Former Sunderland striker Kevin Phillips has tipped Newcastle’s most recent takeover venture to fall apart, claiming Mike Ashley will remain as owner for three more years.
The Magpies are currently the subject of interest from a consortium led by businesswoman Amanda Staveley and Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman (Guardian Sport).
However, Bin Salman is also interested in purchasing Manchester United, and would prefer the Red Devils instead Newcastle if he could convince the Glazers to sell (Mirror Sport).
As such, Mike Ashley is said to be skeptical of the Crown Prince’s interest, while the club’s owner hasn’t received a desired £250,000 non-returnable bond which would allow the consortium to conduct due diligence.
Phillips, who won the Premier League’s Golden Boot for the Black Cats in the 1999/2000 season, believes that Newcastle supporters will likely be forced to wait a little longer before they finally see Ashley relinquish control of the club.
When asked by Football Insider whether he could see Ashley in charge for a long time to come, Phillips said:
I do to be honest because I just think, what’s it been, 10 years, over 10 years? And how many years has there been exactly the same but he’s still there.
He’s obviously got very thick skin, hasn’t he, and yeah, I could honestly see him there being another one, two, three years.
Newcastle fans probably don’t want to hear me say it but he has put his money where his mouth is and there’s no question about that.
It’s just some of the decisions he made obviously upset the Newcastle supporters and they don’t see a way back for him.
Read Newcastle Verdict
Mike Ashley has not been a popular figure for the majority of his time as Newcastle owner since he acquired the club in 2007, and there have been dozens and dozens of stories written about Newcastle fans slamming him and the way in which he has run the club.
Rafa Benitez left the club in the summer despite being a fan favourite on Tyneside, with the Spaniard claiming that it was due to a lack of trust between himself and Ashley (Indy Sport).
Despite those financial limitations though, Newcastle did smash their transfer record in the summer, signing Joelinton from Hoffenheim for a reported fee or £40million.
However this is not enough in the eyes of many supporters, who believe that losing Benitez was the final straw, and Ashley is unlikely to ever rebuild a relationship with the supporters.
Therefore, there’ll be plenty of fans hoping that Phillips is wrong, as they desperately hope their owner sells the club.
