Newcastle United transfer news: Bin Zayed Group takeover stalemate as TWO high profile candidates drop out of race to replace Rafa Benitez; Salomon Rondon bid rejected

Newcastle United’s summer so far has been a nightmare for fans.
Watch more of our videos on Shots! 
and live on Freeview channel 276
Visit Shots! now

One week they lose their manager – Rafa Benitez – the next half the reportedly unhappy squad is linked with a move away from St James’s Park.

And to add into the mix the supposed Bin Zayed Group takeover, led by Dubai-based Sheikh Khaled, has made little to no tangible progress, not in the public domain, anyway.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

We seem to be at the stage of the summer where owner Mike Ashley is getting tired of playing the waiting game for a possible takeover of a club he continues to value at £350million, despite the loss of one of United’s main assets in Benitez.

LONDON, ENGLAND - JUNE 07:  Sports Direct International founder Mike Ashley leaves the Red Lion pub in Westminster to attend a select committee hearing at Portcullis house on June 7, 2016 in London, England. Mike Ashley is to face the Business, Innovations and Skills Parliamentary Select Committee on working practices at his Sports Direct Shirebrook Warehouse in Derbyshire. In a letter to his staff he admitted that the centre needed 'improvements' after investigations found that staff had been paid less than the minimum wage and ambulances had been called to the complex 76 times in two years as staff were 'too scared' to call in sick.  (Photo by Carl Court/Getty Images)LONDON, ENGLAND - JUNE 07:  Sports Direct International founder Mike Ashley leaves the Red Lion pub in Westminster to attend a select committee hearing at Portcullis house on June 7, 2016 in London, England. Mike Ashley is to face the Business, Innovations and Skills Parliamentary Select Committee on working practices at his Sports Direct Shirebrook Warehouse in Derbyshire. In a letter to his staff he admitted that the centre needed 'improvements' after investigations found that staff had been paid less than the minimum wage and ambulances had been called to the complex 76 times in two years as staff were 'too scared' to call in sick.  (Photo by Carl Court/Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND - JUNE 07: Sports Direct International founder Mike Ashley leaves the Red Lion pub in Westminster to attend a select committee hearing at Portcullis house on June 7, 2016 in London, England. Mike Ashley is to face the Business, Innovations and Skills Parliamentary Select Committee on working practices at his Sports Direct Shirebrook Warehouse in Derbyshire. In a letter to his staff he admitted that the centre needed 'improvements' after investigations found that staff had been paid less than the minimum wage and ambulances had been called to the complex 76 times in two years as staff were 'too scared' to call in sick. (Photo by Carl Court/Getty Images)

And he is said to have set a deadline for BZG, or any other interested party, of which the Gazette understands there to be one other, to get any deal done.

Journalist Duncan Castles told The Transfer Window podcast: “What I’ve been told is that Ashley himself has put a deadline on these discussions about a takeover – he wants a decision inside the next two weeks.

“Why? Because if a takeover isn’t going to take place, and I think the fact that a deadline is being placed on discussions suggests that none of these offers are as near to the line as they have been presented as being ... if that deadline has been put in place, it’s because Ashley realises if you don’t have a buyer as we get closer and closer to the edge of the transfer window, you have a problem.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“And if he doesn’t have a buyer, he’s going to have to manage the club going into next season.”

Meanwhile, high-profile managerial candidates Arsene Wenger and Jose Mourinho appear to have ruled themselves out of the running to replace Benitez on Tyneside.

Speaking to the French press, former Arsenal boss Wenger said: “I'm still not ready to go back [into management].”

On the transfer front, outlet Mediotiempo claim Newcastle have had a £9.4m bid for Salomon Rondon rejected. They claim he will now continue his career at West Brom. Without a manager, or clear plan, it seems unlikely United have done such a thing of late.