Former Toon captain Mick Martin has urged the Reuben brothers to become the main stakeholders in Newcastle United to help push the takeover through.
Irishman Martin, who captained our club during the early eighties and even had a stint on the coaching staff, shares the hope with the vast majority of Newcastle’s that the failed takeover will soon be resurrected.
That said, he feels it’s time the Reubens – who are worth a huge £16bn alone and agreed to an initial 10% stake – went it alone and left behind the problematic Saudi PIF, feeling they have more than enough money to fund a buyout.
Here is what Martin told The Chronicle in full:
“I just felt that the longer the investigation went on, the less chance it had of being completed, not just the Middle East group, but a variety of others that have been mooted recently.
“The Premier League would have approved it straight away if they were happy.
“They obviously came up with things they weren’t happy with which obviously caused the delay and then eventual collapse.
“It was disappointing for all of us in the North-East.
“We’re all looking for somebody fresh to come in with new ideas.
“I’m sure if somebody came in with even £320million now he’d take it.
“There have been other groups looking in the background, and we’ve heard reports about Alan Shearer being involved but nothing has come off.”
“The Reubens are still in the background and are very wealthy people.
“They could do this on their own.
“If they were I’d be delighted.”
While what Martin says would be a perfect scenario in an ideal world, the chances of this actually coming to fruition are slim – despite the brothers already having an array of investments in the Newcastle area.
The Reubens have never shown any indication they are interested in becoming majority shareholders and asking them to do so would be hoping they’d increase their proposed stake from 10% to a whopping 80%.
However, they are certainly wealthy enough to do so if they wished. The Sunday Times Rich List has them down as the second richest family in the UK.
A Reuben brothers takeover would make us the second richest club in the Premier League, ahead of Roman Abramovich’s Chelsea and only slightly behind Sheikh Mansour’s Man City – who is worth an estimated £19bn.
They would still have the spending power on their own to turn the club into a force in world football but us, as supporters, would be in complete dreamland to even think that this is what the Reuben brothers want to do.
A football club is a billionaire’s plaything, their hobby. Turning a club like Newcastle into one of the biggest clubs in world football comes at a huge cost and is never financially beneficial to the owner – which is why PIF pulling out we’re so important, as that was meant to be their role in the consortium!
The current deal remains dead in the water with our fanbase starting to get to grips with the stark reality, clinging onto the small hope that Staveley and Co might still be working things out in the background.
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Going to look pretty stupid if PIF pull this off.
Dutch Docherty(Quote)