Stop me if you’ve heard this before. Newcastle United are the subject of a takeover bid, and signs, in the beginning, are looking very promising.
It’s a story that has been told time and time again, yet as Sky Sports News report that Stalybridge-born businessman Peter Kenyon has launched a new bid to take over Newcastle United, many to all supporters are all expecting how this chapter is going to end, just as it did with previous takeover attempts by Amanda Staveley and Dubai-based Bin Zayed Group.
It seems like almost a fantasy to think of a Newcastle United not owned by Mike Ashley, a man loathed to no end amongst Toon supporters, and yet when news like this comes up that his tyranny at the club might come to an end, fans can’t help but think nothing will come of it.
Yet this time around, there should be confidence around supporters that change is afoot.
Indeed, this is not Kenyon’s first attempt at taking over Newcastle, with the aforementioned Sky Sports News report saying that the former Manchester United and Chelsea chief executive attempted to buy the club from Ashley with another consortium last year, but could not raise the necessary funds.
And the details from his second attempt this week as reported by The Daily Mail seem to be promising. Kenyon’s group this time around have the sufficient £300m funds to buy out the club from Ashley over the next three years, with an extra £50m to be injected into the club to aid with operational costs.
Indeed, his ownership of Ligue 1 side Bordeaux makes Kenyon an ideal man to take charge of things on Tyneside, with fans over the years demanding that a ‘football man’ should be overseeing things rather than Ashley, who admitted in a rare interview to The Daily Mail that he personally thinks he shouldn’t even be running a football club.
Whether or not this takeover will be successful is up for debate, but unlike previous attempts in the past, Newcastle fans should be feeling confident that this one could genuinely happen, and that a new era could be about to begin at the club.