Journalist close to Mike Ashley makes new Peter Kenyon claim as takeover déjà vu strikes

According to the Daily Mail’s Martin Samuel, Mike Ashley “thinks Peter Kenyon would be good for Newcastle United” – but fears he hasn’t got the cash to do a deal.

Samuel appears to be the one journalist closest to the NUFC owner, with him being the man who carried out that rare summer ‘interview’ (if you can even call it that!) over the summer, but his comments on a potential takeover sound all too familiar.

He doesn’t paint a positive picture when it comes to Peter Kenyon’s ability to buy the club, claiming he’s a ‘small-time big talker’ who doesn’t have the £300m needed to complete a deal – despite ‘convincing’ Ashley he did last year:

“Kenyon convinced him the deal was going to be done last Christmas. Ashley liked Kenyon. Liked him enough to call him the preferred bidder.

“He thinks he knows football and would be good for the club. Yet after the initial promise, the next report Ashley read suggested Kenyon was trying to Crowdfund his takeover.

“Now he has commissioned a glossy brochure showcasing Newcastle as a fabulous investment opportunity. It amounts to the same thing. Like Crowdfunding, the brochure is an appeal for investor funds to cover a sizeable shortfall.

“That should concern Newcastle’s supporters as much as it does the owner. Investors aren’t living a dream. Investors want a return. And a man in Kenyon’s need can’t be picky about who he persuades to put the money in.”

“Kenyon, like Amanda Staveley, like Sheik Khaled bin Zayed Al Nehayan, like any number of unsuitable suitors or small-time big talkers, doesn’t have £300m. So with Ashley it remains,”

We’re now a week on from those reports stating Kenyon had teamed up with GACP Capital and lodged a £300m offer for NUFC, but the more time goes by, the more it seems they just haven’t got the money behind them – not to mention their ‘staggered payments over three years’ doesn’t seem like the sort of deal Ashley would accept.

That said, there’s a common theme emerging now. Every potential buyer is being tarred with the same brush when any deal ‘falls through’, being described as either a time waster or group who just didn’t have the money to do a deal. Is this the case, or is Mike Ashley’s terms and £300m asking price excessive and unrealistic?

I’d like to bet its the latter!