Toon transfer talk in pub with brokers

MIKE Ashley, who owns Newcastle United FC as well as Sports Direct, discussed buying and selling footballers during a ‘heavy night of drinking’ with City brokers, court papers say.

The 52-year-old talked about the sale of Newcastle striker Andy Carroll to Liverpool, the possible sale of Hatem Ben Arfa and other deals that could take place before the imminent closure of the transfer window, the High Court was told.

The conversations took place at a pub in London on the same night in January 2013 Ashley allegedly offered to pay Jeffrey Blue £15m if the Sports Direct share price doubled to £8.

‘When we got to the pub we started drinking heavily at the bar and consumed a lot of alcohol,’ said Ashley. ‘I remember we talked a lot about football generally, Newcastle United FC, various players, managers and agents.’

The court heard Ashley took a call from a club interested in buying Ben Arfa – and then asked the brokers what action they would take. He also described the background to the £35m sale of Carroll to Liverpool in 2011 after the Merseyside club offloaded star striker Fernando Torres for £50m.

Peter Tracey, head of corporate broking at ESIB. said: ‘Ashley commented that he wanted to get Andy Carroll across to Liverpool on the helicopter as soon as possible because they had £50m to spend.’