Former Sunderland and England striker Darren Bent says the proposed £300m takeover of Newcastle United could give the city, which he desribes as a “lovely, lovely place”, a huge boost.
Bent infamously lived in Newcastle while he played for Sunderland – something which a lot of the Sunderland players do. He’s been full of praise for the city as a whole and how beautiful it is, but said that the takeover could make it even better again.
“First and foremost it starts on the pitch with the team,” Bent told Football Insider.
“If this takeover does happen and they start investing in the club, the club starts going places and they start getting some of the best players around the world, you’re then going to start attracting a different type of crowd, a different type of person.
“The infrastructure at the club – they’ve already got a massive stadium, it’s a lovely place to live, it’s beautiful. They’ve got train stations, they’ve got an airport that can get you to London or wherever relatively quickly – a big investment like that will give the city a big, big boost.
“The city’s lovely as it is but you look at what Manchester City did when their guys came in, you look what they’ve done to the surrounding areas of the City of Manchester – it’s a completely different place, you wouldn’t recognise it! I think Newcastle, it doesn’t need that much of a makeover because it’s a lovely, lovely place.
“But it wouldn’t surprise me if we see, as the takeover goes on and there’s more and more players – Darras Hall is where a lot of them live, where the big houses are – all of a sudden you might see a few more Darras Halls popping up because you start opening your doors to a different clientele.”
Can’t help but agree with Bent on this one. With a club like Newcastle, if there’s success on the pitch then the businesses around also win. If they can expand the stadium too, then there’s potential for thousands more people to descend on the city centre each week.
Also, these new owners coupled with a successful football team will increase tourism to the city – which can only go to boost the local economy. This takeover is great for us as a football club, but it could be even better for our city.
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