Andy Woodman insists Mike Ashley was 'fantastic' during his time at Newcastle United but the Magpies' former goalkeeping coach can see how the club's owner 'rubbed up people the wrong way'.
Following their previous spells together at West Ham and Charlton, Alan Pardew brought Woodman with him to Tyneside when the Londoner succeeded Chris Hughton at Newcastle in 2010.
Pardew and his staff went on to be handed eight-year deals by Ashley - just months after Newcastle came mightily close to breaking into the top four in 2012.
Although Woodman initially stayed on after Pardew left for Crystal Palace, in 2015, the goalkeeping coach soon followed his former team-mate back to Selhurst Park.
While Ashley made some strange decisions during Woodman's time at the club, such as renaming St James' Park and appointing Joe Kinnear as the club's director of football, the 49-year-old can't fault how he was treated personally.
"Mike was good, really good. Listen, I can imagine Twitter and all that will be going mental now: 'You would say that. You're a cockney!'" he told the Undr the Cosh podcast.
"I get some of the things he did and they rubbed up the people the wrong way. I completely get that and there were moments I thought, 'Why has that happened?' But it wasn't my position to ask that. It's his club. But for me, personally, and my family, he was fantastic.
"He would land his helicopter at training. I would be training the 'keepers and I would hear this sound in the distance. I would think to myself, 'What's that?'
"This helicopter would swoop in. My balls would be flying everywhere! I swear: the balls would be flying everywhere. He would get out and he would be like, 'How are you fella?' 'Yeah, all right'.
"What do you call him? Chairman? Owner? I would say, 'All right, Mike'. 'Yeah, all right'. He was just one of you and you would think, 'This geezer owns the club and he's brilliant'. He would come in and have lunch with everyone and say hello to everyone."
