Newcastle United’s takeover is taking over the club’s priorities

There are a lot of things on Newcastle United’s plate right now. The first of which is signing Rafa Benitez to a brand new contract that binds him with the club for the next few years. Once that is sorted, the club will be willing to look at contract renewals for players as well as signing new ones.

Great. But the takeover news is complicating that a bit. It is unknown whether or not current owner Mike Ashley will be willing to make any concessions to a manager that he may or may not be the boss of come next season. While you think it would be an easy decision to just make the concessions and walk away, if the takeover doesn’t go through, he risks a lot of promises being made that he really has no interest in keeping.

But right now, to me, re-signing Rafa isn’t my biggest worry. It’s missing out on some transfer window goodness. While we wait for the takeover news to finally come to fruition and see the club change hands, it has become trying for many fans when we know that no new players will be signed to fill gaps within the squad. And more importantly, Salomon Rondon remains a West Brom player. YEAH!

I’m an understanding guy. I get it. You’d rather wait and see what happens when hundreds of millions of pounds are just being thrown around. You don’t want to play around with that kind of money. But you’re also playing around with a stable future for the club. If Rafa had been signed on for one more year and this was going on, I wouldn’t be concerned. But knowing that his future and the future of the club is hanging in the balance and this takeover news could derail that progress, it’s very concerning.

The club still has business to attend to. And if they’re not going to sort out Rafa’s future right away, then they need to sort out the future of multiple players. One is looking at attempting to get Rondon permanently. Next is aiming to actually entice Ayoze Perez to stay who has really shown his true ability at the end of this season with the addition of Miguel Almiron. Rafa’s important, but so is the future of the squad.

We also cannot miss out on crucial transfer targets, either. The club have been linked with a number of players which to me is interesting. They’re only linked because Rafa likely has them on a special wishlist of his. I doubt any contact has been made with these players’ clubs or their agents. Newcastle refuses to conduct any transfer business until, once again, Rafa’s future is sorted.

You see how slowed down things have begun. It used to just be, “let’s work out Rafa’s contract first, shouldn’t take long” — and it wasn’t really going all that bad, either. Now it’s, “we need to sort out the club’s takeover before moving forward with Rafa, which means number one is now number two, two is three, three is four, and you get the gist it’s all wonked up”.

You can’t rush a takeover. It’s seriously tasking process. A lot of money is changing hands, as well as an entire entity. Anyone who thinks that this is taking too long surely knows nothing about how a takeover works. You can’t make this go any faster. What sucks is that Newcastle’s current owner, Mike Ashley, is unwilling to do anything with the club until this is sorted.

We’re falling behind.