Newcastle takeover gives Hull City fans hope of their own freedom from Allams
TURKISH BUSINESSMAN INCREASINGLY CONFIDENT HE WILL STRIKE A DEAL
For fans of Hull City, hearing the news that Newcastle United are finally set escape the clutches of Mike Ashley’s ownership will have sent a splitsecond surge of hope through their bones.
The Premier League club were expected to confirm yesterday that Amanda Staveley’s Saudi Arabian-led consortium had taken over from Ashley, bringing an end to more than 12 years of desperation from fans on Tyneside, desperate to see the back of the Sports Direct mogul and herald in a new dawn in the North East.
City fans find themselves in a similar boat to those 150 miles or so up the East Coast, desperate, fed up, disillusioned and tired of numerous false dawns about potential new horizons, their relationship with the Allam family long past breaking point - both camps ready to make the break and move on from each other.
This time, however, it could be different, with Turkish businessman Acun Ilicali understood to be increasingly confident that he will strike a deal with the Allam family and end their 11-year ownership of the Tigers, which hasn’t been all negative it has to be said, with FA Cup finals, promotions to the Premier League and flirtations with European football all coming within a chaotic tenure.
The plight of the Tigers, though, is not dissimilar to that of Newcastle, there are striking similarities between the two, years of apathy, too many protests to mention, a clear divide between club and fanbase along with underinvestment on the pitch which has resulted in relegations – just a brief summary of the charge sheet.
While the Tyneside situation may attract
more interest and be higher profile, and indeed, cost hundreds of millions of pounds more to complete, in Hull, seeing the Magpies finally get their wishes has created not only a look of jealousy, but one of cautious optimism – that it can be they who are next in line to finally end years of waiting for a new direction.
The consortium buying Newcastle is not without its problems, of course, with Saudi Arabia’s human rights issues very high on the agenda, but their desire to pay £300m for a club in the Premier League’s bottom three and thus ridding it of Ashley has certainly caught the Toon’s imagination.
Understandably given the ability to pull in 52,000 fans in the Championship and their appeal, Newcastle garner plenty of column inches, and against Leeds United last month, ex-manchester United star Gary Neville urged Ashley to finally sell, in words that will again resonate with City fans who will feel Neville could just as easily be talking about their club.
“This club has got to be sold quickly, this club has got to change hands. It has to,” Neville told Sky Sports.
“It is one of the great clubs of this country. Mike Ashley has got to dispose of it. It’s easier to say, ‘Drop the price a little bit.’
“But he has to do the right thing at some point. He has got a lot of money. It isn’t going to change his life if he loses a bit more money.”
“I’ve said this before and I’m going to repeat myself again, it is desperate when you saw this club in the 90’s like I did coming up here having title-winning fights in football terms, the atmosphere was special, one of the best you’ll ever see,” he continued.
“To see it now with the way it is, is in football terms depressing.”
Those words could very easily be attached to Hull City and with noises coming from Turkey that Acun Ilicali is growing increasingly confident of striking a deal with the Allam family, it’s hoped that their day of freedom may not be too far away.
For now, City fans must watch events at St James’ Park with envious eyes while counting down the days.