Newcastle United: Fans joke about imminent takeover as Sports Direct logos disappear

As revealed by the Chronicle, Newcastle United have two new sponsors on their media advertising board and have removed the Sports Direct logo in favour of them. Indeed, as was evident during Steve Bruce’s pre-match press conference ahead of the Chelsea game tomorrow, the logos of Barbour and Vitality are now there instead.

As a result of their sponsorship, members of the Magpies’ squad are expected to arrive at St. James’ Park wearing Barbour branding tomorrow. However, as you can imagine, not much of the focus was on the sponsors themselves but on the absence of the Sports Direct logo.

Clearly synonymous with Mike Ashley, the image itself is a reminder of his time in ownership of the football club, with it also being branded across the stadium, as well as St. James’ Park’s name change to the Sports Direct Arena in 2011. So, with it gone, many fans on social media jokingly suggested that a takeover was likely following Lee Ryder’s tweet about the situation.

With that in mind, here’s a look at some of the reaction.

Transfer window complete

— METZ117 (@METZ117) January 17, 2020

😂 well that confirms the takeover then 🎣🎣

— David Storey (@BigDaveStorey) January 17, 2020

NEWOWNERSINCOMING

— Dayvee Gee (@DavidJG00615083) January 17, 2020

Very strange for mike to get rid of his free advertising and get two new sponsors, mike lives for free marketing 🤔

— Alex William (@AlexDembaCisse) January 17, 2020