what the fans think of our owner.

Well I'm not surprised about Newcastle fans making Ashley the unpopular one because it's been like that since Keegan spat his dummy out.
My personal take on Ashley is, he is the best thing to happen to this club in a long time and because he's one shrewd business man, people/fans take it as him being greedy and trying to rape the club, which is nonsensical when you consider the predicament we would have been in had he not purchased the club and paid off it's debts, which are now owed to "him" and we are not having to go cap in hand to banks for bail outs.
I might not be popular when I say this but my general feeling is, that Mike Ashley is doing it correct after initially making mistakes, which were understandable given the fact he relied on people to help him start off, who happened to be the wrong choice of people.

I guarantee you all right now, that if Ashley had appointed any other manager, other than Keegan and the same happened, his name wouldn't even be associated with hatred like it is.
People/ fans have attached too much god like status on Keegan's past and believed he would be the MESSIAH once again, which any ordinary clear thinking fan would know, he was always going to spit out that dummy like the baby he was/is.