Another bid on the table for Magpies, claims Keys
FORMER Sky Sports anchor Richard Keys has cast doubt over the Saudi-led takeover attempt of Newcastle United – and insists there is another bid on the table.
The well-publicised prospective deal remains in the hands of the Premier League and is at the latter stages of the owners’ and directors’ test.
However, the potential takeover has drawn a host of criticism amid concerns over Saudi Arabia’s human rights record and their alleged piracy of live Premier League football.
The most recent headlines saw MP Karl Mccartney call on the Government to intervene and block the Tyneside deal.
Keys claims exclusivity on the Saudi bid fronted by financier Amanda Staveley has now lapsed, and that American businessman Henry Mauriss has also lodged an offer to Magpies owner Mike Ashley.
Speaking on bein SPORTS’ Keys and Gray Show, he said: “I think there are some serious questions being asked now. I thought at the start of the week it might go through – it hasn’t.
“The exclusivity has lapsed. There is another bid on the table – Henry Mauriss of Clear TV in the US.
“I’m not sure anymore whether this deal is going to get done. Mauriss has plenty of money, he would be the perfect replacement for a Saudi bid if it were to be the case that that bid is turned away.”
Key also believes the recent criticism over alleged Saudi piracy shows how the issue is finally being recognised in the UK.
The anchor added: “I think people in the UK are beginning to understand the magnitude of the problem we first flagged here.
“This is not a deal that should be done because you cannot reward theft. Do we allow those who mugged Dele Alli this week to sell their watches for a profit?
“It’s the same thing shouldn’t be allowed.”
and
it Green was placed into a splint as the club played down the severity of his injury.
“The splinter was to keep my leg straight – the vice-chairman said they couldn’t operate because ‘it was hot.’ “I didn’t know anything.
“Tommy Gibb was also returning from injury, we’d be running up and down the terraces and I’d come back and put this splinter on.”
It was a decision from the club which ultimately cost Green his career. He finally went under the knife seven weeks later after a surgeon at Sunderland, where he had gone to take in a game, told him he needed an operation.
Two more operations followed but the damage was done – even if there were brief moments of hope.
“I played in the reserves at Coventry, I played well and I thought ‘this is great, I’m back again,’ and I phone home to tell them I was right as rain.
“But the next morning, I couldn’t move – the arthritis must have set in.”
Green knew there was no way back and called it a day just weeks before Christmas of 1973.
It devastated Tyneside, for Green had made a huge impression in just 33 games, but the former Scottish international reveals it hit one person harder than most – Joe Harvey.
“I had to console him when I told him,’ Green shares with a chuckle.
“He was worse than me [with emotion] – I had to say ‘it’ll be OK Joe’ – he was so upset.”
United boss Harvey had beaten Don Revie and Leeds United to the signing of Green for £150,000 and saw him slip straight into a side built on speed, precise passing and a devastating duo of Malcolm Macdonald and John Tudor up front.
“After they made Tony Green, they threw away the mould,” Harvey told reporters after retired.
“I couldn’t hope to buy a similar player, not even for twice the amount.”
They remained friends long after.
“He used to come up to me and say ‘God, if I got another five years [out of you] that would have been unbelievable.’
“I used to walk away feeling great – we always got on smashing.
“He wasn’t a sergeant major type, in fact the very opposite.
“If he had a weakness, it was that he wasn’t strict enough.
“I remember we were playing Arsenal and someone asks ‘what about Alan Ball?’ and he just walked by me and says, ‘you’re a better player than Alan Ball’ and just carried on walking.
“And you think, ‘wow, he thinks I’m better than Bally.’
“Don’t ask me why but it makes you
It took nearly six months, and then you’ve got to say, ‘OK, **** it ... you can’t moan like this all your life
Tony Green
shortly Green
good feel good, and he just had the knack of doing things like that, Joe.”
A testimonial followed in May 1974 against Middlesbrough. Despite coming just days after the 3-0 thumping by Liverpool in the FA Cup Final, nearly 30,000 packed out St James’ Park.
There were acts of generosity, Green recalls – doormen handing him their pay packets for the night as they wanted to work for free in honour to him, the local landlord putting the drinks on the house, and Harvey – despite Green’s reservation – telling the midfielder there would be ‘a thousand more league games’ for Newcastle to come as he prioritised the testimonial side ahead of the next competitive game.
But it was a ‘bittersweet night’ admits Green – the pleasure of having his family around him as St James’