The occasional madness of the money involved in professional sport was highlighted for us yesterday with the breaking news that Newcastle United are close to a sale of the club for a price tag of £300 million.
Leaving aside that this equates to around the total investment by the Irish Government in sport over the course of a four-year cycle, it is also just 50 per cent more than the amount being mooted over the price tag on England Captain Harry Kane were he to leave Tottenham Hotspur in the foreseeable future.
Mike Ashley who owns Sport for Business member Sports Direct appears close to exiting the club which has the potential and the support to be one of the biggest players in the Premier League and if that was to happen then the investment led by the Saudi Arabian Sovereign Investment Fund would probably be seen as a smart move.
It just all seems a little out of sync with the mood of sport at the moment but perhaps that in itself is something of a ‘canary down the mine’ moment in terms of a return to more normal times.
With Darts due to make a comeback to screens via the front room of players playing against each other across the internet and Formula 1 drawing 3.2 million global viewers for the gaming version of Charles LeClerc taking on Alex Albon, it can only be said that we do live in the strangest of days.
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