Former Newcastle United centre-back Steve Howey has been discussing the Toon takeover bid that was made by the consortium consisting of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), PCP Capital Partners and the Reuben brothers, and what he believes the biggest takeaway from that unsuccessful takeover attempt is.
Speaking exclusively to This Is Futbol, the ex-England international, who made 167 league appearances for the North East club before departing from St. James’ Park and joining Manchester City in the summer of 2000, had this to say on the Saudi-backed Toon takeover bid:
“I think the biggest thing to come out of this last one that failed was the fact that I think fans realised that Mike Ashley wants to sell.
“I think in the past, fans have thought that hasn’t been the case. I think, possibly, as well, because it felt as though, from Mike’s side, goalposts get changed a little bit.
“So, it was like – ‘listen, I want X amount of money for the club’ – and then the apparent buyers would say, ‘alright, fine’ – and then it would go up a little bit more or there’d be different caveats attached to that.
“I think with this one, it screamed to the Newcastle fans that this was going to happen because we have an owner that was prepared to sell because of what we’d seen in social media and what was in the news and stuff like that.”
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Ashley was seemingly happy to part with Newcastle United for the £305m that the Saudi-backed consortium offered for the club, given that the Toon owner agreed to sell in April and after the Premier League refused to approve the deal after scrutinising the papers relating to the takeover for months, Newcastle United released a statement in which it was explained that Ashley was ‘fully committed to ensuring this takeover process reached completion as he felt it was in the best interests of the club.’
It has been claimed that the Saudis remain interested in purchasing the North East club, while the Toon have confirmed they are pursuing arbitration against the English top-flight over their handling of the takeover, so it would seem as though Ashley is not giving up on this takeover either and perhaps this adds to Howey’s point even further, as it does seem clear that the unpopular owner is happy to sell for the right price but whether or not he will ultimately be successful in selling to this consortium remains to be seen.