I can’t influence Ashley, and I’ve had enough of all this mental masturbation. If Ashley feels Redknap is the right man to sort out the mess that is NUFC, then I guess it is his money to waste. I don’t agree with it, I don’t like it, but I’ll have no choice but to accept it.

What Ashley needs to understand is that thousands of others won’t like it either, and will not accept it. This apppointment will do nothing to dissipate the festering dissatisfaction that is eating away at the club we love. Frankly, he has missed a glorious opportunity to do just that; something that was desperately required.

We appear to be paying top dollar for Harry Redknapp; we should be appointing the very best there is. We simply aren’t doing so.

The word this morning is that we will be making an approach to Pompey about Harry Redknapp. THe regulations dictate that we should be seeking Portsmouths’ agreement to talk to Redknapp about the Toon job. In fact, we appear to have agreed a deal with Redknapp, and only then are electing to speak to his employer.

It stinks. It says everything you need to know about Redknapp, and sadly everything you need to know about Ashley. Perhaps it simply says everything about the football business, but that doesn’t make it any more palatable. It serves to sicken me, and further diminish my love for the beautiful game.

The fact we are actually getting a part-time Manager - jetting to and fro Sandbanks - at a cost of £20m (over 4 years) only serves to heighten my disappointment, frustration and angst.

I’m still struggling to come to term with what has happened, and the rationale. However, let’s be clear, Harry Redknapp is a knowledgeable, and highly experienced football man, who could make a decent fist of the job. He is certainly a proponent of a more fluid style of play than Big Sam Allardyce that may well appeal to the Toon Army.

He may be being viewed as a ‘holding’ appointment - ‘a safe pair of hands’. In this respect the appointment, could be extremely interesting. I only hope there is rather more vision applied to filling that post than appears to have gone into selecting Sam’s replacement.