Late yesterday evening it was being reported that an unnamed wealthy group of American investors were taking a close look at Newcastle United and moreover, they more than had the money to meet the reported £300million, Mike Ashley, asking price.
The problem is, that’s pretty much where the good news element of the story ends.
The Daily Mail claimed that they had ‘learned’ that the US group were ready to come in ahead of the reported interest from a rival consortium fronted by former Manchester United and Chelsea chief executive Peter Kenyon – but their interest was dependent on Premier League football being confirmed for 2019/20, or the least far more likely so it already means nothing is going to happen ahead of the New Year at best.
Quite how that suggests they want to ‘nip ahead’ of a rival who will, if genuine, have their own timescales I don’t know.
I’m also not an accounts whizz when it comes to Financial Fair Play, but I would imagine new owners with deep pockets could tap into plenty of unused FFP funding space in January to better ensure top-flight survival, so at least to me, waiting for when we look safer would actually be counterproductive on two fronts:
1 – additional motivation for Rafa Benitez and our current crop of players;
2 – getting their feet under the desk and putting transfer plans in place.
Maybe that’s just me? But it doesn’t send a great message about the prospective owners’ confidence in having a material effect and investing in the right people to create real change and success – if you wanted to look at it that way.
Has to go on the ‘don’t excited but wait and see’ pile and we could be waiting a while, it’ll also certainly do nothing to change the mind of those fans who feel a ‘sale’ is basically a PR stunt anyway.