Ashley Warned He Would Struggle to Sell Newcastle

Newcastle United have dismissed suggestions that Mike Ashley recently attempted to sell the club to a New York finance company for £420m as "absolute nonsense", although reports yesterday said it was understood informal discussions had taken place.

It was said that, operating through a third party, Ashley held discussions with InterMedia Partners, an American private equity firm, but that after studying Newcastle's books and hearing the Sports Direct owner's asking price, its interest died.

Last season there were persistent stories that Ashley was endeavoring, again through a third party, to interest Dubai International Capital in buying Newcastle. Interested solely in purchasing Liverpool, DIC declined repeated overtures and there have been unconfirmed suggestions that Ashley, who bought the Tyneside club just over a year ago, is using a European-based consortium to try to drum up potential buyers in the Gulf and far east.

"Mike Ashley has signaled to people in the past that he is prepared to sell at the right price," said a financial analyst yesterday.

All this hardly chimes with the repeated assertions of Chris Mort, Newcastle's former chairman, who regularly insisted that Ashley was at St James' Park for the long haul and that there was no truth in stories linking the club with mooted buyers from Iceland, China and Singapore.

Mort left Newcastle to return to his former life as a corporate lawyer earlier this summer and his place has been taken by Derek Llambias, albeit in the redefined position of managing director.

If Ashley is keen to sell the club he bought for £137m and is since thought to have spent a further £100m on in eliminating Newcastle's £80m debt and investing in new staff and players for a profit, the global credit crunch dictates that finding potential purchasers will not be easy.

It is understood that DIC was told the asking price for Newcastle was £300m last season. It is believed to have deemed that valuation to be overpriced by at least £50m but one financial analyst explained: "Football clubs are bespoke or trophy assets so it's impossible to put a price on them; they are worth as much as someone is prepared to pay."

Tottenham Hotspur were recently valued at £400m but Newcastle are thought to be worth significantly less and another analyst said: "Newcastle is a big club but there's no way its value has doubled in just a year." He added: "I have to say if Ashley intends to sell now he'll struggle. I wouldn't expect the club to be sold now unless the novelty value has worn off and he'll sell at any price."

On Wednesday Newcastle's manager, Kevin Keegan, made his first significant signing since returning to the club last January. However, the recruitment of Jonás Gutiérrez from Real Mallorca has been complicated by the fact that the Spanish club's president, Vicente Grande, is demanding that Fifa convene a tribunal to reassess the 25-year-old's fee.

Matters became rather muddier yesterday when Vélez Sársfield, the Argentine club where the winger previously played and who are said to hold a 50% stake in him, claimed that Gutiérrez had merely been on a three-year loan at Mallorca from them and was not necessarily entitled to have joined Newcastle.

"We have requested the player's presence in Buenos Aires for pre-season training on July 7," said Alvaro Ballestrini, the Vélez Sársfield president. "After that we will announce our official position but I now wish to contact the directors of Newcastle."

There was some good news for Keegan yesterday when Steven Taylor, the central defender, signed a new three-year contract on significantly improved wages. The 22-year-old finally put pen to paper after more than a year of negotiations following the intervention of Ashley.