Newcastle United rumours: Toon target put up for sale, Magpies pushing for defender deal

The Toon Army are set to enter into an arbitration process that will determine whether or not a Saudi-led takeover of the club is actually allowed to go ahead after it previously failed back in 2019.

Staveley has recently called for transparency in the process, and now the businesswoman has expressed her sympathy for current Newcastle owner Mike Ashley who has so far been unsuccessful in his attempt to sell the club.

"I can absolutely sympathise with Mike's position," Staveley told Sky Sports News. "He's worked tirelessly to try and sell the club, he made a very public statement, I remember two years ago seeing him on Sky thinking 'okay, there's a real chance for us to buy Newcastle'.

"He said 'I will sell the club, I need to have a buyer with deep pockets, it's not really about the cash in my pockets, it's about who will put the cash in Newcastle's pockets'.

"So he's done exactly what the fans urged him to do, but he can't get there. I feel disappointed because I also said to him when we struck a legal deal in April last year, and here we are some 15 months later and we're still not there. I understand his position.

"I am tenacious if nothing else. We believe this is very important for Newcastle and the fans and we're not going to give up – we don't ever give up.”

We’ve gathered the best of today’s Premier League speculation below...