The Bin Zayed Group’s motivation for talking up their attempts to buy Newcastle United was predominantly a desire to garner publicity, according to Daily Mail journalist Craig Hope.
The Dubai-based consortium emerged as surprise candidates to buy the Magpies from controversial owner Mike Ashley earlier this summer, but in the end seemed to fizzle out in their efforts to get a deal over the line.
And writing in a piece for the Mail, Hope has pulled no punches in his assessment of the debacle, also claiming that a takeover, when it does happen, will go ahead behind closed doors.
He said: “There is no Dubai takeover and several sources have suggested there never was once it became apparent, to those inside the club, that the group’s motivation for publicity was, well, publicity.
“A takeover will happen one day and we won’t know anything about it.
“Until then, file it all under fabrication, falsehood and fantasy.”
OPINION
There are so many smoke and mirrors up on Tyneside that it’s impossible to tell what is real and what is fake with regards to reports on prospective takeovers. The fact of the matter is that given a choice between believing in Mike Ashley and believing in a stranger offering them the earth, most Newcastle fans will choose to go against their current owner in a heartbeat. Like it or not, however, you can’t help feeling that the Bin Zayed Group handled the whole saga pretty poorly. Rather than keeping things under wraps until the vital moment, they came out and told the world of their intentions. As soon as that happened, any deal was always going to be fighting an uphill battle, and as the summer wore on, it became more and more evident that fans, pundits, and those supposedly “in-the-know” were being spun a yarn and were left grasping at thin air.
