The Sun’s transfer expert has delivered a string of updates about the potential Newcastle takeover, including a surprise reveal that the price is lower than people might think.
Unsurprisingly, though, it’s still not good news for Newcastle fans.
Alan Nixon delivered the updates on his Twitter page this evening after saying he had been working on the story on Wednesday.
The first update was that neither of the interested parties, one reportedly headed by Peter Kenyon, had come up with they money.
Nixon added that the sum that Mike Ashley wanted was “maybe not as much as you think to buy it.”
He went on to re-iterate that the sum had not been met but that it was lower than had been released.
This was reported to be £300million by the Daily Star, with Ashley said to be very confident that the deal would go through.
Nixon asked whether any Newcastle fans would want a takeover to go through with a party that didn’t have enough money, joking “you have one of those already”.
He ended by saying that neither of the parties were close to reaching the sums needed.
OPINION
This won’t come as any surprise to beleaguered Newcastle fans who have been here and done it all before. They’ll only believe that Ashley has sold up and gone when he’s packed and left St James’ Park for good. This makes it sound like it’s not Mike Ashley’s fault though. It sounds like he’s been pushing as hard as he can for the interested parties to come up with the goods, including announcing the interest live on Sky News. However, despite all this, it sounds like the parties have not been able to come up with the funds, despite it reportedly being less than the £300million mentioned. Nixon didn’t say how much Ashley would accept but we can’t se it being significantly less. The one bit of hope for Newcastle fans is that the deal isn’t dead in the water. The parties might come up with the money they need and a deal could still go through, although there’s zero chance of it happening before Christmas now, and it’s highly unlikely to go through before the end of the January window. Even if it does, it doesn’t sound like there will be much money to spend on new players.