Ipswich Town co-owner Brett Johnson believes Newcastle United could become a 'big seven club' in the right hands after the American investor previously looked at buying a minority stake in the Magpies.
Johnson's group were members of a larger consortium who did due diligence on Newcastle a couple of years ago.
However, Gamechanger 20 ultimately ended up buying Ipswich last April; ORG, a US investment fund, owns 90% of the company while the Three Lions fund, which is managed by Phoenix Rising co-chairmen Johnson, Berke Bakay and Mark Detmer, and former majority shareholder Marcus Evans both have a 5% stake.
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The group's previous interest in Newcastle did not leak out until Ipswich's takeover was completed and ChronicleLive understands Johnson is unable to discuss the finer details of the pursuit today because of a non-disclosure agreement.
However, ChronicleLive has established that Johnson's group were approached to invest in a minority stake as part of a larger syndicate but the bid, ultimately, never got off the ground.
"I think I’ve told people we were looking at Newcastle," Johnson told the Athletic. "You’ve got a lot of risk with Newcastle - you’re sitting up in the Premier League, you get your congratulations having bought Newcastle, but so quickly it can become Newcastle in the Championship.
"I’ve got to be careful because we coveted the opportunity with Newcastle. I do believe it could be a big seven club if you will.
"If there’s any team that would break into that in those ranks, it would be Newcastle but things happen for a reason.
"When that didn’t come through, Ipswich really stood out. Again, what we wanted to do was get out of a situation where we were in a competitive bidding environment and couldn’t control the process."
Mike Ashley previously agreed to sell Newcastle to a Saudi-backed consortium, but the group walked away last summer after encountering complications with the Premier League's owners' and directors' test.
ChronicleLive revealed on August 4 last year that the consortium - Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF), the Reuben Brothers and Amanda Staveley - would be prepared to revisit the bid if the Premier League gave the deal the green light.
Ashley has since initiated arbitration proceedings against the Premier League in a bid to push the takeover through. Documents relating to Ashley's separate Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) claim confirmed that arbitration was due to get under way next month.
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