Neil Mitchell has revealed that intermediaries were left perplexed by the proposed takeover bid of Newcastle United in the summer.
The journalist shared that insiders were particularly puzzled by the fact that the paperwork submitted to the Premier League was described as a “shambles.”
Mitchell admitted that they assumed that Sheik Khaled had the funds to complete a takeover, but was either badly advised or something was going on behind the scenes in Dubai.
Writing for the Chronicle on Sunday morning, Mitchell shared the thoughts of the intermediaries, who simply couldn’t comprehend how the takeover wasn’t completed.
“He said he would have assumed that Sheik Khaled had the funds to complete this deal if he had wished so why was there a need to get hedge fund money involved?” he wrote.
“Another was puzzled by the fact that any paperwork submitted to the Premier League had been labelled by an insider as “a shambles”.”
“In their opinion, this means he was either badly advised or there is something else going on within BZG. Either way, something doesn’t add up.”
OPINION
As the intermediaries mention, something just doesn’t seem to add up with the proposed takeover bid. Everything suggests that the Bin Zayed Group have the funds to complete a takeover at St James’ Park, so the question remains, why didn’t they? Unfortunately for Newcastle and their fans, it appears that they will have to deal with Mike Ashley for much longer, and the collapsed deal definitely feels like he had something to do with it. For the insiders from Dubai to reveal that they were puzzled by the fact that paperwork was described as a shambles could also prove that there was more too it. The Chronicle earlier reported that the BZG were angered by Ashley and his attempts to change his asking price midway through negotiations, so it would be no surprise if the Magpies’ owner had something to do with the deal not being finalised, something that would surely anger the Newcastle faithful.