then Rafa comes along and essentially asks for the job, they barely give him two pennies to rub together and have spent more time this summer writing letters to palm him off to someone else than they have working on any transfer targets.