US billionaire to resume takeover talks with Mike Ashley if £200m Southampton deal stalls?
According to various news outlets, Joseph DaGrosa of the Kapital Football Group is currently at a crossroads in his negotiation with Gao Jisheng for the purchase of Southampton Football Club.
With that £200m deal up in the air, The Athletic now report that he'll look towards Newcastle, Crystal Palace or West Ham if Jisheng doesn’t lower the asking price for the club.
The talk behind what DaGrosa wants to achieve with a football club is an interesting one and he certainly seems to have knowledge about why the Premier League would be a good place to invest.
He was quoted in The Athletic saying:
“The Premier League is the largest and safest league in Europe. It’s the largest because of its broadcast income and that makes it the safest, too. We looked into other markets but decided the EPL was the best market for us. It’s easier to be a medium-sized fish in a big pond than a big fish in a medium-sized pond.
"For example, to make one of the big Italian clubs work, you’d have to qualify for one of the European competitions every year, which is pretty hard.
"Of course, like everyone else, we would like to qualify for the Champions League or Europa League but we view that as icing on the cake.”
While these words may not inspire as much hope as the promises made by Amanda Staveley and PIF, they are a lot better than what the current situation under Mike Ashley and therefore shouldn’t just be disregarded.
If DaGrosa were to turn his attention to Newcastle, then there could potentially be a lot to look forward to. He speaks of using the Premier League to build something, and though he clearly has his eye on income, he doesn’t seem to have the same attitude as Mike Ashley when it comes to how to approach the league.
In May 2020, DaGrosa was interviewed by The Shields Gazette explaining how far along a potential 2019 deal to purchase Newcastle had gone, he said:
“We were actually a bit further along than most people realised.
"We spent a lot of our resources, internally as well as externally – we had hired KPMG to work with us – and we did a lot of homework on the team and on the league.”
As the purchase of Burnley has proven, serious questions need to be asked when someone is linked to buying a football club but don’t actually show that they have the capital to back it up.
Alongside that point, Newcastle have had their fair share of people citing interest but never making the appropriate moves to succeed. Time will tell for Southampton or potentially Newcastle whether Joseph DaGrosa is the real deal or just another Henry Mauriss.
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