THIS is Newcastle United’s ‘Sliding Doors’ moment. One key decision; two very different potential outcomes. It is no exaggeration to suggest that the club’s future direction in the next two decades will be shaped by events in the next two months.

Could this be the point at which the perennial ‘sleeping giant’ finally acquires the financial muscle and astute leadership required to compete at the very highest level? Will an investor, Amanda Staveley perhaps, be prepared to pay Mike Ashley what he wants and deliver a long-term investment plan backed by the kind of wealth that has transformed the likes of Chelsea, Manchester City and Paris St Germain in the fairly recent past?

Or will Ashley either dig in his heels and remain in charge despite his refusal to make any more meaningful investment into the club, or sell up to a buyer who views Newcastle as little more than a short-term asset to be stripped of its value before being casually tossed away? Takeovers can be transformative, but the alteration can be both good and bad.

A week or so before Ashley released Monday’s statement publicly confirming his desire to sell, Stephen Murrall and Peter Harris were appearing at Warwick Crown Court charged with fraud.

The names might not mean a lot to you, but the football club they were found guilty of defrauding will. Back in 2014, the pair set up a company, TMH Ltd (The Monkey Hangers), with the intention of taking over at Victoria Park. After agreeing to buy Hartlepool for a nominal £5, they immediately instructed Hartlepool’s finance officer that all future money from home matches, including gate receipts and bar revenue, should go straight into TMH’s bank account.

A sum of £42,453 went into that account, only to immediately disappear. Last week, Murrall was convicted of five charges of fraud, with Harris found guilty of another two.

That is not to suggest Newcastle will be the victims of a similar scam, but at an admittedly lower level, it nevertheless provides a clear illustration of the type of characters football can attract. A world awash with money will always entice chancers, fantasists and crooks, out to make a quick buck.

The naked criminality involved in the Hartlepool case might be unusual, but you do not have to look too far to find evidence of clubs who thought a new owner would provide salvation, only for things to quickly turn sour. Aston Villa under Tony Xia. Birmingham, and the mess they got themselves into under Carson Yeung. Sunderland, and their sky-high debt under Ellis Short.

You can even throw the name of Newcastle United in there. It is easy to forget now, amid all the acrimony and angst, but there was once a time when Ashley was hailed as the club’s new saviour. The days of sitting in the away end and drinking in Blue Bambu, when Sports Direct was regarded as a lucrative source of funding rather than an embarrassment plastered all over the Gallowgate End.

Things can change quickly in football, but Newcastle have passed beyond the point of ‘Better the devil you know’. Ashley does not want to plough any more of his money into the Magpies, and has lost the drive and ambition he could once claim to have had for the club. Consequently, the status quo, with the current owner remaining in charge for another two or three seasons, is an extremely undesirable outcome. For Newcastle to progress, something has to change.

All of which places the club somewhat in the lap of the Gods. Or, to be more precise, at the whim of Ashley, who will decide which, if any, offer he decides to accept.

Staveley’s interest is generating the most excitement, and while the intricate details of what the 44-year-old is planning remain pure guess work, it is easy to see why she might be regarded as the safest pair of hands.

Her PCP Capital Partners group controls an investment fund worth an estimated $28bn, and has previously worked with some of the most powerful figures in the Middle East. Staveley, according to a profile in The Independent, “is known and trusted by her contacts in the Persian Gulf region like almost no other non-Arab”.

She can open doors that have previously been closed, has publicly confirmed her desire to buy a Premier League club, and is now understood to have signed a non-disclosure agreement paving the way for a formal offer for the Magpies. Well-sourced commentators claim she values Newcastle at around £300m – short of Ashley’s valuation, but potentially close enough to leave room for a compromise – and is willing to make an immediate investment of around £150m into the playing squad. Having watched Manchester City and PSG be transformed by Middle Eastern investment, it is little wonder Newcastle supporters are struggling to contain their excitement at what a deal with Staveley might mean.

Given the way in which their club has been treated in the last few years, it would be churlish to deny those fans the right to dream. A word of caution is required though. Staveley hasn’t completed a deal yet, and even if she was to do so, the identity and motives of her backers remains unknown. Yes, she boasts a strong business pedigree, and was involved in Thaksin Shinawatra’s sale of Manchester City to Sheikh Mansour. She knows how football works. But by the same token, she will not be considering investing in Newcastle for a bit of fun. There will be a planned end game somewhere down the line.

It should also be remembered that she is not the only show in town. At least three other groups are known to have signed non-disclosure agreements in the last month, and there could be more. At least two of those consortiums are understood to be Chinese, and their forensic analysis of Newcastle’s financial position is likely to be at a more advanced stage than Staveley’s. Often, in situations such as this, it is the actors operating in the background who end up being more important than those commanding the centre of the stage.

Only Ashley and his closest advisors know exactly where the various groups are in the takeover process, and ultimately, it will be the current owner who decides what happens next. There is a path to progress or a road to stagnation. There might also be multiple opportunities for disaster. Time will tell which way Newcastle are heading.