He told News of the World: “I want a team that will go all out to try to give Chelsea a walloping, that’ll try to stuff Tottenham and that will be brave and bold enough to attack Man Utd.
“To date I have invested £250m to try and make it happen.
“And I’m not the only one who could see it wasn’t working with things as they were.
“So when my chairman told me it was time for a change I knew it had to happen.
“I just knew it was time for me to become involved.
“After all I bought this club to make it a success and the harsh truth is there wasn’t much prospect of that.
“I bought this club to have some fun and I wasn’t having much fun at all. So I did what I should have done in the first place and decided it was time to run the club the way I wanted.
“I must admit that when I bought this club my gut instinct was to bring in my own team to run it straight away, including a new manager.
“That’s no reflection on Sam, that’s just the way I have always done things.
“But for once in my life I ignored my intuition and, looking back, that was a mistake.
“My instinct had never let me down in the past, in fact it’s been one of my biggest strengths, one of the major reasons behind my success.
“Yet I went against that better judgement after buying Newcastle.
“Now is the time to put away my Newcastle shirt. I’m not saying I will never go back on the terraces but now I have to be in the boardroom — I have to be hands on.”
He added: “I want a team that is going to be admired up and down the country because of our brilliant, attacking football.
“Like they did when Kevin Keegan was in charge here.
“In those days everyone in the land loved to watch Newcastle in action. I certainly did.
“And I am determined it will be like that again.”
