by a company backed by serbian media mogul, dragan solak. the telecoms magnate s sport republic business is buying chinese businessman gaojisheng 80% stake in the club. gao took over at st mary s in august 2017. the former majority owner, katharina liebherr, is retaining her 20% stake. newcastle united have agreed a deal to sign kieran trippier from atletico madrid. the signing is set to be the first since the saudi backed takeover at st james park. newcastle have agreed to pay £12 million for the 31 year old england international. for an initialfee of £10 million. everton have signed rangers right back nathan patterson for an initialfee of £10 million. patterson, seen here on the right training with scotland, has signed a five and a half year deal at goodison park. the 20 year old is everton s second signing of the january transfer window, after ukrainian left back vitalyii myko lenko. novak djokovic says he will be defending his australian open title, ending months of speculation