Saudis talk tough in Qatar Newcastle takeover war plus Amanda Staveley out to better Liverpool & Man City deals on Tyneside

Journalist Duncan Castles of the Transfer Window podcast described sources close to the £300million Newcastle United deal have issued a ‘bring it on’ message to Qataris, who have been attempting to hijack the Tyneside takeover.

“On the broadcast revenue front, Saudi Arabia would be willing to buy the rights left by Qatar. They certainly have the capital and the interest to do so,” he said.

“This is being seen as an opportunity by Saudi – if BeIN want to play tough with the Premier League over future contracts, the Saudis could come in and take them up by offering more for those deals. 'Bring it on' is the message.”

On the prospect of the takeover getting the green light, Castles added: “The response I am getting from the takeover end, is they feel the Premier League will ignore both of these things.

“They think the Premier League will not want to be seen to make a morale judgement on the owners of a football club.

“Saudi Arabia is a favoured trade partner of the UK, it sells arms to to Saudi Arabia. If the UK is OK to trade with Saudi Arabia then why should the Premier League use their owners and directors test to exclude them? It should be down to a government to make those decisions.”

Castles has revealed PCP and Staveley, with husband Mehrdad Ghodoussi, will run United day-to-day, but the final say will come down to PIF.

“PCP will have the management contract, Amanda Staveley will go on the board, they will put things to PIF who will ultimately sign things off,” said Castles.

“PCP have a group of football specialists, who've been hired to work on the management project.”

On the prospect of ex-Liverpool executive Ian Ayre coming on board at United, he said: “It caused some amusement among PCP, they said 'not a chance'.

“They are working on putting together a list of candidates.”

Castle also ruled out the prospect of Flamengo manager Jorge Jesus coming to St James's Park in the near future, with Steve Bruce set to see the season out.

“They are working on their strategy going forward,” he said.

“They want it to contrast from the takeovers of Manchester City and Liverpool. They emphasise they have been working on this deal for more than two years and know Newcastle United very well. The other deals were rushed, which is why the owners of City and Liverpool made mistakes early on, almost certainly because they did not know what they were getting in to.

“And that is where the consortium buying Newcastle feel they have an advantage - they have a very definite plan they have been working on for a very long time.”