Mike Ashley puts Newcastle United up for sale; wants deal by Christmas
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Updated 16/10/2017 at 16:57 GMT
Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley has put the club up for sale, while his lawyer has confirmed that he is looking to conclude any deal by Christmas.
Newcastle owner Mike Ashley (R) stands alongside Managing Director Lee Charnley (L)
Image credit: Getty Images
Ashley bought Newcastle back in 2007 for £134m and has overseen a tumultuous period for the club.
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Newcastle fans boycotting the match holds signs demanding the resignation of owner Mike Ashley (AFP)
Image credit: Eurosport
A return to the Premier League under Rafa Benitez was an upturn in the Magpies’ fortunes, but Ashley recently revealed his frustration at not being able to give Newcastle the platform compete with Manchester City and the Premier League’s other big spenders.
And on Monday, Andrew Henderson (a lawyer for St James’ Holdings) said that Ashley has decided he has taken the club as far as he can:
There has obviously been a lot of press speculation about Mike's intentions towards the club; I think that there is a view that over the years there has been a considerable investment, perhaps a feeling that all that can be done has been done.
"Our intentions at the moment are to see if the club can be brought forward into new ownership by potentially Christmas," Henderson continued in an interview with Sky Sports. "That would allow for a period for serious interested parties to put themselves forward, for a diligence process to carry on, and then hopefully by Christmas for a sale to conclude with the sort of flexibility around terms we have discussed. That's the objective but nobody has a crystal ball so nobody can say for sure what happens and when."
However, price will remain a sticking point, with Henderson underlining Ashley’s insistence that no deal is better than a bad deal:
There is no desire to sell the club for any price to anyone. I think back to the question of price, it will depend on what somebody is prepared to pay for the club. Football clubs have a scarcity value, nobody is making 150-year-old football clubs with the kind of traditions that Newcastle United have so obviously there is value there, but then in terms of what the number is that will be dictated by how many people, how many serious people are interested, how many serious people can deliver and so we then get to how long will that take, how long do we give them. I think that is a matter for negotiation but certainly not all in year one so that's how we would be approaching it.
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