Skip to main content

Steve Bruce earns bizarre praise for European exploits in Peter Kenyon’s Newcastle takeover bid

Steve Bruce

Kenyon, a former Manchester United and Chelsea chief executive, is working with American firm GACP Sports on a £300 million offer to buy the St. James’ Park club off current owner Mike Ashley.

And The Sun reports that the document put together for potential investors includes a strange claim about the current Newcastle boss.

It says: “GACP Sports plans to support the current manager, Steve Bruce, who has had unparalleled success in Europe.”

What’s more, that campaign ended disastrously as the Tigers were dumped out of the Europa League play-offs by Belgian outfit Lokeren in 2014/15 and couldn’t reach the group stage.

The report suggests that the reason behind the odd sentence could be that Bruce’s name was hastily put into the document in the place of Rafa Benitez’s, after the Spaniard departed the club in the summer.

“If I had to take over a great club and I needed to sign a coach, the first one I would think about would be Mourinho,” he said at the World Football Summit in Madrid on Wednesday.

The Daily Mail reports that Kenyon and his partners have secured sufficient investment to fund a £300m purchase to be paid over three years, with an extra £50m to be paid up front to cover operational costs.

The new offer proposes a down-payment of £125m from GACP to take control and a further £175m to be paid through a so-called seller’s note over three years, with Ashley earning three per cent interest per year.

However, Ashley’s shadow wouldn’t completely disappear: his Sports Direct company would be granted signage and advertising rights at St. James’ Park until the final payment has been made.

In the brochure, Kenyon outlines his plans to transform the club into “one of the top 10 clubs in England”.

QUIZ! Can you name Manchester United's last 50 goalscorers in all competitions?

BEATINGS The 10 biggest wins in Premier League history (or is that heaviest defeats?)

Alasdair Mackenzie is a freelance journalist based in Rome, and a FourFourTwo contributor since 2015. When not pulling on the FFT shirt, he can be found at Reuters, The Times and the i. An Italophile since growing up on a diet of Football Italia on Channel 4, he now counts himself among thousands of fans sharing a passion for Ross County and Lazio.