Mike Ashley all but given up hope on pushing through Newcastle United sale

After collapse of Saudi-backed takeover bid, Magpies owner resigned to another season in charge of Premier League club

NEWCASTLE UNITED 2019/20 RATINGS: MANAGER: Steve Bruce - 6 out of 10: A really tough one to mark. Took on the thankless task of replacing the immensely popular Rafa Benitez in the hotseat with the hugely unpopular owner Mike Ashley still in charge. Ultimately, he did exactly what Ashley wants from his managers - he kept the club safely in the top-flight. He also steered Newcastle to their first FA Cup quarter-final since 2006. EPA

GOALKEEPERS: Martin Dubravka - 8: To say it's been a busy season for the Slovakian would be an understatement. Made the most saves out of any Premier League keeper - 140 - and without many of these stops, Newcastle would be heading back down to the Championship. A few blunders along the way, but to be expected when left exposed so regularly. Named as club's player of the year. AP

Karl Darlow - 6: Back-up restricted to cup competitions with Dubravka firmly established as No 1. AFP

DEFENDERS: Fabian Schar - 6: The versatile Swiss endured a miserable restart and struggled badly for any sort of consistency. Shifted into midfield by Bruce which failed to pay off, then saw his season ended by a dislocated shoulder. Getty

Florian Lejeune - 5: Another injury-ravaged, soul-destroying season for the French centre-half, managing just eight appearances in all competitions. AFP

Paul Dummett 5: Local lad and another defender whose season has been decimated by injury. Not played since January. AFP

Jamaal Lascelles - 6: Club captain will never give less than 100 per cent and Newcastle certainly felt more organised when he plays but can look slow and cumbersome at times - see lack of footwork for opening West Ham goal in home draw after restart. Could miss the start of next season after undergoing an ankle operation. AFP

Emil Krafth - 5: Swedish right-back looked completely unsuited for the rough and tumble world of England's top-flight after arriving in a £5 million (Dh23.6m) deal from French side Amiens last summer. Barely played for middle part of season but did OK when brought back into team after restart. Was completely out of his depth when forced to play in a central defensive role due to injuries. AFP

DeAndre Yedlin - 5: American full-back has started just 12 games in all competitions this season and looks set for the exit after four seasons at the club. AFP

Ciaran Clark - 6: Another injury-blighted season and another big miss at the back for Newcastle. Just 14 league appearances for the experienced Irish centre-half. AFP

Jetro Willems - 6: Wing-back on loan from Eintracht Frankfurt saw his time cruelly ended by a serious knee injury in January. Form had been erratic at times but had shown flashes of quality. AFP

Federico Fernandez - 7: The last fit senior centre-half still standing by the end of the season as his defensive colleagues fell to injuries one after the other. A solid season overall form the Argentine, particularly after restart. EPA

Javi Manquillo - 6: Spanish full-back has made himself an invaluable player for Newcastle this season - probably his best since joining the club in 2017 - covering ably down both flanks. Another shifted uncomfortably into a central defensive role due to the late season injury avalanche. Getty

Danny Rose - 6: Signed on loan from Spurs in January and has been solid if unspectacular. Newcastle desperately need a left-back and Jose Mourinho certainly doesn't want him at Tottenham, but at 30-years-old, he would appear to be too old for the Mike Ashley signing criteria. PA

Jonjo Shelvey - 8: A good season from the midfielder who, embarrassingly for Newcastle, finished as second-top scorer with six goals. A wonderful passer who also puts in a shift for the team. Getty

Allan Saint-Maximin - 8: A very exciting talent, signed for around £16m last summer, who stepped up a level after the restart. Can be virtually unplayable for opponents when in full flow but needs more consistency, more composure in front of goal and better final product if he wants to reach the very top. Immense potential, though. Getty

Matt Ritchie - 7: A frustrating season for the winger/wingback due to injury but a whole-hearted player who will always give 100 per cent. Ended his scoring drought with fine goal against Spurs after the restart. Getty

Isaac Hayden - 7: Newcastle always feel a stronger outfit with Hayden sitting in front of the defence winning tackles and keeping things simple with the ball. Getty

Christian Atsu - 5: Winger has barely featured under Bruce, barring sporadic substitute appearances, and is set to leave the club this summer. AFP

Valentino Lazaro - 5: A frustrating time for the January loan signing from Inter Milan who was never given a run in the team by Bruce. Flashes of potential - excellent goal after coming on as substitute in the 4-1 win at Bournemouth, when also cracked the crossbar with a fierce strike - but not clear what is the midfielder's best position. Getty

Sean Longstaff - 6: Another facing a crucial season in his career. Local boy who has struggled for form and fitness this season but has the potential to become a first-team regular. Getty

Nabil Bentaleb - 5: The former Spurs midfielder was a huge disappointment after joining on loan from German side Schalke in January. The odd flash of quality but did not do enough to justify a permanent move. Getty

Matty Longstaff - 6: The 20-year-old brother of Sean looks set for a move to Italy after refusing to sign a new deal at the club, much to the frustration of manager Bruce. Scored fairy-tale winner against Manchester United on his Premier League debut in October but failed to kick-on from that early high. PA

Miguel Almiron - 7: Pacey midfielder who finally ended his goal drought this season and finished as Newcastle's top scorer with eight. A big season coming up for the Paraguayan - his third in England - where, like Saint-Maximin, needs to show more composure with his final ball. Still unclear what his best position is. Reuters

ATTACKERS: Andy Carroll - 5: A frustrating return to Tyneside for the big striker. Like the story of his career as a whole, has been hindered by a series of niggling injuries and is still awaiting his first goal since rejoining last summer. Can feel rightly aggrieved, though, that he wasn't given more of a run as Bruce stuck by the misfiring Joelinton. Getty

Joelinton - 4: An absolute disaster of a first season in England for the club-record signing from Hoffenheim. Given the famous No 9 shirt but is clearly unsuited to lead the line. Four goals all season - and just two in the league in 32 starts - and needs a miraculous change in form and fortune if he join the list of Newcastle attacking greats. Getty

Dwight Gayle - 6: A prolific striker in the Championship who struggles to repeat the feat at the top level. Still looked a more natural finisher than Joelinton and contributed three goals after the restart. Getty

Yoshinori Muto - 4: A reminder that poor signings were made under Benitez's reign as well. The £9.5m signing in the summer of 2018 has made two league starts all season and scored one goal - against Leicester in the League Cup. AFP

Mike Ashley is bracing himself to remain at the Newcastle United helm next season after all but giving up hope of pushing through a takeover.

The Sports Direct tycoon is working to keep alive talks with Amanda Staveley's largely Saudi-funded consortium, although they have shown little appetite for resolving the issues which prompted them to withdraw their £300 million (Dh1.36 billion) bid for the club last month.

Staveley's PCP Capital partners, who are backed by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund and the Reuben Brothers, had paid a £17mdeposit, around £9m of which has been forfeited as a result.

The Paris-based Bellagraph Nova Group's interest, which emerged in the wake of Staveley's withdrawal, has never progressed past Ashley's legal team with the sportswear magnate only willing to engage with prospective buyers once he has proof of funds and a sizeable deposit.

An offer of £280m never came close to earning BNG, who claimed to have enlisted the support of former Newcastle skipper Alan Shearer, a seat around the negotiating table and the PA news agency understands that avenue is no longer being pursued.

American businessman Henry Mauriss made a verbal offer of £350m as PCP's exclusivity period expired, but that has yet to be firmed up and the clock is ticking.

It is understood the Ashley camp is seeking definitive answers within days, but the Magpies owner is resigning himself to yet another season of ownership having dared to believe his search for a buyer might finally be approaching a successful conclusion.

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The 10 biggest blunders of the Ashley era

Treatment of Kevin Keegan: A surprise appointment at the beginning of Ashley's reign to replace the sacked Sam Allardyce, Keegan was brought back to Tyneside for his second spell as manager - much to the delight of the Geordie faithful. But the move would quickly turn sour for all parties as Keegan resigned just eight months later after becoming increasingly exasperated with the club's transfer policy. Keegan would later win £2 million in damages and Ashley's relationship with the fanbase would never recover. Getty

Appointing Dennis Wise as director of football: A hugely unpopular figure on Tyneside during his playing days with Chelsea, Wise was brought in at boardroom level the same time as Keegan primarily to sign players and develop their academy. It was the player recruitment part that would prove his undoing as Keegan would end up quitting as manager due to the signings Wise made. When Keegan took the club to court for wrongful dismissal, he revealed that his relationship with Wise broke down when he was told Uruguyan international Ignacio Gonzalez was joining the club not because of his football ability, but as a favour to two influential South American agents. Wise would follow Keegan out of the door a little over a year later, his reputation badly damaged. Getty

Appointing Joe Kinnear. Twice: After Keegan's exit, Ashley decided to bring in Joe Kinnear as interim manager in 2008. The 61-year-old had not been a top-flight manager for nearly a decade and had been out of work since being sacked by Nottingham Forest four years earlier. Kinnear's first spell was best remembered for his foul-mouthed rant at journalists in his first press conference. The Irishman, who had a history of health problems, saw his spell in charge come an abrupt halt after less than five months when he had to undergo triple heart bypass surgery. Bizarrely, Ashley brought him back again in 2013 as director of football when Alan Pardew was manager. In an infamous Talksport interview soon after his second appointment, Kinnear made a number of claims about his managerial record which were untrue and mispronounced the names of numerous Newcastle players. He would resign from his role barely seven months later. Getty

Treatment of Alan Shearer: Newcastle's record goalscorer was parachuted in as manager to try and rescue Newcastle from relegation after Kinnear's exit to undergo heart surgery. Shearer, who had no previous coaching experience, had just eight games to turn the club around but could only manage only one win as the club finished third bottom, one point adrift of safety. Shearer wanted the job on a full-time basis and had provided Ashley with a blueprint for rebuilding the club - but was never given the chance and has never been offered an explanation as to why by the owner. PA

Selling Andy Carroll: A sign of what Newcastle had become under Ashley as the club cashed in on their star striker in the January transfer window, leaving no time for a replacement to be found. Carroll's goals had helped guide Newcastle to promotion the previous campaign and he had started the Premier League season in superb form wearing the club's famous No 9 jersey. A born and bred Geordie, Carroll cracked a hat-trick in the season opener against Aston Villa, also scoring against the likes of Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool. The latter came calling with a blockbusting £35m bid in the new year and the supporters' latest goalscoring hero was gone.

Renaming St James' Park: In an attempt to show potential sponsors the value in paying for the naming rights in 2011, Newcastle’s iconic home was renamed the Sports Direct Arena - after Ashley's sportswear company. Supporters were furious at the decision that would be reversed as a goodwill gesture by new club sponsors Wonga less than a year later. Ashley would later admit the move had been a mistake. Reuters

Giving up on the cups: Newcastle's record in the League and FA Cups is nothing short of an embarrassment under the Ashley regime, where Premier League survival has been paramount. When Steve Bruce guided the Magpies to the FA Cup quarter-finals in the season just finished, it was the first time they had been beyond Round 4 since Ashley's arrival. In that time, the best they managed in the League Cup was Round 5. Getty

Failing to build on fifth-place finish: In the most successful season of the Ashley era, Alan Pardew would guide the Magpies to fifth-place in the league and win the manager of the year award. The club bought well pre-season - signing the likes of Demba Ba and Yohan Cabaye - and then strengthened again in January when striker Papiss Cisse was signed to help fire the club to their best finish since the Bobby Robson team of 2003/04. But rather than build on that success, only one signing was made in the summer - midfielder Vurnon Anita, a £6.7m signing from Ajax - and the squad failed to cope with the extra demands of Europa League football. Newcastle finished 16th in the Premier League, avoiding relegation by five points. Getty

Handing out mammoth contracts: After the successful 2011/12 season, Ashley decided to award manager Pardew, chief scout Graham Carr, plus coaches John Carver, Steve Stone and Andy Woodman huge eight-year contracts. Managing director Derek Llambias said Newcastle wanted continuity to match English football's top clubs, citing the records of Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger at Manchester United, respectively. But Pardew was no Ferguson or Wenger and he quit the club three years later after several seasons struggling in the bottom half of the table and losing the support of home fans. Woodman followed Pardew onto his next job at Crystal Palace, Carver and Stone were sacked soon after, while Carr lasted until 2017. Pardew's contract would have come to an end in June of this year. AFP

Failing to keep Rafa Benitez: The Spaniard - who had won La Liga, the Uefa Cup, Europa League and Champions League while in charge at Valencia, Liverpool and Chelsea - was much loved by supporters and would help guide the club to promotion out of the Championship and two mid-table finishes in the top-flight. But Benitez would become increasingly frustrated by what he perceived as a lack of ambition and investment by Ashley and would leave for a new - and extremely well-paid - challenge in China. Steve Bruce, who had never won a major trophy in his managerial career, was named as his replacement. Reuters

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His reign currently extends to more than 13 years, a period for much of which the club has been up for sale, but remains on the shelf.

In the meantime, it is he who will have to fund what limited transfer business manager Steve Bruce will be able to do this summer.

Goalkeeper Mark Gillespie and Republic of Ireland midfielder Jeff Hendrick have already been added to the squad, while Newcastle are also hoping to seal a loan deal for Arsenal defender Rob Holding.

However, their real need is in attack with last summer's £40m summer signing Joelinton having managed just two Premier League goals, Andy Carroll – who has scored two goals in two pre-season games so far – injury-prone and Dwight Gayle facing a spell on the sidelines with a knee injury.

They have managed to persuade 20-year-old midfielder Matty Longstaff to sign a new contract.