The Telegraph reports US financier Todd Boehly failed in a bid to buy Chelsea, but he should be looking 300 miles north at Newcastle, to get hold of a Premier League club.
Boehly, who is part-owner of the LA Dodgers baseball team is said to have not met Roman Abramovich’s valuation for his Chelsea shares, although the report adds he may yet return with a higher offer.
But it is unlikely that the Russian billionaire will want to sell the club, despite the eye-watering amounts of money being talked about.
A consortium from the Middle East were previously quoted an astonishing £2.5 billion to take Abramovich’s shares off his hands, and at those amounts, it is ludicrous to even contemplate why they would want to pay such a price.
Assuming the American tycoon was quoted a similar figure, he should forget all about Chelsea, and look into taking over at Newcastle, where he could buy the club lock, stock and barrel for – what would be for him – pocket change.
Even if he met Mike Ashley’s valuation of £350 million, it would incredibly be just 14 per cent of what he would have to pay just to get Abramovich to start listening at Chelsea.
In fact, if he paid for Newcastle, and set aside even a fraction of the surplus he would have put into a Chelsea purchase, for signing players, and improving the infrastructure of the training facilities on Tyneside, he could transform our club into one of Europe’s elites.
Someone like Boehly should see Newcastle’s potential
I understand Chelsea is in London – the promised land of England in the minds of international money men and women – but these mega-rich would-be owners of Premier League clubs just need to look at the north west to realise the Capital is not the only option.
It would just take one ambitious group or sports-mad billionaire to see the potential at Newcastle, and look ahead at what they could achieve – and what they would become – if they bought the club, and brought with it a modicum of success.
If people like Boehly are willing to put fortunes into bids for other clubs, it proves the interest in buying Premier League sides is still out there, and Newcastle really should be on the radar of anyone wanting to get a foothold in the Premier League market.
So as we said, Boehly should forget all about over-spending on a London club that has similar ground expansion issues as we do, and get straight on the phone to Ashley’s legal team about taking Newcastle off his hands.
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