Newcastle still open to offers

The sky above a frosty Tyneside was brilliant blue yesterday, but the air felt thick with déjà vu. Sources had confirmed that Mike Ashley, Newcastle United's owner, recently made an indirect approach to Dubai Investment Capital, inquiring if it might be interested in buying the club for €400 million and renewed turmoil at St James' Park seemed right back on the agenda.

That offer was swiftly declined by DIC, whose sole footballing interest centres on attempts to buy Liverpool, but there have been repeated rumours that Ashley, a sports-retail billionaire, was poised to offload Newcastle almost from the day when he bought out the Hall family.

Even if previous talk about assorted purchasers from Iceland, China and Singapore proved ill founded, the proposal to DIC was concrete.

As parallel rumours about an unnamed consortium of north-east businessmen with Alan Shearer as its figurehead apparently being keen on taking over at St James' also gathered momentum - "a load of old cobblers planted to try to make DIC interested," said another source - Chris Mort, Newcastle's chairman, remained silent.

Insiders ask why any owner with selling on his mind would bother replacing Sam Allardyce with Kevin Keegan, let alone employing Dennis Wise as executive director (football) and setting up a new management structure.

If these actions hardly smack of short-termism, sceptics could deem them a smokescreen designed to lull potential critics into submission while a potential profit approaching €133 million is pursued. Ashley bought Newcastle for €175 million and assumed debts estimated at €85 million, but now said to have been nearer €133 million.

"It is believed Newcastle has cost Mike Ashley between €280 million and €300 million which is why DIC clearly laughed when €400 million was mentioned," said a leading financial analyst yesterday.

"But football clubs are bespoke or trophy assets and it is impossible to put a price on them; they are worth as much as someone is prepared to pay. Mike Ashley doesn't need to sell and is rich enough to wait for the right buyer."

Asked if he believed DIC might, despite all protestations to the contrary, do a volte face should its Liverpool overtures fall through, he said: "It's not impossible but probably not; Newcastle United is not a global brand in the way Liverpool is."

Indeed Newcastle's overseas pulling power is undeniably diminished at a time when the team has not won a Premier League game since mid-December.

Keegan has just used a rare free weekend to move into a new €1.3 million home on the Darras Hall estate in Northumberland, where several of his players are now neighbours.

Newcastle's manager had hoped three new additions would also have been re-housed in the north-east, but the January transfer window passed without a single first-team addition.

While that omission may or may not reinforce theories that Ashley might not be around for the long haul, it has left Keegan with a small squad short on pace and contemplating a relegation battle.