SORRY, BUT THIS JUST SMACKS OF DESPERATION

NEWCASTLE UNITED should be a red-hot prospect for anyone wanting to buy a football club. A vast and loyal fanbase, a giant stadium, a high-profile manager and the best start to a Premier League season in years — the future looks bright. But Mike Ashley’s announcement that he is open to offers and will accept staggered payments — essentially like buying a club in instalments — smacks of desperation. If you’re keen on negotiations to sell a multi-million-pound business, surely you want to start in a position of strength, not make it sound like you will do anything to be rid of it. Cash from Qatar and China is sloshing around the Premier League. So sparse are the opportunities to buy a top-flight club that, increasingly, foreign investors have turned their eyes to the Championship. The Magpies should have bidders lining up, so where are they? Perhaps Ashley has just had enough. He has been dragged to court this year over a business deal that went sour, faced the wrath of the Treasury select committee over employment practices at his Derbyshire warehouses and seen the value of Sports Direct plummet by 40 per cent since 2016. In 2016, profit at Newcastle fell by £32million to just £4m on a turnover of £125m. Wages ate 59 per cent of the club’s income and will get higher this year. Ashley has lent the club, personally and through other companies, £129m interest-free. He gets no wage and no dividend. For all his bombast, he is a ruthless businessman but gets no financial gain and a lot of grief from Newcastle. That explains why he is blowing the final whistle.