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New Exclusive reports Newcastle takeover has reached complete impasse

6 years ago
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With the January transfer window only 48 hours away from opening, an exclusive now claims that there has been zero progress on a Newcastle takeover.

In the first week of December hopes were raised when another exclusive revealed that Mike Ashley and Amanda Staveley had met.

The venue was an Indian restaurant in London, with photos showing the pair of them together (along with a number of other people) leaving after the meal.

The story was carried by all the media along with claims that progress had been made between the pair with talks to continue.

However, the latest exclusive claims that nothing has changed, with Mike Ashley refusing to go lower than £300m and Amanda Staveley still sticking on £250m.

With then maybe the biggest sticking point also said to remain, Amanda Staveley still insisting on a relegation clause. This has been previously reported as being either Ashley later paying the Staveley bidders compensation if Newcastle ended up relegated at the end of the season, or Staveley’s people paying a lower price up front and then an additional amount if the club stayed up.

We all pick and choose who we believe in the media but on the Newcastle takeover, all the coverage relies on either journalists simply guessing, or being told something by one of the interested parties keen to push their agendas.

A lot of people will dismiss the latest exclusive simply because it comes from The Sun, via their man who covers  Newcastle United, David Coverdale, but they were also the same newspaper who had the exclusive on the curry house meeting.

This latest report follows claims as recent as yesterday (Friday), where it was said Rafa Benitez still doesn’t know for sure if he has any money to spend in January.

The simple fact remains, selling a club whose value at any moment can instantly change on one kick of the ball, was always going to be a big ask. If Newcastle had 10 more points or so at this point then possible relegation would be a very small issue – but as it stands, you basically have a club that could have its value halved if it was relegated, so how can a sale go through now to the satisfaction of both parties?

We all hope that a solution can be found/has been found…but for now it is as usual, a case of just getting behind Rafa and his players and hoping for better news on the overall control of the club.

Yet another fine mess Mike Ashley has got us into.

The Sun exclusive:

‘Mike Ashley and Amanda Staveley have hit a £50million wall which threatens the takeover of Newcastle.

Toon owner Ashley appeared close to agreeing a deal to sell the club to Staveley earlier this month.

But the two parties are at an impasse over the sale price — with Ashley refusing to sell for less than £300m and Staveley yet to bid more than £250m.

Now there are fears the takeover could be dead if neither side budges — with Staveley also wanting clauses written in to the deal covering relegation.

Staveley wants boss Rafa Benitez but is also concerned he could go at the end of the season if a deal is not done by then.

Ashley met Yorkshirewoman Staveley, who runs private equity fund PCP Capital Partners, for talks at a London curry house at the start of December, as we exclusively revealed.’

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