Newcastle United's collapsed takeover was a bitter pill for supporters to swallow.A consortium made up of PCP Capital Partners, the Reuben brothers and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) were closing in on a £300million deal to buy the Premier League club with only ratification from the Premier League stopping the deal from going through.Unfortunately that didn't happen.Since then Mike Ashley has started legal proceedings after hiring sports lawyer Nick De Marco QC and his colleague Shaheed Fatima QC in an attempt to prove that there was no lawful reason for the authorities to block the deal.Since being hired by Ashley, De Marco has been inundated with messages on social media about the takeover but has always maintained his silence.However a tweet from the lawyer of some 'home-baked bread' has caused quite a stir with several hints that seemingly address the takeover saga.
While this is obviously unverified, Liam Kennedy of the Shields Gazette has shared his own theory that De Marco may be hinting towards a potential breakthrough.
Speaking on NUFC Matters, Kennedy explained: “On the Nick De Marco thing – he’s a QC who’s getting hundreds of messages off Newcastle United fans, daily, weekly, and I think there [were] deliberate messages within that tweet.
“I’m not going to say he’s saying it’s done, it’s coming to a conclusion – I genuinely think he was putting a message out there and again, a qualifier by this is by saying it’s my opinion, he was probably just letting everybody know that he’s hearing it, he’s hearing the messages that you’re putting to him, he’s hearing all the tweets you’re [tagging] him in.
“I think the fact there was Newcastle Brown [Ale] in the background and the name of the champagne being ‘Blanc de Noirs’ was probably, I think, a little coincidental should he have put it there and not realised the impact, given that he’s getting hundreds of messages per day from Newcastle United fans with regards to this takeover; I think it was very deliberate what he did.
“I think he was kind of letting everybody know that things are still ongoing and we know they are – things are still ongoing, they’re not dead in the water.
“I think everybody in this process – and this is fans included – have to buy into this, that we’re almost certainly playing the long game and I think the more people realise that, the better.
“It’s not something that’s going to pop up immediately in the next week, in the next month, don’t take too much literally from what Nick De Marco said, but I do think this is something that’s going on in the background and it’s something that we can definitely take some kind of positives from.”
GIVEMESPORT'S Phil Spencer says...
I think we need to take this with a pinch of salt (bread-based food pun intended).
Newcastle United supporters were devastated that the £300m takeover fell through and it seems that everyone is praying for a deal to be reignited.
Whether that will happen or not, I don't know.
Mike Ashley is determined to sell the club and so is doing everything that he can to get a deal back on track.
With the saga now being discussed as a legal case, it seems that the club will need to tread carefully.
For the fans' sake, I hope a takeover does materialise as it will be a major boost to Newcastle and surrounding areas.