Had no idea the Newcastle United takeover seriously back on the table

‘Three coins in the fountain, Each one seeking happiness,

Thrown by three hopeful lovers, Which one will the fountain bless’

Words from the famous song sang by Frank Sinatra in the opening credits of the 1954 movie.

As I sat and listened to it last night, I got a happy and warm feeling (and it had nothing to do with my earlier warm weather allowance arriving).

The song finishes with Sinatra crooning into a crescendo of ‘Make it mine, Make it mine….Make it mine’

For eighteen months from April 2020 to October 2021 and since the Saudi PIF had a Newcastle United takeover bid accepted by Mike Ashley, I had lived in hope that finally after over a decade of despair ,that we were going to find some long lost happiness.

As I have mentioned before, I had regularly kept up with all the latest information from the likes of George Caulkin and Henry Winter in the media.

I also got cheered by Nick De Marco’s upbeat posts regarding the legal aspects of the deal.

The EPL and the Septic Six had done everything in their power to stop the takeover, to kill all our dreams and future aspirations for Newcastle United and the region.

I was always hopeful / confident that the deal would go through, although some people thought that I was becoming foolishly romantic with the idea, shall we say.

When I went to bed on the 6th of October last year, I had no idea that the Newcastle United takeover deal looked to be seriously back on the table.

The next morning became a whirlwind of ‘media snippets and more and more breaking news’ (Talksport’s Jim White is good at this sort of thing).

However, then it all started snowballing and some of the main news outlets were carrying the story.

Me and a few mates gathered excitedly at Tynemouth club for news and were kept waiting and waiting.

Then when eventually Sky announced that Keith Downie had some breaking news coming from St James’ Park, you could have heard a pin drop.

After thirty seconds or so, me and all the lads were emotionally hugging, some were almost crying.

We had been sh.t on for so long and as we all know that is not what great fountains are for.

I had wandered around the Trevi Fountain with my wife many years ago and we had both thrown in our coins and made our wishes.

Whatever I wished for, it couldn’t have been much better than 7th October 2021.

Now way down the line, we have been far more enlightened as to what really went on in the aforementioned long eighteen months period.

We have also heard that Manchester United and Spurs had been courting the Saudis.

Maybe they were the other two coins in the fountain when I sung along with Frank last night……’Make it Mine’.

Everybody enjoy today and never forget the heartache we had endured beforehand in the most loveless of marriages.

HTL