There are strong rumors suggesting that a consortium headed by Jonathan Cleland, a Scottish business man born in South Africa and Johann Rupert said to be South Africas richest man. A key aspect of the bid seems to be an effort to bring back Kevin Keegan by giving him a stake in the company.

There are a few interesting aspects of this move. First, the lack of obvious links between the South African group and Newcastle suggests that this is a situation where the group wants to make a move into the EPL and that they see Newcastle as a good opportunity. That leads to a second point, namely that the South Africans have likely also sounded out other clubs who may be up for sale. With no disrespect aimed at Newcastle (who are higher up than my club in the league), if they are being priced at 300 million pounds or so, what price for Tottenham (with a superior location and better fiscal metrics)? The third aspect of this is the Keegan component. It seems that Rupert is a bit of a recluse so is the Keegan component an aspect of the consortiums effort to put a "geordie" face on the take over - if so I do think that the 5% ownership stake is interesting. To give Keegan 5% instead of a high salary but to tie him to the club could work very well indeed.

More to come from this story but I did want to leave you with a summary of data via wikipedia on Rupert from 1994 onwards - the transition to democracy in South Africa (click here for the full list):

1994: Appointed Chairman of the Small Business Development Corporation Limited ("SBDC").

2008 Awarded Honorary Doctorate in Commerce from Nelson Mandela University

• 1995: Formed Nethold SA, bought into Telepui and Mediaset.

• 1995: Privatised Rothmans International plc. Merged Rothmans International and Rembrandt Tobacco.

• 1996: Elected Sunday Times Business Times's Businessman of the Year for second time.

• 1996: Merged Nethold into Canal+.

• 1997: Appointed Non-Executive Chairman of Gold Fields South Africa Ltd.

• 1997: Appointed to the Advisory Council of GEMS Oriental and General Fund.

• 1998: Merged Rothmans International and British American Tobacco PLC.

• 1999: Awarded the 1999 Free Market Award by The Free Market Foundation of South Africa.

• 2000: Restructured Rembrandt Group Limited and formed Remgro Limited and VenFin Limited. Appointed Chairman and Chief Executive of Compagnie Financière Richemont SA. Voted “Most influential Business Leader” in South Africa by CEO’s of top 100 Listed Companies

• 2000: Awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Economics by the University of Stellenbosch.

• 2000: Rupert played a key role in the establishment of Vodacom, the leading cellular communication specialist group in Africa, as well as in Tracker Network (Pty) Ltd, which specialised in stolen vehicle recovery systems. He sold Vodacom to Vodafone for R21bn via the restructuring of VenFin.

• 2004: Although he continued as Executive Chairman, he resigned as the CEO of Richemont in September 2004 after 15-month period of leading the company's turnaround.

• 2006: According to the 2006 edition of Forbes' list of the world's richest people, the Rupert family is 207th, with a worth estimated at approximately USD 3.3 billion.

• 2007 Elected to South African Sports Hall of Fame