That means it will be at least another fortnight before any takeover can be completed, while it could take a month before the new owners are in full control at St James’s Park.

That will bring more frustration for Shearer, who knows the delay in his appointment as permanent manager is an increasingly costly one in terms of Newcastle being able to win promotion from the Championship at the first attempt.

Although season-ticket renewal forms were sent out this week, the Magpies are in disarray. No plans have been made for pre-season and Shearer has been unable to work on any transfer deals while he is stuck in limbo.

The former Newcastle skipper had lined up a number of players to come in who would give the Magpies a chance of an immediate return to the top flight, but has been forced to put everything on hold as Ashley appears to be unwilling to appoint a manager while he looks to sell up.

Shearer has not given up hope he will be able to take control before then, but he knows it is looking increasingly unlikely with the Ashley regime continuing to blame the banks in charge of restructuring the club’s finances for the hold-up.

Meanwhile, one person who will not be taking the club over is Rick Parkinson, who appears to have been behind a hoax e-mail from a public relations company claiming he wanted to buy the club with a group of North East businessmen.

The Journal received the e-mail on Thursday, but dismissed it as a hoax straight away, only for other media organisations to fall for the wind-up, which claimed Mr Parkinson – who is believed to be from Sunderland – was a multi-millionaire from Ponteland.

As a result, the fake £150m bid was widely reported in the national media on Friday before the truth was uncovered.