OPINION
Darren Gough delivered his thoughts on a takeover happening at Newcastle United and he doesn’t sound confident at all.
The Times previously reported that there were three parties keen on buying the Magpies with The Sun previously reporting that the Bin Zayed Group were still having positive talks about buying the Magpies from Mike Ashley for £350million.
Yet despite there being more than one party in for the Magpies, it just added to Gough’s confusion about the whole saga.
The talkSPORT pundit seemed confused as to why Ashley hadn’t been able to sell the Magpies as of yet before listing problems that now face with a potential deal.
Gough pointed out that with the Magpies having seen Rafa Benitez and Ayoze Perez depart, and potentially other players exiting, then interested parties in the club will lower their valuation of the club.
He then added that Mike Ashley was clearly sticking to what he thought the Magpies was worth and he could see the whole situation going back to square one, and ended with no one wanting to buy the club off the businessman.
“There’s something not quite right here, because I believe you’ve got an owner in Mike Ashley who I believe wants to sell,” said Gough on talkSPORT (16:55, Friday, July 5th).
“I honestly believe it, you’ve seen all these people come to the football club and be like that’s for us then something seems to stop it every time when it won’t go through.
“Originally I thought it was Mike Ashley as he keeps putting price up, but I think now he is just sticking to what his club is worth, what he shares are valued at but the problem is now Rafa is gone, Perez gone, they’re talking about Longstaff going, Schar going, the price of Newcastle now for owners; surely they’d want their bids lowered due to what has been happening with the transfer market and the manager going.
“It’s just going go back to square one again and there’s going to be no interested party again unless they get to market.”
Gough’s verdict will surely send shivers down spines, as it’s hard to argue with him.
Benitez was a Champions-League winning manager who had an impressive record across the 146 Magpies games he was in charge of as he averaged 1.48 points per match (Source: Transfermarkt).
So surely without him at the helm, an investor won’t value a club as highly especially as no successor has been appointed and it’s uncertain if someone can successfully keep Benitez’s good work going.
Then there’s Perez.
The 25-year-old ended his 2018/19 as the Magpies’ top scorer with 13 goals in 41 games and was a key part of the team defensively as well as he made a staggering 60 tackles in his league outings (Source: Premier League), so clearly the team are weaker and should be valued lower after losing an asset.
Therefore it makes sense that potentially interested parties will want to lower their possible bids and if Ashley hasn’t fully agreed to sell the club for the price he was originally demanding, why would he change his stance?
The Magpies previously saw Amanda Stavely fail in a bid to takeover Newcastle, and Gough’s verdict will just have many worrying that others are about to fail this summer.
