Mike Ashley in talks to buy Australian Club

Newcastle United could be the next Premier League club to purchase a controlling stake of an A-League side after Nathan Tinkler, the club's current owner, is understood to have approached Mike Ashley offering to sell Newcastle Jets.

The former coal baron announced his intention to sell off all remaining sporting investments on Friday, including Newcastle Jets, and Fairfax Media understands he has held preliminary discussions with Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley about purchasing the club

Forming a sense of synergy between Newcastle United and their Australian namesake would be a massive move that could potentially give rise to the internationalistion of Austalian football, or soccer as they prefer to call it.

Manchester City purchased a controlling tsake in Melbourne Heart earlier this year, and if Ashley was to follow in the same vain, then it would do wonders for the ever-increasing prolife of the Australian A-League.

Speaking to Sky Sports Radio, Tinkler confirmed English Premier League and other European clubs have signalled their interest in purchasing the club:

“We’re talking to a number of Premier League clubs and European soccer clubs about getting involved there and have been for a little while,”

“I guess those negotiations have been going on in the background and I’d like to get those concluded so hence we’ve gone public with the decision to sell.”

Tinkler is looking to sell the Jets as soon as possible and could be enticed to agree to a fee much lower than the recent sale prices of Western Sydney Wanderers and Melbourne Heart which both sold for over approximately $11 million.

Some fans would perhaps rather see this money invested into Newcastle’s recruitment drive. Nevertheless, Ashley is undoubtedly a very astute businessman, and he could be hitting a gold mine on this one.

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