Former Scotland international Ally McCoist has delivered his verdict on the much-anticipated potential takeover of Newcastle United.
Dubai-based billionaire Sheikh Khaled bin Zayed Al Nehayan released a statement on Monday, as per Sky Sports, that declared he had agreed terms to buy the Magpies from owner Mike Ashley.
Now, McCoist has had his say: “It would be fantastic, wouldn’t it?,” he said on talkSPORT [28/05; 07:16]. “There’s been serious unrest there for some time between the supporters and the owner, that’s been very very clear.
“I just hope this time they do get their wish, Newcastle. I really like the coach [Rafael Benitez], he’s clearly very well respected and an excellent coach – and the Newcastle supporters love him. And I would love to see him get the opportunity to increase the talent within that squad, because I do think they could move up the table and do really, really well.”
OPINION
This whole takeover situation has come together extremely quickly, hasn’t it? The Newcastle supporters have been craving a genuine takeover for years and years now, but they’ve been bitten so many times before. In just the past couple of years there have been two reportedly serious takeover approaches that have fallen by the wayside, so the Toon Army won’t be convinced by this one until it’s a done deal. Obviously this does appear to be rather more serious than those approaches made by Amanda Staveley and Peter Kenyon. Obviously there is a fair bit of money from Dubai and that part of the world, with Sheikh Khaled a half-brother of the owner of Manchester City. So these are extremely exciting times for the Magpies, but what ends up coming of all this remains to be seen. All we can do, like McCoist, is hope for the best – but who knows how serious this all is at this stage.