Signing a player as expensive as Bas Dost was impossible under Mike Ashley – but things could soon change at Newcastle United.
Rafael Benitez would have been forgiven for dancing a merry jig when the news broke on Monday evening that Newcastle United had been put up for sale by owner Mike Ashley.
The beloved manager had been at loggerheads with the penny-pinching Sports Direct tycoon across the entirety of the transfer window with Ashley failing to provide the funds seemingly required to boost Newcastle’s squad ahead of their return to the Premier League.
And though The Magpies are sitting comfortably in ninth place right now, there is a feeling that this is despite the ownership of Ashley, who fans blame for dragging the club down from European contention to an almost constant relegation fight in recent seasons.
Now, however, there is every reason for Newcastle fans to feel positive again.
“To give the club the best possible opportunity of securing the positioning and investment necessary to take it to the next level, at what is an important time in its history, its present ownership has determined that it is in the best interests of Newcastle United and its fans for the club to be put up for sale,” a club statement read, as quoted by The Independent.
Brave new era
Ashley candidly admitted this summer that he simply could not compete with the inflated transfer fees being thrown around in the current market, per The Guardian, with Newcastle missing out on a number of Benitez’s top summer targets.
The potential for greater investment, however, could ensure that The Magpies are no longer being left behind by the likes of Everton, Stoke or West Brom. With most Premier League clubs seemingly shattering their transfer record every other month, the fact that The Magpies’ most expensive signing ever remains the £17 million addition of Michael Owen in 2005 (BBC) speaks volumes about the stagnation on Tyneside.
A new owner, however, could do worse than to make a big statement early and end that 12-year wait for a real big-money signing. Bas Dost, the long-standing Newcastle target with a release clause reportedly standing at £54 million at Sporting Lisbon, per The Sun, may even emerge as a genuine target.
Newcastle need a goalscorer and there are few better than Dost, who scored 34 in 30 league starts for Sporting last season.
Finally bringing the Dutchman to Tyneside would be a fine way to start a new era.
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