It’s been a very long year as far as Newcastle United supporters are concerned, and it has nothing whatsoever to do with the coronavirus pandemic.
When news broke in 2020 that PCP Capital Partners had made an offer for the club, you could sense a sigh of relief when Mike Ashley accepted.
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The chairman has long been persona non grata in the north east, and this was finally the chance that anyone of a Magpies persuasion had been hoping for.
However, a long drawn out Premier League enquiry as well as an ongoing court case (with another due to start), has dampened the mood somewhat.
Even the normally upbeat Shields Gazette journalist, Liam Kennedy, doesn’t see the takeover happening now.
“People ask me about my confidence but it is absolutely impossible to second-guess this process and I think social media is really difficult to deal with in that sense,” he told This is Futbol.
“I’m not confident in a deal but I’m really hopeful that this deal goesthrough because I want it to happen.”
If Kennedy is proved correct and Ashley is still at the helm at the beginning of the 2021/22 campaign, one can only guess at what this will mean for Steve Bruce and his attempt to bring in one or two big names to ensure their forthcoming campaign was better than the last.