Former Newcastle United player Demba Ba says the Premier League club would be a league title contender and return to the Champions League if Saudi-backed takeover deal scales through.
Saudi-backed consortium PCP Capital Partners is at the verge of buying over the club from the club’s owner Mike Ashley. The deal which has been on for almost four years has gotten to its advance stage. The consortium has paid a £17 million deposit and exchanged contracts with Ashley.
Though most critics in the United Kingdom are sceptical about the deal and urged for a thorough background check on those behind the consortium, many optimists believe that if the deal scales through, it will return the club to reckoning in the Premier League.
According to history, Newcastle‘s most successful period was between 1904 and 1910, when they won an FA Cup and three of their League titles. Beyond that, the club enjoyed the best season in the Premier League in the 2002-2003 football season when the club made it to the third position and qualified for the Champions League.
Since then, a club that is rated as the 17th-highest revenue producing club in the world in terms of annual revenue, and generated €169.3 million in 2015, has found it difficult to be consistent on the bottom 10 of the league table. The club was relegated in 2009 and in 2016; it waited until 2017-2018 football season before it returns to the Premier League.
Demba Ba Says Newcastle is already a big club
So, Demba Ba believes that the investment from the Saudi-backed consortium will bring Newcastle to the level of Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal.
“If that goes through, I will be very happy because Newcastle is a club I love a lot”, Ba told Sky Sports News.
“I have spent a very great time there and if this goes through it’s going to be another top team.
“I’m not going to say top club because Newcastle is already a top club, but it’s going to be another top team, fighting for the title, fighting for the Champions League, and it’s going to be only great for the Premier League and for Newcastle also.”
Demba Ba was a prominent player in Newcastle United from 2011-2013, scoring 29 goals in 58 appearances before he moved to Chelsea where he played for a season.
The 33-year-old Senegalese international is currently seeing off his football career in Turkish club Istanbul Başakşehir.
