Newcastle United’s new owners, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, are keen on a deal for Inter Milan, despite reports rubbishing the claims.
That’s according to Il Giorno, cited by Stile Inter, who insist that talks are on over a possible sale to the new men in charge at St James Park and the rumours are ‘more and more insistent’.
For those of you that don’t know, a report in Italy yesterday stated that PIF were keen on a deal for Inter and had put €1bn on the table to make it happen.
This was later disputed elsewhere, though, with it claimed that while talks had been held in the past with the Zhang family, who own Inter Milan, there was nothing in the pipeline at the minute.
Il Giorno turn it back the other way today, however, and say that Mohammed bin Salman ‘would bet straight’ on Inter after his €350m investment in Newcastle.
They explain that those ‘hypothesising’ a deal worth €1bn are correct on that score as that is the price the Zhang family have been asking for when interested parties have approached the club.
What they don’t know is that the Zhang’s have ‘reopened’ a negotiation with PIF that was frozen last winter amid the Super League idea, when the Inter owners were more interested in than selling.
That subsequently failed, so now the need to find money as soon as possible has forced the Chinese owners into a U-turn.
That’s led them back to Newcastle’s new owners, although those in charge at the Nerazzurri headquarters have always denied any contact with PIF or any ‘concrete interest’ from them.
The fact is, though, that whether there is anything going on, something will have to be done by next summer as Suning and the Zhang’s are no longer able to cover Inter’s debt.
They need to find money fast, and while everyone seems to be denying it’s on offer from PIF, the reality is seemingly very different behind the scenes.
