Last night, the Daily Mail’s Martin Samuel ran a story reporting that a non refundable deposit of around £17m had been paid to Mike Ashley by Amanda Staveley’s company PCP.
This was particularly pleasing as Samuel – Mike Ashley’s go-to guy in the media – wrote a frankly shameful opinion piece last week criticising Staveley and her backers for essentially not giving his mate more money.
If they’re happy to pay a £17m non-refundable deposit, I think it’s fair to say they’re adamant this is happening – and Sky Sports have since backed up those claims.
Here’s their promising update this afternoon, confirming the £300m deal is ‘nearing completion after the Saudi-backed consortium paid a deposit and exchange contracts with Mike Ashley‘:
As I emerged from my pit this morning with a hangover after I triggered the #cans clause last night, there was also a piece in The Athletic from George Caulkin which talked about the immediate intentions of our new owners – also revealing that one source has told them “there’s no stopping this (takeover) now“.
It was basically saying the same thing, that it’s so far down the line that it’s done pending Premier League checks – and they’re not expecting any issues here either.
On a side note if you don’t subscribe to The Athletic then do so immediately as Chris Waugh and George Caulkin are immense.
So let’s all accept this is happening.
There will be insults from other fans and journalists born from jealousy and selective morals, but on a purely footballing basis, we deserve this.
Forget talk of obscene amounts of money, potential trophies and Champions League nights. This represents hope, and daring to dream again. So let’s crack another can.
HTFL!
