Billionaire confirms NUFC takeover talks – Reveals what Ashley is really like & why deal collapsed

Some very interesting comments have emerged from Joe DaGrosa, the chief Executive of GACP Sports.

The Florida based sports investment group have recently sold their stake in French Ligue 1 Club Bordeaux, and are in the market to invest in another European Club.

They were yet another name linked with buying Newcastle last year, along with BZG and Peter Kenyon’s mystery consortium, and DaGrosa has now revealed that talks actually went into the “mid to late stage” before GACP cancelled negotiations when one of their investors backed out.

Here’s the pick of DaGrosa’s comments from his recent interview on ESPN:

“It’s unfortunate in one respect that the deal didn’t go forward.

“With a guy like Mike Ashley, you might get punched in the face – but you’ll never get knifed in the back.

“At the time, it was disappointing the deal didn’t go forward. It was on our side that a major backer pulled out at the last minute, but hindsight is 20-20.

“Better to be lucky than smart, because we probably dodged a short-term bullet.”

Well I know little about GACP, but I think we are to, as I think we’re already quite emotionally attached to Amanda Staveley and her consortium. By “short term bullet” he is of course referring to the coronavirus pandemic.

On the short term future of the game he went on to say:

“In this environment, given what’s going on, we believe there’s an opportunity to recreate (Manchester City parent company) City Football Group at a fraction of the cost,”

“Club valuations are already coming down. In many cases, clubs are going to be effectively taken over by their lenders. There’s going to be some great opportunities in the next 12 months, and great opportunities to get world-class players at a fraction of the cost.”

M’Bappe for £20m anyone?