Regarding Ashley, I could fully understand why the fans despised him and are now glad to be rid of him. He clearly only cared about the club not getting relegated each year to cling on to the Premier League TV money, and nothing more.
I believe that the club's commercial revenue barely increased during his 14 years in charge, and the club's offices were raided by HMRC. The stadium was left to rot and decay, and their training ground is among the worst in the Premier League (and is also far worse than Sunderland's or Middlesbrough's). Talk that he 'stabilised the club' was nonsense, and poor decisions that he made heavily contributed to their 2 relegations.
The likes of Ferdinand defending Ashley purely because Sports Direct exclusively sold his clothing brand, Keys and Gray also leaping to his defence etc. was cringeworthy.
However on the flipside, the way that 'some' of their fans acted that no-one else could possibly understand their 'suffering', that they had it far worse with Ashley's ownership than anyone else, was also cringeworthy. Numerous clubs that have been in the Premier League in the 21st century have had considerably worse owners than Ashley, from Leeds, to Charlton, to Blackpool, to Coventry, to Bradford etc. I don't like Leeds at all (a common sentiment on this forum I'm sure), but I'm sure that Ashley would have been a godsend compared to a succession of truly disastrous owners that they had for example.