Staveley increases her offer to close in on deal

New bid tempts Ashley to end 10-year reign Newcastle coach Benitez in line for transfer boost

Amanda Staveley has made a second bid in her attempt to buy Newcastle United, although owner Mike Ashley is yet to accept and could ask her to raise it for a second time.

Hopes are high that the negotiations are edging closer to completion, although sources have told The Daily Telegraph that Staveley has still not offered enough for the takeover to go through.

It is believed the second offer is some way below £300million and there is work to be done before a deal can be agreed. Indeed, there were suggestions last night that Staveley would have to make a third bid if she was going to be successful, although Ashley is considering his options and has not formally rejected the offer.

Despite the haggling, there has been considerable progress over the past 48 hours and Ashley does appear to be edging closer to selling up. The decision to leak news of the second bid can be viewed as just another negotiating tactic.

It is believed that one of the key reasons for the breakthrough in the deadlock is that Ashley is willing to spend his own money in the January transfer window, with the guarantee that Staveley repays him once the takeover has been completed.

That move is designed to ensure they both have a chance to protect their investment by radically improving the quality of the team. Manchester United left-back Luke Shaw and Chelsea striker Michy Batshuayi are high on manager Rafael Benitez’s wanted list, even though the Spaniard knows he would not have the money to sign them if Ashley remains in charge.

Benitez will have a transferbudget meeting this week and should be given a considerably larger kitty now that talks with Staveley have progressed. The negotiations had been stuck in deadlock for weeks as Staveley initially

players struggling to find their feet in the early exchanges.

It certainly worked against them in the build-up to Mahrez’s opener, as two Southampton defenders, looking like they had worn their plimsolls to the ice rink, slipped to the ground as the Algerian slalomed through midfield. With the path to goal sufficiently cleared, Mahrez took aim and fired a powerful shot past Fraser Forster and into the bottom corner. It was his fifth goal in his last 10 games, and his third from outside the box this season.

Another counter-attack ended with an Okazaki shot being cleared off the line. Vardy then should have scored with a close-range effort beaten away by the increasingly busy Forster. Amanda Staveley is the daughter of Robert Staveley, who built the Lightwater Valley theme park near the family home in Ripon, North Yorkshire.

Her career got off to a bad start when her restaurant failed but, during her time in hospitality, she built up a network of wealthy contacts.

Staveley, 44, became a dealer in stocks and shares, making a profit in the dot.com and biotech boom. More success followed through her company, Q.ton. She moved to Dubai and set up PCP Capital, helping Sheikh Mansour to acquire Manchester City in 2010. She has twice failed to take control of Liverpool.

The second goal came from the resulting corner, as a volley from Christian Fuchs bobbled around the six-yard box before Okazaki stabbed it past the helpless goalkeeper and King tapped in a third before half-time.

It was not just the way Pellegrino’s midfield parted to allow those repeated Leicester counter-attacks. It was also the complete absence of any attacking energy or guile.

Dusan Tadic and Sofiane Boufal were largely irrelevant, while Charlie Austin had one long-range shot but was otherwise non-existent.

Asked what went wrong in the first half, Pellegrino replied: “Everything.”

The half-time introduction of Manolo Gabbiadini did at least refused to raise her offer, but the second bid looks as though it could signal the start of a deal.

Ashley would be severing ties after a tempestuous decade on Tyneside, soured by protests and boycotts, as supporters tried to get rid of an owner who has never shared their sense of ambition or understanding of football. Ashley returned from a holiday in Las Vegas yesterday and is pondering whether to accept the bid.

Ashley paid £133 million for Newcastle in 2007 and has put roughly the same amount into the business in interest-free loans.

Staveley’s opening bid of around £250 million was rejected last month but talks have been continuing. Although she has still not matched Ashley’s asking price of £350million, it is likely to be too good to turn down, given his desire to sell rather than be involved in another costly relegation.

Staveley has orchestrated a clever campaign to tempt Ashley, who had questioned whether her interest was genuine after the first offer. The 44-year-old, a former girlfriend of the Duke of York, is thought to control an investment fund of more than £30 billion through her PCP Capital company. She held back until the last moment before making a more realistic offer, exploiting the fact the team were only two points off the relegation zone, after six defeats in their past seven games.

It is unclear how much money Staveley is willing to make available for transfers next month, or what her long-term plans are, but it will be considerably more than the £15million – which would have included wages – that is thought to have been on offer to Benitez if Ashley remained in control.

Given his unpopularity among supporters, Ashley has known throughout the talks that he risked sparking a fresh wave of protests against him if he turned Staveley’s offer down. He also knows that Benitez will make his displeasure known if he is not given enough financial backing.

Neither Newcastle United nor Staveley’s company, PCP, are commenting on the improved bid but are expected to release statements in the coming days.

threaten to pull Southampton back into the game, particularly after Yoshida headed home following a Ryan Bertrand corner.

There could even have been genuine hope of a comeback when Bertrand picked out Austin for what seemed a tap-in at the far post, but the striker failed to beat the diving Kasper Schmeichel. If it was not already over by then, Okazaki made sure by sweeping in a fourth from Vardy’s low cross.

Southampton

Subs Booked Leicester City

Referee

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