This is one of the laziest, lamest takes yet on Newcastle United fans

Mark Lawrenson, many years ago, worked for Newcastle United. The former Liverpool defender, and longtime BBC pundit, was brought to the club as a defensive coach by Kevin Keegan in 1996 during his first spell as manager.

Those days, of course, were different. The club was ambitious and challenging for honours, and the fanbase was firmly behind Keegan.

Lawrensen’s spell at St James’s Park was short-lived, but you’d think, having worked in the city, that he’d have left with a longer-term understanding of what makes the club’s supporters tick.

But no, he didn’t. Lawrenson delivered an embarrassingly bad hot take on the club’s fans, and their aspirations, on air at the weekend when he addressed criticism of Steve Bruce, United’s head coach, in the wake of Friday night’s 2-0 defeat to Southampton at the St Mary’s Stadium.

Lawrensen insisted that the club would not be relegated – and added that Bruce was a “good manager”.

Dan Walker then asked if avoiding relegation was good enough for the club. It was a fair follow-up question, but the presenter got a lazy and flippant response.

Lawrenson said: “Well, they (Newcastle fans) are never happy, do (are) they? They want to win the Champions League, but they’re not in it, unfortunately. But, such is life.”

What? Lawrenson’s ill-informed comments, unsurprisingly, went down badly on Tyneside, where relegation battles have been the norm since Mike Ashley bought the club 13 years ago.

Yes, Newcastle fans want better for a club which hasn’t won a major trophy since 1969 – despite being one of the best supported in England.

But to suggest that supporters won’t be happy until the club wins the Champions League is ridiculous, insulting – and plain wrong.

What fans want to see is ambition off the pitch – and progress on the field.

The ambition has to be more than mid-table safety, and Bruce recognised this after taking charge.

Bruce targeted the cups after succeeding Rafa Benitez – the club went on to reach the quarter-finals of the FA Cup last season – and set his sights on a top-half finish.

The club’s sights, however, should be set higher, though fans are fully aware that the club simply can’t compete financially with the likes of Liverpool, Manchester City and Manchester United.

Bruce was keen to get a sense of fans’ expectations soon after returning to Tyneside to take charge of his boyhood club, and my view, at the time, was that Newcastle should be looking to challenge for European football. It’s still my view.

And if United can overachieve when others underachieve, the club could push higher, as it did in 2011/12 season when, under Alan Pardew, it finished fifth.

Supporters, I think, will be happy with a team which is competitive in the cups – and challenging for European qualification.

Is that so unrealistic for a club which has played 134 European ties?

Fans, of course, will also be happier with fewer lazy and lame takes from TV pundits like Lawrenson.

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