Jamaal Lascelles and his team-mates once shared pizza with former owner Mike Ashley and urged him to push the club further up the Premier League table.
But the Sports Direct magnate, during a team bonding session in Ponteland at an Italian restaurant, repeated his party line that he could not compete with countries when it came to investment like United's Premier League rivals. This was a source of frustration for players who always insisted they wanted better players around them to kick on after promotion in 2017.
Ashley's pizza summit came in 2018 when Newcastle made an awful start to the season under Rafa Benitez with the Spaniard also left irked after any major recruitment drive just months after delivering a top 10 finish with the majority of his Championship squad.
