A year on from companies house developments that sent Tyneside into frenzy, there has been another development that potentially points towards the club finally changing hands.
The report in question comes from the Daily Mail’s Craig Hope who last night stated that current owner Mike Ashley had closed the NUFC retail stores, making all staff redundant in the process.
What is interesting is that he puts on record that the letter received by the staff to tell them of their fate mentioned the proposed new owners not wanting to keep them on.
This is something Hope later expanded on via Twitter where he said that the ‘new owners’ were mentioned more than once and the phrase “the anticipated transfer of ownership of the club.”
Of course any statement like this is likely to get Toon fans excited and in that language it certainly sounds like a deal could potentially not be too far away from happening.
If this was last year, this is the type of comment we would have all allowed ourselves to get carried away and stocked up on cans for the inevitable celebration but now we are a lot more cynical and naturally expect the worst, after all the worst usually happens when it comes to Newcastle United.
The piece in the Mail also states that Castore are set to be announced as Newcastle’s new kit supplier, replacing Puma.
Whilst the line about the club changing hand and the repetitive mention of new owners, I firmly believe there to be very little in this story that will lead to a takeover.
In my (admittedly cynical) opinion, this is Mike Ashley trying to save himself a few quid. The Sports Direct tycoon will not have had a great time of it over the last year and a bit with the covid-19 pandemic rendering his shops closed for the most part and it is a fair guess that the club shop probably operates at a loss and choosing to close it up will save him a few quid.
The mention of a takeover gives him a ready made excuse that he is only too happy to use when binning off his staff. The kind of heartless act that has become so synonymous with Mike Ashley’s Newcastle United.