Can you blame people for erring on believing negative news reports about what's going on at the club? We've just installed Joe Kinnear as Director of Football. That was what people used to say taking the piss when discussing how Ashley could fuck stuff up.
Remember in the weeks leading up to Keegan resigning, when we were all so quick to write off all this 'paper bollocks' with no quotes about how there was a rift, how he wasn't happy, how players were being bought over his head? How we scoffed at these journos making shit up to try and slag off the club, and the gullible fools who believed it? Remember how we laughed when news reports started emerging suggesting Ashley was going to rename St Jame's Park? The people in charge of the club have form for doing some of the most monumentally stupid and self-destructive things imaginable, that's the reason newspaper reports suggesting further catastrophe are given so much credence.