Not sure where you're getting your info; a deposit was paid. Ashley's company even loaned PCP Capital Partners (Amanda Staveley), £150million to cement commitment to the deal on all sides.
Document supporting this submitted to Companies House doc from 9th April 2020:
https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/OC311146/filing-history
(For anyone interested): The only reason this takeover didn't happen was because the Premier League didn't make a decision regarding the application of its Owners & Directors Test. Apparently they weren't satisfied that the Saudi element of the consortium (its Public Investment Fund) was a separate entity to the Saudi state itself, and were therefore waiting for that proof to emerge before making a decision. I.e. "prove to us that PIF and the state are separate, otherwise we assume it isn't, and therefore the whole lot needs to go through the O&D - so go and fetch all your princes!" Naturally the Saudis weren't up for that and the consortium claimed that the proof of separation had been delivered to the PL as requested. Stalemate. And now we're waiting for arbitration in 2022 to break the logjam.
There's a lot of debate and frustration around our parts - as you'd imagine - about the PL's reasoning and conduct in the whole thing. Plenty of suggestions that they absolutely
could have made a decision on this, but refused to: A, because they'd been lobbied by the Super League chums, who didn't fancy the apple cart being rocked by a super-rich NUFC. And B, because of the lingering issues around Saudi piracy and the PL's partnership with BeIn Sports, which just so happens to be Qatar-based, and therefore at loggerheads with Saudi Arabia. So there's your dash of geopolitics to slosh around with the usual depressing tonic of anti-competitiveness poured in by 'the big six' and their American administrations. Human rights didn't come into it but the noise around it made for a canny soundtrack to one side's PR game...
Whether the Saudis are still waiting in the wings isn't really known at this point; Staveley claimed in July that they were, so I guess they are. I'm still optimistic that we're close to the end of the Ashley era, but if a time-traveller told me he was still here in five/ten years time, I wouldn't fall off my chair.