AFTER 13 miserable years of wind-ups, cock-ups and hands-up apologies, could Mike Ashley’s ownership of Newcastle be in its final throes?
The Sports Direct tycoon is not the worst owner in Premier League history but, since the competition’s inception, nobody has presided over a club for so long in such a joyless fashion.
Mohammad Bin Salman backs the Saudi fund taking majority stake in the Toon
A sceptical Toon Army will not dare to imagine Ashley’s reign of error is coming to an end because there have been far too many false dawns.
But a £350million takeover is closer than ever, with Amanda Staveley’s PCP Capital Partners — backed by Saudi sovereign wealth and the second-richest family in Britain — in advanced talks with Ashley.
Papers lodged at Companies House, made public yesterday, appear to lay out a framework for a deal.
These developments are real enough — and yet few on Tyneside will believe Ashley’s portly shadow will never darken their door again. His tenure has been a bitter slog, during which countless takeover bids have been rumoured, launched and ultimately bitten the dust.
These included a previous effort led by Staveley in 2017, which ended with Ashley branding the Dubai-based British businesswoman a ‘time-waster’.
Any supporters with a social conscience will have grave reservations about a Saudi-funded takeover.
From a hated shopkeeper, infamous for a sneering attitude towards workers’ rights, to a barbaric regime with a far more troubling human rights record.
Yet few football fans care much about where their club’s money is coming from as long as plenty of it is spent on players.
And when it takes a billionaire’s wealth to successfully run a top-flight club, you might have to search long and hard to find a truly ethical billionaire.
As well as Saudi oil riches, Staveley’s proposed takeover includes backing from the Reuben brothers — David and Simon — part of Britain’s second-wealthiest family.
And this bid is particularly timely when Financial Fair Play rules, which restrict new investment into football, are likely to be loosened due to the economic fall-out from the global health crisis.
In many ways, this sounds like the best possible news for a club which has languished in underfunded mediocrity for a generation.
But many Magpies supporters will believe if it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is too good to be true.
The Ashley years have made cynics of a support base once renowned for fanatical enthusiasm.
During the early years of Ashley’s reign it appeared as if the man affectionately known as ‘you fat Cockney b*****d’ — although he is actually from Buckinghamshire — was actively trying to aggravate the Geordie nation in the most outlandish ways.
He changed the name of St James’ Park to the Sports Direct Arena in 2011 and he appointed Dennis Wise as director of football in a move which ended with the acrimonious departure of the sainted Kevin Keegan in 2008.
Amanda Staveley is to finally secure the Magpies as part of this consortiumCredit: PA:Press Association
The Messiah was then replaced by a very naughty boy, the potty-mouthed Joe Kinnear, before another local hero, Alan Shearer, endured a tumultuous spell as caretaker manager which ended with the first of two relegations under Ashley.
In more recent years, it has been a story of aimless drift, with limited investment resulting in frequent relegation battles.
There have been brighter moments, including a fifth-place finish under Alan Pardew in 2012, and two immediate promotions with Championship titles in 2010 and 2017 — no mean feat in such a competitive and unpredictable league.
Ashley has indulged in a strange habit of issuing occasional fulsome apologies for his general incompetence, which have fallen on overwhelmingly deaf ears.
But in all, Ashley has been a charmless custodian of a great club — as he proved again by becoming the first owner of a Premier League outfit to take government money to furlough non-playing staff during this coronavirus pandemic.
Should this takeover be completed, Newcastle fans will hear a lot about the concept of ‘sportwashing’ — of the Saudi regime’s attempts to use sport in an attempt to clean up their image as oppressive and barbaric rulers.
This is a slick and far-reaching operation with several major international sports events recently being staged in Saudi, most notably Anthony Joshua’s world heavyweight title rematch victory over Andy Ruiz Jr in December.
On that trip, I was among a handful of British journalists who met Prince Abdulaziz bin Turki Al-Faisal, the Saudi royal who is chairman of the nation’s General Sports Authority.
A former racing driver, with a British university education, Abdulaziz is put forward as the acceptable face of a rulership which still stages public executions and subjugates women.
Yet such is the nature of football fandom, and such is the deep loathing of Ashley, that his family are likely to be welcomed on Tyneside with open arms. If the takeover goes ahead.
And where Ashley is concerned, that must remain a big ‘if’.
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Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
