Newcastle legend shares Amanda Staveley's hopes for club, and admits Mike Ashley frustration

Shola Ameobi admits he would have felt ‘frustrated’ playing for Newcastle United in the latter years of Mike Ashley’s ownership due to the lack of ambition. Now with the club under new owners, Ameobi is excited about the future.

Ameobi left United in 2014 - having spent seven of his 14 years under Ashley's reign. During that time, United suffered relegation to the Championship and countless near scrapes with the drop but also qualified for the Europa League under Alan Pardew. At times, there seemed to be a strategy but in the later years of Ashley's ownership, the approach to many appeared to be for the club to survive on the bare minimum, and Ameobi admits he would have struggled for motivation as a player.

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Asked about the importance of having owners - such as Amanda Staveley, Mehrdad Ghodoussi, Jamie Reuben and the Public Investment Fund - who have ambitious plans, Ameobi said: “It’s everything as an ex-sportsman. The one thing you want is to know you’re moving forward and building something. For me, it would have been very frustrating these past few years not really knowing where we were going as a club and what the vision was.

“It was very murky, [but now] to have owners who want to have a clear vision, doing