"I think their loyalty has been tested far too often in recent years. It's one of the great clubs, but it should be competing amongst the very best in Europe. It's getting harder and harder to break on to the top table and opportunities have been missed. We finished fifth a couple of years ago, but to sustain that you need investment in the team.
"If I had a message to Mike Ashley it would be to engage with the fans, to repair that relationship. It's not totally broken, but it doesn't just need a plaster on it, it needs to be fixed."
The relationship between Ashley and the fans has, at best, been cordial since Kevin Keegan quit as manager in 2008, but old sores have been re-opened by the appointment of Joe Kinnear, as director of football and the reluctance to use the profits generated by the business to improve the team.
For the second summer running, Newcastle have not strengthened their squad as promised by manager Alan Pardew and the lack of ambition is both depressing and infuriating. With the more militant planning protest marches against the Ashley regime, Newcastle are on the cusp of civil war once more.
Harper knows how difficult it can be to satisfy such a passionate audience. He has seen players buckle under the pressure, but he hopes his former teammates have learnt some painful lessons from last season's dismal campaign and urged them to give supporters a team they can be proud of.
"I've seen players chewed up and spat out by it," said Harper."It's not just those who go to the game, it's the whole city. Everybody knows what is happening at the football club and when things go badly, they let you know about it. If things go well, it's the one of most amazing experiences you can have as a footballer playing in England.
"When there is a good feeling, when the momentum builds, you swim with the tide and you feel unstoppable. But when things turn sour, when the club is divided, you're in a rip tide and it's incredibly hard.
"The fans are demanding, even under Keegan and Sir Bobby Robson, they'd get restless if you weren't winning at half-time, but all they really demand is you put a shift in. They are working class people who want to see players put in the same shift they do in the week to put money in their pockets."
For all of the club's denials about dressing room divisions last season, Harper acknowledges there were problems behind the scenes.
"I've said to an infinite amount of players when they signed, just make sure you give everything you've got," he added. "It doesn't matter which country you're from, what colour your skin is, they want you to be committed to the shirt. That's the minimum they ask for, but you also have to have a certain character to succeed.
"I think a few players got a shock last season. It's not only British players who get this club. It's not a case of 'you're foreign and don't understand'. Look at [Fabricio} Coloccini, Jonas [Gutierrez], they get it the same way Kevin Nolan did.
"Last year was a struggle and whenever you lose home games 3-0 to Sunderland and 6-0 to Liverpool, it's going to open a few wounds and it did. It made a few people realise what's needed to play here. It made a few players realise the size and the scale of the football club, as well as the situation we were in.
"I think it was a huge wake up call for some people. Like others before them, it's now up to the players who have come in over the last couple of years to show they can handle the weight of the shirt.
"When you're here, you have to give 100% to Newcastle United, not worry about whether you are going to get a move elsewhere."
Harper dream Newcastle XI
"In the best tradition of Newcastle United I've gone for a team that would play with the idea that to win games all you have to do is score more goals than the opposition."
GK Shay Given
CB Fabricio Coloccini
CB Jonathan Woodgate
CB Philippe Albert
RWB Nolberto Solano
LWB David Ginola
CM Kevin Nolan
CM Rob Lee
AM Peter Beardsley
ST Andrew Cole
ST Alan Shearer
Subs: Krul, Enrique, Howey, Clark, Carroll, Asprilla, Ferdinand.
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