Newcastle fans split over way forward, but united that Ashley must go

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With takeover talk grinding to a halt – officially anyway – and yet more silence falling over St James’ Park, rumours persist that more than one interested party, as suggested by the Chronicle, is speaking to Mike Ashley and Newcastle over purchasing the club.

The Bin Zayed Group are still said to be leading the race, but mainly because they are the only group that have made any public statements regarding a potential deal.

Little is actually known about the funding behind the group, and how much money they will actually have to pump into the football club.

But if other parties are seriously looking into buying the club from Ashley, then they are playing their cards very close to their chest.

With the added interest, we asked respected, unofficial Newcastle Twitter pollster, @ToonPolls, to run a poll of Toon fans on our behalf.

The question we asked was simple: would you rather sell to the bidder who can get the deal done the quickest or wait longer to get an owner with more spending power.

The results showed that the 500 fans who took part were split, with 52 per cent wanting Ashley out of the club as soon as possible, while 48 per cent would prefer to wait to get a deal that could give the manager more funds.

Fans are united in wanting new owners

But the uniting factor, however, is that they all want the club to be sold, and to have Ashley ousted from Newcastle United.

A delay to get a better deal would likely see Newcastle not strengthening during the summer, as Ashley will not want to fund transfers if he is selling.

That could be a damaging scenario, and could see Newcastle cast adrift near the bottom of the table by time a deal is ready to be finalised. And that in itself could jeopardise a deal going through at all.

It is a difficult conundrum, which is shown in the poll results.

Time will tell what actually happens, but we suspect the successful deal, if there is one, will be the one that is best for Mike Ashley, and not Newcastle United.