Newcastle journalist George Caulkin has said that there are still interested parties and ongoing negotiations about a takeover at the club, but added that Mike Ashley is a “difficult seller”.
Caulkin, who now writes for The Athletic, was taking part in a Q&A on Tuesday and was asked whether Ashley ever had any intention of selling.
The fan said, “All of the takeover rumours always start just before a transfer window. The saga lasts until approximately the last week of the window leaving little time to bring in signings. It seems like it has happened almost every transfer window for the last couple of years to distract fans from everything else going wrong. Or am I just becoming too cynical?”
Caulkin replied saying, “In his interview with the Mail, Ashley said he’s assuming he’ll own Newcastle for the foreseeable future. Does that mean all takeover negotiations have stopped or that every interested party has disappeared? I know for a fact they haven’t.
“But the last 12 years show that Ashley is a difficult seller. I think it’s best to expect things to carry on as they are. If a takeover does happen, it’ll come out of the blue.”
Will Ashley ever sell?
It seems like a never-ending cycle for Newcastle fans. Rumour, some level of substantiation, as happened with the latest Bin Zayed Group rumours, and then nothing.
Newcastle fans got excited about the BZG claims but they have seemingly led to nothing, although Caulkin has great sources at Newcastle and insists there are still interested buyers and negotiations going on behind the scenes.
However, Caulkin also said that fans are best off not expecting anything and that if/when a takeover happens, it will come without the potential sale playing out in public.
That was what was always suspect about the BZG bid. It seemed too public for such a big business deal.
However, something is obviously amiss. Ashley is a very successful businessman but he’s not been very successful at selling Newcastle.
That suggests the price he’s asking – reported to be £350m – is too much to actually get a deal over the line.
Ironically, Sunderland are the subject of a potential takeover too and that seems far more likely to go through – before the end of September, according to the Chronicle. It shows that if the price is right and a club’s owner is willing to sell, these things can happen fairly quickly.