f***ing sick to death of people saying things like this.
He was earning a very good wage, and would have earned at least that for the next 5 1/2 years, playing for his boyhood club, wearing the 'famous' number 9 shirt that he dreamt about wearing, playing in front of 50,000 adoring fans every home game.
For a geordie lad, that surely has to be worth more than a bigger pay packet somewhere else. He wasn't earning a f***ing pittance here for christ sake.
Whether it was him, his agent or Ashley and Llambias it was all done out of f***ing greed, not for footballing reasons.