A lot of Newcastle United fans are confused by Paul Smith’s latest takeover tweet.
The journalist tweeted to say that ‘confidence in the Saudi camp isn’t growing’ but that the ‘Saudis have never wavered from believing that this deal will eventually be done.’
This has confused many Toon fans, who feel Smith has made a mistake in his post.
That doesn’t make sense.
— Richard Gray????????? (@Toon10Gray) June 11, 2020
I’m even more confused now ?
— PL ???? (@paulzim4) June 11, 2020
The @premierleague have acted disgracefully. Entirely unfair to the fans, the players and the club! 9 weeks? Shocking
— Steve Corbett (@SteveCorbett64) June 11, 2020
Makes absolute nee sense but never mind eh.
— PJW (@PJ_Walker88) June 11, 2020
Let’s be honest you don’t know what’s going as this makes no sense
— Kieren Wilkinson (@KierenW6) June 11, 2020
It does seem that Smith might have made an error as the potential buyers can’t be losing confidence and remaining confident at the same time – that is not possible.
Does this tweet make any sense to you?
No
Yes
The Saudis Smith is referring to are, of course, PIF, which intends to take an 80% stake in the Toon in this proposed takeover.
However, their bid, led by Amanda Staveley, is still with the Premier League going through the required checks despite agreeing a deal with Mike Ashley and paying him a deposit.
This tweet from Smith appears to have annoyed these Toon fans who feel this is a pointless update.
Give it up Paul, you change your opinion every week.
— The Insider (@theinsidernufc) June 11, 2020
Must be true…only the 5th time I’ve read this today ??
— Chris08 (@Chrisharte81) June 11, 2020
You should work for the Chronicle….
— GTH88 (@GTH88) June 11, 2020
The Premier League is still going through the details of this takeover, but it appears that concerns over piracy in Saudi Arabia are the main source of the delay.
Matt Slater even suggested that the Premier League might seek concessions from Saudi Arabia in order to let their takeover through.
These could include shutting down BeoutQ and unblocking BeIN Sports.
However, Smith’s tweet doesn’t really clear up how the Saudis feel about this as the tweet is confusing, though, the final part does suggest that they have faith that their takeover will be accepted at some point.
However, there is no real indication of when this could be as Richard Masters confirmed that this process has no timescale.
So, this saga could drag on for a while longer yet.