It feels like a lifetime ago when arbitration rather than ambition was the talk of Tyneside. It was going to fall to Michael Beloff to chair the panel that would decide whether the Premier League's conclusion that Saudi Arabia would have to become a director of Newcastle United as part of any proposed takeover was in fact correct.
The private hearing was due to get under way on January 3 earlier this year and last for little more than a week. However, a breakthrough in a piracy row in the Middle East, which saw Saudi Arabia lift a ban on Premier League broadcaster beIN SPORTS, meant arbitration was obviously not required after the takeover finally went through last October.
Given all that has happened since then, it is easy to forget that it was only last year that the previous regime wanted Beloff removed as chair. Beloff had been put forward by Lord Neuberger and Lord Dyson, who were tasked with appointing a chair, because they were representing Newcastle and the Premier League respectively on the three-man panel.
