Newcastle United's search for a new owner looks increasingly likely to drag on into the new season, their first outside the English Premier League for 16 years.Despite interest from groups in Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong and Ireland, Mike Ashley's attempts to end his troubled two-year reign in return for £100m show little sign of reaching an immediate conclusion, with the worst-case scenario not seeing a positive outcome until nearer the end of the year.
Ashley paid a hefty price for the relative lack of due diligence he paid to the club's perilous finances when taking control for £134m in 2007. So it is little surprise that the sportswear retailer is being forced to wait as potential buyers go through the club's books with the accounting equivalent of a fine tooth-comb, ensuring they are familiarised with the intricacies of the crippling £65m annual wage bill, one of the major stumbling blocks to a deal being pushed through in the near future.
With clubs rarely changing hands outside transfer windows, a failure to sell before the current one closes at the end of August is likely to see interested parties put on hold their purchase bid until the run-up to the opening of the next one in January.
Ashley's reluctance to make a managerial appointment given the current situation means the continued delay has cast doubt on the expected return to the club of Alan Shearer.
The manager-in-waiting has been forced to endure a frustrating summer as several of his major transfer targets, including the England Under-21 forward Fraizer Campbell who joined local rivals Sunderland, have signed for rival clubs.
It has led to a growing number of Newcastle players breaking rank to state in public their dissatisfaction over the sale hiatus, which has cast a shadow over the club's preparations for the rapidly-approaching Championship season.
Jose Enrique became the latest squad member to express his frustration, joining team-mates Habib Beye, Steve Harper, Steven Taylor and Kevin Nolan in calling for immediate action to prevent the club falling even further behind their rivals for promotion this season.
Spanish defender Enrique said: "I have a very good contract here, but in football terms I'm not feeling good. I'll give up money from my contract as long I'm able to go back to Spain."
