Report: Amanda Staveley repays £10million loan from Mike Ashley – the final domino falls

It now sounds like the final domino has fallen from the Mike Ashley era at Newcastle United.

Soon, Newcastle United will be free of anything Mike Ashley-related once the current deal with Castore expires and Adidas returns as the official kit supplier next season.

The dreadful Castore deal was the final visual hangover remaining from the Mike Ashley days as he put together the deal which was so poor, the new regime were able to get more money per season for a sleeve sponsor.

Off the field there was the small matter of a £10million loan that Mike Ashley gave Amanda Staveley as part of the takeover deal. It was a loan that landed Staveley in hot water last year as Ashley sued the new owners over lack of repayment, along with trying to suggest they breached the agreement by tearing down all Sports Direct advertising in the ground early.

£10million would have been a small price to pay for that, in fairness.

Now Bloomberg have reported that Amanda Staveley has repaid the debt to Mike Ashley meaning that once the adidas deal comes into play, all trace of those dark days will have faded into the background.

Thankfully the success on the field over the last two years has done more than enough to banish all thoughts of the Evil one for a lot of fans, but knowing that soon we'll be completely clear of him is a nice thing to think about.