It was actually like this if you believe Skysports and chronicle:
"I will not walk out on the business. I've made mistakes but so has everyone in football. Probably the biggest criticism is that I've been too kind to managers with funds and too generous to players. But when you are in Newcastle and you are competing with Tottenham, Chelsea, Manchester United, we are 300 miles from London, to get players up here we have things against us."
So you can see he means that we sometimes have to pay a little northern extra...