New party set to rival Barry Moat and launch takeover bid for Newcastle United

A dramatic new bid to buy out reviled Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley will be lodged before his self-imposed deadline for offers closes on Wednesday.

As fury on Tyneside at Ashley’s running of the crisis-ridden Championship club reaches boiling point, Sunday Mirror Sport can reveal that the final preparations are being made on a fresh takeover offer from overseas investors that will be tabled directly to the sports retailing magnate.

Barry Moat, the local millionaire businessman, remains in pole position to buy the club – provided he can complete the critical final part of his funding policy.

Moat sat alongside Ashley in the United directors’ box for yesterday’s Championship clash with Reading.

But he is not over the takeover finishing line yet.

The last-gasp intervention from a party not previously involved in either the bidding or due diligence will be made inside the next 72 hours to Ashley and his closest advisers – rather than investment bankers Seymour Pierce, who have been handling the sale.

Sunday Mirror Sport is aware of the legal arrangements the bidder has made to satisfy proof of funding and their representatives are hoping face-to-face talks with Ashley will help produce a breakthrough in a takeover saga that has now spanned more than 10 months.

A source close to the bidders says that, while the prospective investors feel they can do business with Ashley, they are determined to remain anonymous after the embarrassment and disappointment caused by previous public utterances from the Singapore Profitable Group and a group of Irish-based investors.

The source said: “There have been so many D-days and so many false dawns that they have done their best to keep this late move under wraps.

“This offer has been properly planned and has cost a lot to put together.

“It will be a credible offer and if Mike Ashley is serious about selling the club he will seriously consider it.

“Ashley has said he will take the club off the market if his latest deadline isn’t met, but this offer should give him something to think about.

“Something will happen in the next couple of days.

“It is being made directly to Ashley and his advisers and that is all that can be said about it at the moment.”

The bid has no connection with Moat or his close associate Allan Rankin.

Ashley had extended his sale deadline from last Friday to Wednesday to allow Moat one last chance to raise the cash.

However, it is difficult to see Ashley trying to soldier on for another year on Tyneside with the fans’ anger towards him so virulent.

After insisting that appointing Alan Shearer as caretaker in April was his “best decision” and then snubbing the Geordie legend all summer, there is no way Ashley will be forgiven by the Toon Army.

And selling Shearer’s “untouchables” such as Sebastien Bassong and Habib Beye, losing Michael Owen to Manchester United and suggestions that David O’Leary or Joe Kinnear could be his next boss have only heightened the fans’ mistrust of him.

Ashley needs an escape route and the new bidders are hoping they can provide it.