The history of Newcastle United and Mike Ashley makes for some of the most infamous tales of ownership in footballing history, alongside Stan Kroenke at Arsenal and perhaps the Glazers at Manchester United. There’s often been questions regarding the potential that the club has for new owners and plenty of calls have been received from fans for Ashley to sell up. Here’s what might happen if he ever does.
Before getting into what might happen in the future, it is worth noting where Newcastle have stood under Ashley’s stewardship in recent years. For the most part, Newcastle have lived in the land of mid-table obscurity, regularly recording league finishes in the positions between 10th and 15th. Looking at the current English Premier League odds, the Magpies are 34/25 to get relegated, making them one of the favourites for the drop. To make matters worse, Steve Bruce, with odds of 5/2, has been tipped as being the favourite to leave his job at some point in the near future.
If Bruce does leave the job, it would continue the trend of Newcastle managers being in the job for less than five years. This trend does appear to be something of an anomaly, historically speaking. For example, Joe Harvey’s legendary tenure lasted for thirteen years from 1962 to 1975. Harvey remains the last Newcastle manager to win a major honour, namely the Inter-City Fairs Cup in 1968/69, a win that the club’s 19/20 home shirt paid tribute to.
There has, of course, over the last couple of years, been hope that Ashley will relinquish control of the club to Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, or PIF, led by the current monarch, the Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman. Whilst the deal appeared to be off back in July 2020, there have been reports in the media that the deal could still go ahead. What this would mean is that Newcastle may be injected with £300m in a major deal that could take them to the next level financially, putting them on a level playing field with some of the league’s biggest spenders.
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The speculation when it comes to potential transfers has been nothing short of sensational, with some fans even going as far as stating that PSG’s young starlet and the FIFA 21 cover star, Kylian Mbappe, could be on his way to Tyneside. Even with a takeover, this is rather unlikely to occur. Real Madrid may suit Mbappe that little bit more.
Intriguingly, the likes of Callum Wilson and Ryan Fraser, who both signed for the Magpies from Bournemouth were actually on the shopping list of the prospective new owners anyway and it could be argued that those signings could’ve been getting the wheels in motion for the PIF to complete the move.
If Mike Ashley does ever decide to leave Newcastle United in the hands of new owners, there’s a chance that the club could, with the right investment, be pushed back into the big time in – a position that they were last in some twenty years ago.
However, the removal of Ashley’s money, which has somewhat bankrolled the club for the best part of a decade, could result in backwards progress that would send the Magpies down to the Championship once again. That’s the uncertainty of takeovers and changes in ownership. It will certainly be interesting to see how it all unfolds.