A YEAR on from putting Newcastle United up for sale Mike Ashley is still ‘serious’ about selling, claims the man who sold his shares to him almost 11-and-a-half years ago.

Sir John Hall has reflected on what has happened since he felt it was the right time to accept £55m from the Sportswear tycoon for his 41.6 per cent stage in 2007.

Hall was confident he was the right man but that soon turned sour when his relationship with fans’ favourite Kevin Keegan ended with his first managerial appointment walking out in 2008.

Now Newcastle have a manager in charge who has also won over the supporters but there remains huge amounts of scepticism around St James’ Park after a failure to back Rafa Benitez on the transfer front.

Benitez’s future remains unclear even though Ashley has been a more visible sight at the last three games when he has been subjected to calls for him to go.

Despite suggestions Ashley has indicated he will not sell the club this season and wants to concentrate on helping Benitez to keep Newcastle up after the much-publicised dinner date in Ponteland, there is still a belief he will cash in if the offer is right.

Former Newcastle owner and chairman Hall, speaking at a Newcastle Legends event, said: “I think he is serious in his intention to sell, but there aren’t many people with the sort of money to buy it off him. There certainly isn’t in the North-East, anyway.

“There has definitely been interest in the club, I know that, but clearly nobody has yet given him the price he wants. If you have fallen out of love with your business, you have to sell – and I think Mike’s fallen out of love with Newcastle.

“If someone wants to buy a football club, they will come along and do it. It won’t be a long, drawn-out process done in public. But, until someone offers what Mike wants – whatever figure that is – then the club won’t be sold.”

There is interest in Newcastle but clearly last year’s £400m valuation, believed to have dropped to around £300m, is still a huge figure at a time when the team sits in the relegation zone.

Amanda Staveley, Brooklyn Nets’ former owner Mikhail Prokhorov, a Saudi investment group and former Chelsea and Manchester United chief executive Peter Kenyon are known to have shown some interest at times.