Newcastle United Takeover - False hope, fake news and Mike Ashley's next move

On Monday night, it was announced that the Newcastle United takeover hearing had been postponed until 'early 2022, but what does the delay In arbitration actually mean?

Now, all you NUFC fans hanging on Social Media for an answer please don’t get excited. For I do not have one. I do have an opinion and I’ll give that, but I’d go as far as to say I don’t have a Scooby-Doo what the actual meaning is nor does anyone else for that matter.

For me it means almost certainly another season of mediocrity and anxiety as we once again battle against relegation and have the cloud of a takeover hanging precipitously above us whilst that is going on.

Will that mean Ashley continues to spend next to nothing in hope of getting a sale early next year? Or could this 6-month delay force him to back Bruce over the coming weeks, protecting an asset that would be worth considerably less should we go down?

There's also a chance he impatiently sacks off the Saudis and looks for buyers capable of getting a deal done ASAP. That said, I can't see him going anywhere in that respect if he believes in this confidence - some of it clearly unjustified - we've been fed from the buying side in recent times.

Mrs Staveley seemed in a bullish mood last week when questioned about the whole thing last week by the self-acclaimed fountain of all knowledge Simon Jordan on TalkSport. Jordan has an agenda and that is to be controversial and ensure that he keeps getting invited back.

NUFC fans could have been forgiven for getting excited as Staveley clearly was passionate about the deal and clearly sad it will go through. Surely she knew about the arbitration delay. If not then what Creedence can we put on any claims.

She often talks a great game and tends to say all the right things, but I can't help but feel a little let down by her now. Are we being led down the garden path by someone who clearly wasn't in a position to say the deal "will go through" last week? All her comments over the past month feel like more false hope now.

Her husband weighed in with the “there’s only one side playing games,” quote which again clearly seems as if he still believes but again what has he done to prove that alongside his wife. Perhaps we’ll never know.

Then NCSL's Keith Pattinson weighed in with an impromptu 'update' and, to be honest, I’m not sure I was any further forward after he spoke. In short, he now believes it’s not perhaps a Premier League tactic to delay but NUFC may have encouraged it.

His reasoning seems sound as having the CAT before the arbitration does seem a good idea. But can I really believe that the Premier League is going to change once the CAT is out of the bag. Hoffman and Masters to fall on their swords seems highly unlikely in this Premier League world.

All of which now leads me to the Media and those ITK. Really, are they? There are so many conflicting views and opinions it’s hard once again to know who to believe and who actually is ITK.

No, my answer to my own question is simple. I and many, many others really don’t know what it means other than it’s very tiring and frustrating to keep reading so much about it without anyone really being proof positive of the outcomes.