Newcastle United gossip: Mike Ashley 'delighted' by £300m takeover developments surrounding Bin Salman and Boris Johnson

And there are fresh hopes that there could be up to 10,000 fans inside St James’s Park for the Newcastle United v Sheffield United match next month.

The PA news agency are reporting the penultimate round of Premier League matches will be pushed back so each team can play a home game in front of up to 10,000 fans.

The takeover agenda, however, has come bursting back to the forefront of the news agenda surrounding the Magpies in the past 48 hours with some interesting reports swirling around the internet.

Here, we take you through anything you may have missed this afternoon in our daily news round-up:

This is why Mike Ashley is ‘delighted’ by the latest developments around Newcastle United

Mike Ashley is said to be ‘delighted’ by the latest developments following a failed takeover of Newcastle United.

Reports have suggested that Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman has asked Prime Minister Boris Johnson to intervene in the proposed sale of the club.

The PA news agency has stated that Ashley is privately delighted by both the Daily Mail report that Bin Salman urged the British Government to help remove stumbling bocks in the £300million-plus takeover.

The emergence of emails between Government departments and the Premier League as it carried out its owners’ and directors’ tests last summer is also apparently pleased the Sports Direct owner.

What are other news outlets proposing about the £300m Saudi-backed takeover of Newcastle United?

The Guardian state that bin Salman warned Boris Johnson in a text message that UK-Saudi Arabian relations would be damaged.

The report states that if the British government failed to intervene to “correct” the Premier League’s “wrong” decision not to allow a £300m takeover of Newcastle United last year relations between the two countries take a blow.

Back in August, Johnson wrote to members of the Newcastle United Supporters Trust.

“I appreciate many Newcastle fans were hoping this takeover bid would go ahead and can understand their sense of disappointment," the Prime Minister said.

"I have seen the recent email sent to Newcastle fans from the Independent Football Ombudsman and agree with their conclusion that the Premier League should make a statement on this case.”

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