Andrew Musgrove has been speaking on a recent episode of the Everything is Black and White Podcast.
He has been talking about the failed takeover of Newcastle United by Amanda Staveley’s Saudi-backed consortium.
The Chronicle reporter, as host of this particular episode, left most of the talking to his guests, but he did provide insight into what the Premier League’s response means.
In the letter sent to Newcastle Central MP Chi Onwurah, the Premier League claims in response to questions on piracy that at no stage were the board ever ‘required to come to any conclusions on this aspect of the Test’, which appears to Musgrove as if the issue of piracy was never even considered.
Musgrove feels this could have gone on for a lot longer if the Premier League was indeed never in a position to make a decision on the proposed takeover having read the statement from the league’s chief executive Richard Masters.
He said: “My understanding there, reading that, is that they didn’t even get to a stage where they could address the issue of piracy, which seems bizarre after 17 weeks.
“It seems to me that even if the bid hadn’t been withdrawn, there was so much ground still to cover before we were going to get any decision, let alone 19/20/21 weeks into the process.”
Do you agree with Musgrove?
Yes, this could have gone on forever
No, this didn't have long to go
TIF Thoughts…
This deal was handed to the Premier League in April after a deposit was paid to Mike Ashley, the consortium was assured that its deal would be passed and was told that it would take up to four weeks to check everything.
However, by July 30th, the Premier League had still not decided and the bid was subsequently withdrawn, and given it has been revealed that the league was never in a position to decide, it is no wonder that Musgrove thinks this could have gone on for even longer than it did.
It is thought that all three parties remain committed to the deal, but it is unclear what will happen now, and Ashley is said to be in talks with the BN Group, in a separate bid involving Michael Chopra.
So, could Staveley be beaten to the Toon by alternate investors? We will just have to see what happens.