AMANDA STAVELEY is ready to initiate a new round of takeover talks with Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley once the club’s Premier League survival is guaranteed.

Saturday’s 2-1 win at Leicester City lifted the Magpies ten points clear of the relegation zone with six games remaining, and while their safety cannot be mathematically assured until this month’s trip to Everton at the earliest, it is now extremely difficult to envisage a scenario where the club finishes in the bottom three.

Once their survival is certain, Staveley will seek to kick-start a new round of talks aimed at buying Newcastle, with Ashley still keen to sell despite discussions having broken down at the turn of the year.

Staveley’s PCP Capital Partners group lodged two formal offers to buy the Magpies in December and January, but both were rejected. The first, which was worth around £300m, contained a series of clauses that would potentially not have been met, while the second, which is understood to have been a no-strings-attached offer of around £250m, was rejected for being too low.

Ashley continues to value his 100 per cent stake in Newcastle at around £350m, and with another season in the Premier League set to be worth more than £100m in guaranteed income, the Sports Direct owner will be in no mood to lower his demands if Rafael Benitez guides his side to safety in the remainder of the campaign.

However, sources close to Staveley’s group suggest there could be an opportunity for a compromise agreement to be struck after the latest round of domestic television rights failed to realise the kind of sky-high sums that were being predicted at the end of last year.

PCP Capital Partners remain keen to take over at St James’ Park, and while there have been no new discussions since Ashley sanctioned the release of a statement branding January’s talks a “complete waste of time”, neither party believes the breakdown in their relationship is irretrievable.

Ashley is willing to listen to any offer he believes to be credible, while Staveley and her associates continue to covet Newcastle United as they consider the club to have considerable untapped potential.

Another two groups are understood to have expressed a tentative interest in acquiring the Magpies, but Staveley’s investment team remain the only party to have conducted a formal process of due diligence.

Supporters will be understandably sceptical of talk of a potential new deal, and after Staveley failed to come up with an acceptable offer at the start of the year, Ashley’s camp will head into any new talks suspicious of the North Yorkshire financier’s ability to fund a deal that would meet their requirements.

The progress of any discussions could be critical though, as it will almost certainly impact on Newcastle’s summer transfer business and could well have a major influence on Benitez’s future on Tyneside.

The Spaniard is about to enter the final year of his current deal, and Magpies chief executive Lee Charnley has intimated he is keen to tie him down to a new contract as quickly as possible.

Benitez has rebuffed all attempts to discuss his future in the last few weeks, despite mounting speculation linking him with a possible move to Spanish side Real Sociedad. He will be in a strong bargaining position at the end of the season, with his stock extremely high given Newcastle’s excellent form since the turn of the year.

Ideally, he would like to see questions over Newcastle’s off-field position resolved, and will demand clarity over his summer transfer budget as a prerequisite for starting contract talks.

That clarity could prove difficult to achieve if Ashley is involved in a parallel round of talks aimed at selling the club, so another drawn-out takeover saga could prove damaging if it means the Magpies are unable to complete any transfer business until the latter stages of the summer.

New Premier League regulations mean the window for all incoming transfers will close before the start of next season, and with the World Cup likely to limit the number of deals completed in May or June, there will only be a short timeframe in which the majority of top-flight clubs will be signing off their deals.