Legendary NUFC stopper Shay Given has had his say on the potential takeover at St James’ Park and has got a little carried away in the process, admitting that he’d love to see the club sign someone like Alexis Sanchez if ambitious and free spending investors arrived in place of Mike Ashley.
Whilst his suggestion to sign Sanchez was quite possibly a throw away comments, Given clearly believes that we have the potential to go places and become a Premier League big boy IF the right owners arrived – drawing comparisons to Sheikh Mansours impact at Man City, with him splashing out £32m on Robinho almost 10 years ago!
Here’s what Shay had to say to the Daily Star when discussing the potential impact new owners could have at NUFC:
“If the investors come in and have got endless amounts of money, they could sign [Alexis] Sanchez, for example.
“It depends who these new owners are.
“I’m not saying he’ll go there and they could instead trawl down the bottom part of the league – you just don’t know how much money they’ll have.
“When you look at Sheikh Mansour when he came to Manchester City and signed Robinho.
“Will these people have that money to spend or will it be a bit more of shopping down the ladder?”
Given may have got carried away with his Sanchez suggestion, but rightfully admits that you just don’t know what you’re going to get from new owners. Obviously anything would seem an improvement on Mike Ashley, but we can’t be sure that the likes of Amanda Staveley and PCP would have a ‘Man City-esque’ affect on the club.
The Irishman does still feel that we have the potential to be transformed into a major player in England with the right kind of investors, stating that the stadium and our supporters give us the makings of a huge club:
“I do believe they [new owners] can get back up challenging for the Premier League and Champions League football,”
“It will take time but it’s a great stadium, the fans are unreal and it’s a big club.”
A nice little mix of hope, realism and respect for his former club from Shay here.
A great servant and a man we’ll no doubt see named in NUFC’s ‘Greatest Ever XI’ before Saturday’s game against Leicester.
