WE don’t care about Ashley, he don’t care about me, all we care about is NUFC.”

It is the song that has come to define Newcastle’s season, positing continued off-field acrimony against the unity and defiance that have helped propel the Magpies back into the Premier League.

For all that he has dug into his pocket to ensure the retention and development of a squad that is superior to anything else in the Championship, Mike Ashley continues to pay a heavy price for his previous mistakes at St James’ Park, and rightly so.

But as they begin to look ahead to a new campaign in the top-flight, Newcastle’s supporters find themselves facing up to a somewhat unpalatable fact.

The best thing that could happen to their club at the minute is Ashley coming out and saying he has no intention of selling up. No ifs, no buts, no maybes.

Just a clear statement of intent that will remove all the instability and uncertainty that plagued Newcastle last summer.

After three years of highs and lows, it is a case of ‘better the devil you know’ on Tyneside because the alternative is a timeconsuming step into an unknown that could well prove even more unstable than the present. For once, a quiet summer is just what the doctor ordered.

Chris Hughton will certainly be hoping for it, as the Newcastle boss found himself at the centre of a maelstrom last summer that came close to scuttling his side’s promotion campaign before it had even kicked off.

Signings did not arrive until the last minute, players were sold in an unseemly rush as the transfer window started to swing shut and the first two months of the summer saw Ashley at the heart of a ‘will he or won’t he’ saga involving futile trips to the Middle East, a series of unsuccessful takeover talks and countless rumours of interested overseas investors.

The entire thing was a circus, and had Newcastle been preparing for a season in the Premier League rather than the Championship, they would surely have imploded in the opening weeks of the season.

As it was, they got away with it because they were able to cobble a side together containing enough senior players to see off the likes of Reading, Sheffield Wednesday and Crystal Palace, but the same will not be true in four months time.

If Hughton is to assemble a squad capable of competing in the top-flight, his recruitment drive has to start on the morning after the current campaign ends at Loftus Road.

Signings must be made as quickly as possible, because as countless sides have proved in the past, the opening two months of the season are crucial to a newly-promoted team’s chances of survival.

Forget the figures of £50m or £60m that have been bandied around recently, Newcastle do not need a huge amount of investment to be competitive in the Premier League.

The current starting XI is arguably on a par with that of Burnley or Hull, and is certainly superior to that of the two sides that will eventually be promoted with the Magpies this season.

But they do require strengthening in a number of key areas, and that strengthening will be much easier to oversee if the offfield situation is rock solid.

A couple of months ago, managing director Derek Llambias hinted there was no desire to look to sell this summer. If that is the case, Ashley should come out and say so in unequivocal terms.

It might not be the most popular announcement to come out of the St James’ Park in recent years, but it would surely be one of the most important.

THE juxtaposition was unfortunate. Just as Newcastle were preparing to celebrate promotion, Middlesbrough were leaving their skipper out of an away game at Plymouth because they didn’t want to pay £1m to Portsmouth.

In the cold light of day, the Teessiders’ stance over Gary O’Neil is sensible. If there is any chance of the midfielder leaving this summer – and there clearly is – why would they shell out a seven-figure fee to play him in five games that are surely going to be irrelevant?

The saving, added to O’Neil’s eventual transfer fee, might well be enough to cover two or three signings this summer.

But the message the move sends out is a negative one. It speaks of monetary pressures, decisions dictated by finance rather than football and a tough summer ahead.

And just four years after Middlesbrough were competing in a UEFA Cup final, it certainly suggests they now operate on a completely different plain to North-East rivals Newcastle and Sunderland.

THE greatest North-East success story of the last ten years resumes next Thursday as Durham begin the defence of their County Championship trophy with a home game against Essex.

Geoff Cook’s side start as short-priced favourites to retain their crown and, in a lesson that could be learned elsewhere, their watchword has once again been stability.

All of last season’s heroes remain, from Steve Harmison and Liam Plunkett in the bowling attack to Michael Di Venuto and Dale Benkenstein towards the top of the batting order.

Hampshire have strengthened their ranks with the acquisition of Simon Jones and Kabir Ali, while Nottinghamshire will remain competitive provided Ryan Sidebottom stays fit, but it is hard to look beyond Durham when it comes to identifying potential champions.

Two titles in a row was a remarkable achievement – make it three, and the North-East’s most successful sports side will have scaled quite incredible heights.