Mort house hunting in North

Dec 9 2007 by Neil Farrington, Sunday Sun

NEWCASTLE’S chairman has the perfect riposte to those who suspect he isn’t in his new job for the long haul . . .

He is house-hunting in the North East.

Five months spent commuting to Tyneside from his family home in North London have left Chris Mort open to accusations that his heart remains in the South East.

But the United supremo, warming to his task at St James’s Park, is ready to “put down roots” in his new patch.

“I have been house-hunting,” Mort confirmed. “I plan to split my time more evenly between here and London.

“Mike Ashley’s based in the capital and I do some other stuff for him, so we can get together there at the end of the week.

“But I’m putting down more roots up here.”

Clearly, Mort is not listening to persistent speculation that Ashley is keen to sell Newcastle and buy into boyhood club, Tottenham.

“Mike has absolutely no interest in going and buying Spurs,” he adds.

“I know where those rumours come from – Paul Kemsley (Tottenham’s former vice- chairman) is a very good mate of Mike’s.

“But it’s just not true that Mike is looking to sell Newcastle. End of story.”

Relaxed as he is on that topic, Mort admits to becoming exasperated with some Toon- related headlines.

“It’s something I anticipated. Before we bought the club, Sir John Hall told us the Newcastle fans were brilliant but the level of Press interest in the club was fairly extraordinary.

“Before I came up here I picked up three national papers, read three pages of stories on Newcastle United and knew that they were all inaccurate.

“It was happening then, and it’s happening again.

“But although it’s not unexpected, I feel sorry for the players having to play under that sort of pressure, and I think it’s unfortunate that papers wind up the fans.

“It’s difficult for the fans to read the papers and not think there’s an element of truth in some of the stuff that’s been written.

“That gets them agitated, and they’re the paying customers who we have got to look after.

“But I think there’s certainly been a swing among them since the Liverpool home game.

“Part of the fabulous support we had at Blackburn was down to the fans acknowledging that the players need them behind them.

“The level of support we got was extraordinary.”