CHRIS HUGHTON is refusing to become distracted by the ongoing takeover struggle at Newcastle United, amid fresh doubts that prospective owner Barry Moat can come up with the cash required to buy out Mike Ashley.

Newcastle’s tie with Huddersfield Town tonight in the Carling Cup is almost a sideshow to the ongoing negotiations behind the scenes to sell the Tyneside club.

Yesterday it emerged that North-West businessman Geoff Sheard has emerged as another possible buyer, although having failed to come up with the proof of funds to purchase Sheffield Wednesday last year there are question marks about his chances.

Managing director Derek Llambias is certainly not getting excited, he said: “Geoff is dealing with Keith Harris (of Seymour Pierce) and we are still waiting for proof of funds.”

Question marks, though, are exactly what are being associated with Moat too, with sources in the city claiming the Tyneside businessman is struggling to come up with the capital required to takeover the Magpies.

It is understood that Barclays Bank have agreed an overdraft facility with Moat and that a price has almost been agreed between Ashley and Moat.

The problem, however, is that the potential owner is finding it difficult to raise the funds and he is having to borrow most of the reputed £100m price-tag.

Even if an agreement can be somehow reached before Friday’s deadline, it would then be difficult to push through a deal in time for Newcastle to be able to strengthen an extremely small Championship squad before Monday’s transfer deadline.

Caretaker manager Hughton, though, is trying not to worry about what is going on with the money-men, but he does hope that he will be given the go-ahead to strengthen his team soon.

“The only way to deal with it (the takeover) is to focus on the job in hand,” said Hughton.

“The moment I’m able to tell the players something about any takeover then I will do. They can’t allow things they can’t control to affect them.”

There continues to be interest in Steven Taylor, Jonas Gutierrez and Fabricio Coloccini.

Hughton, however, feels his squad can’t afford to be any weaker.

He said: “There’s no doubt the club will have the final say on who goes out. In my personal opinion, to put us in the best position to compete we’ve got to be as strong as we can and I’d certainly be delighted if we didn’t lose anybody else.

“We need to make sure that by the end of this window we have a squad big enough to compete. We’re quite strong in midfield. We need possibly two or three new faces provided no one else leaves. I do feel we need to make sure we have the right numbers at the beginning of next week.”

Winger Peter Lovenkrands still hopes to re-sign for Newcastle after knocking back Villarreal, but Newcastle yesterday missed out on landing Sol Campbell.

He was fed up of waiting for things to be firmed up at St James’ and felt that he could not turn down the offer of a five-year deal at Notts County at the age of 34.

“Surprised? I don’t know,” said Hughton. “The fact he’s been on the market for a while now meant he was eyeing up his options.

“I presume the relationship with the director of football there (Sven-Goran Eriksson) had a big bearing on his decision.

The important thing for him is he’s playing and I’m sure he made the decision for all the right reasons.”

Hughton is likely to hand a few of the younger players a chance this evening, with goalkeeper Tim Krul a definite starter.

Magpies: Krul; R Taylor, S Taylor, Coloccini, Kadar; LuaLua, Guthrie, Smith, Gutierrez; Ranger, Ameobi.