Former England international Ian Wright has said that he is ‘genuinely excited’ by the prospect of a takeover at Newcastle United.
Magpies owner Mike Ashley told Sky News on Monday that a sale of the club could be completed by January, and Wright has joined the masses on Tyneside praying for the deal to go through.
“With the right owner, and with those fans – and people will say ‘oh here we go again talking about the fans’ – but there’s something special about Newcastle fans,” he told the Football Daily podcast [17:46]. “For them to continue to go in their droves, with what’s going on now – we have to say Rafa [Benitez] is probably staying for the fans, he just doesn’t want to let them down in their current predicament.
“But if they can get that guy [Mike Ashley] out, get a couple of signings and get themselves going and then get some owners which really get behind the team – I am genuinely excited for them if that can happen. I know Newcastle fans don’t want to get excited because they’ve heard it all before, but I am excited that he might be leaving,” he finished.
OPINION
Aren’t we all, Wrighty? Surely, unless you’re a Sunderland fan, you want Ashley out of Newcastle because he’s run a great football club into the ground. The Magpies are so far off what they were under Sir Bobby Robson, when they were top four and competing in the Champions League, that it bonders on unbelievable. They now have a top class manager again in Benitez and, if Ashley does eventually sell the club, there is untapped potential with this Newcastle team. This is a huge football club that should be knocking on the door of the top four. They should at least be up there with Everton as the best of the rest, but under Ashley they have stagnated and his ownership needs to end. The Magpies fans will be cautious about this latest news, coming as it does from an unreliable source, but there will be a little part of all of them that is glimmering with excitement about the possibility of an Ashley-free Newcastle. Hopefully it happens because this proud football club is being wasted at the minute.