Mike Ashley is a man determined to finally get out of Newcastle United and is almost as desperate as the fans to see himself replaced by Amanda Staveley, the Rebuen brothers and the Saudia Arabian Public Investment Fund.
His latest move has been to file a lawsuit claiming that the Premier League breached competition law by excluding new owners and new investment in clubs.
The Toon owner is seeking damages for loss of profit and opportunity whilst also placing an injection for the Premier League to reverse its decision about the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia being considered as a director of the football club.
United’s fight against the governing body of the top flight now is being fought on two fronts with the club already engaged in an arbitration battle in which top sports lawyer Nick De Marco is fighting for them in their bid to eventually force through a takeover deal.
The case is some sort of continuation from the legal action brought about by the Newcastle Consortium Supporters Limited as the club have taken over the proceedings.
Ashley clearly still has fire in his belly when it comes to forcing through this sale and this is something that all Toon fans should take positives from. I guess we just have to hope that the Saudis and the rest of the consortium are equally keen.
Whilst there has been no statement of intent from the interested party, you have to feel like they have been consulted and are very much onboard for Ashley to part with his cash for the ongoing legal battles.
Are we finally in the takeover end game? It certainly feels like we might get a definite answer sooner rather than later but we have been here before.
This came not long after the HMRC investigation against the club was dropped and Ashley labelled the Premier League as dark forces in their efforts to stop the deal.