Jonjo Shelvey admits he thinks a takeover would be “good for Newcastle United” and the city but admits he’s in the dark on where the deal is.
The Newcastle midfielder was speaking to the Beautiful Game podcast for their latest video chat – and it was a wide-ranging conversation about his career and time at Newcastle. And the hosts asked about both the takeover deal and the #cans hashtag that has cropped up around the deal.
Shelvey – who says Mike Ashley has “always been good to me” and the other players – admits that he’s peering in on the unfolding situation. Would-be buyers, led by Amanda Staveley with majority backing from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, are hoping to receive notification that they have passed the owners and directors tests and had been looking to tie up the deal this week.
Shelvey said: “We’re the same as the fans. We don’t know what’s going on. I read the internet or Sky Sports to see if there’s a latest update. We don’t get told anything. If it happens, it happens. To be honest, the club has been in this situation on numerous occasions. That club pays your wages so for me it doesn’t matter who is in charge or whatever, you just go in and do your job every day.
“For the fans they want a change of ownership and if it happens it’d be good for the fans, the club and probably the city. But like I say I’m literally looking every day to see what’s happened. You do see this hashtag #cans everywhere!
“Our group chat is not one to go off. It’s very mellow, to be fair. We don’t know, we find out when the fans find out. It’s a shame that a lot of the staff have been furloughed. We made a donation to the charities and got together with players at the other clubs.
“What gets sent into those chats is our programmes to make sure we’re not overweight.”
On Ashley, he told the podcast: “Mike’s always been good to me. He obviously sanctioned the deal to bring me to the club and every time I’ve met him he’s been sound as anything. I can’t really say a bad word about him.
“I know the fans obviously don’t want him here but at the end of the day he’s been absolutely fine for me and I speak on behalf of the players when I say it’s the same for them. But it is what it is, whether he feels his time is up is down to him. I tend to stay out of business and words you see flying about on the deal.
“I look at them and think ‘What does that mean?’
“Anyone I’ve ever spoken to or has met him says he’s been sound with them as well but obviously the majority of the fans don’t like him. They just want their club to be successful. It’s a sticky topic, to be fair.”
Project Restart is another issue generating plenty of debate, with Shelvey’s teammate Danny Rose having voiced his disquiet about returning to play while the counry is still in the grip of the coronavirus pandemic.
Shelvey says he just wants to know whether the season is restarting or not now, but he is in favour of returning.
“I just want there to be a decision now. Either play or cancel the season. It#s got to the point where you’re training trying to motivate yourself. I’ve got no problem going back and playing behind closed doors.
“I know there’s so much risk but if everything’s done right I don’t have a problem with it.”
You can watch the whole of the podcast here.
