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Even before the new announcement that Newcastle United have been taken over by Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, players were being asked about it.

Emil Krafth was one of them, as the defender, currently on International duty with Sweden was questioned about his club’s future following claims everything was close to being done.

Explaining there was ‘really no relationship’ with Mike Ashley and that he’d only met the Sports Direct boss ‘two or three times’ since arriving at Newcastle, Krafth said that ‘if there is a sale (of the club), we can hope that it will be something positive’.

He was then asked about what he thought of bin Salman himself, and his reply was to be expected, as he said, relayed by Aftonbladet: “I don’t know anymore about him than you”.

Once that was covered, things got a little bit stranger, as the media then brought up claims that the new Newcastle United owner ‘has been accused by several intelligence services and human rights organisations of approving the massacre of Saudi The Times journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018’.

This was put to Krafth, who said: “No, I have no idea. It’s not something I want to go into either”.

The right-back, who was bought from Amiens SC in 2019, hasn’t been often chosen by Steve Bruce so far this season, playing in just three games in all competitions, one of which was the penalty loss to Burnley in the EFL Cup.