Newcastle set to sign up with Rangers-esque commercial deal
Rangers’ kit supplier Castore is set to complete a £5million deal that will see them link up with Newcastle United, according to the Daily Mail.
The newspaper claims Magpies owner Mike Ashley is shutting Newcastle’s retail store and made all of the staff redundant.
It is understood that Ashley’s move indicates there could have been a development in a potential takeover at St James’ Park with the Sports Direct-owned store now expected to resume being controlled by the Premier League club.
The Mail adds that the Newcastle story will be refurbished while it is closed and that potentially paves the way for Castore to take over from Puma as the English club’s kit supplier.
Rangers’ kits are also made by Castore and the Mail says Newcastle’s deal is going to be worth around £5million.
Castore branching out
We’ll be honest and say we hadn’t really heard of Castore until they agreed a commercial deal with Rangers just under a year ago.
The start of the relationship between the Premiership champions and the kit supplier wasn’t a great one with many supporters complaining about the quality of jerseys they had bought.
More than 100,000 shirts were sold within the first week of their launch and there were plenty of horror stories online how damaged goods were being delivered or fans weren’t receiving anything at all.
For Newcastle fans, we hope they’ve ironed out the issues now and they can enjoy a more relaxed relationship with the kit supplier.
They’ve been through enough with Ashley as owner and if this is a sign that he’s on his way out of the English club – and out of football altogether – that is a good thing for everyone.
We’ve seen firsthand how venomous a person he can be in football.
In other Rangers news, a video clip of a drunk Neil Lennon has emerged on Twitter.