Amanda Staveley first set foot in St James’ Park in October 2017 partly on a mission to – in her own words – “piss off” the owners of Liverpool after a failed takeover bid a few years before.

She was officially on the guest list as an associate of Newcastle United manager Rafael Benitez and her timing was opportune.

With Mike Ashley apparently open to offers for a club where his ownership had become acrimonious, Staveley’s appearance was deliberately signposted to journalists to set in motion a takeover process that took four years to complete.

Few could argue that Staveley was anything other than a wildly successful co-owner of Newcastle, alongside her husband Mehrdad Ghodoussi.

But it is the sheer number of obstacles that she overcame to finally get her hands on the keys at St James’

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