“There is only a month to go until the players return for pre-season training and nobody seems to know what is going on or what is going to happen. The sooner the manager issue is resolved the better for everybody concerned with the club.”

Shearer’s future may well be caught up in Ashley’s ongoing effort to sell the club, with the man in charge of finding a buyer, merchant banker Keith Harris, confident that one will be found sooner rather than later.

He said: “I’m confident...that there will be offers for Mike (Ashley, Newcastle owner) to consider in quite short order.

“There is real and decent interest, this is not necessarily from far flung parts of the globe and those expressing interest when it was first marketed – but this is good, gritty interest.”

Despite Newcastle’s relegation and the huge sums lost on his investment by Ashley, Harris claimed the Magpies remain an attractive proposition because of the infrastructure and potential at St James’ Park.

“It is a huge club,” he said. “If you think in attendance terms last year, it exceeded Liverpool, averaging 48,000 with Liverpool a little over 45,000.

“If you walk around the training ground, the academy, if you’re a person who is willing to take a view over the next two to three years, this is a club that belongs in the top seven.”