Despite strong claims yesterday that Amanda Staveley was ‘very close’ to sealing a £300m takeover of NUFC, Rafa Benitez has admitted that he still has no information on a potential buy out OR his budget for the January window.
It is believed that Staveley and Ashley are close to sealing a deal, with a compromise seeming to have been found in terms of price and the clauses that were contained in the initial offer from Staveley and PCP a few weeks ago.
Benitez has always distanced himself from the talks, preferring to focus on matters on the pitch, but after yesterdays huge developments he still seemed to be none the wiser about the situation ahead of what looks to be a crucial January transfer window.
Here’s what Rafa had to say when interviewed by Sky Sports after the 1-0 loss to Everton last night:
“I don’t have any information. As I said the other day, I need to know how much money we will have for January as soon as possible, that’s it.
“But I don’t have information about the takeover.”
It must be stressed that a deal is not done between Staveley and Ashley, but given it’s now been deemed ‘very close’ to completion following widespread reports on the deal yesterday, it seems odd that Rafa still has no new information himself.
Hopefully there’ll be some solid news to report from Rafa ASAP.
