The Bin Zayed Group would need around £500 million to make an immediate impact at Newcastle United, according to a report in the Chronicle from Mark Douglas.
The Dubai-based consortium have been heavily linked with a £350 million move to buy the Magpies this week, but nothing concrete has been confirmed by the club.
And it is now being claimed by an advisor from London law firm Denton’s, who are believed to be brokering the deal, that Sheikh Khaled may have to find another £150 million on top of the initial fee to help fund transfers and infrastructure improvements.
Douglas said: “The £500million figure is interesting.
“It’s the opinion of one broker who felt the original £350million that would need to be put up would have to supplemented by another £150million for player signings and infrastructure improvement to take the club into the bracket where their Premier League survival would not be under threat every year.
“Their advice was anyone without access to those funds would struggle to move the club forward – and Bin Zayed are adamant they do have those kind of resources, even if the prospect of a Manchester City-style transformation is unrealistic.”
OPINION
This probably isn’t great news, truth be told. Generally speaking, the more money somebody has to fork out for something, the less pleased they are about it. £350 million is a lot of money, provided the BZG have it in the first place, but £500 million is just silly. All in all, what it could mean is that the group have enough to buy the club, but perhaps not enough to have the transformative impact that many fans are hoping for. That being said, nobody really knows how much Sheikh Khaled is worth, and this could be pocket change to him. Whatever the truth of the matter is, this one still has a long way to run, for better or worse, and you can’t help feeling tensions are only going to mount as the saga continues to drag on and on. A resolution, frustratingly, still seems a long way off.